The Story of Alexandra

Alexandra watched with her single good eye as Jade looked up in surprise, thrilled. “You remember your name?”
She nodded. “And…I remember that those men…they wanted to kill me before we were here.”
“Really?”
‘Jade is really nice. She actually cares so much…’
The memories flashed again; a big, huge beast that flew; men surrounding her; a man in robes.
“Yes. I came here to escape…”
The memories flashed, but there was…something else…
Her head throbbed. Alex scowled, then sighed and looked out the window. She shook her head. The life outside was strange; she couldn’t see more than half of anything out there. She blinked to clear the redness from the eye that didn’t seem to work anymore. “Escape…someone…?”
When she looked over, Jade had sat down.
“So…Alex…is your name.”
Something about that name made her feel uneasy. It reminded her of something…unpleasant. But she couldn’t place what. “Please…it’s Alexandra.”
“Oh. Sorry.”
Alexandra looked back at her, and felt bad for snapping. She blinked, trying to clear a sudden shock of color that was in her right eye; her useless eye. “I just…prefer the full name. There’s no need to apologize.”
Hoshi came back in. “You’re mom’s here.” She told Jade, looking somber. “She told me that we should help Jane Doe into the car.”
“It’s Alexandra.” Jade introduced her; Alex held back a sigh. Yes, why not introduce her? Why let her do it?
Then again, Jade wasn’t being nasty; she was too nice.
Hoshi brightened. Her face lit up with a relieved and happy smile. “Great! You remembered your name!”
Alex nodded anxiously.
‘Going to her house…I don’t know…I don’t understand their customs…’
When the door opened to reveal an older form of Jade with blond hair, Alexandra gripped her staff harder. Her eyes looked over her distrustfully.
‘Who is she? She’s not wearing a lab coat…’
“It’s just my mom.” Jade reassured her.
Her gaze didn’t lighten much, but her hand eased on the weapon.
‘If she’s Jade’s mother…she can’t be bad…but…’
Jade gave her mom a hug and pecked her on the cheek.
“I need to get back home. The dogs are on the chain.”
“Dog?” Alexandra asked, excitement forcing her guard down a little. Animals were always interesting. Maybe she could have some fun with a dog.
“Yes. We have a Pit-bull, a Coonhound and an Akita.”
Really, she had no idea what those names meant, other than that they were dogs. But hearing three different names meant three different dogs.
“You have three?” She tried to move toward the edge of the bed and flinched as pain rose through her waist and into her arm.
“We’ll help.” Hoshi said, coming near her. Jade stood on the other side.
“No, no. With those wounds, you’ll never make it work like that.” Jade’s mother corrected.
‘At least she knows what she’s doing.’
“Jade; grab her legs. Hoshi; you support her back. Keep her straight. She shouldn’t walk yet.”
Undignified by this babying, Alexandra shooed them away and struggled to stand on her own. She knocked away their hands when they reached for her. With agonizing effort, she pulled herself up, to the edge of the bed and into a standing position. Her head whirled, and if it weren’t for Hoshi’s hands on her back – which made everything become a white haze for a second, it was so painful – she would have just fallen back onto the bed.
“You’re quite strong-willed, there.” Jade’s mom’s tone was not quite reproaching, but it wasn’t amused or amazed either. “But you need to listen to me. Those wounds will reopen if you over stress yourself, and then it’s back to this very bed. Do you want that?”
Pale and already dizzy, Alex realized she was right. Silently – talking was so much effort – she nodded.
“Good. Then let me get you a wheelchair. You’re not walking out.”
“Wouldn’t dream of it, ma’m.” Alex reassured her quietly. Jade sighed when she left.
“You have a lot of guts to do that in front of my mother.”
Alex nodded; she was glad Jade used the Latin words, meus mater. She wasn’t sure what ‘my’ or ‘mother’ was in English. Hoshi just stared at her, pale herself.
“Your back…”
Alex glanced at her and saw the horror in her eyes. She found herself wishing she could see out of that eye; Hoshi seemed to always be to her right. It was frustrating to find her friends in her blind spot.
“What’s wrong?” She asked, bewildered.
Hoshi pulled her hand away to reveal blood.
“The bandages were ripped clean off. It looks like there was a wound there, but…I can’t see anything but blood.”
Jade moved around and gasped. Then she raced into bathroom. Alex heard running water and something being torn. She brought back a wad of thick, brown paper she’d drenched with water. Hurrying to my back, she began to gently clean the area off. The air was tense. Slowly, it eased from anxiety to confused shock.
“What?”
“Have you ever been cut along the spine before?” Jade asked.
“Not that I recall. Why?”
“There’s a white scar following your backbone exactly, from bone to bone.”
Jade’s mother came in, wheeling an interesting small black cloth-and-metal chair. She took one look at us and paled. Alex looked down to see a pool of watered down blood.
“It’s mostly water.” Alex reassured Jade’s mom. “And I don’t know where it came from. Jade says there’s no wound there.”
