Cheshire

Chapter 3:

The ride home was quiet.

I was wondering why it took so long for Mom to get out to where I was. By the time I left the little rest stop it was the afternoon. That whole time, I stayed away from the boys, and they stayed away from me. Ellis walked past me once and tried to make a face to make me smile, but I turned and ignored him. I found out that I was clear on the other side of the “Three” and the ride home was a good day of driving. The “Three” consisted of three main cities in our region. We all had the most defensive abilities to keep out the horrors of the world outside our walls. And because of that, some people would do just about anything to get within our gates. However, we weren't too friendly to outsiders. Even outside your own city you were seen as an outcast.

We were all the way in Clinton. If Patterson had all the farms, and Lyons had all the science and technology, then Clinton would be the left overs. The city of Clinton was a rather liberal city, not minding much about over population or expanding their walls out farther to allow more room for their ever growing city. Lyons hated this since that meant that they had to keep track of many other people on their grids.

Lyons is the “Three's” head quarters of power. Even if each city had the freedom to the laws they made, Lyons rules were final. We were all to be numbered and watched to remain order within our cities and the more people that came in proposed new threats of outbreaks and supplies shortages. The “Three” may all be one in boarders, but were no where close to being united. I could see why Mom was so grateful to leave Clinton's boarders and into Patterson's.

I felt the car roll to a stop but I didn't open my eyes. It was well past midnight and I was exhausted. I figured that my parents would love to have a long talk with me in the morning, but now I just wished for my bed. Margret allowed me to keep the clothes I borrowed and I fell asleep to the smell of the detergent she used, and the smell of the country air.

Cool air nipped at my loose shirt that sported some sports team and my hair snagged on the car's belt. Someone was taking me out of the car. I was wondering why I was so aware of my surroundings. I was wanting to sleep, but my mind kept telling me what was going on. My slip on shoes fell to the ground and the long sweat pants I was wearing slipped down to my heals. I felt a strong grip from rough hands that scratched against my skin and a warm chest that was sitting by the fireplace all night.

Dad was caring me to bed.

I knew it.

Who knew what he was thinking. To my Mom's tone of voice on the phone before, it seemed as if I didn't keep in contact with them these two years. His daughter had been gone for two years without a word. I doubted that I even called for Christmas or birthdays. I was gone. To a family that was as close as ours, that was bad to even forget to say “good morning” when we saw each other every morning.

I woke the next morning to the heater clicking on through the vents in the house. I opened my eyes and noticed my familiar room. To my mind, I had only seen it two days ago. To everyone else, it had been two years. Yet everything was the same. The same dull purple color walls. The same dark wood matching furniture set. The same stuffed animal in my arms. It was as if I never did leave.

I looked down to the stuffed animal that had a fresh drool mark on it's body. It was a stuffed star with a funny face on it. It used to be pink and fuzzy, but now sported a brown color and wasn't even soft anymore. I wiped off the drool with the back of my hand and left my warm bed. I tiptoed to my door and wondered why I was trying to be so quiet. I opened the nob that still had one of my coats on it and opened to a new home.

The entire hallway in front of me was different.

It was a warm yellow than an ugly wallpaper and all the wood paneling seemed to have a new finish to them. I continued down the hallway to the over hang that peered down into the foyer. The old fashioned farm house we lived in had a new bit of everything. Everything was painted, walls were gutted out down below to sport a large room, and new furniture. Dad wanted to renovate the home but they never had enough money to do something. We must have had a good crop one of these last two years.

There were voices coming from the kitchen and the wonderful smell of Mom's home made pancakes and sausage filled my lungs. I didn't hesitate to get down the stairs but slowed my steps once I reached the kitchen. I slowly peered around the corner to see Mom cooking and Charley reading a paper. Charley and his family were old friends of the family and helped out so much on the farm. They all lived in downtown Patterson, but he was always here early to help work on the farm. If Charley was already inside then his sons would be close by with my Dad.

“Well, look who's up,” Charley smiled.

