I slowly stepped out of the car.
"Okay, so, um, exactly where is this 'home' of yours?" I asked, looking around to perceive nothing but trees, wilderness, dirt, trees, plants, leaves, and more trees.
"Look a little closer," Ace responded, walking over to my side and gazing around himself.
"Okay..." I said, continuing to observe.
After a few uneventful moments of silence, I decided to resume speaking.
"Wait a minute, I think I've got it..." I turned directly toward him and slid my hands up to my hips. "You live in a tree house."
I cocked my head to the side and gave a slight smile.
"Against your previous assumptions, I'm sorry, but my medical records do not indicate that I am an orangutan," Ace shot back.
He gladly returned the smile.
"Okay, well then... I'm stumped," I stated, turning and kicking weakly at the base of a recently cut tree.
I immediately began to laugh, and then turned back to Ace as I pointed to the tree stump in front of me.
"Wow, Amnesia," he flashed another smile and shook his head. "Aren't you funny?"
"Yeah, well, you know... I try," I responded, now looking more closely around me.
"You are getting a little closer..." Ace assured.
"Yeah, sure..."
I observantly spun myself around.
"Here, let me show you something..." he piped up, as soon as I had turned to face him once more. He then stepped past my side and made his way to a random tree a few feet in the opposite direction.
I twisted myself back around and slowly chased after him.
"Watch," he commanded, bringing one hand up into view. He held his palm toward me a second, and then moved it toward an area of slightly discolored bark on the round tree in front of him. He pushed on it gently, then brought his hand back as the bark began to flip itself upward, revealing some type of simple keypad hidden underneath.
"Well, that's... fancy," I commented.
Ace smirked a little, and then continued to enter a long code of numbers into the pad. As soon as he was done, he reached up and flipped the fake bark back down into its place.
I looked around for a moment.
"I don't think you did it right," I said.
"That's the point," Ace replied, now turning toward the left and pacing over to another tree.
I didn't follow him this time but watched as he knelt down and reached for something on the ground. Whatever it was that he ended up grabbing, he pulled it upward, bringing a large, square hidden door up with it. He then pushed the door away from himself and allowed it to fall backward on its hinges.
I remained still, a few feet away from him, as he suddenly stepped down into the new hole created in the ground set before him.
"Well, um, okay, then..." I whispered to myself while he quickly walked down and into the hole on what I assumed to be stairs.
I paced over to the hole, and then peered down into it.
It was definitely a hole full of stairs.
"Come on, 'Nesia!" Ace yelled from somewhere that was out of my sight, his voice strongly echoing.
"Okay, okay..." I whispered, again mostly to myself, and then started to trot down the stairs. They seemed to be made of cement, or maybe just something really hard, and there were moderately bright lights implanted in the 'ceiling' above them along the way. After a few long, laborious moments, I eventually made it to the bottom.
I stepped off of the stairs and looked up and around at the same time. I was now in a humungous room filled with desks, computers, cabinets, and pretty much every other type of furniture that constitutes an office. The whole area was brightly lit and extremely clean as well as very white.
Two young women, one with dark, kinky hair and one with wavy blonde, were standing in the middle of the room, next to the largest and messiest desk. Next to them stood Ace.
"And there she finally is..." he announced, beginning to walk toward me. "Ladies..." he gazed back over at the other two women as he finished. "May I introduce to you Amnesia: the girl who can't even remember her own name."
I looked from him to them.
"Well, I mean, I do remember... Or, I mean, I could... remember..." I stumbled out.
"Sure, okay, whatever..." Ace shot back, now approaching me and turning to place a hand on my back. He began to push me forward, toward the women.
" 'Nesia, this is Mel..." he continued, pointing with his free hand at the dark-skinned, dark-haired girl. "And Katie," he finished with moving his finger toward the other.
By now, we had stopped in front of the two.
"Hi," the blonde, Katie, greeted first, a big, pretty smile on her face.
"Hello, 'Amnesia'," the other, Mel, added.
