My vision is blurred when I come to. All I see is the blue sky spotted with leaves and tree branches, and all I hear is the peaceful sound of birds. I’m in such a daze I don’t even notice the loud person standing over me. As I become more conscious the figure above me comes more into focus, and his words start to make more sense. It’s Calix Pollister, my friend; he’s trying to wake me up.
“Casey, get up. Casey, get up. Casey, get up. Casey, get up. Casey, get up…” I open my eyes and glare at him, but he doesn’t stop. “Casey, get up. Casey, get up. Casey, get up. Casey, get…”
“I’m up goddammit!” I shout “Shut the hell up!” I tackle Calix to the ground; he laughs and pushes me off. Beside him is his rifle that he uses for target practice, out here in the woods somewhere is a neat area of grass with a hut, couches, more guns and a shooting range, a place resembling a scene from “Donnie Darko”. We go there every now and then for fun and to get away when we need to. I don’t know why he brought his gun here; we never take them away from the hut.
“I’ve been trying to wake you up for like, 10 minutes now, mate, what happened to you?” he asks with concern. Now that I think about it, I don’t know what happened, I was walking, and the next thing I know, I’m on the ground, knocked out.
“I don’t know,” I tell him. “Do you know what happened? Did I fall?”
“As possible as it is that you were clumsy enough to do that, I don’t think a simple ‘fall’ could give you a black eye, a cut cheek, and leave you unconscious, not unless you did a face first swan dive into the dirt.” I raise my hand and gently touch my face; I’ve got all the wounds Calix said. How did this happen? How did I get so beat up? “So you don’t remember anything? You didn’t see anyone? No one attacked you?
“No, I mean, how many people would come out here? And why would they want to beat me up?”
“Yeah I know, it’s just that I heard something and…when you didn’t show I figured I’d come looking for you.”
“Oh crap! Sorry man I forgot that I was supposed to meet you.” I really was sorry, but my confession left an unimpressed look on Calix’s face.
"You'll remember soon Case. I mean you just woke up from a concussion! It'll come back to you," he reassures me. I hope he's right.
We start walking off home; I’m still rattling my brain as to what happened to me. Yes, I probably fell, but there’s still a thought tugging at me, something else happened that’s now missing. Well, whatever it is, hopefully it’ll come to me once I’m a little more conscious.
Calix walks casually beside me, his rifle sitting across the back of his neck, supported by two lazy arms. He seems to be admiring the forest, not something he usually does. To us it’s just a plain old forest, nothing is ever new or noticable. Calix is an Australian, his dad moved to America when his mother died from a mystery illness. Change of scenery I guess, start off new? That’s what I’d do. Calix was only eight when she died, not young enough to forget, not old enough to be strong, it must’ve been hard. After a year his dad made the call to fly across the world and live in America. That was the year I first met him. Since then I’d say Calix has been at my house more that his own, he has similar emotionally-unstable-dad problems.
Calix turns his head to me, “so what did happen to you, do you remember yet?”
“No, no I don’t.”
“Maybe you were abducted by aliens.”
“Maybe,” I’m too tired to bicker about the possibilities of that happening, however likely.
“Maybe it was Batman.”
“Hmmm.”
“Did, zee Germans come for you?” why does that click?
“Maybe a clandestine government agency came in and blanked your memory because you saw aliens abducting Batman,” and just like that the memories come flooding back to me.
I jump at Calix, “HOLY SHIT! THAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED!” I startle him and he drops the gun.
“What happened? What? You saw aliens abduct Batman? Did you take a picture?”
“What? No. there were these Russians who attacked me, they wanted something,” it’s all so clear to me now, well, nearly. My memory is a little fuzzy and it hurts to think.
“Russians agents attacked you while you were taking a leisurely stroll through the forest. Are you sure it wasn’t zee Germans?”
“I’m serious Cal, they came and attacked me, they wanted something” my head is pounding, this remembering thing is killing me. “Urrgh, my head, and my stomach, do you see the marks on my face? They did this! They…” I double over and start spewing up my guts.
