Day Zero

The next morning Dr. DeMonte returned to my room with news.  He is convinced that I can and should go home.  He is still concerned about my inability to remember my life, but he is still confident that my memory will return.  I must go back and see him in two weeks. Mark arrives to take me home.  Nurse Jim shows up with the wheelchair and his big smile and a part of me feels at ease.

“OK missy, let’s get this show on the road.”

“Thanks, Jim.  Take me to the car so I can get home and straighten things out.”

“You got it.”

Mark has pulled up in a very large Mercedes SUV.  Interesting.  That could not have been cheap.  What does this guy do for a living? 

Jim opens my door and helps me into the car.  So here I am alone in a car with someone I don’t know going to a home I don’t know.  I’m not good at idle chit chat and what could I possibly say?  Mark broke the silence first. 

“I know this is beyond weird for you.  Maybe when we get home things in our house will trigger your memory.”

“OK.  Since I don’t remember anything, why don’t you tell me about yourself?”

“OK, great idea.  I work for JWY Technology.  It is a young company, but we have been very successful.  We wanted the corporate office to be in a smaller community and Ardmore got the bid.   We employ 600 people.  It was a very big deal to the community when we came to town.”

“Wow, I’m sure it was,”  I said.  “Where do we live?”

“One of the perks and incentives of me taking the job was that the company would build us a very nice home on some land just outside of town.  You had a great time working with the builders to make it just what we wanted.”

“When you say outside of town, what are we talking about?”

“It’s just north of town tucked into the Arbuckle Mountains.”

We arrived at the property and went through some gates and there in the distance was a very large home.  “Home sweet home hon,” said Mark.  Keith calls me ‘hon,’ what is this guy doing calling me that?  I just remained silent at this point.  There was no point arguing that this wasn’t my home.  We finally arrived at the house and pulled into the five car garage.  Mark came around to help me out of the car and into the house we went.  Wow.  It was about 8,000 square feet of house.  I’m pretty sure if I lived in this house, I would remember. 

Mark asked if I wanted to rest for a bit and I said, no.  I would just like to walk around.  Outside of the big glass windows in the family room was a huge outdoor living area with a fireplace and beyond that a pool.  I wondered outside to take it all in.  I found a cushioned chair and went out to sit.  What were my next moves going to be?  I needed to find Keith and my kids.  Were they looking for me?  Did they think I was dead?  I continued to sit silently for a few more minutes when Mark came out to join me.

“I can see that this is all a bit much.  I am so sorry you are going through this.  I can be here all week to help out if you need me.”

“I appreciate the offer, but I think I just need a lot of quiet time to process and remember things.  Is there a guest room or something that I can use?” 

“Sure, but why don’t you let me move into the guest room?  I would have way less to move.” 

“I don’t want to put you out.”

“No problem.  What is important is for you to get better and get your memory back.  Maybe you staying in the master will help.” 

“Ok, I replied.  Where is the master?” 

“Turn left at the top of the stairs.  You can’t miss it.  I’ll go back in for now and let you be alone.”

“Thanks,” I reply.  “I may just wander through the house in a bit. For now, I’m just going to wander over to that couch, cover up and close my eyes.”

Mark reaches over and picks up a remote control for the fireplace and hands it to me.  “Here, you don’t usually like to turn it on, but it could be a new day, who knows.”  I thought to myself, it’s absolutely a new day.

Mark went back inside and I moved over to a big leather sofa with pillows and a blanket.  My head felt “fuzzy” and the drive had been exhausting.  After I curled up on the sofa with the blanket, I did indeed turn on the big fireplace.  I told myself it was OK to close my eyes.

My eyes popped open and I realized that I had fallen asleep.  I decided it was time to walk through this ridiculously large home.  There was a workout room, four large fireplaces, walking trails through the property, a hot tub, and a swimming pool.  None of which I remembered.  There were pictures of Mark and me all over the house.  I stopped and looked at each one.  Very disturbing.  How did he crop me into these pictures and why?  There were several pictures of us hunting and posing with our prizes.  I would NEVER do that.  There were pictures of us riding horses, vacationing on a yacht, skydiving, and the most disturbing of all was a wedding photo dated June 1981.

I wandered into the master suite.  It was quite the space with a giant fireplace.  There were two master closets.  I found the one with women’s clothing and assumed Mark would tell me that those were my clothes.  I looked through them and recognized nothing.  However, they would have to work for now since I had not gotten to my house yet.  I found some makeup and other items I could use as well.  

Shortly after I finished getting myself somewhat familiar with the house, Mark found me and said he had ordered my favorite pizza and beer for dinner.   I doubt very seriously that my favorite pizza will arrive, which is ‘the Goat’ by the way from Ten Star Pizza and I don’t like beer. 