I instantly recognized her voice.
"Oh, wait, are you—" I began to question.
"This girl?" she completed for me, reaching out and removing the Bluetooth from behind my ear, the one of which I had completely forgotten.
"Oh my God, I completely forgot..." I stared at the receiver as she took it back. "About... that..."
"Not surprising," Ace remarked.
"Uh-huh," Mel replied to him, on the verge of some kind of sarcasm. "Tell me, though, Amnesia... How do you actually lose track of your own name?"
I pursed my lips at her.
"Well, um, you know... I think I may have possibly injured myself... I, uh, bumped my head or something, so—"
"Whoa, let's see," Katie interrupted me.
I replied to her by turning around and making a circling motion with one hand over the very top of my head.
"In this region, possibly... I believe I have an injury... of... some sort," I said.
After a long, quiet second of probable observation, Ace piped up.
" 'Nesia, there isn't even anything there."
"Wait, what?" I questioned, now turning back and touching the area with my previously used, motioning hand.
"Well, there is, actually, but it's just a small bump. It's nothing serious," Katie explained. "Honestly, though, I don't think that would be the cause of your memory loss."
"Oh, really... Wow, um..." I mumbled, my eyes moving around widely. "Well, you know, I don't actually... don't remember nothing, I mean, anything, so..."
"It'll come back to you soon enough, you've just been through a lot," Mel reassured. "Ace," she turned toward him. "Show her around and make her more comfortable."
"Yes, ma'am..." Ace responded, along with a slight head bow. He removed his hands from behind his back and rotated himself toward me. "Please, come with me, miss."
He smiled and began to walk over to the far left wall.
I paused for a moment, looking around a little more.
"Okay," I eventually whispered, and then decided to follow after him.
I stepped a little wider than usual as I tried to catch up, and once I did actually reach his side, he was already standing at a door, waiting for me.
"We move a little fast," he commented. "And you might be here a while, so you should really start taking notes."
"A while?" I shot back, completely ignoring the rest of his statement.
He pushed down on the door handle in front of us, and then pushed the heavy, wooden door inward.
"Well... duh," he responded.
He started to walk again, through the doorway and into a long hallway.
"What do you mean, duh? Don't I, like, get to go home later, or something?"
I continued to walk behind him.
"Well, like, you could, I guess, but you even don't remember where you live," he let out a short-lived laugh and stopped by another door in the middle of the corridor, one on the right.
"Well, actually, I do remember... I live in a house... on a street... in some town... with the zip code... eighty-something... two." I gazed up to look directly back at his confused face.
He cocked his head to the side for a moment, and then shot another remark back at me.
"As does seventy-one percent of all humanity. Why don't you try again later?"
He then grabbed the handle of the door by his side and pushed himself into it, almost disappearing into the dark room on the other side.
I looked the dark opening in the wall up and down a minute, and when a light finally flickered on from inside, I stepped through.
"You know..." I began, again. "I was just kidding..."
I walked toward the center of the room, where Ace now stood, waiting for my approach.
"Kidding or not, 'Nesia... You are something," he gave with a small chuckle.
I gave a good smile back, and then allowed an almost too long of silence to fall. After a few seconds, I slowly slid my gaze away and turned to observe the areas around me.
After taking note of a small, cot-like bed in one corner, a practically unused desk in another, and an older-looking dresser against the wall opposite both, I decided to break the silence.
"So, what, is this my new cell?"
I remained with my body facing a different direction than Ace's, but I looked back at him from over my shoulder as he replied.
"Actually... it's ours."
"What?" I asked, suddenly feeling my face become slightly flushed.
Ace paused a second, then began to smile, and soon after gave way to a laugh.
"Just kidding," he said.
I half-rolled my eyes at him and smirked some. He began to walk past me and toward the door.
"On with the tour?" he suggested, or more commanded, since he was nearly in the hallway again before the words escaped his mouth.
"Kidding or not, you're really something..." I muttered, even though he most likely didn't hear.
