Zero

Zero (Chapter 3)

ON THE WING

Here's what I know. My name is Logan...probably. I have a weird tattoo on the back of my neck, given to me when I was about five years old. I love the Star Wars movies. I'm from Australia.

Here's what I don't know. I don't know why I'm here. I don't know my past. I don't know why I was shot. I don't know if someone is looking for me. I don't know where my family is. I don't know if I have a family. I don't know if I'll ever remember everything.

It's a little disconcerting.

I ponder this while I wait at home as Paige drives Jude to school, and I try to peel an orange with one hand. I don't know why I keep thinking of this, it's not like something is just going to appear in my mind because I want it to. It's like opening the fridge before you go shopping to find it empty, and no matter how many times you open it in search of food, it's still empty.

I resort to gnawing the peel of the orange off with my teeth, and eventually, sticky with orange juice, I finish the orange. In my books, this is an accomplishment, which explains how sad my life is at the moment.

I'm glad that Paige steps in the door the next second because I'm on the verge of trying to lick my nose off which I know I can't do. I guess I'll have to add that to my list of things that I know.

“What are you doing?” She asks laughing at my orange face.

“Don't laugh, that's mean,” I say walking over to the sink and running the water over a washcloth and wiping my face off.

I can tell she's about to burst out laughing as she watches me trying to scrub the remnants of the orange off my face. She walks over to me and takes the rag from hand and starts wiping my face herself. I feel like a little kid.

“There,” she says still giggling as she wipes my nose off, “good as new.”

“Thanks,” I say sarcastically.

She throws the cloth back into the sink then puts her hands on her hips, “Can you help me with something?”

“Like what?” I ask.

“The light up in the lighthouse hasn't worked for about six months and I have no idea how to fix it. I've tried to get someone to come but they've never showed,” she says.

I look at her skeptically, “I don't know if I'll be any help.”

“Whatever,” she says walking out of the room and towing me by my good arm, “come on.”

The way up to the lighthouse isn't like how you'd imagine it, there's no spiral staircase or anything, as her home is more just like a house with a light attached to the top of it. She opens a hatch in the roof of the second floor and a wooden staircase is pulled down like an attic. Then there's another narrow staircase up to a second hatch where we come out onto the platform where the light sits.

It isn't much, but the three-hundred sixty degree view is amazing.

“Wow,” I say taking it in, from up here I can see the ocean wrapping around the coast for miles.

“See...” Paige says behind me, “everything's plugged in but when I turn it on nothing happens.”

She flips the lever a couple times to show me what she means. I step towards the light to take a closer look. “Is the bulb burnt out?” I ask.

“No, well it shouldn't be, there's a two year warranty and we got this one like...last year,” she explains.

I open the control panel and see the problem almost immediately. “There's a frayed wire, that's all.”