Learning to Remember

14. A New Friend

"I have my good and bad moments." She shrugged as she looked at her house, still sitting in Ben's car. "Thankfully my fridge and pantry were fully stocked, and I don't mind walking to places."

"Oh, that's why you walked to the block party. You don't have your car keys?"

"I found a spare set in my house. Thankfully we found a spare house key hidden outside or I would have been homeless too. But anyway, I can't find my car. I guess maybe that was stolen too."

"Geez." He breathed out as he stared out his windshield.

"Exactly."

"How can I help?" He asked as he turned to look at her again.

She turned to look at him as well. "Giving me a ride home today was really great, thank you for that."

"Are you feeling better now?"

"Yeah, sometimes I just feel a bit overwhelmed, I guess."

"I can see that. I mean, I feel overwhelmed right now and it's not even happening to me."

She laughed and he chuckled. "Yeah, it's a lot. But I've done pretty well so far, I think. And I've had a few memories return so surely the rest will come soon."

"So what else can I do to help?"

"I can't ask you to do anything for me."

"But you can ask John?" He smirked.

"He lives right next door so it wasn't too inconvenient for him to give me a ride to the school. And I didn't really have a lot of options, I thought going to the school might help. But I've really tried to not ask him to do much. I don't want anyone to go out of their way to help me."

"I don't live far. About a five minute drive, actually."

"Actually there is something." She sat up straighter. "John apparently didn't know me very well, you know, before."

He nodded in understanding.

"And he couldn't tell me if I had anyone else I might be closer to that might know more about me. Like where I moved from or if I have any close friends, or family, or anything."

He shook his head. "I'm sorry, Edwards. I don't want to sound mean but you haven't exactly made efforts to get to know anyone at work. If you're friends with anyone there, I haven't noticed it."

She sighed and looked down at her hands in her lap. "I was afraid you'd say that."

"I can ask some staff from the math department though. You'd have spent more time with them."

"Yeah, John tried that but couldn't get in touch with anyone yet. He said they were probably on vacation and not checking their emails. He didn't have anyone's phone number from that department."

"Ahh. Well, it's your lucky day then." He smirked.

"You have someone's number?"

"No." He shook his head.

"Oh." Her eyes scrunched in confusion.

"But I happen to know where a few of them are at this exact moment. I bet even Mrs. Thornton is there. Everyone may have been on vacation over the past two weeks but most are back now for the block party."

"Oh my gosh!" She said as she planted her hand on her forehead. "I'm such an idiot! I didn't even think about that. I think I've just gotten so used to not remembering anything, I've moved past the phase of desperately looking for information every moment like I did those first several days."

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense. So, do you want to go back or are you still feeling unwell?"

"No, let's go back. I can't waste this opportunity. If you don't mind, that is?"