ROOM 211

PART TWENTY FOUR

28.

Bonnie's most recent bout of singing. It is as if she knew exactly what effect it would have on Archer. So, what is it that she has just done? Some kind of magic? It is as good as, for Archer has turned from a raging bull to a calm sea and instead of storming out of the hotel room, he calmly finds somewhere to sit. There will be no immediate action, nothing he may regret at another time. Now is the time to wait.

While seven settle and wait, the other member of the eight moves along the flow of the river he is in, lost to all that surrounds him. It is not all so bad for that one, is it? There is no apparent danger so Henry may as well take in whatever comes his way.

From the police precinct up to when a destination is reached, the only interaction that occurs between Henry and those he has come to be with is that of responding to the enthusiasm the children have with the return of their father, so as it would seem, this is not a set up. If the children have been programmed to respond the way they are, then they are incredible actors for it would be extremely difficult to believe they could possibly not be his children.

The place they come to, the family home, if Henry is who this woman says he is, which it very much appears he is, then he must be one very successful doctor. What is he a doctor of? Does he have his own practice? The house they have come to ... it may only be one story high though it is huge. As it is, however, nothing is returning, this place, from the outside at least, in no way looks familiar.

When the vehicle they travel in comes to a halt the adults stare at each other for a moment or so, then Henry gets out and stands for a moment at a complete loss. As soon as the children exit the vehicle they are once more all over him, hugging him with a certain disbelief and a pure kind of joy with the fact that he is home. This really cannot be a ready up. This is his home, his wife, and his children.

The inside of this home is immaculate, as clean as a whistle and it is as plain to see there was no kind of struggle with surviving in the absence of a father, the absence of a husband. Kids being kids immediately go toy hunting. A short hallway turns left into a large living room. There are photos in the hallway, quite a few of them and Henry appears in some of them. This is reality. This is a walk into a whole other world, one which has been around for some time. Indeed, not an ounce of memory comes his way with all of which he sees.

Wife turns on the television in the living room and selects a children's channel, making sure the volume is turned up then she makes her way into the kitchen leaving the children to their own devices in the main living room. This is an obvious sign that Henry should follow.

She sits on one side of a bar area; he takes a seat opposite her. He got from previous interaction up to this point that the children's names are Jack and Amy though the woman across from him, has yet to gather a name and he has no idea where to begin so it just as well that she does.

'I see you are not wearing your rings ...'

His hands are clenched together atop of the counter between himself and her, clear to see no rings though she probably noticed the instant she had caught sight of him back at the station.

'Unfortunately not, ...' he says at a loss for what else to say.

'I hope you at least know where they are'. He doesn't respond and she reacts with temporary disgust though there is no way she can allow this to continue. She can't feel negative, there are many positives here. 'So, Alex ... what the hell? Where have you been? Three months and nothing ... not a thing ... you disappear for three months, and I was told you simply just turn up at a hotel and I get nothing ... not even a phone call.'

'I ... I ...'

This is ... overwhelming and surprisingly so. He knows he has to tell of what he knows. Hardly getting a word out he is hit with emotion and so much of it that his eyes begin to well up and an almighty lump consumes his throat. It is not memory stirring up emotion as not even the slightest memory has returned; it is more the gravity of everything closing in and indeed he did not expect to feel how it is he currently feels. In reaction to his reaction, she too becomes emotional and right away moves round to embrace her husband.

'What's wrong?' asks Jack, the older of the two children having moved to come into the kitchen through the door that join the living room with the kitchen come dining area.

'Oh, nothing honey' mum says moving to hug Jack. 'We are crying happy tears; dad is really happy to be home.'

Amy comes into the kitchen and moves straight to dad, and he picks her up. Once emotion calms a little the children are brought back into the living room. Henry, knowing that his name more than appears to be something other than Henry and such name actually is Alex Archer, has to tell of all that he is aware of, and she listens to every word he has to say, no matter how crazy it sounds.

'You are being serious, aren't you?'

'Yeah, a hundred percent.'

'And nothing here jogs your memory, nothing at all since I came to you?'

'Not even a little and I have no idea why.'

'So, what now?'

Henry stalls for a moment. He knows he has something to do, not being exactly sure of what but he knows where he needs to be, especially if there is any hope of regaining any kind of memory.

'I need to be back at that hotel' he says.

'No, Alex, you only just got back ... you belong here' she says, her eyes welling up once more.

'There are eight of us with memory loss, there were nine and one is now dead. We need to figure this out. Why we have lost our memories and as to if we can get them back, I bet you'd rather have me around with my memory intact.'

'Yeah sure, still you have only just got home. Hey, wait; you are not in danger of ... of ... are you?'

'No, definitely not, the fellow who died had been in hospital. There was a kind of fit, they operated, and he lost his life ...'

'But you say he had a fit, right?'

'He did, though as far as I am aware none of the rest of us have had anything of the likes. There was something in his head, attached to his brain. We don't even know for sure if we have the same thing in our heads as what he had. So, you see, we ... I have to do something. we need to get to the bottom what it is that is happening to us all.'

'I just had a thought. You don't know who I am, do you? You know I am your wife and at that you don't even know for sure, do you? And you probably don't even know my name.'

'I believe we are married; I believe those are our children in there. Unfortunately, I don't ...'

'It's Jess. My name. It is Jessica. Do you know I visited that fellow you speak of in the hospital?'

'No, what ... really?'

'Yeah, his name was Sander, like, as in Alexander, right? In my efforts to find you I was informed that someone suffering memory loss had been brought in and I had to know if it was you or not. I guess I wasn't a million miles away.'

'I had been in to see him too. We probably were ever so close to one another and just didn't know ...'

'I will be back, in all ways possible. I just ...'

'Yeah. I trust in you ... I trust in ... us.'