Chapter 4 #2
Yet, he just laughed as he rolled his sleeve back down over his arm and carried on as if it were nothing.
“That was an embarrassing report to write. I don’t think our commanding officer would have believed us if the rest of the unit hadn’t backed us up.
They managed to find a couple spare cots, which they shoved in a corner for us.
I think the cots were meant to be an emergency backup option, but they were actually more comfortable than the bunk beds. ”
“Uh huh.” The sandwich in my hand was only half finished. I wasn’t hungry anymore, but Brody had paid for it, so I forced myself to take another bite. My throat was dry, and I nearly choked while swallowing. “And, um, what made you decide to build a home together?”
“Oh, that was Creed’s idea.”
“Creed?”
Was that the other man I’d seen with Magnus?
I thought his name was Trent, but I could have been wrong.
“Yeah, Creed. I met him shortly after Magnus. The three of us have been a team for years. Decades at this point. His service isn’t up yet, but he’ll be joining us soon.
He was the one who first figured out that we’d be able to afford a much better life after retirement if we pooled our resources, and the rest just fell into place after that. ”
I still had a lot of questions, like who the other man I’d seen with Magnus was, and what Creed thought about Brody bringing a stranger into their shared home.
Yet, throughout Brody’s entire explanation, there seemed to be no hint of romance between him and any of the others.
I may not be the best judge of, well, anything right now, but surely a person’s voice must change at least a little when they were speaking about a significant other.
That thought shouldn’t have made me happy, and I quickly devoured the rest of my sandwich to try and drown out my guilt under the heavy taste of barbecue spices.
The last stop on our list was a small, out of the way supply store. It seemed like more of a local shop than something aimed at tourists. There wasn’t even proper signage. Just a hand painted plaque on the front door that read Big Martha’s Place .
A bell over the door rang when we entered. The sound was out of tune, and when I looked up, I could see that the bell was bent out of shape.
There weren’t any other people, which made the shop feel larger despite being the smallest place we’d visited so far.
Nothing on the shelves was labeled, and no matter how long I looked, I couldn’t discern any sort of organization system.
It looked like someone had merely dumped all the supplies on the shelves at once and never bothered to sort them out.
Off to one side of the shop, a middle-aged woman sat behind the register, reading a magazine that was at least ten years out of date. A nametag on her shirt labeled her as the shop’s titular, Martha.
I’d gotten so used to Brody dragging me around, that I barely noticed when he grabbed my hand and led me over to the counter.
“Hello,” he started to say, but was cut off before the first word finished leaving his mouth.
“I already told you before, no refunds,” Martha grumbled behind her magazine.
“Excuse me?”
Stony eyes peered at me over the top of the glossy paper. “I told you when you bought the stuff. I don’t do refunds. If you’re here to complain, then you can turn right around and leave.”
I nearly leapt over the counter and grabbed her, but self-preservation kicked in at the last moment and forced me to keep my hands to myself.
“You know me?”
The woman just stared at me like I was crazy.
Clearing his throat, Brody cut in between us. “Um, yes. Hi. This is kind of a strange situation, but if he really did visit here, then we’d appreciate it if you could tell us about it.”
He explained what had happened to me as clearly as possible. It was obvious that she didn’t believe him at first, but after I insisted as well, she seemed to come around to the idea.
“Amnesia. Well, fuck me, that’s a new one.
” She tossed the magazine aside, which slid off the desk and landed on the floor somewhere out of sight.
“Can’t help you with a name, I’m afraid.
You paid in cash, and didn’t bother to introduce yourself.
I can say that you seemed like you were in a hurry.
Just demanded that I get you everything you’d need for about a week’s worth of camping, shoved a wad of cash at me, then ran out the door before I could even give you your change.
I only remembered you because of how bizarre it all was. ”
No name. No credit card. Nothing I could use to track down my identity.
Brody’s hand tightened around mine. I couldn’t remember when he’d picked up my hand again, or if I’d ever let it go in the first place, but I appreciated his support more than ever before.
“You said he ran off,” Brody said. “Do you know which way he went?”