I spun back to the door and made my way out of the room, instinctively flipping the light switch as I exited.
Ace began to quickly pace toward the door at the very end of the hall, opposite from the one we had originally entered from. I gave a good attempt at keeping up with him, but I obviously must not have been in as good of physical condition as he was.
"This room's my favorite..." he stated, now grabbing at the far away door's handle and throwing it forward to open the doorway.
Once I was close enough to be able to, I peeked inside and saw that the room was an oversized kitchen and dining area.
"Oh, wow..." I commented as I stood in the doorframe behind Ace.
"Hungry?" he questioned, gazing back at me while still holding the door open in front of us.
I smiled, just a little.
"Well... I mean... kind of, yeah..." I tried to reply.
"Good, because I didn't want to have to eat in front of you," he said.
Suddenly, he turned into the room and released the door to swing back at me. I pushed my hands slightly out in front of myself and caught it, and then stepped inside to let it slam shut behind me.
Ace walked over to a fridge on the left wall, and I made my way over to a seat at a large table close by it.
"I'm no chef, but I can make a pretty damn good ham and pickle sandwich," he kind of shouted out with his head stuck in between the doors of the refrigerator.
"Oh, God, no pickles..." I yelled back as I sat. "They just... make me..." I paused for a long moment before finishing.
"Irritable..." I said, much more quietly.
Ace slowly turned around to face me, his arms full of refrigerated items.
I swiftly looked away, attempting to avoid eye contact.
"Oh... kay..." he elongated his response.
As soon as he had twisted back around, I scrunched up my face.
"Well... would anything else be acceptable on your sandwich, then, 'Miss IBS'?" he remarked.
My jaw slightly dropped at his comment.
"Uh, n-no..." I eventually began to answer. "I mean, yes..."
I reached up and ran a hand through my hair, uncomfortably.
Ace roared with a laugh while he threw plates and ingredients around on the counter in front of himself.
"God, teasing you is just too much fun..." he said.
I relaxed myself a little and smiled at the back of his head.
After a few more short moments, he turned around with a small sandwich on a plate in one hand. He stepped over to my side and carefully placed it onto the table before me.
"Ham, cheese, and mustard. Is that good enough for you?" he asked.
I looked it over a second, and then nodded.
"Sure," I said, without looking up at him.
He turned back around silently and approached the counter once again.
I reached out and lifted the top slice of bread from the sandwich, and then studied the mess of meat, shredded cheese, and bright yellow mustard.
I wrinkled my nose; I actually hated mustard.
But I wasn't going to comment on that, too.
"So, Amnesia, somehow I highly doubt you still don't remember your name..." Ace conversed, squeezing out an almost empty bottle of who knows what.
I looked up at him, across from my seat at the table, and slowly brought my legs up to cross underneath my body in my chair.
"Well, you know..." I started. "There's a possibility that I could actually remember... But... I just... don't exactly want to... remember..."
"Why not?" Ace spun around and placed his own sandwich at the seat directly across from me.
I looked back down at my food and started to tear some of the bread's crust away.
I could hear Ace taking a large bite from his sandwich.
I then gazed back up at him and gave a slight smile.
"You know, Ace isn't my real name," he said through a full mouth.
"Oh, really?" I interrogated.
"Well," he swallowed. "It is now, but it wasn't always. I got it legally changed a few years ago."
I tilted my head to the side a little.
"What was it before, then?"
"Well," Ace took another chunk from his food. "Tell me yours, and I'll tell you mine."
I pursed my lips a moment, and then looked around the table a bit.
"Okay..." I slowly agreed. "My real name... It's...uh..." I closed my eyes.
Here goes.
"Mable-Ann Rosemary Brown..."
As soon as I opened my eyes, Ace burst out in laughter.
"Damn! No wonder you forgot all of that."
"Okay, yeah," I rolled my eyes at him. "And what name did you have that was so God-awful that it needed changed?"
Finally slowing down his laughs, Ace took a deep breath and responded.
