As I layed on top of him, we laughed until our sides hurt. I wondered if I had a friend as great as him in my past. I guessed not because if I had a friend like him, they would have claimed to know me by then. The more I thought about my past; the sadder it became, and the more I realized that I probably didn’t have much before losing my memory, which made me feel empty. I got off of Max and laid beside him. Despite his dramatic personality, he made a really good friend.
After a while, Max decided it was time to leave. I watched him pack everything and thought about his friendship with me. Did he treat all of his patients like me or was I just special.
On the walk back to the house, I asked Max. He said that he treats all of his patients as if they were friends, but that didn’t mean our friendship was any less meaningful to him. Although his answer didn’t dispel all of my insecurities about our friendship, it was enough of an answer to make me happy again.
We got back to the house and just relaxed in the living room. While we lounged around, we watched random shows on the television. As we watched random shows, I began to realize that the longer I stayed with Max the harder it was to find shows that interested me.
At this point, I was rewatching episodes I had already seen or watching random shows I didn’t really care about. Regardless of this, it was a really laid back evening. It was nice not having anything to do or anywhere to go.
Over the next few days, before my first defense class, I spent most of my time thinking about what classes were going to be like. I was like a child getting ready for their first day of school; I was so excited and worried all at the same time. Was I going to do well, and was I going to like my teacher? How many other people were going to be in the class with me? These were things I wouldn’t find out until my first lesson.
To my joy, Tuesday finally came, and I was in Max’s car on my way to my first class. It was a lot more boring than I had expected. Max had signed me up for private lessons, so I was the only person there other than the teacher and Max.
It was frustrating and hard. I was only learning basic things, but the teacher was being extremely nit picky and would correct any little flaw I made. When my lesson was over, he assigned me homework for the week. He wanted me to do curls with five pound weights as many times as I could, and he also wanted me to do this twice a day.
Max and I had to go to the store to get the five pounds weights, which was not a fun trip. I hated going to the market during the day when it was busy. People were everywhere, and nobody seemed to know any kind of manners and would just bump into you if you were in their way.
The best part of the day was when we got home. I was tired and exhausted from my training and the store. However, I still needed to curl the weights that Max and I got that day. The idea didn't excite me at all, but Max did allow me to rest for a few hours before handing me the weights and making me do the curls.
“This is so boring.” I said to him as I switched from curling with my right arm to my left arm.
“This is what you wanted.”
“I didn’t want this. I wanted more freedom.”
“Well this is part of getting more freedom.” He said, sounding like a mother scolding their child. “Friday, we are going back to the forest clearing with Karl.”
“Do I have to go?” I complained.
“Yes.”
“Why do we keep going there?”
“Karl and I are hoping for something.”
“For what.”
“Something that could help your case.”
"Like what? What out there is going to help my case?" I didn’t understand what they could be hoping for out there. There was nothing, so I didn’t know what taking me there would accomplish. It was just an empty, grassy field with a single tree in it. Max ignored my questions and went into the kitchen to cook dinner.
He could be such a jerk sometimes. He could have at least answered me or told me what kind of clue they were hoping to get.
Throughout the week, I worked on convincing Max to meet Detective Karl somewhere else. It was ineffective, and Friday morning, I was in Max’s car on my way to the field. It was always a boring ride through the city. Why was the city filled with the same old boring buildings? Why didn’t anyone have a different building? It couldn't be that hard to buy paint and redo the house.
To my surprise, as we made our way into the forest, that had once tried to make us turn around, actually welcomed us in as we drove out of the city. There were animals all over the place saying hello to us as we drove by. They were such cute little creatures and nothing like boring, animal statues that occasionally adorned the buildings in the city.
Normally, the animals in the forest would have ran away from this moving box of metal, but that day, they were greeting us. It was spectacular; they came out of the woods and peeked their heads out from underneath bushes and limbs. It was nice to see all of the animals.
Max parked his car in roughly the same area he parked in the last time we went to meet Detective Karl. We got out of the car and silently started walking towards the clearing.
We met up with Detective Karl as he greeted us. “Hey, how are y’all doing today?”
“Pretty good, Karl. I didn’t have to fight Felix today.”
“That’s good. Maybe he’s starting to like it out here. It’s pretty peaceful after all.”
I left them and walked around the clearing while they chatted. I didn't really care for small talk, mostly because I wasn’t very good at it. As I walked around, I got a gut feeling that something was out of place.
Although the forest was very welcoming that day, something still wasn’t right. It was very faint, but something was hurting. Maybe it was an animal being hunted by a predator. It was off putting, and it felt as though it was calling for me. I wanted to know what it was, and why it would be calling me. I continued to walk around the field. I walked around several times, and every time I came near this one area of the clearing, the call for help was stronger.
I decided to step a little bit into the tree line to see if I could find an injured animal, but as soon as I took a step into the trees, Max shouted at me, “What are you doing? Stay in the clearing.”
