Mystery

The first thing that went through his mind was, Could it be her? Could it really be her? He couldn’t be absolutely sure, but she was the same height, same eye color, same smile; but her hair was different, she didn’t act like herself, and he couldn’t be sure about the face. Above all, she didn’t recognize him. But something deep inside of him said, You found her. Tell her. Bring her home. End the suffering.

And then he saw a glimpse of a tattoo on the nape of her neck. He wasn’t sure what it was of, but he knew it was a word. How many other people have tattooed words on their necks? Plenty, but what if it’s the same word, what if it proves that it’s her? He tried to be discrete while staring at her neck as she bent down to take a sip of her drink. Her hair parted and fell to the sides. It was a simple four-lettered word, two vowels and two consonants, but at that moment nothing else mattered to him. She was talking, explaining something, but he couldn’t really concentrate. He asked her a question and then laughed with her when she gave her answer. He was about to tell her, but the food came and interrupted them. He was forced to act like everything was normal while passing the plates to his right or left.

He wasn’t even finished putting food on his plate when she asked to leave. His heart broke when he took her out and away. The others tried to ask him questions when he repeated over and over, “It’s her. It’s her.” They tried to console him by saying that he would see her again soon. He started to break down because she didn’t recognize him, she didn’t remember anything, and she was gone again.

I nearly choked on my tea. My eyes were huge with disbelief. “How can you say that? You don’t even know them. The only thing that my dad, Dr. Elizabeth, and Linda have done has been trying to help me remember and make me feel comfortable since the moment I regained consciousness and could barely talk, let alone remember anything!” I was furious with his accusations. “How do I know that you’re not the liar? You lied to the paramedics last night.”

His eyes were locked to mine. “You just need to trust me.”

“Trust you? Ha! I barely know you. For all I know, you could be a serial killer on the loose.” I looked away, too angry to look at him.

“But you trusted me enough to meet me at the carousel last night, enough to ask to talk with me today, alone.” His voice was on the edge, but still considerably calmer than mine. People had started pointing and whispering about the scene I was making. I chewed on my lip to relieve some of my aggression.

“Take me home. Now. I don’t want to talk to you anymore.”

“Can you just please believe me?” He was begging. It made me feel somewhat powerful, and I liked it when I knew I shouldn’t have.

“Why don’t you believe me? I am trying to get my life back to normal. I am trying to be the old Brooke Conall,” I shot back. I then remembered the scrapbook Linda gave me for my birthday. “I have a scrapbook full of my pictures if you’re still convinced I’m not Brooke.”

I looked back at Sawyer. His face was different; it was sadder and broken. His response was only, “Oh.”

I waited a few seconds to calm down and then said in a somewhat quieter voice, “Can you please take me home now? I’ll show you the book and then you can stop all of this…nonsense.”

His eyes avoided mine, “Okay. Let’s go. I just need to pay first.” He went to pay the bill and to ward off the kimonoed waitresses’ worries about our dispute. People were still looking at me for ruining their tranquility. They were probably waiting for my head to spontaneously combust or for me to savagely attack the silent koi and escape howling. When neither happened and I saw that Sawyer was finished I stood to follow him back to his car. We walked in silence. The car ride was long and the silence was killing me, but I wasn’t going to be the one to break it. I was too stubborn, a bit of my old self that was coming back I suspected.

My mind began to wander, thinking of the pictures in my book and about the disastrous night before. I jumped when Sawyer asked, “Where should I park?”

“In the garage right in the middle. The code is 3-9-6-2. You can park in my dad’s sp–…” I had been so preoccupied with Sawyer’s allegations that I forgot that my dad was coming home. I didn’t know what time he was supposed to get back. That and Linda was probably informed by Dr. Elizabeth that I had disappeared again.

“What’s wrong?”

“I forgot that my dad is coming home. He was supposed to be on a business trip for the next couple of days, but Linda called him after I snuck out last night; so he should be home or coming at any minute. And Linda’s probably freaking out right now.” I sighed deeply. I was going to be in more trouble than I had originally anticipated.

“Who’s Linda and why is she freaking out?”

“She’s my babysitter and I kinda ditched the rest of my therapy session this morning to talk to you.”

“That’s just great. I haven’t even met them and they probably hate me. I think I’ll just drop you off in that case.”