I didn't realize that I was staring at him. I hid behind the frame of the door a little bit and looked over to Mom who was looking at me too. She had mix emotions on her face and I probably did too. My body reacted on its own and I ran up to her and hugged her. I felt tears roll into my eyes, but Mom was the one sobbing. She wouldn't let me go. I heard the back door open and a slight gasp.

I saw Charley's boys, both were in their late twenties and grew up with my brother. Behind them was my Dad. He was taking off his work boots at the door and looked up into my eyes. His look was more hard than Mom's but I knew he would have cried any moment if we hadn't left for his study.

I expected more yelling from Dad then what I got. He did quite a lot of yelling and demanding to know what happened to me and such. I just sat in my chair hugging my knees and looking at the floor. I told him the truth. I didn't know. I didn't know anything.

“I woke up as if it was a few hours later than that day. I had no idea how much time had past or even what happened to us,” I still had no idea.

I felt tears fall down my face. I pushed my forehead to my knees and tried to stop myself from crying. How my brother would say it “man up and don't always resort to tears”, but I just wanted to cry. I had a habit of giving up too quickly when he told me that. His reason was to say that there was always another way to finish everything. He would always then smile and rest his hand on my head like Dad always did to us and say that he was praying for me to make the right decision.

I didn't feel like praying. I didn't feel like doing anything. I knew this was a bad place to be in, but I didn't know what else to do. I just cried. It was quiet for what felt like a while, till I felt Dad's rough hands on head. I looked up and I saw a relieved smile. He was so happy I was back. I wasn't dead. I was here in front of him. I hugged him tightly and was soon joined by Mom. It did feel like I hadn't hugged them in two years...

“Noel?” Mom said rubbing her finger across the back of my neck.

It stung a little bit where her finger was.

She broke away from the hug and pushed my hair to the side to see what was wrong. She told Dad to look what she saw and I felt my heart rate rise. What was wrong? Did I have a tattoo that I didn't know existed? I don't think I checked my body for things like that.

Mom left the room quickly and came back with two mirrors. I shifted my body so that I could take the two and propped the mirrors in my hands to see the back of my neck. No tattoo there, but a strange looking scar. I looked to Mom for a moment trying to figure out what she was trying to say, but then realized what was wrong.

My ID chip was tampered with.

See, in the world we live in now, it is near impossible for identity theft. Sure someone can steal your license, but that won't get you far outside the walls of the “Three”. Most cities, at least the ones that were the safe ones, still had to make sure that they knew who was coming into their city. The ID chips were the resolution of that. Implanted at birth, they had all of our basic information, so every eye scan, or finger print scan would result in accessing the chip's information.

If the scan doesn't match up with the license or picture that comes up on the scanner's screen then authority figures are called immediately. The only way to truly be a theft of one's ID, would basically mean that they would have to kill them. Even the gangs in Lyons wouldn't resort to killing someone for their ID chips. Too risky.

But what some people forget though is that since the ID chips are located so close to the brain, if tampered with any way it could mean that the person could be left with some sort of brain damage. Mine just happened to be memory loss. I wondered to Ellis and David because they had the same condition as I did, but I brushed it aside in my mind. I didn't want to think of that.

I looked up to Dad who didn't know what to think either.

“I think the best thing to do is to just to rest for now,” he ended up saying, “even if the memory loss is related to the ID chip, you should still remember a few things from your past eventually.”

Mom agreed and we all hugged one last time before Dad had to get back to work. Rest. That's all I needed to do right now. Rest and pray that my memories would come back soon. I scarfed down breakfast saying those things to myself again. I watched TV thinking the same thing. I chased around a chicken that got out of it's cage thinking again. I did the same thing the next day too.

I sat down on the front porch swing later a few days later and sighed.

Nothing was coming to me.

Sure I would remember them in time, but how long? Hours? Days? Weeks? Years?! I moaned and let my body drop to my right on the cushioned porch swing. All the fields were cut and brown now. It was late November and there was even some snow on the ground. Everything looked dull and dark. I saw a patch of blue sky through the thick clouds once while I laid there, but that was it. Dad didn't want me to leave the house yet, but I was already board. I know that he just wanted me around, but this wasn't helping.

