Chapter Five

The woman returned with a girl. She was perhaps fifteen, with brown hair, and blue eyes, shiny eyes, unlike Andrew’s brown ones.

She was wearing a red long sleeved t shirt, and her face looked nervous. Andrew supposed that he should feel nervous as well, but he didn’t. He cleared his throat.

“Are you Sam, Sam…”

“Arnolds.” She finished. She turned to her mother. “Can we talk privately, please? I don’t feel comfortable with you watching us like vultures waiting for an animal to die.”

“But-“Her mother protested.

“Privately,” Sam repeated. “That means alone, please. We won’t be able to think properly with you here.”

She turned to Andrew’s mother as well. “Would you mind leaving the room for a little while, Mrs Blake?”

Sam’s mother was determined to take charge, even if it did mean admitting defeat at the same time. Still, she put on a façade of strength and control. Andrew was not fooled.

“Come on out to the kitchen, Mrs Blake. I’m sure we can both find enough to talk about.” She stalked out and Andrew’s mother followed tentatively, gently closing the door behind her.

“Finally,” Sam sighed. “I thought she’d never leave.” She stared at Andrew’s face. He began to feel quite self-conscious, and she smiled and laughed quietly. It was a pretty sound.

“Sorry if I’m embarrassing you, but… can you remember?”

Andrew knew what she was talking about. He shook his head.

“I can’t remember anything before waking up outside of the library. Is it the same for you?”

She nodded thoughtfully.

“I only remember waking up, and then I had to wander around until someone saw me and took me to my parents. I was getting worried then, because I had no idea where I was.”

She spoke quite seriously.

“I had almost exactly the same thing happen to me!” Andrew explained. “Except I was lucky. My dad happened to be driving past and he caught sight of me. Of course, I didn’t even know he was my dad.”

Sam hesitated before speaking.

“Since coming back, do you ever get the feeling that… something’s wrong? The thought that there is a reason we’re the only two to reappear so far?”

Andrew had had some very vivid, very disturbing dreams about it, but he didn’t want to admit that he was truly scared.

“Don’t you feel worried?” She whispered. “Since I came back, my parents have been acting oddly. I’m… I’m not even sure they are my parents.”

She blinked rapidly and rubbed her eyes.

“Oh, what am I saying? Conspiracy theories, that’s all. We should be thinking. The way I see it, there’s a few things our individual experiences had in common.”

“The memory loss?” Andrew inquired.

“The memory loss,” She confirmed. “But not only that; we both woke up outside the Ashmoor Public Library. A little suspicious, don’t you think?”

Andrew had not thought of that.

“Yes”, she continued. “We’ll definitely have to go and take a look at it. Now, if I can just come up with a suitable excuse to keep my parents and yours out of the way…”

A deep frown of concentration appeared on her face, creasing lines in her forehead.

“My parents? Keep them out of the way?” Andrew was thrown again.

“Of course. What kind of investigation would it be if we had our parents around to make us look suspicious? We’ll be a lot less noticeable on our own. Besides, I’m still not convinced that she is my… mother.”

Something about the tone of her voice and the way she said this unnerved Andrew, but he quickly shook it off.

“So what are you going to tell our parents?” He asked.

“That’s what I’m trying to work out.” She replied. “Let’s see, we could say we have homework… no, I forget, I haven’t been to school in some time.” She stopped. “How can I remember the concept of school, and even homework, but I can’t even remember what the school I go to is called, or what my school friends are called?”

Andrew had thought about this.

“I think… I think it’s only the memories that were taken, not reflexes. We can still talk, we can still walk. No, I don’t think we had our minds stolen.” He looked sideways at her. “I think we had our childhoods stolen.”

“How can you steal a childhood?” Sam asked.

“I don’t know,” Andrew said grimly. “But I have a horrible feeling that we’re going to find out.”

“So, is it off to the library?” She asked. “What do you think we’ll find there?” It seemed that Andrew had somehow, in the past few minutes, taken control of the situation and now she was asking him for answers, answers that he did not have and could not give.

“To the library.” He replied. “What do I think we’ll find there? I don’t know, but I really don’t think it will be fluffy white clouds and rainbows.”

***

They stood outside the Ashmoor Public Library. The ugly cube brick building stood by the side of a road, one that led down a path to many houses in the local neighbourhood.

Andrew once again read the dull metal plaque.

Ashmoor Public Library

Established 1984

Taking a deep breath, he signalled to Sam and pushed open the library’s double doors, and entered the library.