It was six forty three when they came. My daughter, young and pretty, came to find me. There were strange men in the town, she had informed me, asking after us. The greengrocers son had run to the house to tell us. Unsavoury characters, apparently. I had been standing on the rocky outcrop that towers over and protects our little dwelling. It was only the two of us then. We lived on our own. There was no father, no little sister, no protective brother, no annoying in-laws, no one but us. Of course there were the other people in the village. We got on with them, and they were kind, pleasant people. However, perhaps in some kind of fit of precog
The crossroads streach forward, branching in every direction. Some paths are stony, some steep, some narrow and some overgrown, yet not one path can be determined better or easier then any other. Each path shows openly its hurdles and hides its hardships. The wanderer stands on this converging of roads, unsure, scared and nervous. Once a path is chosen that path must be kept. Keep moving forward. There is only forward and falling. You must not fall. To fall is to fail. To be destroyed. To face uncertain doom.
It is not a crossroad, but a sheer cliff. To survive one must climb it. Don't jump down, don't fall, don't slip. The sharks, the jagge
"Your friend Tom's here to see you, Charlie." The doctor announced, entering the room and trailed by the bluenette that Charlie didn't know and didn't particularly want to talk to.
The doctor checked the machines hooked up to the old man across the room, pulled the curtains around the sleeping figure, then left Tom alone with Charlie.
"Hi," Tom said, sitting down and breaking the silence.
"Hi," Charlie mumbled in reply.
"Listen, Charlie, you have no idea who I am." It wasn't a question. Charlie shook his head.
"And you're no longer the Charlie I knew." Charlie shrugged at this.
"Well then, hello," Tom said, offering a hand to Charlie,
The old man across the room was asleep. His breathing the only sound in the room. My mind had been turning in circles, my heart tying into knots. My mothers face, twisted with grief, floated behind my eyelids. That's why I couldn't sleep. That's why I tossed and turned. I hated myself for the pain I caused her. I couldn't. I musn't. I won't.
The pain was threatening to tear me apart.
I couldn't escape.
I was going nowhere until my memory came back.
I couldn't leave.
I was trapped.
I was alone.
The strangers expect so much.
They come in here.
They try to make me remember.
They try to help.
They don't.
They have no idea how painful
"So.... I don't actually know you?"
She shook her head.
"And you're telling me that you, a complete stranger, would regularly visit a total random who you found passed out in the street in hospital? Just because you can."
"No Charlie. I, a complete stranger, would visit a beautiful young man who needed some help because I care and want to see him feeling better."
Charlie shook his head.
"And you're sure this isn't an elaborate hoax? You're not really my best friend and thse other guys the strangers?"
"Oh Charlie, I'm not lying. Don't let your friends hear you say that either because they'd get a bit upset."
Charlie saw the logic in tha
His friends had left. Well, at least he assumed they were his friends. He had no idea who they were but then he knew nothing outside the white room and hard bed in which he lay. The three boys had spent hours telling him stories. Stories about him. They said they were telling the unembellished truth, yet he didn't feel any farmiliarity with the boy called Charlie who featured in the stories. Charlie was both the hero and the villan. The gramma nazi and the slob. He wondered idly if they had the wrong boy. If there was another boy with brown hair and a mole sitting in another crisp white bed wondering at his own history and lack of memory who
Charlie was pale. There were large bags under his eyes and his hands were shaking slightly. As soon as Tom saw Charlie sitting up in his bed he ran forward, hugging the sick looking boy in the hospital bed. Alex and Ed were hot on his heels, and the three boys voicd their relief at seeing their friend awake.
Charlie looked down shyly.
"Hello...." He mumbled.
"Charlie," Ed started slowly, "What do you remember? You know who we are, right?"
"Umm.... Well, you seem vaguely familiar...." Charlie mumbled quietly.
The other three boys exchanged looks.
"You...you don't know who we are?" Alex asked, knowing the answer but fearing the truth.
Ch