Mom came out a bit later with some hot chocolate and my favorite mug.

“What do you think happened in those two years?” I asked blowing on the drink.

Mom's eyes drooped a bit as she thought back, “Well, we found the crater. The Johnson family next door saw something and called us. By the time we got there, Cecil was there and claiming that you and whoever was with you just disappeared.”

“Disappeared?” He must have seen the vehicles and heard the gun shots.
He probably ran all the way back just to see if I was alright. I stopped and choked on my drink getting bug eyed. Cecil! What happened to him?!

“We really didn't know what to think unfortunately. Out of all the ideas we had, each and every one was insane. We just hoped and prayed that you would come home safely...”

Mom sighed and rubbed my back. I looked over to her and she pulled me close.

“I'm just so glad that you're okay...” She kissed my forehead and we sat there for a few moments before she needed to get back to work herself.

She patted my back and stood up from the swing.
“However, out of all the things that could have happened to you, I got the strangest mail the other month. Apparently you were completely done with schooling,” She gave a big smile, “that to me was the hope I needed to know that you were still alive somewhere.”

School? Oh, yeah, I would have been a senior this year. But I guess I was done then? Arg, what happened between those two years?!?
“Meaning, that you are free to do what you like right now,” she moved her head towards the drive way.

I saw my cherry red car, just waiting there for me to drive. Waiting for two years. I looked back at her and she told me that she hadn’t called up Cecil's family yet. I felt a smile roll across my face and hopped up running past her to get the keys to my car. She gave me another kiss on the cheek, and I gave one to her back. I thanked her and promised that I would be back. I stepped down onto the cold ground but stopped. I said the same thing before about my brother's surprise party. I turned to see a concerned look in her eyes and stepped back up on the porch.

“Mom, I promise I will be back,” I said taking her hands, “I promise that I won't go anywhere. Not again.”

She sniffed holding back her tears. Her face was still a little red from the other day. I gave her a tight hug and left towards the car. I wasn't going to leave the family again like I did. Not again.

“What do you mean he's not here?” I growled.
“He's not here! Go away!” a young blonde girl said at the door.

I didn't know who the girl was. Judging from her age, she was probably in middle school and friends with Cecil's younger cousin. There was a new farm next to theirs on the way over here, so they must be new. I looked inside to see a familiar looking house. Cecil lived with his grandparents and it looked like a grandparent's home.

Cecil and his three cousins all lived out here with their grandparents because of health reasons. Their families lived in Lyons and owned a rather successful business out there. The cousins were here because they couldn't breathe in the thick city air. Cecil came out here because of some trouble he was causing in his old school. His family actually weren't the best family either. For his mental health they forced him to live out here, and he never went back.

When I first met Cecil in middle school, no one wanted to be his friend. Partially because of coming from Lyons, but he was strange. He would usually sit alone and mumble to himself. But ever since he entered high school, he had changed so much. He joined a few sports, worked at the family farm, and was just much happier. He got his life straightened out in time to meet me. We were dating for a good year before what happened.

The blonde girl in front of me had a look on her face that was telling me that she had a crush on Cecil. Thats probably why she's over. To “help” and hang out with her neighbors to get close to a boy she will never have a chance with. I rolled my eyes and forced a smile and left. I waited till she closed the door and made my way out to the barn out behind their home.

The door was open and I felt a nudge at my feet. A cat was there rubbing against my legs. I was thankful that I still had a pair of jeans that still fit after these years. They were wrinkled and an ugly shade of blue, but they were better than nothing. I petted the cat who purred at my feet. I tugged on my warm fall jacket in the drafty barn and walked on. He wasn't in this barn. I left and made a bee line towards the horse barn.

I brushed my hair out of my face as I stepped in to the heated barn. The family here only grew a little crops during the year. Their main focus was on their horse ranch and used most of the field space for the horses. Much different than my home. I heard a faint sound of music blasting through some ear buds. I walked a little bit farther and came upon a stall with a young man inside grooming one of the horses.

