| CHALLENGE PART 2 ______________________________________________________________________________________ When I came to I was lying in a nice soft bed staring up at a ceiling. Definitely a vast improvement on how I woke up last time. “She’s awake.” I heard someone say. A doctor came into view – good, at least I was still in the last place I remembered. “Do you know where you are?” he asked. “Hospital,” I replied. “Do you remember how you got here?” “I drove myself.” “Do you remember your name?” “Rachel” “What day of the week is it?” “No clue.” But I got the feeling that I was never really sure of the day of the week. “Who is the president?” “Hate politics.” Gee, hadn’t I already been through this with myself? “What year is it?” I was starting to get bored of playing twenty questions. “Actually, Dr., I was hoping you would tell me that.” He didn’t seem to like that answer or my tone of voice. That’s ok I didn’t like him shining that bright light in my eyes and getting me to follow it. “What year do you think it is?” “Sometime after 1990.” “Why do you say that?” He asked looking at me like I was very interesting. “Because I’m obviously over the age of 14, that’s why.” He gave a small laugh. “At least you remember your name – that’s a good start.” “To be honest with you doc, I only know my name cause it’s written on my driver’s license. He proceeded to go into some long drawn out explanation for what kind of amnesia I had. I quit listening after about 3 minutes, I had all the information I needed: I had amnesia, I might get my memory back, I might not. I got released a few hours later, after observations, stitches, and promising to come back for checkup. I went back out to my car and sat there. My time hadn’t been entirely wasted. I found out it was late September of the year 2000. Hmph, I missed the new millennium - hope I had had fun. I had gone through my purse during my wait and discovered that I had more than enough cash to last me for a while, good limits on the credit cards, and a nice amount in the checking account. At least I wouldn’t go broke while I figured out what to do next. What I decided for now was to go to a motel and sort through my stuff to see if there were any clues. I stopped at the nearest gas station and purchased a city map and asked the attendant for a motel close by. I found the place with no trouble and got a room for a week. – might as well make this into a vacation – hell, maybe it really was my vacation. I shrugged to myself – oh well, no use pondering over things I don’t know. I pulled my car up next to a green Nissan and shut off the ignition. There were two small suitcases in the back seat, I took them with me into the small room and sat them on the bed. A watch I had found in my purse told me it was almost 11 am. I decided to go out and get something to eat before settling in for a bit of self-discovery. I found a McDonald’s down the road a bit and grabbed a big chicken nugget meal – I figured I could munch on it all day. On the way back, it occurred to me that I hadn’t looked to see if there was anything in the trunk. So, after depositing my food in the room, I went back out to investigate. What I found was that the trunk was packed full of stuff. Could be this was everything I owned. Well, seeing as I wasn’t sure if I had anything better to do today I pulled everything out of the trunk and started carrying it inside. On my last trip in, a man came out of the room next to mine and passed me on his way to the Nissan. He turned to look at me as he opened his door. The look was frightening – he had looked innocent enough, but here’s hoping I didn’t run into him in a dark alley. “Heil Hitler,” I said as I closed the door behind me and dropped the last box on the floor. I spent the next five hours going through all the suitcases and boxes. It was a very educational endeavor. Turns out I was actually supposed to be here in St. Louis, what luck. I had found an acceptance letter for a new job in a big bag of camera equipment – seems I was quite the photographer. Let’s hope it was one of those “over learned” things that the doctor had mentioned, because I didn’t know what else I was qualified to do. I picked up a fairly big, expensive-looking camera and looked it over. “Hassleblad,” I read off the front of the camera. At that moment I could have sworn I heard a choir of angels sing “AAAAAHHHHH”. I started turning knobs and adjusting settings, realizing after a moment that I actually knew what I was changing. Well, hallelujah. I looked at the letter again, and according to what day the doctor had told me it was I was scheduled to start tomorrow. I was to be in charge of the photography and merchandising for Dead Fabulous, a local and mail order company specializing in unique clothing for the “dark at heart”. Their letter of introduction stated that they pride themselves on making clothing for “the Master of the City and his entourages”. “Master of the City? What the hell does that mean?” I asked the walls. I had turned on the TV as background noise a couple of hours ago. I sat for a moment watching the commercials. “Coming up on the News at 5…” the TV anchor began, “an H.A.V. member is still tied up in court for the attempted murder of local Vampire Executioner Anita Blake. Ms. Blake testified today on the events and a verdict is expected to be reached by tomorrow.” I sat dumbfounded, my mouth hanging open. Vampire Executioner? Geez, did I wake up in the Twilight Zone or something? A car door slammed and I ran to the window. It was the scary guy from next door. I debated with myself for a moment, but confusion and curiosity got the best of me and I yanked the door open catching the guy by surprise. I was even more surprised - I now had a gun barrel pointed directly between my eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…” I trailed off. “Hey, I mean you no harm – I … um….have some rather difficult questions I need answered.” He stared blankly at me. I took that as an invitation to continue. “I…um…sort of have amnesia, and I just heard the term Vampire Executioner on the news. Could you please explain what this means? Is it some sort of joke?” He stayed silent for another moment. “What’s your name?” “Rachel” I said still staring at the gun barrel. “I thought you said you have amnesia.” “That’s what’s written on my driver’s license.” He reached out with his free hand and patted me down. When he found nothing he reholstered his gun and gestured that he would follow me back into my room. “You never told me your name.” “Ted.” “Nice to meet you Ted.” “Same.” I cleaned off the one chair in the room for him to sit down in and then plopped down on the bed. He stepped over several bags and took the seat I had offered. For the next two and half hours I stared at him unbelieving as he told me the way the world was. Vampires not only existed, they had rights – they were citizens. Werewolves and other were creatures existed too; most commonly they are referred to as lycanthropes. Interesting I thought. He told me about what I had heard on TV, about Anita – who turned out to be a friend of his, and what Master of the City meant. In translation the letter said that they made all the clothes for the head vampire of St.Louis, Jean-Claude, and his “pets” – as Ted described them. He finally excused himself saying he had to get ready for work. I was left with many thoughts running through my head. It amazed me that I had forgotten something as major as how the world works. I decided to let it sink in slowly and ordered pizza. After it arrived I settled into bed, flipping through all the news channels I could find, eating pizza, and catching up on current events ______________________________________________________________________________________ PART 3 INDEX |