Remember Me

“Yes that is what I said.” Billie leaned against the white tiled wall. We were like the only ones in the gas station and he was on the phone with Mike. Trying to convince him to come pick us up.

“Yeahp, Ollie blew up and me and Adeline over Brad.”

He paused for a few seconds.

“I know right? So can you do it?”

He made a face and sighed heavily. Drug a hand down his face before saying “Yes. I am very aware of how stupid it was to jump off the train Mike. Thank you for your commentary!” he grinned falsely at the wall.

“Ok thanks man.”

He hung it up and he put an arm around my shoulders and led me back outside of the gas Station. I untied Checkers from a post and we waited for Mike.

“How long should it take?” I asked. Leaning into his side.

“About twenty five minutes. That is if Mike does not make any stops or Tré is with him. Hell if Tré is with him we will never get home.”

“Thar bad eh?” I grinned and he smiled down at me

“Yeahp.” he chuckled and drew a cigarette from his pocket and lit it. It hung from the corner of his lips while he fumbled with his lighter and trying to shove the carton back into his pocket. 

An half hour later.., a red pickup truck swung around the corner and flew into a parking place in front of us. The steaming grill was a mere foot from my face. Billie stood up to greet Mike. And a super hyper Tré bounced joyously out of the passengers door.

“Why is he with you?” Billie gestures questioningly to Tré who was still in his pajamas while Mike had changed into a grease stained white tank top and holy jeans. Mike shrugged. 

“He refused to be left behind on the 'rescue mission'” Mike made quotations in the air.

“Also... What are you driving?” Billie looked down at the pickup, there was a big dent in the drivers side door and the red pain was rusting and peeling in places. There was a stuffed bear shoved in the grill... I rose a eyebrow questioningly and then just shook my head.

“It's Tré's truck.” Mike said nonchalantly.

“I gots it for me birthday!” Tré squealed like a little kid. Hugging his ducky pajama clad self and he bounced around in little circles.

“Tré your birthday was what? Like ten months ago?” Billie asked.

Tré got all defensive. “Uh no...!”

“Yeahp, Tré, you turned eighteen on the 9th of December...”

Tré just rolled his eyes And instructed us to get in before he decides to leave us.

They turned on the radio as we drove out of Berkeley's city limits.

‘You know I'm a dreamer
But my heart's of gold
I had to run away high
So I wouldn't come home low
Just when things went right
It doesn't mean they were always wrong
Just take this song, and you'll never feel
Left all alone

Take me to your heart
Feel me in your bones
Just one more night
And I'm comin' off this
Long & winding road

I'm on my way
I'm on my way
Home sweet home...
Tonight, tonight
I'm on my way
I'm on my way
Home sweet home...
You know that I've seen
Too many romantic dreams
Up in lights, fallin' off
The silver screen

My heart's like an open book
For the whole world to read
Sometimes nothing
Keeps me together
At the seams

I'm on my way
I'm on my way
Home sweet home...
Tonight, tonight
I'm on my way
Just set me free
Home sweet home...

Home sweet home...
Home sweet home...
Home sweet home...

I'm on my way
I'm on my way
Home sweet home...

I'm on my way
Just set me free
Home sweet home...’

As the song played, I stared dejectedly out the passenger window. I'd been fortunate enough to get the window seat. I watched the blackness roll by.

Funny ain't it? How our lives fall apart, and we just keep moving on and— “MOUSE!” I screamed. Tannic my feet up and crouching on the seat while Mike swerved the truck a little at my sudden outburst. 

“WHAT? Where?” Mike yelled.

“On the floor!” I yelled back pointing. I never noticed it before, but my voice raises a few pitches when I get hysteric. But I don't care. The truck pulled over along the highway and the drivers door flew open and Mike took off into the darkness, Tré and Billie followed suit and disappeared. I raised an eyebrow questioningly,  I looked out the window. They were nowhere to be seen. I rubbed my bare arms to the cold air and looked around the floor in the piles of trash. Assorted McDonalds wrappers, water bottles, pop and beer cans and empty cigarette cartons. I saw no mouse now, I looked downward at the floor. The radio was now pouring out Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody. Then I saw it!  It darted across the floor and fell out of the truck. In the headlights, I could see it scampering off Into  the weeds along the road. I exhaled a breath of relief. Then I took another look out into the darkness... Crap... I have to go find them now...

