Page 19 of Brody
Was that the other man I’d seen with Magnus?
I thought his name was Trent, but I could have been wrong.
“Yeah, Creed. I met him shortly after Magnus. The three of us have been a team for years. Decades at this point. His service isn’t up yet, but he’ll be joining us soon. He was the one who first figured out that we’d be able to afford a much better life after retirement if we pooled our resources, and the rest just fell into place after that.”
I still had a lot of questions, like who the other man I’d seen with Magnus was, and what Creed thought about Brody bringing a stranger into their shared home. Yet, throughout Brody’s entire explanation, there seemed to be no hint of romance between him and any of the others. I may not be the best judge of, well,anything right now, but surely a person’s voice must change at least a little when they were speaking about a significant other.
That thought shouldn’t have made me happy, and I quickly devoured the rest of my sandwich to try and drown out my guilt under the heavy taste of barbecue spices.
The last stop on our list was a small, out of the way supply store. It seemed like more of a local shop than something aimed at tourists. There wasn’t even proper signage. Just a hand painted plaque on the front door that readBig Martha’s Place.
A bell over the door rang when we entered. The sound was out of tune, and when I looked up, I could see that the bell was bent out of shape.
There weren’t any other people, which made the shop feel larger despite being the smallest place we’d visited so far. Nothing on the shelves was labeled, and no matter how long I looked, I couldn’t discern any sort of organization system. It looked like someone had merely dumped all the supplies on the shelves at once and never bothered to sort them out.
Off to one side of the shop, a middle-aged woman sat behind the register, reading a magazine that was at least ten years out of date. A nametag on her shirt labeled her as the shop’s titular, Martha.
I’d gotten so used to Brody dragging me around, that I barely noticed when he grabbed my hand and led me over to the counter.
“Hello,” he started to say, but was cut off before the first word finished leaving his mouth.
“I already told you before, no refunds,” Martha grumbled behind her magazine.
“Excuse me?”
Stony eyes peered at me over the top of the glossy paper. “I told you when you bought the stuff. I don’t do refunds. If you’re here to complain, then you can turn right around and leave.”
I nearly leapt over the counter and grabbed her, but self-preservation kicked in at the last moment and forced me to keep my hands to myself.
“You know me?”
The woman just stared at me like I was crazy.
Clearing his throat, Brody cut in between us. “Um, yes. Hi. This is kind of a strange situation, but if he really did visit here, then we’d appreciate it if you could tell us about it.”
He explained what had happened to me as clearly as possible. It was obvious that she didn’t believe him at first, but after I insisted as well, she seemed to come around to the idea.
“Amnesia. Well, fuck me, that’s a new one.” She tossed the magazine aside, which slid off the desk and landed on the floor somewhere out of sight. “Can’t help you with a name, I’m afraid. You paid in cash, and didn’t bother to introduce yourself. I can say that you seemed like you were in a hurry. Just demanded that I get you everything you’d need for about a week’s worth of camping, shoved a wad of cash at me, then ran out the door before I could even give you your change. I only remembered you because of how bizarre it all was.”
No name. No credit card. Nothing I could use to track down my identity.
Brody’s hand tightened around mine. I couldn’t remember when he’d picked up my hand again, or if I’d ever let it go in the first place, but I appreciated his support more than ever before.
“You said he ran off,” Brody said. “Do you know which way he went?”
“Yeah.” Martha pointed behind her to the back of the shop. “He went off that way. I heard him run into my dumpster and wondered if he was lost. We’re on the edge of town here and there’s not much beyond this point. Just trees and a few walking paths out there.”
It wasn’t much, but it was at least something. Thanking the woman, we left the shop and headed around to the back of the building.
“Do you think this’ll do us any good?” I asked when the dumpster was in view.
“Maybe,” Brody shrugged. “If we can retrace your path, we may be able to find something to identify you. But even if we can’t we at least know that our assumptions were correct. You were here. That’s more than we had before.”
There wasn’t much space in the alley behind the two buildings, but just beyond the dense shadows I could see a green wall of trees waiting for us.
“Sure, but I’d still like—ack!”
While I was busy talking, my foot caught on a piece of loose concrete. I tripped forward and grabbed onto the edge of the dumpster to keep from slapping face first into the ground.
