Two

“Ahh, here you go, m'boy!” Joe said to me as he set me down carefully in one of the chairs around the kitchen table. “Here you go, pancakes, along with some bacon and eggs!” he said to me, grinning. He turned around and went back towards the counter. “Would you like any coffee, m'boy? I'm going to be brewing some,” he said to me.

“No thank you,” I said to him. I looked at Joe. He was a heavy-set sort of man, but you'd never call him fat. No, there was something about it. A sense of strength and power. But at the same time, all you could see was pure joy. It was almost like watching a man who had the rare opportunity of being purified.

Joe sat down quickly in front of his food, and moved his hand in a crossing motion, then bowed his head. I assume he was saying grace. Something about that seems familiar...

“So, how's the food?” Joe asked me. I looked down at my food. I had forgotten to touch it. “Ahh, that's okay,” he said, “it's understandable if you're not hungry,” he said.

“No, I'm starving,” I said to him, “I just went off into space, that's all.”

“Possibly remembering something, already?” Joe replied.

“No...” I wasn't sure what to say. Silence filled the room. An awkward silence grew between us. I had to say something. “Um...so where am I?” I said to him.

Joe smiled. “Ahh, m'boy,” he said to me, “you would be on the outskirts of Heatherwood,” he said to me. “It's probably one of the smaller towns in the county.” He continued, “There's only about two-thousand people who live here, and most live in the town,” he said to me. “Then there are others, like myself, who prefer the solitude one can find out here.”

“Do you ever go into the town?” I asked. I realized that was a redundant question right afterwards. I put some pancakes in my mouth so that I could shut up.

But Joe replied anyways. “Yep!” he said, “I go into the town all the time, whether it's buying or selling crops and animals, spending a night with some of the otha' fellas, or going to St. Francis of Assisi on Sunday! I visit the town all the time, but I would never live there,” he said to me.

“I see...” I replied, as I took another bite of my pancakes. Something about St. Francis...

“Are you Catholic?” I asked him.

“Oh, yes! I should have explained. Yes, I was raised Cath'lic by me mum, and when I moved out here, I was able to find a really small Cath'lic church called St. Francis of Assisi, so it's where I've been going,” he said to me.

“Okay then,” I quietly replied. Something seemed to stir inside of me, a disturbance which suddenly altered the illusion I am trapped in...

I'm in what seems to be a child's bedroom. Toys are lying all over the floor, from building blocks, to action figures, to video games. Articles of clothing were hanging on the bed posts. All in all, a typical child's room. But everything seemed higher than it should bed. I was only slightly taller than the height of the bed. I looked at my hands. They were small and soft. Then I realized – I must be the child. He sees what I see. He hears what I hear.

However, what he's hearing is yelling from downstairs. I slowly sneak out of my room and walk towards the stairs. Two people seem to be fighting – a man and a woman. They're yelling about something, but I cannot make out what they're saying. But what happened next resonated with me. As the yelling seemed to come to the climax, they both then stopped and stood silently.

Then the man hit the woman hard, and she came crashing to the ground. He walked over to a vase sitting nearby and knocked it over, causing it to crash into millions of pieces. Then he grabbed his coat and walked out the door.

The woman laid on the ground weeping for some minutes. Slowly, she proceeded to get up, and I stepped back a step, to make sure I'm not seen. She walks over to a drawer and pulls out what looks like a Rosary. She moves over to an image of the crucifix on the wall and slowly gets down on her knees. She then makes the Sign of the Cross and starts to pray, weeping softly.

....My eyes open slowly, only to meet up with Joe's.

“Are you okay?...” Joe asked me. I wasn't sure what to tell him. I can't tell him what I just saw. Who knows if it was even real?

“I think it was a memory,” I said to him, “One from my childhood.” I decided not to say anymore, and figured that would satisfy him. Joe continued to look into my eyes as if he were searching for something, then smiled.

“Well that's great news, then!” Joe exclaimed. “This means it must be temporary amnesia, and you'll be back to normal in no time!” He then picked up all the plates on the table and washed them out. After he finished washing them he said, “I'll be heading to town today, so you can just stay here and have some fun. There's lots of things for you to do here. Okay?”

“Okay...” I replied.

“Alrighty then, well I'm goin' to get cleaned up, and head out. Hope your memory comes to ya', m'boy!” And with that Joe went off to get ready.

I stood there alone in the kitchen, with one question on my mind – Do I want my memory to come back?...

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