“Yeah.” Martha pointed behind her to the back of the shop. “He went off that way. I heard him run into my dumpster and wondered if he was lost. We’re on the edge of town here and there’s not much beyond this point. Just trees and a few walking paths out there.”
It wasn’t much, but it was at least something. Thanking the woman, we left the shop and headed around to the back of the building.
“Do you think this’ll do us any good?” I asked when the dumpster was in view.
“Maybe,” Brody shrugged. “If we can retrace your path, we may be able to find something to identify you. But even if we can’t we at least know that our assumptions were correct. You were here. That’s more than we had before.”
There wasn’t much space in the alley behind the two buildings, but just beyond the dense shadows I could see a green wall of trees waiting for us.
“Sure, but I’d still like—ack!”
While I was busy talking, my foot caught on a piece of loose concrete. I tripped forward and grabbed onto the edge of the dumpster to keep from slapping face first into the ground.
Laughing under his breath, Brody helped me back to my feet. “Well, at least we know why you ran into the dumpster.” He pointed to a fresh dent in the side of the container right near where I’d grabbed onto it.
I barely heard him over the sound of ringing metal that echoed in my ears.
The dumpster had made a particularly loud clang when I hit it.
The noise bounced around inside my skull, knocking things loose wherever it went.
I couldn’t keep up with the vague images and impressions that flashed behind my eyes and gripped the sides of my head to silence the chaos.
Slowly, like a fading echo, everything settled down, and a single picture was left behind.
“There was a tree.” Grabbing onto Brody, I shook him in my excitement. “I remember a tree.”
He wasn’t as excited as I thought he would be. With this new revelation, I’d literally doubled my number of memories, but his face remained blank.
With one hand, he gestured toward the forest. “Uh, that doesn’t really help us.”
I scanned the forest near us, but none of them were the right tree. “No. There’s a specific tree. It has pink flowers and a wonky branch. I remember it. Come on.”
Dragging him with me, I headed for the tree line as quickly as I could without actually running. Just as Martha had said, a dirt hiking path split through the trees and disappeared around a bend after only a few dozen feet.
I started to move down the path but was suddenly jerked back by Brody’s hand on my arm.
“Wait. You can’t just go running off into the woods.”
“But I came this way. I know I did. It’s like… it’s like a superstition. I feel it, even if I can’t remember it.”
Brody held onto me tighter. “I understand, but it’s still not safe. We’ve managed to find this much. We can come back with supplies later.”
“But…”
I hated arguing with him. Brody’s words had become law in my mind, and disagreeing with him felt like committing a crime. Yet, I was so close to getting answers, I couldn’t just turn away now.
“How about we just follow the path. I’m certain I stayed on the path, at least for a while. If it turns out I left the path, then we can turn back, but surely a hiking path would be safe to follow.”
He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers, but after a moment he nodded.
“All right. We can follow the path for a while, but you’re not setting one foot off the path, and if it starts getting too late, then we’ll have to turn back whether we’ve found anything or not. Even a hiking path can be dangerous once it gets dark.”
I probably would have agreed to anything at that moment if it meant we could keep following the trail of my memories. Luckily, Brody was only concerned with my safety and wasn’t the kind of person to take advantage.
All of my clothing was borrowed from Brody, except for my footwear. Those were my one article of clothing that had survived the accident with the tree. The sturdy boots were well suited to navigating the dirt trail and supported the idea that I’d gone hiking off into the woods.
Now, if I could just figure out why I had been out here, then maybe I could finally rest easy.
I hadn’t told Brody this, but I’d remembered something other than a single tree. I remembered why the tree was important.
Something was buried beneath it.
Coupled with my memory of burying someone, I was afraid of what we might find, but I refused to turn back. One way or another, I needed answers.
As we followed the path, Brody told me about a few more stories from his time in the military.
They were mostly funny stories, like the time Magnus had accidentally stepped on a hornet’s nest and been chased around their base by a swarm of angry insects, and when they’d been posted in a foreign country that didn’t speak much English and Creed almost accidentally got himself married to a girl from the local village due to a series of unfortunate mistranslations.