The woman left the chair to come examine the area.
“Your spine is very unusual.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your shoulders…the bones are lower. Your ribs are higher. And your spine…it’s just odd. I’m no doctor, but maybe you should get an x-ray.”
“A what?”
She sighed. “It’s when you have a machine take pictures of you and prints out images of your bones or organs.”
“Wow! That’s amazing!”
Hoshi cocked an eyebrow, like she’d said something strange.
“What?”
“You don’t know what an x-ray or a gun is?”
“No. Should I?”
“Yes.”
“Whatever.”
“Doesn’t Rome have them by now?” Jade asked her mom.
“Yes.”
“What’s Rome?”
There was silence.
“What?”
“Another Country.”
“Oh.”
‘Why don’t I remember anything? I should at least remember x-rays, guns and countries.’
Why did she feel like she didn’t belong here, or like she’d never been anywhere like this before?
“Never mind that. You also have scars that say you should be paralyzed. Yet you’re clearly not.”
She shrugged. “I don’t remember not being able to move.”
Hoshi gave her another look. “You remember what paralyzed is but not Rome?”
“Look, I don’t even think I know what America is. It’s a place I’m at.”
The shock was clear; it was in the air.
“Damn. You really got hit hard.” Jade broke the silence. Alex heard her mother whack her upside the head and looked behind her to make sure she was alright.
“Oops. Sorry mom.”
The older woman came out from behind her and returned to the moving chair. She wheeled it to her and helped her sit down. Alexandra hated being helped, but her legs were shaky and weak. Every movement was painful.
“There we are.” She looked closely at her face. She took the bandages partially off and looked carefully. She moved her fingers in front of her face. Remembering the doctor doing this, she followed it with the eye that would obey. She sighed. “the doctor wasn’t kidding when he said that you weren’t going to get your sight back. Can you feel that side of your face?”
“Yes.”
“But you can’t see?”
“No.” She kept her voice emotionless. It was just her job. It wasn’t like she was trying to upset her.
“I’m sorry to say this, but it’ll stay that way. So will that scar. It’s not healing properly.”
Alexandra looked away, trying to avoid letting her friend’s mother see the tears she fought.
“Wheel her out to the car. She’ll need to be put into it; I didn’t bring the van. You’re father has it.”
Jade disappeared behind her and began to wheel her.
“You need to eat more.”
“Yuck.”
“That’s hospital food; we’ll take you out to eat.” Hoshi laughed.
“Out? Out where?”
Jade laughed. “Don’t worry; it won’t be Mcy-D’s.”
She resisted asking what the hell they were talking about. From the sound of it, it was something everybody around their world knew about.
‘Their world? What other worlds are there? Where did that thought come from?’
Then they were rolling down a huge hall of busy people and strange things. There was a hush and an air of anxious sorrow. The entire building smelled like controlled illness. Every small noise made her jump. They paused to talk to somebody, and a woman pulled her clothes. The stomach of the shirt was ripped, and the shoulder in both the shirt and coat, but the stains had been removed. Brown, leg-high leather boots with a very furry inside were given with them. She insisted upon going into the bathroom and changing. Jade and Hoshi offered help. She hated it, but didn’t refuse the help. There was no way she’d get dressed without them.
Since Alex couldn’t get her arm in one sleeve, they were forced to slip the shirt over it and zip the jacket half way, leaving the sleeve to her injured arm limp and empty. She’d lost enough weight to where it was difficult to keep the pants on; Jade lent Alex her belt. They had to put her boots on. And even better, there was a place for her coin pouch on her pants and her staff on her coat. But once she was dressed in her old outfit, she felt a hundred times better. Even if it was torn in the shirt and jacket, it actually felt familiar.
“Thanks.” She whispered, sweating from the pain. It had been a lot of work to get dressed. They helped her back into her chair and wheeled her out. Once outside, Alex sighed with relief. A gentle, cool wind blew her hair around her. It felt great. Looking at the sky, suddenly Alexandra’s heart burned with sadness and longing.
“Look at that sky…” She pointed up. There was a bird there, flying in the sun. She couldn’t see what it was, but knew it was large.
“Not a cloud in sight.” Jade admired.
“I’d be great day to fly.” She said absently.
“Fly?” Hoshi laughed. “You want to fly?”
“Want to?” Now she was confused. “I…have.”
They stared at her. “You mean…you’re a pilot?”
“Pilot?”
“You know…you fly a plane or jet or something.”
Her memories were vague, and she didn’t understand.
“Jet? Plane?”
Jade sighed. “Well…it’s likely you did…if you say stuff like that.”
They rolled Alex into a huge roaring beast. She wasn’t sure at first why they wanted her to get in the stomach of a monster, but they got in as if it were perfectly normal.
And the sound was similar to the sound she’d heard the night they’d saved her life.
She was asleep before they’d pulled away from the building.