“No. I want you to see that you’re wrong. I want you to see the pictures.” My tone was sharp and demanding. I was beginning to feel like my old self and it felt good. “Just come up really quick to see. I won’t say that you’re Sawyer, I promise. If you do this and see how wrong you are, you’ll never have to see me or my dad or Linda again.”

He shut his eyes and clenched his jaw. “This is a really bad but I want to be sure,” he said through his teeth.

He parked in the spot that was open and the closest to the elevator. We rode the elevator and with each passing floor, I began to shake more and more. When the doors opened at the seventh floor, Sawyer let me out first so he could follow me to the apartment I shared with my dad and Linda. When I opened the door I expected to see Linda pacing around, but she wasn’t there. I called out, “Linda? Dad? Is anybody here?” I went to see if anyone was in the bedrooms. Nobody was in my dad’s room so I went to the other side to my room and it was empty as well. Could this be some good luck for once? I grabbed the scrapbook from my room and went to the kitchen where Sawyer was waiting patiently for me. “I don’t know how long we have, but here’s the pictures.”

He followed me to the couch and I laid the book on the coffee table in front of us. I looked around and saw the birthday decorations I hadn’t noticed from the day before. I wondered when Linda put up the green, white, and pink streamers and balloon bouquet with a “Happy Birthday” message written across the center Mylar balloon. “It’s your birthday?”

“Yesterday,” I said detached. “I turned eighteen. This is supposed to be my last semester of high school.” I pushed the gloomy thoughts out of my head and said to him, “Look at the pictures, please. I don’t know how much time we have left.”

Sawyer opened it cautiously and flipped through slowly, examining each picture with great care. I watched him look at the pictures and I saw a tear run down his cheek. He caught it before he thought I saw it. “I’m sorry. I just really wanted you to be her. I wanted to be right for Gabe.” His voice was steady.

“It’s okay. He’s your friend. You wanted to help him. I’m sorry I reacted the way I did at the tea garden.” I wanted to comfort him now. My emotions were all over the place since I met him. “Do you want anything to eat or drink since we left so quickly?”

“Sure, but can I ask you one more question? I just want to know.”

“Okay. Ask away.”

“Do you have a tattoo on the back of your neck?”

I stared at him confused. How could he possibly know that? Maybe he saw it the night before. “Yeah.”

“What is it a tattoo of?”

“It’s a name: Eris. I liked studying Greek mythology when I was in school.” And then I heard the key being inserted into the doorknob. I stared at the door with every single muscle in my body tense. I wasn’t expecting them to be home yet. I wasn’t ready to get in trouble. I shut the scrapbook. Sawyer didn’t say a word. He was equally nervous about the people on the other side of the door about to come in. They were taking a long time taking the key out and opening the door. The anticipation was killing me. The door finally opened, but she didn’t speak until the seconds of initial shock passed by. Then she said, “Who the hell are you?”

The ring weighed a million pounds on her finger. She wasn’t excited like any other woman would be. Yes, she did love him, but the of marriage scared her. She had acted excited for him so his feelings wouldn’t be hurt. He was so happy when she accepted his ring. She had portrayed the emotion thousands of times before, so it wasn’t too difficult. But she was happy that she had to leave for the airport right after so she wouldn’t have to wear the mask of happiness. She played with it the entire flight, twisting it around her finger, feeling the coolness of the diamond on her thumb.

She knew what her mother would say about it: she was too young, she was still in school, and she knew hardly anything about love. All of which were true, but she did love Hayden and he loved her and knew that it would somehow work out.

Now she was headed to her dad’s apartment. There was an older couple in the elevator with her carrying groceries back to their apartment. They spoke softly and lovingly to one another. This is what it will be like for us, she thought. We will grow old together and have children together and live in an apartment in the city and hold hands in an elevator.

The couple got off on the fifth floor, but she remained in the elevator. When it stopped at the correct floor, she doubled-checked the number her dad gave her. When she approached the door with the same number on the paper she had, she bent down to retrieve the spare key underneath the welcome mat, like her dad told her. She inserted the key into the keyhole and turned it to the left. When the door didn’t open, she tried turning it to the left. She pushed the door open a little and returned the key to its hiding spot. She picked up her bag and entered the apartment. There were two people, a girl and a man, across from the door sitting on a couch, but she didn’t recognize either one of them. Once her tongue found its way back to her mouth, she said, “Who the hell are you?”