ROOM 211

PART THIRTY THREE

39.

Imagine the panic jumping in and consuming the calm, creating devastation from the outside in. Out calmly walking down the street, minding her own business, she suddenly becomes aware of all that the surrounds her. The daylight, the sounds of people going about their business, the near-by traffic, road works up ahead, all sounds which are ordinary at first until the moment when each sound magnifies, intensifies, with it all seemingly appearing out of the blue.

She has no idea how it is she came to be where it is she is. She should be home with her mother and sister but instead she is out on a street somewhere, and out on a busy street at that. She may be an adult, but she lives at home with family ... because there is a reason for this. This may be a present like moment ... but it is a memory too.

That's it, there is a problem with her memory, there has always been a problem with her memory. This moment she is stuck within, is from a time many months before she is to become known as Maggie and whether she is actually in this moment or reliving it or something else entirely, the panic just grows and takes her completely over.

This particular moment comes with the feeling that she was home one minute and here the next, which, if the truth were known, is not actually the truth. She came here and completely forgot that she did so. The outdoor sounds continue to intensify, louder and louder they become, and she begins to vocalize the pain.

An older lady approaches. 'Are you alright honey?' asks the older lady but this only adds to the disorientation, it only aids to the feelings of being lost and confused. It adds to the pain. 'Honey?'

'Go away' is what she wants to tell her, go away is what she wants to tell the world. If only it would all stop and let her be. This is all so horrible, so bad, so disturbing that she can't help but.

'It's OK. It's alright' speaks a male voice. 'I am with you ... it's alright Maggie ...'

She is back within Room 211 of The Mulberry Hotel and the voice speaking to her is that of William, a young lad she has get to know over the past few days. She remembers the past few days but nothing more than that ... well perhaps beside the moment she had become lost in, a moment she is sure has occurred at some time or other. If she remembered her sister and mother while in her zoned-out moment, that that memory has gone the instant she returned to the present.

There may have been other moments, many moments perhaps, moments of panic and short-term memory loss. What she cannot yet remember is that the moment she had recalled and other moments like it brought about a position where she would take up an eight bed within a large rectangular room, a room within which a song sung by another voice would go a long way in bringing back a sense of calm.

My Bonnie lies over the ocean,
My Bonnie lies over the sea.
My Bonnie lies over the ocean.
Oh bring back my Bonnie to me.

***

Out past the little reception area of the building which four of our eight have come to, there is a hallway and this hallway is darkness. Once into this hallway, it is indeed dark, not pitch dark as there is light either side of it. If there are any wall mounted lights out here or any other kind of lights, then they are either not powered on or they simply possibly do not work.

There hallway is not particularly long. It probably would take thirty seconds or so to walk through at a regular pace and there is indeed lighting of some sort on the other side but for some reason or another, Archer does not remember this hallway.

Before first making any arrival to ROOM 211 of The Mulberry Hotel, he would have had to come through this hallway from the far side so he could exit the building, but there is no memory of it, no memory of this area. He may not have been in his right mind enough to take it in, but still.