“Trudy, please just give me some space, and I’m sure I’ll be back to my normal self in no time.”
“Alex, we have been friends since our freshman year. I’ll admit we weren’t close friends right away, but I think… or at least I thought that we were becoming close friends. I know I think of you as a close friend, and if there’s anything troubling you, you can always come to me.”
“Thanks, Trudy, but what is going on with my life right now, I really need to solve it on my own. Now if you don’t mind, I’m trying to read.”
Trudy looked at what Alex was reading before asking, “Isn’t that one of your diaries?”
“It is. I’m trying to refresh my memory from a few years ago and I can’t read with distractions. That is why I would like to be left alone.”
As Trudy stood up she said, “All right, but the only important memory that you need to remember is what happened on February 3, 2010.”
Trudy noticed that Alex was acting uncomfortable before she replied, “Yeah; yeah, I doubt that I will ever forget that day.”
Trudy gave Alex a perplex look for a second before saying, “Well, I’m going to join Miles. Hey, don’t you have a history class in twenty minutes.”
“I do. I’m going to read for another ten minutes before I go.”
“I just thought I would remind you. I’ll see you later.” Trudy then turned and walked away.
Seconds later, as Trudy was taking a seat next to Miles, Miles asked, “So is she giving me the cold shoulder treatment as I suspect?”
“I don’t think that’s her problem. I think she is having memory problems.”
“Why do you think that?”
“As a joke, I mentioned a bogus date as being an important date to remember and she tried to play it off as if she knew what I was referring to.”
“Perhaps she was going along with your joke.”
“I don’t think so,” Trudy said before standing up again. “Hey, I’m going to the library and research what would cause a person as young as Alex to lose her memory.”
As Trudy was leaving, Miles said, “Bye.”
Trudy just waved as she walked away.
Minutes later, Alex dumped half of her breakfast in the trashcan before leaving for her classroom. A short time later, she and Kenny were approaching their classroom at the same time.
Before Alex was able to step into the classroom, Kenny asked, “So what happened last night in St. Louis? Were you and Doug able to find Randy?”
“Things could have gone better last night, and no, we couldn’t find Randy. Doug and I have a clue as to where he might be though. We’ll go over everything when the group is together.”
“Where do you think he might be?”
“I’m thinking he is in Mexico City, Mexico.”
“Why do you think that?”
“Three years ago in our reality I talked him out of going there to search for his dad. I think he went there in this reality.”
Kenny said sarcastically, “That’s just great. How are we going to get to him if he’s in Mexico City?”
“All of us or at least one of us will have to go there and bring him back.”
“You can’t be serious!”
“He is the only person who can straighten this crossed reality mess out. So it’s either go to Mexico and find Randy or we live in this reality for the remainder of our lives. In either case, we’ll have to worry about that later.” Alex gestured towards the classroom as she continued to say, “This is my class and it’s getting ready to start.”
“It’s my class too,” Kenny said before gesturing towards the door. “Ladies first.” Alex grinned, shook her head and rolled her eyes all at the same time before walking into the classroom. Kenny followed her in. “Oh, uh, Ben arrived last night. He checked into a motel.”
“That’s good,” Alex said as she and Kenny were walking up to two empty seats that were next to each other.
Soon after Alex and Kenny sat down and got settled in their seats Kenny saw Doug walking into the classroom. Kenny gestured towards Doug while saying, “It seams that you and Doug took the same courses in this reality also.”
Alex stared at Doug while saying, “So it seems.”
Doug saw Alex and Kenny and walked towards them. As Doug stepped up, he said, “I spoke with Brandy and Cindy. All of us are to meet Ben at the Little Bucks Bar and Grill at eleven o’clock.”
“Okay, I’ll be there,” Kenny said.
“Ditto,” Alex said.
“Well, I better take a seat,” Doug said before turning and walking towards an empty seat.
An hour later, Alex, Doug and Kenny were leaving the classroom. Trudy was waiting in the hall outside the classroom while holding papers. When she saw Alex, she stepped up to her and asked, “Alex, can I speak to you in private?”
Alex gave Trudy a curious look. She then turned towards Doug and said, “Doug, I’ll catch up to you and Kenny in an hour.”
“All right,” Doug said before he and Kenny walked away.
As Alex and Trudy were casually walking in the opposite direction, Trudy said, “I believe I know why you are reading your old diaries and why you aren’t acting like yourself.”
Alex gave Trudy a curious look before asking, “You do?”
“You’re having memory problems, and I have done some research as to what could cause it,” Trudy said before she held up the papers. “Here is what I found.”
Alex continued to give Trudy a curious look while asking, “Where did you get the idea that I’m having memory problems?”
“Alex, February 3, 2010 was an ordinary day,” Trudy pointed out. “There’s nothing special to remember about that day. I said what I did as a joke and you acted as if you were hiding the fact that you couldn’t remember what took place on that day.”
“Okay, I’ll admit that I thought I had forgotten something when you mentioned that day, but I don’t have memory problems.”
“Okay, then you won’t have any problems with answering a few of my questions.”
“Trudy, I’m not going to play twenty questions with you.”
“If you’re not having memory problems then these will be easy questions.”
“Trudy, I’m not answering any questions. In fact, I’m going to end this discussion and walk away.” Alex then turned and walked in the opposite direction.
Trudy watched Alex for a second before yelling after her, “Admitting that there is a problem is the first step at getting help.”
Alex just waved as she continued to walk away.
Trudy turned and went straight to the soccer field. She watched Miles for twenty minutes as he was practicing at stopping the soccer ball from entering the goal.
Miles knew that Trudy was watching and when he took a break he walked over to her.
When Miles stepped up, Trudy said, “You look like a natural goalie. I think the coach was right to put you in that position.”
“Since you don’t care too much about sports, I doubt that you came here to talk about me being a goalie.”
“I came here