“My last known address,” I said.
“Where you lived with your mother?” His heavy eyebrows drew together.
I lived with her last? A mother sounded like a very good thing.
“Yes.”
“I thought you hated the sight of that woman.”
Did I? “When was that?”
“When you first worked for me. I’m glad you made up with her. Family is family.”
I had family. I could ask my mother questions. Figureout what was happening and why I was with a man when men couldn’t be trusted.
I must have fallen asleep to the rumble of the engine because I jolted awake when we turned onto a dirt path in the dark.
“Google says this is it,” Big Harry said.
A tiny yellow light by the door pierced the dark.
He pulled up close to the porch. “I’ll come with ya, just in case.”
I opened the door and jumped down. The front window brightened.
The curtain shifted, then a few seconds later, the front door flew open.
“Ava? Is that you?” A woman hurried out, holding tight to the front of a robe.
“Mother?” I ventured.
“Oh my God, Ava. I can’t believe you’re home!” She rushed down in bare feet and wrapped her arms around me. “What’s happened?”
Big Harry walked around the front of his truck. “She showed up at my diner, asking me to drive her here.”
She held my cheeks with both hands, staring into my eyes. “Ava, what do you remember?”
I held her gaze. Something felt wrong. Now that I was here, my stomach flipped.
Big Harry stepped close. “Are you all right, Ava? Is this what you want? To be returned to your mother?”
Did I? It was my last known address. She wasn’t a man. Men couldn’t be trusted.
I nodded slowly.
“All right then. I’ve got to get back. The overnight shift is light.” Big Harry patted my shoulder. “You come by anytime.”
I followed my mother up the steps to the house, feeling less sure by the second. But she led me to the kitchen table and pulled out a chair. “Let me make you your favorite tea. You can get some sleep, and we’ll get it all sorted out. Does anyone know you’re here other than that man?”
I shook my head.
“No one else?”
I shook it again.
“When did you lose your memory?”
“Today.”
