Lost Memory by Jacqueline Cortez

Chapter Three: Alejandro

The time is 3 a.m. two days after I left Australia. At last... I reached New York City...the smell of the city...the fresh breeze...thoughts began flooding my head as I stepped out of the airport. Starting today, no more running. I became worried because of how my father would react to me leaving all of a sudden...I could not let him find out that I know now that I have memory loss. I kept on thinking when this could have been. However, my brain is being difficult, I reasoned that if you have memory loss it's because something dramatic happened or If you have been in an accident. I can not remember being in an accident. As I get onto a Uber, I head to my friend's apartment because he said he found me somewhere to live and it is on Wall Street. What am I going to do when Father finds out I am not in Australia anymore? At least from here, I can still do one part of the deal we made, right? I was almost at TJ's apartment, I never met him in real life, we met through Instagram. It is time for the story.

Two years ago...

All of this escaping over and over again has me tired. I arrived in Shanghai, China. One of China's top cities. I am at an Internet cafe right now. I am testing out my hacking and coding skills. I develop my skills since I can not use my name on anything or my father will find me. Today, I developed my new skill for coding. I have to show it to my people on Instagram, all 11 million of them. It is funny because I made this for my hacking and coding skills for others to learn too but just one time, just one I tell you, I took a picture of myself because I love the lighting and I was at a Korean Cafe, back when I was not being hunted down like a predator and its prey. I posted the picture just one time with the caption 'Soon to be CEO but for now, I am chilling with my coffee, How do you like your coffee?' and then millions of likes, follows, comments from all over the world. I felt like most of them were gold-diggers. Before I started to escape, I deleted it. My father doesn't have time for social media neither does he have time for it but he does have time to find his son.

Many of my followers have the same hobby as me. I would post new codes and then one day someone DMs me and asks if I could teach them how I did that and if I did then they will pay me. I do not need their money but I am willing to teach them. We facetime that same day, I did not hide my face, precautions. I screen shared though so he can learn and see how I do it. We take turns screen sharing so I could see if he was doing it right. Before we started with anything, I quickly hacked his computer without him knowing to know if he is hiding anything. In general, I am an open person. It was the people with who I said certain thoughts and feelings is who I need to be careful. I finished checking his computer; He wasn't hiding anything. He thanked me after the session. Before we knew it...

"Hey Park, How do you do that?" Tj says through the microphone.

"You have to add the numbers and this code that I will send you into the computer then you will be good," I say as we are hacking different codes going against each other to see how much he has learned, to test the skills I taught him.

"We are friends now right?" He asked me.

"I thought we already were" I laughed and he beat me for the first time. Well done, TJ. This is the beginning of a friendship that will last a lifetime. From the day I met him until now he helped me with everything. He is the one who helped me use his passport, his card, and his car to help escape my dad. Tj has made the last two years easier than the other three that I was being chased. I never met him in real life. This is going to be the first time. I arrived at a neighborhood in Gramercy Park. I read a text he sent me and he said he will be waiting outside of the apartment complex he lived at. I looked around to see if I saw anyone. There he is.

"Aye Park, over here" TJ yelled my name. He is the only person who calls me the name 'Park.' I wave and run to where he is looking both ways before crossing. "Wassup" He dapped me up, or in other words, we did 'the handshake.'