"My old name was Dylan; it wasn't that it was a bad name... I just liked Ace better."
After his reply, he stood up and walked over to the fridge to retrieve a beverage.
"Want one?" he asked, holding a tall, blue Gatorade for me to see.
"Sure."
He grabbed another, and then brought the two drinks over to the table.
"So, do you have any kind of nickname to shorten that mouthful?" Ace asked as he sat back down.
I smiled.
"Amnesia," I shot back in response.
Ace giggled.
"Nothing else?" he asked.
"Well," I started. "Really, my friends would call me Mae. But, that's not much better to me, either..."
Ace took a few more small bites of his food and, afterward, began to open his Gatorade bottle.
"I'll just stick to 'Nesia. It fits you a lot better," he said.
I moved my head to one side and smiled a little, once again.
"Thanks," I said, finally deciding to pick up my sandwich.
Ace took a drink, and then smiled back. After looking away to take his last bites, he decided to make another remark.
"Amnesia Brown..." he muttered through chews. "Sounds like some new, weird intestinal disease..."
I sunk my front teeth into the mess in my hands, and then raised my eyebrows at him as he looked back up at me.
"Is that what pickles give you?" he questioned.
I stopped myself, mid-chew, and immediately shot a wide-eyed look at him.
Of course, he began to yell out in laughter.
I then resumed chewing and gave a very subtle giggle.
"Oh, God, sorry..." he chuckled out, now slowing down with his self-amusement.
He slowly stood and picked up his dirtied plate of mustard splatters from the table.
"I'm just too funny," he muttered, turning around and placing the plate into the sink by the fridge.
After that, he twisted back around and snatched his blue Gatorade from the table as well. He took a long drink from it, making it almost emptied, and then looked back at me and spoke.
"So, I gotta go do something. But I'm sure Mel and Katie will want to talk all that 'business' junk with you when you're done."
He quickly swallowed all that was left of his beverage, and then turned around to escort it to the trashcan.
"So, have fun!" he yelled as he walked himself over to the room's exit. He then grabbed the door's handle, whipped the door open, did a full three-sixty turn around while waving to me, stepped out into the hallway, and let the door slam shut behind himself.
Very elaborate.
I slowly looked back at the mustard-oozing chaos in between my hands, and then shook my head a bit.
"Not today," I murmured as I released it back onto the plate underneath.
I stood up from the table, walked the sandwich over to the trash, dropped it in, and then turned my plate into the kitchen sink, right on top of the other one. Afterward, I made my way back to the table and reached across to retrieve my bottled drink.
I took a small sip from it and flared my nostrils a bit.
"Yeah, never really liked that, either," I whispered to myself, tossing it into the trashcan and making my way toward the door.
___
"Hey, you're still here!" Katie yelled at me from across the humongous room.
"Yeah," I partially shouted back with a slight laugh.
I began to walk by a row of computers and into her direction.
"Might have to take that one back after this, though, huh?" I could faintly hear Mel whisper by Katie's side.
Slowly, I approached the two comfortably sitting women. Each were in their own swivel, office-like chair while facing a large plasma television, which was hung on the wall in front of them. Both also had their own desktop computer sitting on the long desk set before themselves.
Instantly, the two swung themselves completely around in their chairs to face me.
I looked curiously past them, though, and observed the pictures displayed on the big T.V. and each of their computer monitors. The television showed a street map of some city; both computers exhibited e-mail-like programs.
"Nosy much?" Mel inquired.
I flickered my gaze back to her and Katie.
"Oh, God, sorry, I just..." I trailed off a moment, and then let my eyes wander for another few seconds. "A-Actually, I don't have any good excuse for... that, right now..."
"You're lucky that we're good sports," Mel continued. "Because that all," she paused a moment, and then made a wiping gesture with one hand toward the number of screens behind herself. "Right there; that's all confidential stuff!"
"Oh, I... s-sorry!" I blurted out, now forcing my eyes awkwardly downward.
