“You said that our biggest problem is that we don’t have our memories,” I repeat. Danger nods and I shrug. “Okay, then we need to recover our memories.”
Danger’s eyes narrow. “Genius, Savannah. Do you know how to do that?”
“Umm…” I tap my finger against my lip. “Oh! So we remembered our names when we had to introduce ourselves, and our ages only when we started to ask each other.”
“You think we need to interrogate each other to force the memories to come back?” Aiden asks.
I hold my hands up on either side. “Why not? That’s worked so far.”
Danger sets his can down abruptly, causing the spoon to rattle noisily. “We don’t have time for that. We have to deal with this world now, head-on.”
I cross my arms over my chest. “Oh, yeah? So what’s your practical, head-on approach, then?”
“Exploration,” he returns faster than I’d expected. “We scour the surrounding area for clues as to what happened.”
“Uh, that’s a great idea and all, but there might be a problem with that.” Lana points towards the window.
We all look in the direction she’s pointing. “And, what’s the problem, exactly?” Viren voices our unanimous question.
Lana rolls her eyes. “Look for a second, guys.”
“It’s raining,” Elise realizes. I squint at the window and finally notice the droplets falling beyond the pane of glass. As we watch for a moment, the rain starts to pick up, pouring down in obvious sheets. Rivulets of water create winding trails down the barely visible panel separating us from the weather outside.
“What,” Viren asks. “Are you guys afraid of the rain?” Suddenly a gust of wind smacks the rain against the window and Viren jumps.
Lana laughs. “Are you?” Viren pouts.
“I’m not afraid of the rain,” Danger says. “However, we shouldn’t go out in it.”
“Aw. Why’s that,” Viren asks. “I need to get out of this place.”
Danger sighs. “I want to get out of this building too. I think we need to explore to learn more about what’s happening, and about what’s happened to us. Right now though, we shouldn’t. Going out in the rain could make us sick, and we don’t have any hospitals or doctors for help.”
“We did find some medicine earlier,” Elise adds in.
“And rain ponchos,” Viren interjects.
“But we should save those until we need them,” Aiden muses. “Shouldn’t we?” He looks to Danger, who nods.
“We should save our essential supplies until we need to use them. For now, I guess we have to stay indoors. There may come a time when we can’t.” He rubs his eyes. “So, I guess for now, the best we can come up with is Savannah’s plan.”
“Hey! What are you saying?” I put my hands on my hips.
“I said your plan was the best,” Danger insists.
My lids lower. “I’m not sure I believe you.”
He turns, walking back towards the cluster of beds we’ve made our home base within the store. “Believe what you like, but I’m willing to go along with your plan to try to regain our memories.” He looks back over his shoulder and speaks a little louder. “I suggest everyone joins us. We could all use a few more memories.”
“Lana tried to remember some last night,” Viren says, and I look over to her.
Lana blushes and reaches over to smack Viren on the arm. “Hey!”
Viren rubs their arm, pretending to be hurt. “Ouch. What was that for?” I don’t ask Lana anything. The way her eyes are fixed on the ground makes it clear she doesn’t want to talk about last night. She probably didn’t remember anything. I can’t let that discourage my plans. We need to remember how this world works, in order to survive it.
We settle on a few of the beds, forming a circle so that we can all see each other. After a moment I realize all eyes are on me. “What?”
“This was your plan,” Elise states. “So what do we do now?” Danger’s eyes meet mine in challenge.
I bring my hands together. “Okay, so the easiest things for us to remember so far have been related to who we are, our ages and our names. I think we should start by asking personal questions, rather than trying to remember how the world works exactly.” I form a quick plan in my mind. “We can make this like a game. I ask someone a question, and if they can answer it, they get to ask someone else a question. If not, the next person in the circle asks a question instead. Sound fair?” Everyone in the circle nods their assent. “Okay. Hmm… Danger, what did you do before, as your job?”
We all look to him, but his face doesn’t change. “I don’t know.” He exhales.
I shrug. “Too bad. Aiden, that means it’s your turn.” I turn to my left to look at him.
“Oh, okay.” He thinks for a moment. “Lana, why do you like everything neat and tidy?”
“Why wouldn’t I?” She seems almost offended by the question. “We need to keep things like our supplies organized, or our survival bags. Keeping things neat is practical, useful, and it’s easier for me. I don’t like it when things are dirty and unkempt. For some reason, it just bothers me. I can’t tell you why.”
“I guess that means you don’t get to ask a question yet,” Viren tells her, sticking out their tongue.
“Sure I do,” Lana replies. “I answered the question. I may not remember why dirtiness makes me so uncomfortable, but I know it does.”
I sigh. “I think Lana’s right. Go ahead, ask a question.”
She grins. “Viren, why do you like it when things aren’t clean and tidy? That should be easy for you to answer.” She crosses her arms over her chest.
Viren grins. “It is. I’d rather spend my time living life than cleaning up after it. You spend so much time worrying about your clothes, or your organization. I’d rather spend my time doing something than planning for it.” Lana looks disappointed, but Viren seems triumphant. “Ha! My turn now. Hmm…” They rub their hands together. “Elise!” They point at her, announcing their victim. “Why did you dye your hair blonde?”
She reaches up and grabs a curl, twirling it around a finger. “That’s a good question. I like the way it looks, but I can’t really remember dying it this way.”
“You lose,” Viren says. “That means I get to ask another question because I’m next in the circle.” Elise shrugs. “So, Aiden, how come you look so much older when you’re really only seventeen?”
Aiden sits in silence for a moment. “I don’t know. I mean, I can’t pinpoint it exactly, but I know that I had to be older for some reason. I needed to appear older than I was, and I needed to act older too. Whatever that reason was, it was important.” He bites his thumbnail. “If only I could remember why I needed to make myself older.”
Viren grins mischievously. “Maybe it was so you could date one of the girls.” They raise their eyebrows suggestively. “They’re all older than us.”
“Hey!” The three of us object in unison.
“You shouldn’t comment on a lady’s age,” Elise says.
“Maybe the lady shouldn’t have told us her age,” Viren replies.
Elise looks away but I point a finger at Viren. “We didn’t have much else to introduce ourselves with. Besides, we’re not much older than you, anyway.”
“Oh, really? You’re the oldest out of the girls. You’re older than me by six years, you know,” Viren reminds me. I cross my arms over my chest and simmer.
“Alright, alright.” Aiden raises his hands to draw our attention. “I’m pretty sure it’s my turn to ask a question.
“Ask away,” Elise says, and Lana adds, “Please.”
“Okay, Danger, why did you have a knife with you when you woke up?” Aiden looks at Danger and the rest of us do too.
Danger’s face doesn’t change, but after a moment his eyes dart around between our faces. “I don’t know,” he admits softly. “I don’t know! I can’t remember anything!” We all lean away from his outburst before he storms off.
“What just happened?” I watch him stomp away. His face was completely unreadable, and we haven’t seen that much emotion from Danger yet. So what made him explode like that?
Aiden seems horrified. “What did I do?”
- Hello, everyone. Piece By Piece updates will likely move to the weekends so that I have more time to work on finishing and finalizing them. I initially picked Wednesday because I personally like something new to read during the week, but lately my schedule has left me with better writing time on Saturday and Sunday, so I may officially be moving the snippet to one of those days instead of being late on a regular basis. This is a learning process for me, but I think this will be a shift in the right direction. Tune in next week for another snippet of Piece By Piece.
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