“Oh my GOD Casey! A little warning next time? Hey, is that blood?”
I open my eyes slightly “Blood’s not pink,” I say still doubled over. What have I been eating? At least the pain is gone, I am extremely hungry now though.
“Casey,” Calix pats me on the back “I’m afraid even your blood is gay.”
“Are you ever serious about anything? Why is my vomit pink?”
“How long have you known me Case? By now you should know the answer to that yourself. As for the pink spew, I’d say zee Russians did that.” I look up at him.
“You don’t believe me do you?”
“You’re serious about that?”
“Yes I’m serious! Look, can we just get back home? This whole business is creeping me out” Calix just smiles and shakes his head at me, he picks up his rifle and we continue off home.
Our conversation is the usual nonsense. We talk about the possibilities of Calix’s other theories on what happened to me, we discuss the books and movies we both like, we discuss our favourite numbers, mine is 4, Calix’s is 8, which is strange considering he was eight when his mother died. I wonder if there's something more to that. We then have an extended conversation on how great the number 8 is, after that the topic is types of concrete. Normal, everyday conversation.
However ridiculous and brain-cell-obliterating our conversations are, they do make the time go faster. Before too long we see my house in the distance and I immediately start worrying about what my father might do. My worries are for nothing because there’s no car beside our house like there would be if he were home. My heart slows to a normal pace; he’s gone for a drive to cool off, kind of like I did.
We come around the corner to the front of the house. Sitting on the porch swing is my grandma, Sophie Finch, and someone else I don’t know, a young girl with tied up brown hair and hazel eyes. We are greeted by my grandma.
“Hello dear, how was your walk?”
Well I almost died at the hands of some strange Russians midway “Just great grandma! Just great.”
“That’s nice, also I think someone rearranged your face, it’s all bruised and bloody.” That’s what I love about my grandma, she’s not all quite there, but she’s still the coolest granny around. The girl keeps looking at me, I don’t know whether to return her gaze or introduce myself or what. It’s a little weird. “And how are you Calix? You’re looking handsome today.” She always calls him handsome, or nice, or amusing. Anything nice that she has to say, she'll say it.
“Thank you grandma Sophie, you look beautiful today,” Calix replies with a nod.
“Why thank you dear.”
“And who is this might I ask?” he says gesturing to the strange girl.
“This is Astrid.”
The girl finally speaks “I keep telling you that’s not my name,” her voice sound familiar, my head starts hurting again.
“You told me you couldn’t remember who you were, your name might be Astrid but you just don’t know it. Besides, Astrid suits you; it means unusual strength and beauty”
“That’s…very kind of you Ms. Finch,” the girl says with uncertainty in her voice. There’s a pause, more like an awkward silence.
“So,” I say. “Astrid, what brings you here?”
“I told you I’d meet you back at your house, did you have much trouble with whatever was coming down the road?” and it all clicks, I double over and throw up again. Calix is less than impressed.
“CASEY! Warning, please!” what’s happening to me? I’m a little scared. “Oh god, it’s still pink!”
“Casey?” I can feel Astrid touching my back, her voice is smooth and calming. “Tell me what came down the road, what happened to you?”
“Zee Russians got him.” Calix replies for me.
“Russians…?” there’s an uncertainty in her voice.
I catch my breath long enough to talk, “Can I eat something first? There’s nothing left in my stomach.” Calix and Astrid help me up the stairs. Calix opens the door and we’re all shocked by what we see, the inside of my house has been destroyed. I turn to my grandmother.
“Grandma Sophie? What happened?”
Her expression stays peaceful. “Hmm? Oh yes, your father got extremely mad after you left and started making an awful mess of the place. Oh, and If you’re going inside, could you get me some tea?” my thoughts shoot straight to my mother, is she alright?
Astrid lifts her head to the door suddenly, like a dog that’s just heard something, and she has. “Do you hear that?” she asks. I listen closely; somewhere deep within the house I hear the muffled cries of my mother.
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