ROOM 211

PART THIRTY NINE

45.

Another day passes and has passed on. An end of sorts is on the way as is a new beginning is incoming. As surely as day chases night and night chases day this is so. There is something new and this will feel refreshing in more ways than one.

His eyes open to a bright blue sky. This time, there is no headache and there surely is no nosebleed. He can't help himself; a smile takes hold of his face before he can manage to sit himself up. He is back, hell yeah, he is back, wholly, and complete, and someone has a sense of humour having him wake just where it is he wakes. He knows just who that someone may be, and he is also glad to see the same car he woke to a few short days ago parked in the same position it was parked in on that day.

He also has woken in that very same suit he woke within on that very day; hopefully it has been at least washed since. No duffel bag on this occasion but the key to the car is within his jacket pocket. It soon will be off to a certain hotel for him but not before a stop is made to a certain bakery.

The name Henry Patrick Corbin is what he had been going by since he had woken with memory loss even though he had come to know that his name actually is Doctor Alexander Archer and that another man had been going by that name. Now it is fact, his memory is back to one hundred per cent capacity. He is Doctor Alexander Archer but maybe he can go by the name Henry Patrick Corbin for at least one more day.

A connected phone call is what ensured the fact that another man waking to memory loss would temporarily be known by the name Doctor Archer, or Archer for short. And this Archer fellow now knows too what really is fact, and what isn't. When he wakes, his memory is also intact, and his returning memory also includes the previous few days.

Archer, as he may be known for perhaps another day or so at least, wakes in the same place he woke on day one of memory loss with the exception of two things this time around. There is no pain, either head or body related, and there is a bed or a mattress with blankets at least and this is what he wakes upon.

Someone somewhere probably finds this at least a little bit funny and Archer most likely knows who this someone is, and in a way, he too can see some humour in this moment. He has no phone in this moment like he did last time round, but he does not need one for he knows where he may need to get himself to, but first he needs to check on a room not so far away from his current location for someone else may be about to wake there if she hasn't woken already.

Something, however, delays him temporally. There still is a plop ... plop ... plop ... plop dripping sound within this room though it is only when Archer moves to get up off the mattress he woke upon, that he notices that this room is nowhere near as dark as what it had been the last time he woke within its confines.

What Archer sees in this now illuminated room is astounding. It completely takes him by surprise. He knows he cannot stay here; he has to move, and he has to do so possible quicker than he initially anticipated.

Indeed, when he reaches the room with the eight singular beds there is a lady waking just at the moment Archer arrives. The doors this time are not chained or locked and the rusted burning smell which had temporally existed last time round has now gone too. The room is looks cleaner, as clean as it once had before, and it is well illuminated on this occasion.

The waking lady just so happens to have been going by the name Sue for the past few days, and she is pleased to see the arrival of Archer though also a little confused as to why they are here and why she is once again waking here. Archer explains the possible joke to waking in this moment and Sue can see why this moment is occurring.

Thankfully Sue has footwear on this occasion, and she is more than happy that this is so. Her memory, like Archer's, has been fully restored and fairly soon Archer and Sue are on their way to The Mulberry Hotel.

The twins awake within the very same car they woke within a few days prior. This time there are no headaches or nose bleeds though their waking does occur no more than fifteen seconds apart from one another, and they each do know who the other is. Everything has returned including the knowledge of the robbery they were a part of.

They have somewhere they feel a need to get to though the car being in the same position it was just a few short, or perhaps not so short, days ago, it most likely will not aid them with transportation so if they are to get to where they would like to go, they really will need to keep their heads down.

William is just sixteen years old. Since waking with memory loss, he feels as if this weren't so. Somehow, maybe it was previous life experience oddly coming through, he felt ... older though as he now wakes, he knows he has just those sixteen years behind him. He wakes in a bedroom he now knows and recognizes. It is the same bedroom where memory loss had greeted him. He is home and there is someone downstairs cooking breakfast, for the instant he wakes, both his sight and his sense of smell confirm where it is he is.

There could be only one person downstairs. 'Mom' he calls out as he falls out of bed, and he just cannot get downstairs fast enough. There is emotion, laughter, tears, and hugs. William is as healthy as he has ever been. Once it all calms down and food is had mum says 'right, time for you to get yourself to room 211, I'll see you shortly.'

William does pause for a moment or two and then does not need to be told anything just yet, and soon he is on his way to where he needs to be. Maggie wakes in the back of a taxi, they very same taxi with the very same driver who brought her to The Mulberry Hotel once before.

'Are you alright Miss?' is the question asked of her upon her moment of waking.

'I surely am' she answers after taking a moment or two to take in her surroundings.

'I can always take you to a hospital if you need one.'

'That will not be necessary' she says with a smile.

She does not need a piece of paper to inform her of where she needs to be, and no more words need to be spoken. Her cab journey has been paid for and she is glad of this, and she is looking forward to what possibly is coming her way.

In room 211 of The Mulberry Hotel, where Mandy presumed to have yet again spent the night alone, she is woken to the sound of singing, a lady's voice singing softly, calming herself as much as calming her companion.

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.

Having gone to bed alone to wake to the sound of another's voice is not something to create fear or panic, it brings the opposite, and Mandy can't help but smile as she listens to the words of the song being sung. Bonnie has woken in the same place she woke in her moment of memory loss only now like the others of a once forgetful group, memories have returned.

It is so much more than a return of memory; it is a return to health, both physical and mental. Mandy and Bonnie barely have time to embrace when a first knock to the door of room 211 arrives ...