Back Into Your Arms

A couple of nights later, I had a nightmare.

I was being chased by these faceless individuals, who were trying to take all my memories away all over again.

I sat up in bed, turning on the lamp nearby.

I was breathing heavily, I was genuinely scared, not of the faceless individuals but of my memories somehow going away again.

I checked the time, it was barely 2am yet it had felt like a whole night had passed by.

I decided to text John.

“Are you still somehow up?”

I was about to set my phone down when his reply came through quickly.

“Yes, I am, but why are you still up?”

“Nightmare, can’t fall back asleep, but hey why are you still up?”

“Had a song idea, been writing”

“Ah”

“So, what, do you want me to go pick you up? We can go drive around?”

“At 2am?”

“Why not?”

“True”

“So, what do you say?”

“Yes”

“I’ll go pick you up”

“I’ll get dressed, you think it’s cold outside?”

“Hmm, that’s a good question, I wouldn’t know, I don’t usually go out at 2am
***

I laughed, just talking with him was already making me feel better.
He picked me up outside of my apartment building.

“Good morning sweetheart” he said to me as I got in the car.

“We’re crazy”

“No doubt”

“So where are we going?”

“I don’t know, we could just drive around, I have a full tank of gas”

"Well we can't really go a lot of places, it's pretty late…and parks are closed huh?"

"Yup, unless we want to get arrested, but if you want to do that, I'm more than down" he said smiling as he turned the car on.

"I just wanted a breath of fresh air, and some company"

"I have an idea" he said as he began to drive.

There was something special about driving through the city so late in the night. It was so empty, so peaceful, as if it was just John and I left in the world.
I saw him turn on his street.

"This is your great idea?"

He laughed.

"Trust me" he said as he parked on his driveway, he instructed me to wait for him.

He was inside for a couple of minutes, and when he came out he had some blankets with him and two pillows.

"Come out of the car" he said to me as he began to place the blankets on the grass of his front lawn.

I watched him as he placed the pillows on top.

"If your neighbors see us they are going to think we are crazy"

"They won't see us, they're sleeping and plus don't worry so much what others think, c'mon" he said sitting down on the blankets, taking his shoes off and laying down.

I just looked at him, a little embarrassed but he was completely right, why was I worrying so much?

"C'mon" he said extending his long arm and placing the other pillow on top.

"You're too much" I said laughing as I took my shoes off and laid down next to him.

I scooted closer to him and he did the same. We looked up at the sky, it was a perfect clear sky and the stars were quite visible in despite of the city lights.

I took a deep breath and released all my stress in the exhale.

"What's bothering you?" he whispered to me.

"My brain, I guess I'm upset at the fact that I still haven't recovered all my memories and I'm afraid of losing them all over again..."

"Why would you lose them again?"

"I don't know, they're really irrational fears, but I have a lot of them"

We were both silent for a moment.

"I recovered another memory”

"You did? Of what?"

"A fight, between my parents and I"

"Was it about me?"

I sighed.

"Yeah, they were upset because I was going to your concert"

"Oh...that time"

"You remember?"

"Yeah"

"I didn't recover the entire memory; would you care to fill me in on what happened that night? Did I make it back home on time? Were they more upset?"

"I'm kind of upset with your brain right now too, out of all the memories, why this one? Gosh, where do I even start..."

"That bad?"

"Yeah, let me tell you all about that night"