The two girls began to laugh.
"I'm just kidding!" Mel giggled, reaching forward and playfully tapping my elbow afterward. "Here, pull over a chair..."
She stood and reached to her left, pulling a seat identical to hers from a different spot at the long desk and pushing it over to my side.
I forced out a small laugh, and then took the chair to place where I had stood, in front of both Mel and Katie. Once I had eventually sat, Katie began to speak in a much more serious tone.
"Okay, now..." she began strongly, but then slowly trailed off a bit. "Am...ne...sia?" she slowly sounded out my fresh, new nickname, and then awaited my response to it.
"Uh, yeah..." I swiftly responded. "All of..." I made a pointing gesture to both of the girls in front of me. "You all can just call me that; it's a lot easier than..." I paused and looked down at my lap. "My, um, real name."
I took a hard swallow and very sluggishly gazed back upward.
"But you do remember your real name, now, don't you?" Katie interrogated.
"Oh, well, I didn't say that, exactly... It's just..." I switched my eyes quickly between each of the two. "Easier to say that name, specifically, than... yeah."
Both women gave me puzzled looks.
"Well, here's the thing, Amnesia, we kind of need to know as much about you as you can tell us. I mean, you've been gone from your home for quite a while and there may be people out looking for you, and this place is kind of... secluded for a reason, so we don't really want anyone showing up here," Mel now began. "If you tell us some information that you can remember, like your name or why you were in that... certain building earlier, then we can help you out." She studied my face for a moment. "Just don't try to hide anything from us; that's something we've dealt with too many times before."
She added a small laugh with her last line, but that didn't allow me to relax any.
"Oh, well then... um..." I started to respond, my eyes looking behind her and instead toward the television on the wall. "Actually, you know what? I do remember, just a little bit..." I returned my focus onto the two sitting across from me and forced out a tiny laugh, but both girls remained still.
"Okay then, well..." I began again, with a small sigh. "My name... is..." I looked downward. "Mae. Mae Brown."
"Your last name is Brown?" Katie suddenly shot out.
She leaned forward, intently.
"Uh... Yeah. Is that... not a real last name, or something?" I asked back.
"Are you sure your last name is Brown?" Mel now inquired, ignoring my previous comment.
Katie spun herself around in her chair, and then began to type on her computer keyboard.
I looked back and forth quickly between her and Mel.
"Well, you know... I guess I'm not super sure, but..." I allowed my voice to trail away.
Mel leaned back in her chair a moment to observe Katie's computer screen. After a while, though, she turned back to me and continued to speak once more.
"The Brown family, they... They're a very wealthy family, and... and they actually own that one building you were in earlier."
I studied her face and processed a reply.
"Oh, no, that's... that's not my family, then. I'm not... I-I'm not rich, I'm sure about that. I... I think I'd actually remember that, if I were."
Before Mel even had time to speak again, Katie interrupted her.
"Mel," she mumbled, simply staring at her laptop screen.
Mel then followed her directed gaze. I attempted to follow suit, leaning to one side of my seat and trying to catch a glimpse of the screen from behind Katie's head.
However, it didn't really work out well for me.
"Mae, is there... anything else that you can remember?" Mel asked, after a few seconds, snatching my attention back.
I quickly straightened my posture before she gazed back toward me.
"Um... like what, exactly?"
"Like... Do you know why you were in that building, at all?" she slowly generated.
"I..." I paused, squinted, and let my eyes wander around a bit. "No..."
"Do you... remember anything about... where you live, then?"
I shook my head.
"Your parent's names, maybe?"
I shook my head, again.
Mel didn't ask another question, and, after a few seconds, she continued to look over Katie's shoulder. At the same time, I resumed my pretty much unnecessary gazing around.
I washed my eyes over the television map another million times and the other blank and turned off computers around me a few million more.
And then, suddenly and conveniently, it hit me.
"Wait!" I abruptly blurted out, grabbing the edges of my chair as I did so.
I looked up as the two women twisted their heads back at me.
