Waters of Lethe, Book 2

4. The Rolling Ball

The two men led me to another room, frequently looking back at me. I did not understand why they were both so cautious. Then again, I had no idea what I was doing here to begin with.

The hallways were large. We passed a few meeting rooms, the walls made of glass so that I could see the large tables and empty swivel chairs inside. The room that we had just came from, the one with the dentist chair, seemed so out of place.

We stepped through the door of an office. It was not huge, but not small. A dark wooden desk sat on one end of the room. Two armchairs sat in front of it. Books were everywhere. Papers with numbers and locations were scattered about on the desk. I caught a glimpse of some of the locations: Tokyo, Shanghai, Cairo, Philadelphia. Others were listed, but those city names were bolded.

This office reminded me of a principal's office.

Images of a small high school suddenly popped into my mind. An older, balding man in a suit was situated behind a desk in a room in a school's main office building, tapping away at his computer.

Then another image: an older, already bald man sat behind his desk in a room similar to this one with books everywhere. This man wore different attire than the high school principal. This man wore a Metallica t-shirt and black jeans.

I did not know where the images came from, but they slipped away as quickly as they oddly introduced themselves. I tried to find them again, but could not.

"Take a seat, please," Scott said as he sat behind the desk, gesturing with his hand to the two seats in front of him.

"I'll stand," said Nico, who stood firmly by the door.

Scott gave him a hard look, one that demanded him to obey.

I took my seat and watched Nico at the same time. Nico looked very uncomfortable, ready to run or jump out of his skin or both.

"El," Scott began, not wasting any time. "This is... rather difficult to explain. I understand if you don't trust us or particularly believe us. If you believe only one thing about our purpose, know it's this: to protect you. To keep you safe. Your well-being is our greatest concern."

I did not say anything to that. I was confused. I absolutely did not believe them, but I listened.

Scott continued. "We rescued you. We recovered your damaged body and nursed you back to health."

This time, I spoke. "Who hurt me?"

Scott pursed his lips. "You don't remember?"

"Should I?"

He nodded. "Yes. Of course. We've been monitoring your brain wave activity and didn't suspect any damaging trauma. Are you having any motion sickness? Any—"

"Any sensitivity to light? Any dizziness? No." I answered.

He looked at me. "So, you do remember the things you've learned? In school?"

It was my turn to stare at him. "School?"

"At the time we rescued you, a little over a week ago, you were in nursing school. You still remember all of the concepts you've been taught?"

"I..." I was truly confused now. I did not remember any of this. I remembered a ton of concepts. Information about drugs, how to administer an epi-pen to counteract a bee sting, how to help a person with orthostatic hypotension. I did not remember going to college to be a nurse.

"Well, anyways, the point is that you've obviously had some memory loss. It should jog over the next few days as you stay with us. Might take up to a couple weeks, but no longer."