I carefully drop out of the truck cab onto the cold asphalt barefoot. I'd taken off my Chucks.  And I was really feeling too lazy to go put them on. I hesitantly crossed the empty street and felt the cool waves of grass around my ankles as I reach the other side. There is some sort of swamp in the trees here. So I'm being especially careful. Moving about I could easily get lost. So I keep casting worried glances over my shoulder to make sure I can still see the headlights of the truck welcoming me back into the safety of brightness.

I kept walking until I tripped over a tree root and stumbled, falling down a hill head over heals and ramming headfirst into the trunk of an Aspen tree. I screamed, a blood curdling scream that I could hardly believe and recognize as mine. I right myself into a sit and reach up with shaky fingers and brush the gags along my forehead. Easily pulsing blood. I need a bandage of some kind, so I slowly tried to raise myself off the ground to find my way back to the truck but truth is, I have no idea what direction that even is. My head hurts a lot and I am all alone

“Mike! Tré! Billie?!” I cried out. Then. Anther scream rips from my chest and I stumbled forward onto my hands and knees. Violent images fill my head. Memories. 

I am walking up the street after dark. I pause in front of a window of a shop. In the reflection I cast in the glass I have long, hip long black hair that shimmers in the light from the street lamps behind me. I am on my way home from a late shift at my parents shop... When I get this feeling in my gut. And everything goes blank. There is more. I know there is more to this unfinished story. But what is there besides the massive headache I'm facing now?

There is rusting in the trees behind me and three dark, shadow figures run into the clearing and crouch beside me. I can make out Mike, Billie and Tré's face in the moonlight.

“What the hell happened?” Billie asked urgently.

“Why the fuck did you leave?” I shout back. I clutch my throbbing head in my hands as a new vision flashes before me.

I was working a late shift at the instrument store my parents independently owned. They owned this one and the record store down town. They were a couple who loved music. I had forgotten my house keys at the store and I was home alone that week. I walked back to the store and went inside, grabbing my keys off the counter. When I heard a voice and a crash and everything went blank.

I scream out in agony because something happened that night. Something I don't remember. But it's all coming back to me at frightening pace and I don't want to face it. The next thing I know I'm being hugged into Billie's chest as I sob.

Another wave and another friction of sparks brings me the answer I've been searching for...

There was a rack of new Les Paul's above the counter where I'd left my keys, just as I knelt before it, I heard a gunshot. It had been aiming for my head but I ducked in time and it hit the rack above me. The guitar fell off the rack and on my head. I fell unconscious to the blow. The alarms in the store went off and the criminal grabbed my assumed to be dead body And dragged it off and shoved it into the backseat of his car. He started driving when I regained a weak stance or consciousness and realized where I was. I opened the backseat door and jumped out. Trying to run with blurry vision I tripped a lot and the criminal caught up to me quickly. He grabbed a fist full of my hair and yanked me backwards in a attempt to slit my throat but I jerked away from his grip instead and he cut off all my hair. Cops on their way to the scene of the assumed robbery of my parents instrument store, saw our little tangle in a park near my home. An they arrested him and took me to the hospital. I'd lost my ID somewhere and they couldn't figure out who I was. I was healing from amnesia in the hospital. I had a lot of head pain so they gave me a lot of meds. A lot of which really fucked with my head. I had a lot of hallucinations while I was in the hospital and a lot of realistic day dreams. I had misheard the doctor and only heard my greatest fear. what the doctor actually had said about me to the nurse in the hall was that he had some ideas for my treatment options and I shield be able to make a full recovery. I misheard and was really loony and escaped the hospital. Running down the streets of Rodeo until I ran in the backdoor of a restaurant. As I ran through, weaving between tables, I'd seen the man who is hugging me now playing a song on stage with his band, Sweet Children. I didn't have the time to stay though, and in my hurry to escape, I had run into Ollie Armstrong. A woman I never described to you before.

Ollie is a sweet woman. In her late forties to early fifties. She has slightly orange curly, short hair. She is a short woman who was minding her own business working her daily shift at her job at Rod's Hickory Pit. And that is a day that will forever change my life.