Isolation

Monkee meeting

"I, Micky Dolenz, now call this Monkee meeting to order!" Micky declared, banging a gavel on the kitchen table. "Any questions before we proceed?"

"Shouldn't we wait for Mike before we start?" Peter asked looking up the stairs.

Micky sighed and closed his eyes.

"I'm afraid he won't be joining us today, Peter." Peter frowned, now beginning to worry.

"Micky," Davy said sternly, "how is he?"

"Last I checked, not good. I bet he's probably asleep right now. And besides, this meeting is about him."

"Oh." Peter looked down.

"Ready to proceed, then?"

"Ready." Davy and Peter said in unison. Micky nodded and walked over to the chalkboard set up in the living room, which was turned to face Davy and Peter in their seats. He took a piece of chalk and wrote: "MIKE" in big letters.

"Now," he said, turning around and pacing as he thought. "Mike hasn't been acting like himself since he got home the first time. It's like he's falling back into his old tracks. He feels alone and powerless. And no matter what we did, nothing seemed to help. And now, he's just getting worse."

"So, what do we do?"

"Excellent question, Mr. Jones. If we want Mike to get better, we'll have to change our helping strategy."

Peter frowned.

"Mike told me that we couldn't help him. He was acting really weird, and during that time, he said that we couldn't help because we didn't understand. I didn't know what he was talking about."

"He said something similar to me this morning," Micky sighed. "But what I got was also that he didn't understand it either. The problem isn't us, Peter. It's him."

"So, we can't help him because we don't understand something that he can't even understand himself?" Davy asked confused.

"Yes and no. I think," Micky said turning back to the board. "My theory is that this all ties back into our original problem."

"Narcolepsy?" Peter suggested.

"No," Micky was quick to shut him down but gave the idea more thought. "Wait, maybe? I don't know. Possibly."

"I thought narcolepsy doesn't have a cure," Davy frowned, and the other two turned to him. "I talked with River about it awhile ago."

"Well, there isn't a cure, I don't think. But like most things, that doesn't mean we can't help or make it better. But that's a problem for another day. I don't think we should worry about it because it's not a problem we can fix right now."

"And this 'original' one, we can?" Davy raised his eyebrows.

"We can try."

He took the chalk and wrote the word: "memory" on the board.

"Oh, memory," Peter nodded, but he didn't know what it was referring to.

"You don't get it, do you, Peter?"

"No, sorry." He looked down, a little embarrassed.

"It's okay," Micky turned around and frowned when he saw that both were confused.

"Don't you see? That's where it's all coming from! Mike can't remember things for too long, he can't keep those memories, but he keeps trying. So he ends up getting stressed and frustrated. So he shuts down, and so he begins to slip away. And so, we're here. Everything so far, it all ties back to his memory!" He exclaimed, pointing at the word.

"But, Micky," Davy objected. "No matter how hard we try, we won't be able to get Mike's memory back."

"Maybe not," he shrugged, "but that doesn't mean we can't still help him get better."

Peter cocked his head to the side, still a little confused.

"So, how do we help him? What do we do?"

"Easy," he said with a smile. "All we have to do is help him remember."

"You must be joking!...How are we going to do that? Telling him everything that's happened hasn't exactly been helping." Davy frowned, not believing what he was hearing.

"Well, we have to do something, something different," Micky explained seriously. "You should've seen him this morning. All that stress, frustration, and confusion he's feeling...it's actually driving him insane. We need to do something to help him before it's too late."

Peter's eyes widened.

"Fellas," His voice broke, and he looked down at his trembling hands. "I don't wanna lose Mike..."

"We won't, Peter," Micky smiled sympathetically. "That's why we're going to do something that'll help."

"And what is that, exactly?" Davy asked hesitantly.

"That's part of why I called this meeting, actually," Micky said honestly. He took the piece of chalk and went back up to the board. "Any brilliant ideas?"