I almost walked on, but stopped when he turned his head slightly to pet the horse's nose. It was defiantly Cecil. However, this Cecil wasn't the Cecil I remembered. His light blonde hair was gray and he looked a few inches taller than the last I saw him. Gray hair? He mentioned something before about nearly dying when he saw some gray hairs in his hair once, In two years there was no blonde hair on his head. Nineteen, going on twenty and he had the hair color of an old man. I was happy to know that, by looking at his grandpa, hair loss didn't really run in the family, but it was still so strange.

I had to wonder if it was also because of stress. Was he really worrying about me that much? Or even school? I couldn't help but wonder. I finally just decided to break the silence and cleared my throat. Even through the ear buds, he could hear me.

“I'll be with you one seck-”

He did a double take when he first looked at me. He dropped the brush that he was holding and startled the horse slightly. After calming down the horse he opened the stall and stood in front of me. He looked at me as if he was seeing a ghost. He had his mouth open slightly and probably was thinking a few thousand things a second. I gave a little smile and took his warm hands into my own.

“You... you're...”
“Very cold,” I smiled really wanting to get out of the drafty open segment of the barn.

“I still can't believe it....” he said a few moments later, taking me into a closed heated room within the barn, “what happened? How are you? Are you-”
I laughed trying to tell him to quit fumbling over his words. He was beyond over joyed to see me.
“Well, besides two years of memory loss, I'd say doing well. How about you?”
“Two years?” His shoulders dropped a bit.

I nodded slightly and hit my head trying to tell him that I was alright. He needed to quit worrying about me. We talked, well he talked, he was just so happy to see me that I let him talk. Even though he was so excited, he knew that this was the only way for him to get his mind off of what happened. He wanted me to feel welcome and at home. After a while of talking he looked up to the clock in the room and realized the time. He still had some more chores to do.

“Then I should get going,” I said standing too, “I know how your grandpa gets if you don't do your work.”
He looked like a sad puppy. I was leaving too soon. I hugged his side and followed him out of the warm room.
“You just need to come by when you find some time then,” I smiled, “I have a lot of time now since apparently I'm all done with school.”
“Really? Lucky! I had so much going on my senior year that I was surprised that I passed all my classes to graduate,” he made a silly face and I laughed.

I was just about to turn to leave when he pulled me close for a kiss. I kissed him, though something was wrong. It was a short quick kiss and excused himself to finish his chores. He raced off out the other side of the horse barn and I waved to him good bye and left the barn the way I came in. I stopped on the way back to my car and felt my lips. The kiss should have been just like everything else from that day two years ago. Two young teens in love sharing a romantic kiss good bye.

However, this time it was different. It didn't feel the same. It was as if there was someone else that would brush my hair out of my face and then kiss me. Someone who did it better than Cecil. Someone that made my heart melt and feel that I wanted to be with him for the rest of my life. Something different than just a high school romance.

I growled at myself hating why I couldn't remember anything still. I left to my car and drove off back towards where my home was. It was about a five minute drive back home, but it seemed much longer. I slowed to a stop at the intersection close by where the crash site was before. I let a car or two pass then started to turn.

Suddenly I felt as if something jumped down onto my roof. I swerved the car slightly and slammed on the breaks. I looked up at my windshield and saw a smiling person.

“YOU!”
“You know, you have one nice car, how on earth did you snag such an antique model?”
“Get out of here! I said I didn't want to see you guys ever again!”
“To my recollection, it was 'stay away from me'. That never meant that I couldn't see you again.”
“Ellis!! Go away!”

What was this feeling? This frustration- this anger? I didn't know this young man, yet my mind was telling me that he was always like this. Just a plain annoying idiot who wanted attention but was the best of all friends I ever had...

My passenger door opened and he hopped right inside.

“So, where are we off to? Please let it be somewhere with food, I'm starved.”

He threw his bag at me and changed the radio station to something that had hard music on it. I threw it back at him and told him again and again to get out of my car. I kept driving on telling him to get out. I didn't know why I wasn't kicking him out by force. He'd probably still follow me home anyway.