Page 13 of Remember Me

I ducked my head to hide my smile. This girl. She grunted at me!

“What’s your name?”

The purple pen in her hand paused. “You’re speaking. That wasn’t part of the deal.”

“Oh, sorry. Here you go.” I tossed a five on the table. “For the cream puff.” She ignored it and kept writing. I allowed the silence to hold court for several minutes, save for the scratch of her pen on the paper. When I judged enough time had elapsed, I spoke again. “I can’t keep calling you ‘the girl’ in my head.”

“Why do you need to call me anything?”

“Because.” I waited until I had her attention. “If I’m going to tell my mom I found the girl I’m going to marry, I’d best know her name.”

That got her attention. She narrowed her eyes at me. “You have a really high opinion of yourself, don’t you?”

I puffed my chest out. “I’m a treat enjoyed by many,” I returned humbly.

“And he just keeps going.”

“You going to tell me your name? I’m Hayes. Hayes Ellison.”

“And I’m Bond. James Bond.”

I clasped my hands to my chest. “Shot to the heart.”

She snorted and started gathering her things, stuffing them into the satchel-like bag on the floor. “And on that note, I think I’ll be going. It’s been…interesting meeting you, Hayes Ellison.”

I liked the way she said my name, all elongated vowels and throaty tone. I couldn’t wait to hear her say a few other things. But wait…

I stood, almost knocking the chair over. “Wait! You’re really not going to tell me your name?”

“Nope.” She turned to leave, then flashed me another cheeky grin over her shoulder. “If you’re motivated enough, you’ll figure it out.”

“Hey.” I waited until she paused and turned her face back to mine, a hint of humor lingering in its lines, and before she could react lifted my phone and snapped a photo. “I’ll be seeing you, Smalls.”

“Some days I wake up

and all I feel

are the fractures

in the flesh

that covers

the only me

I’ve ever known.”

Tyler Knott Gregson

November 19¦Birdie

AFEW DAYS LATER,IHADMOM DROP ME OFF ON CAMPUS. I wanted to wander around, see if anything was familiar. I wasn’t sure what the catalyst was, unless it was Hayes taking me to an old haunt, but I’d started to have flashes of what I hoped were memories. There was an indistinct image of a lecture hall that kept popping into my head, another of what I assumed to be a dorm room, decorated with endless photos on the wall and fairy lights. There was a woman’s face, gamine and laughing. She had pink in her hair, and something told me we knew each other well, but that was all.

These memories felt close, though. Right under the surface of my ability to recall. I hoped that visiting the campus would help jog something.

I started with the same shop Hayes had taken me to just a few days ago. I knew I had history here.

There was a girl on the small wooden stage tucked into an adjacent dining area, strumming a guitar and crooning low. A couple sat at the table I’d shared with Hayes a few days ago. A guy sat close to the stage with a guitar case and attention fixed on the girl singing. A few other people were scattered here and there, but she didn’t seem aware of the people around her, instead singing for her own pleasure. I stood just inside the door for a few minutes, watching her.

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