"I... I remember, now... At least, why I was there..." I continued. "Well, actually, I remember... that I wasn't supposed to be there..."
Both Katie and Mel gave me a 'go on' type of look.
"And I don't remember really why, exactly, but I know I just wasn't supposed to... And I only do things I'm not supposed to do... when I'm mad. So, I was mad. I don't really have a clue why I was mad, either... But, I know I was, and... I was getting away from home, because... well, because I was mad. And... my home... I remember it; it's not very big. It's an apartment... But, like, the upstairs-downstairs type. And, we live on the upper floor... me and my parents... But, I don't remember where, exactly, the apartment place-thing is...And my parents, I know what they look like, but I don't remember their names. Probably because I'm just used to calling them mom and dad all the time... and..."
I stopped, looked around, swallowed, blinked a few times, and then looked back at the others.
"Yeah, that's all I remember right now..." I finished.
Just then, a loud beeping noise sounded throughout the large room, making me jump in my seat.
The two in front of me gazed past my backside and, after a few moments, I twisted my body to follow their lead with my own eyes. I then noticed, from behind a few computer-less desks, that Ace was coming down the stairs that led to the front entrance.
"Well, then..." Mel started, forcing me to turn back around to face her. "Mae, thank you for telling us what you remember; we'll take care of what we can for now."
Katie then turned back around to her computer monitor and Mel looked back over to Ace, across the room.
"Ace!" she abruptly shouted out.
I gazed over into his direction, from over my shoulder, as Mel continued.
"Can you please take Mae outside for some fresh air? And, maybe help her remember things more clearly while you're at it?"
"You know... just be helpful..." I could hear Katie faintly mumble as an addition.
Ace stood still, at the bottom of the staircase, as he replied.
"Who the hell is 'Mae'?" he yelled back.
I looked back at Mel; she rolled her eyes.
"If you're referring to the girl sitting right in front of you," he continued, now taking a step forward. "Amnesia... then yes, I would be... absolutely more than happy to take her outside and throw random questions in her face for an hour in hopes to jog her long, lost, and forgotten memory."
"Good luck," Mel whispered in my ear, as my neck was still craned into Ace's direction.
I smiled, even though she couldn't see it.
"However, I will not do any favors for any girl named Mae," I watched Ace take a few more steps over to a random desk while he finished.
"Okay, okay!" Mel yelled out. She then placed a hand on my shoulder, and I looked over at her once more. "You can go on out for a bit," she said directly to me.
I nodded in response, and then began to stand.
"Come on, 'Nesia," Ace said, now in a much quieter tone.
Without speaking back, I slowly made my way around a few desks and over to where he stood.
"You're never going to be able to keep up with me," he muttered to me as he whipped himself around, toward the bottom of the stairs.
"I..." I began to mumble back, but quickly lost my words.
"You what?" he shot out, now making his way up the first few stairs.
"I... I'll come up with a comeback later..." I replied as I took a few steps behind him.
"Yeah, no, you won't," he said.
The two of us remained silent, then, while we reached the top of the staircase. Ace then reached one hand upward and pushed the flap-like door at the end open. After that, he took a noticeably deep breath, and then climbed his way out.
"Ah, fresh air," he said as I climbed out after him.
As soon as I had taken one step onto the moist, green grass, a very strong and potent smell struck my nostrils. Hard.
"Oh, God..." I choked out, throwing both hands up to cover my nose and mouth.
The stench was undeniably from a skunk.
"What? You're not a nature person? Or... do you not remember that?" Ace remarked.
He then walked over to the open passageway, behind us, and shut the sort of camouflaged door on the ground.
"Oh, please..." I began, now removing my hands from upon my face. "I used to go camping all the time."
"Oh, did you, now?" Ace turned into my direction, crossed his arms, and leaned up against the nearest tree. "Then why does a little scent of the woods bother you any?"
"Well, that's just because..." I looked around a little bit. "Well, I've never woken up with a dead skunk on to