We took our pizza into the big family room.  As I suspected, it was not my favorite pizza and I had a glass of iced tea instead of the beer.  Mark looked like he wanted to say something, but thought better of it. 

“I thought this would be a great opportunity for me to ask some questions about this ‘life of ours.’  So Mark, how did we meet?”

“We met at a frat party in college your freshman year.  You were the life of the party and I was smitten pretty quickly.  I was a junior majoring in business administration and you had not yet decided what to major in.”  

“Where was this?”

“UCLA.”

“UCLA in California?  I went to school in California?”

“Yes, he said.  You are originally from Pasadena.” 

“Are you telling me that I am not from Ardmore, but from California?” 

“Yes, we have only been here a couple of years after the company chose Ardmore for our corporate headquarters.”

Well that was just insane I thought.  I was born here in Ardmore, went to school here in Ardmore and worked for Ardmore Schools for over 25 years.  I moved back here in 1991 as a single mom with two young kids to be near my parents.  I raised them right here in my hometown.  I am NOT the life of any party, I don’t hunt and I would NEVER jump out of an airplane.  OK, calm down, you are on a fact-finding mission.  Keep asking questions.

“Tell me about our wedding.” 

“Well since you are not religious you did not want a church wedding.  So we got married at the Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco.  It was just you, me, Carol and a few close friends.  I have the wedding book if you would like to look through it.”

“Maybe later, I said.  Did you say that I’m not religious?” 

“Right.” 

“We don’t belong to a church?”

“No,” Mark replied.  Any time I have suggested it you refused.”

Well this just gets better and better. 

“Do I work?” I asked. 

“No, he replied.  We got married after I graduated and you never finished your degree.  I had a great job and you didn’t need to work.” 

“And I was OK with not working?   I didn’t need to do something to occupy my time or feel like I was contributing?” 

Mark laughed and said, “Nope.  You had your girlfriends.  You traveled and shopped with them and you were learning to play golf before the accident.” 

Well I guess I need to keep asking questions.  “Do we have kids?”  His face got a little sad at this question and then he replied, “No.  You didn’t want kids and had your tubes tied when you were 30.” 

Well this is sheer madness I thought.  “What about pets?” I asked.  “No again,” he said.  “You didn’t like the way they smelled and didn’t want to deal with pet hair.”  After a few seconds of silence, I said, “I got to tell you, Mark, I don’t like this girl you have described to me.  I don’t work, I won’t go to church, I didn’t want kids and I don’t like pets.  But I like to party, spend money and travel.”  He responded, “Well that’s the girl I fell in love with over 45 years ago.”

We finished our pizza, which was really good even if it wasn’t my favorite and I could feel the day beginning to weigh on me.  The information I had received was not helpful and I felt even further away from finding the truth.

“You know, I think I need to go to my room and relax a bit.  Maybe take a hot bath and go to sleep.”

“Oh, I almost forgot.  I got your phone replaced.  Yours was destroyed in the accident.  It’s the same model and they were able to load up all your information from the Cloud into it.”

“Perfect, good night.”

I went up to the master bedroom and sat down on the sofa and looked at the phone Mark handed me.  It looked nothing like my phone.  I scrolled through the contacts and just saw a bunch of names I didn’t know.  No contact info for Keith, Loni or Craig.  I don’t even know Loni’s number by memory so I can’t call her.  Luckily I do remember Keith and Craig’s number.  I sat down on the bed and dialed Keith’s number.  A woman answered the phone.

“Hello.”

“Can I speak to Keith?”

“I’m sorry, who?”

“Keith, Keith King.  This is his number.”

“I’m sorry, I think you have the wrong number.”

“Do you know Keith?”

“No dear I don’t.”

“I did call 580-253-8202, right?

“Yes, you did.  That’s my number.”

“Can you tell me how long this has been your phone, number?

“Since 2012.

“Thank you.  I’m sorry to have bothered you.”

“It’s not a problem dear.  Have a good evening.”

How could that no longer be Keith’s number? I’ll call Craig.  I dialed his number and a man answered.

“Hello.”

“Can I speak to Craig please?”

“You got the wrong number lady.”

“Is this 580-389-6982?”

“Yea it is.”

“If you don’t mind my asking, how long have you had this number?

“My whole life.”

At that point, I just hung up.  What is going on?  My head was spinning.  There was nothing more I could do tonight.  I filled the tub with hot water and bubble bath and soaked until my fingers pruned.  I climbed into the big bed and I was asleep before my eyes closed.