remember me

(chapter 6) ɴᴇᴡ sᴛᴀʀᴛ

Katie narrates, "Well, this was a new beginning for me, and it was a new beginning for us all."

Early that morning At the Canada house, while they are sitting in the living room, Kyle walks in, preparing to give Katie a psychological test: "Katie, do you remember your brother Cody?" He said, "Katie tries hard to think; she looks over to Vanessa and Dan, as they are getting nervous about her response." She replied confusedly, "No, for some reason I can only remember my birthday, September 8, and how to do things like that with a cup." She picks up the cup, for example, and adds, "You drink out of this, and my age is 17, but I have no clue about family or friends; it's like being a stranger in your body; I had no idea my name until you guys just said it." Dan rubs her back and states, "We'll jog your memory, sweetheart." Katie leans over to him, which turns into a hug. "Thanks, dad." He hugs her back. She looks at Vanessa from the hug and says, "I wish I remembered you guys." Vanessa smiles and says, "Me too, honey.

Johnny walks in after a long night of exploring when Vanessa shouts, "Cody, look, your sister is awake." Johnny rolls his eyes in annoyance; he doesn't have time for his parents'crap. He slams the front door and walks upstairs. Vanessa smiles and leaves her face. Dan distracts Katie from that situation with a comforting smile: "He's just a little upset about everything." Dan chimed, and Katie understood they probably were not close. She replies, "It's okay."

At Colton's house, Cody wakes up to no breakfast and a half-empty milk carton in the fridge. He throws it away, even though his mom never cooked; she always ordered breakfast. "Mom, what's for breakfast?" he says. Mily replies, "Sorry, I didn't have time. I'm working late at the vet, extra shifts." Arthur grabs coffee and a bagel as he states, "I'm also working late at the hospital." Mily plants a kiss on Cody's cheek and walks to Arthur and kisses him, saying, "Sorry, it looks like you're going to have to cancel."

Arthur muffles in confusion, "Why do I have to cancel? I'm saving actual lives." Mily takes every inch of his sentence to offense; she grabs his bagel and throws it away, and she states, "That's offensive, Arthur; I can't believe you said that. I save animals; they matter as well." He stands there, with his mouth this close to his hand as before, because he was going to bite the bagel, then he puts his hand down and walks up to Mily and looks her in the eyes as he says, "I know, I know, I'm sorry it's just.." He puts his hand on her waist, she puts her hand on her head, and he finishes his sentence. "We're both trying to take our minds off Katie." He leans in, and she kisses him. He removes his hands from her waist and states, "But one of us has to stay for Cody."

Cody wanted them to stay, but he also didn't want to make them stay for him; he chimes in, "No, no, no, you both can go; more money, right?" He fake smiled as he said, "I'll be fine." Mily smiled and kissed his cheek, saying, "I love you, Cody." He replies, "I love you too, mom." Arthur puts his hand on his shoulder and gives him a small smile, so he knows how proud of him he is. Cody watches as they both leave me and states, "Once again, I wasn't important enough. Lucky me." He starts to think to himself, "What if he went missing instead of Katie? Would people even care half as much?"

[Flashback]

Cody says, "Okay, you guys are still coming to the school talent show, right?" Mily smiled and replied, "Of course." Arthur's words followed right behind hers, "We'll be there!"

A few days later, at the talent show,

"Kill it out there."

"You got this."

His parents both said as he walked back to the stage, They all sit beside each other in the crowd, and when Mily gets a call, Katie says, "Mom, do you have to answer that?" Mily replies, "Yeah." Katie knew how important this was to Cody, and how whenever her mom usually answers their phones, they ditch plans. She states, "But this talent show is important to him." Mily asserts, "I know, sweetheart, I'm sorry I'll be back." She stands up and walks to the side as she answers. Katie overhears her conversation and is disappointed by Mily on the phone. Mily says, "Hey, yeah, oh yeah, that's not great, I'll be there." She goes back to her seat to get her jacket. Katie shoots her a disappointed look. "Mom, you can't leave," she scoffed.