Page 12 of Heart Shaped Wreckage
I hit myself on the head to get my brain to wake up.
I waited.
No… It hadn’t helped.
I looked down and saw my black shoes. If I had just been born, I hadn’t been born naked. I had been born an adult man with a pair of shoes and possibly a 401 (k). I laughed. What was a 401 (k)? I bet no one knew that. It was just gibberish, or something. But I knew the word was real, and that meant I was real too, even if I felt so lost and confused.
I took a step and instantly knew that a human baby couldn’t do this for a very long time. It took months for them to have a first step, and… More. I knew more than I knew I knew. I clapped my hands happily.
That made better sense inside my head before I actually thought it… or said it.
“I was speaking words.” The truth of what I had been doing hit me with a wave of knowledge. Truths that I had known before… A different life, maybe?
I looked at my hands and wiggled my fingers. More words – more things I knew. An oak tree stood before me as it towered up into the sky. Oak was a very strong wood, and my house had been made partially from it.
A house? Yes… I had to have one at this age.
But I had no idea where it was, or where I was, and… I could hear the sound of… water! I walked towards it, not knowing what else to do. I was thirsty… My throat was dry. I climbed over a small hill that was covered in bright yellow flowers that reminded me of something, but I couldn’t remember what… Gold? Yes, gold was like yellow. I was sure that I…
A small brook babbled slowly over shiny rocks. I stared at the direction the water was flowing, and a large brick building caught my attention. The water ran quickly down there as it splashed between large boulders.
I knelt down by the water and cupped some of it in my hand. Somehow, this was also something that I just knew instinctively. I brought it up to my mouth and drank it slowly. It tasted clean and fresh – I knew this, too. It had not been contaminated like another river that I knew and used to play in when I had been younger. Flashes of its greyish stagnant pools flashed through my mind. But I had no idea where it was that I saw – that I had once been.
I glanced up through the large oak limbs to see the sun slowly leaving the sky. It would be night soon, and…
There… More things I knew but had no idea how I knew them. Something was wrong. I wasn’t stupid and naïve. I was something else, but I couldn’t understand what it was. It wouldbe dark soon, and all I had were the clothes I was wearing. I glanced at the building in the distance and bit my bottom lip.
Maybe there were people there? Maybe they could help me? Maybe they even knew who I was?
How did this happen to me? I wondered as I carefully followed the rushing stream around the rolling hills that surrounded the small path. It wasn’t a long walk. I noticed the pretty wildflowers that grew all around the edge of the stream, and I knew I should know the name of the flower. I tried to find the words on the top of my tongue, but only the word flower came.
At least I knew that. It was something, wasn’t it?
The brick building was larger than I thought as I got closer to it. I didn’t see any windows or doors on this side. Maybe I’d have to walk around to the other side to find someone or to get in the entrance.
As I slowly and carefully made my way up from the stream and around the building, I found nothing and no one. It was even odder than me. What kind of building had no doors or windows? Walls! That’s all it was. How strange and… unimaginable. How would one even get inside?
I took a step back. Dangerous. It was a place of danger.
Maybe no one was supposed to get inside. Maybe those walls were to keep something inside them. A cold chill crept up my spine, and I knew I was right. I just didn’t understand why. Why would something like that exist?
There was a road on this side of the building, though. Cars drove on it. Another thing I knew, even if I was sure I didn’t know how to drive one. Maybe driving a car was a bad idea when you didn’t even know who you were. I stared down the road in both directions. There was nothing to the right – the way I had come. But to my left, I could see a covered bridge and some buildings in the distance.
It seemed to be the only choice I had.
I walked and hoped that someone there would be able to help me.
I wasn’t scared, and I knew that was silly. But something deep down inside myself – like a faint voice kept telling me that everything would be ok. So, I walked and hoped.
The day could only get better.
6
HEATH
“Throw that down to me,” Ambrose, who most of us called ‘Brose,’ yelled with his arms open below him. “I got it.”
“You sure?” I laughed, knowing full well that if I dropped it, he wouldn’t have it. He might have been a fairly big guy, but the tiles we were helping our friends with were heavier than he thought.
