Beryl gestured toward the park. “There’s a space that I usually go to near the fountain, but if there’s someplace else you’d rather go, I’m open.”
“Nope. Lead on. If I’ve ever been in this park, I don’t remember it. And I’m afraid you’re going to be hearing that phrase quite a lot. I don’t remember much but I will tell you everything I know.” A wistful smile played around his mouth. He was likely as tired of not remembering as she was about hearing strangers talk about her disaster of a wedding.
Beryl nodded and thought again how awful it was that he’d lost his memory. Hopefully, the two of them would make some new ones for him.
They walked companionably down the sidewalk toward the fountain, veering onto a grassy surface between the basketball courts in the playground, where a scattering of five picnic tables waited.
Only one picnic table was occupied. A mother with two small children was trying to get them to eat something; they were clamoring to head for the playground and skip lunch. Beryl couldn’t blame them.
Beryl handed Jake the bag of groceries. She took the blanket folded over her arm, shook it out and spread it over the picnic table. It was the perfect size.
“I forgot to get a tablecloth,” she said. “I grabbed this out of my car so we didn’t have to eat on possibly radioactively contaminated picnic tables. I mean, you never know who ate here before, including squirrels and other varmints.”
“I don’t know what a varmint is, but I know this is perfect.” Jake sat down and placed the sack of groceries on the blanket between them.
She sat across from him. Jake looked pensive, like he had no idea what a picnic was or what happened on one, if his expression was an indication.
“I have to say, it would be so odd not to remember my life beyond a couple of weeks.” Beryl reached into the paper sack and started pulling things out one by one and setting them on the table. His expression shifted from pensive to interested in an instant.
“Itisodd not to remember anything,” he said. “But I will also say that the friendships I made before I lost my memory were clearly good ones.
“Frederick, my manager, has been invaluable to me. Not to mention all my neighbors and several regular customers who have been remarkable in their support, even though I can barely remember anyone’s name on any given day.”
Beryl pulled out a turkey sandwich wrapped in cellophane. “I hope you don’t have any food allergies that you don’t know about.”
Jake smiled. “Not so far, which is good. Many of the neighbors on my street brought over a lot of food after I got out of the hospital. I got quite a bit of something called casserole, even though each container I ate was different.”
“Ah, yes, the infamous Midwestern casserole can take many forms. There are some that are quite delicious.”
“Yes. Many were delicious. Others?” He shrugged. “Still, I truly appreciated what amounted to strangers graciously feeding me even though I didn’t remember a single soul.”
Beryl handed him one of the turkey sandwiches and showed him how to put on mayonnaise and mustard with the little plastic knife in the packets she brought. She opened the large bag of potato chips and shook a few out onto a napkin.
Even though she was not starving, Beryl took a bite of her sandwich. Deli smoked turkey with provolone cheese, lettuce, honey mustard and mayo was her favorite.
Jake made his sandwich exactly like she made hers and then took a bite. As he chewed, his eyes slowly closed and a yummy sound came from his throat. “Wow. That is so good,” he said.
Beryl reached down and grabbed a potato chip from the napkin, gesturing that he should try one as well. It was clearly love at first crunch. His eyes practically rolled back in his head with joy. She then produced the fruit she’d procured. He liked the apple and the grapes, too.
As the they ate their sandwiches and chips, the conversation leaned more toward the mundane. The weather was lovely. The park was nice. Alienn, Arkansas, seemed like a great place to live.
As they chatted, Beryl commented on the fact that she had also not lived in Alienn very long—then had a moment of panic when she realized she couldn’t tell him where she was from. She couldn’t confide in a human. That was Rule Number One. Hiding in plain sight. Always.
Her family had a story they used, of course. All new Alphas arriving on Earth had to pretend to be from somewhere. She and her siblings were all supposedly from a small town upnorth that no one had ever heard of. Most folks didn’t dig. They just seemed to accept vague concepts when it came to where newcomers had lived before. It was a fairly common story in the tri-city area of Alienn, Old Coot and Skeeter Bite.
“I’m supposedly from up north as well,” Jake said with a rueful grin. “Although, I don’t even have the benefit of a small town to name.”
Beryl’s gaze narrowed. Her mind went to the unlikely idea that maybe he wasn’t human after all.Stop it. He’s human. Don’t say anything you shouldn’t.
“I honestly can’t imagine,” she said, serious in the notion of his lack of a past being a difficult concept, especially since he didn’t have any family in the area. At least Beryl had her siblings and her parents with her in this new home. If Beryl lost her memory in a similar fashion, her family would bring her up to speed on every minute detail of her life for decades.
She rummaged in the grocery sack for dessert, producing the very yummy chocolate chip cookies she’d brought. “Here, have a cookie.”
He took the offering, his gaze lingering on her eyes for a couple of beats before unwrapping it and taking a bite. This time, his eyes did roll back in his head in joy. “That is amazing!”
“Glad you like it. I can’t believe you haven’t had a cookie yet.”
He shrugged. “I know what they are. I just hadn’t tried one, post-memory loss.”