I ignored him and continued into the forest to find my answers. The more I moved into the forest the stronger the call for help felt. I wanted to go to it; I felt a need to go towards it. I didn’t get very far before Max came in after me and pulled me out of the woods.
“What the hell are you doing? I told you not to go in!” He shouted at me as he came crashing through the bushes. It was clear he was mad at me.
“I wasn’t far. What’s the big deal?” I asked.
Apparently, Detective Karl had also ran after me and answered me, “What if someone had been out here? For all we know, someone could be stalking you and waiting for the right moment to snatch you. You need to stay in our sights! Your situation is very dangerous until we know what happened to you and your attackers.”
“But no one is out here with us.” I argued.
“Yeah, and that’s what someone might want you to think. You need to be careful, or your life could be on the line.” Max shouted at me as he picked me up and threw me over his shoulder.
He took me away from the area in which I entered the forest, and the call for help got weaker as we moved further away from the spot. I was mad. I wanted to know what was hurt. He sat me down by the tree in the clearing and sat down beside me.
“You can stay here until you understand what you did wrong.” He was still obviously mad at me.
That was the first time Max had ever shown any true anger towards me. It hurt a little bit, and I didn’t understand why he was so mad at me. While I sat there, Max and Detective Karl took turns lecturing me about how dangerous it is for me to get out of the sights of trusted people. I just spaced out and started coming up with theories in my head as to what was calling for help.
Maybe it was a small insect that had gotten stepped on by a grazing animal. That could have explained why the call felt weak to me. What if it was a baby bird that had fallen out of the nest? It could have been too weak to give a strong call. But it wasn’t the right season for baby birds. I wanted to go back in, but I knew that Max and Detective Karl wouldn’t let me. Then, I decided that I’d ask one of them to go with me.
They were still talking about how dangerous it is for me and that I need to be more careful. Since I wasn't paying attention to them anyway, I interrupted them, “Then one of you walk in there with me.”
“What?” Max asked me.
“If I can’t go alone, go with me. I want to go in there.” I answered.
“Why?” he asked.
“I need to know something,”
“What do you need to know? Karl and I might be able to answer it.”
“Something needs help.”
“That again?” Max looked at me with disbelief as Detective Karl raised an eyebrow while looking at Max.
“Just let me get my answer.”
“It can’t hurt. This could give us some answers that we need.” Detective Karl announced as he gave Max a questioning look.
Max sighed, “I guess you’re right considering our location. Okay, let’s go then.”
“Yay!” I shouted as I jumped up and started running back to where I was forcefully taken from.
“Hey, slow down. I’m old you know.” Detective Karl complained as he caught up to me.
Max came up behind me, “Well what are you waiting for?”
I started walking into the forest again. As I moved, the call got stronger. I kept walking in the direction it was coming from, and as I went, I moved bushes and leaves around hoping to find something that was injured. Max and Detective Karl just followed closely behind me.
At one point, Max jotted down something in his notebook, and although I was usually curious as to what he wrote, I was too focused on my task to be bothered with what it was that time.
I kept getting further and further into the forest as I searched for answers, but I wasn't finding anything. The call kept getting stronger and stronger as I moved deeper into the forest, but I could not tell how far away the call was coming from.
Maybe I was just crazy, and there was nothing really there. Maybe all of this really has just been in my head the whole time, and I was a crazy person. Despite these thoughts, I marched on, wanting to satisfy my mind. As I continued to move into the forest, it became apparent that whatever was asking for help was far away from me. I sighed out of frustration.
“What’s wrong?” Max asked me.
“It’s far away. I’ll never be able to find it; it’s just going to suffer all by itself.”
“Sorry, but if it’s that far, do you want to go back and have a little lunch? We brought wood and a lighter this time, so we could make something warm to eat.”
“Yeah.” I said as I turned around and walked away from the call.
We made it back to the lonely tree where we left everything. Max began by untying a bundle of wood that Detective Karl had brought. He found a dirt patch in the clearing and began digging a trench into it. He then set the wood into the small hole and lit it on fire.
While Max did that, Detective Karl pulled out three collapsible roasting sticks from his bag. He also helped Max by taking some hotdogs out of the cooler that Max had brought. He put one on each roasting stick and brought them over to where Max was. I walked over there to join them by the fire. I was handed one of the roasting sticks, and Max was handed one as well. Not much was said in this process; just a whole bunch of small talk.
Throughout our small lunch, I kept thinking about that call for help. The more I thought about it, the more I could feel its pull. Whatever it was, it wasn’t giving up on getting my help. I tried to ignore it, but the harder I tried to ignore it, the stronger it felt.
Then, the call felt less like a call but more like a demand. It was powerful and took over my body. I was in the middle of eating a hotdog when the call took over me and urged me to run towards it. It was strong, and it was taking everything I had to try and control myself.
Max was the first to notice my struggle and gave me a questioning look and asked, “are you alright?”
“Yeah I’m fine.” I blurted out.
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