“No—you like totally don’t understand he literally had his hand on her waist! In front of Marianne!”

 

The girl shouted in a preppy tone. She sat crisscrossed on the rough yellow field and rolled the grass between her fingers—giggling all the while.

 

As she chatted away, I sat across from her with my mind on the fritz trying to make sense of what was occurring.

 ‘I should not be here. I should not be alive…?’

 

I lay on my back as I looked upward at the blue sky. The clouds were sparse, looking like white streaks in the azure. The light of the sun was only just slightly blocked by the tree we sat under. 

 

“What time is it?” I turned to the unknown girl. I didn’t know her, but she knew me. Her middle-length hair flowed with the slight wind. It created an almost picture-perfect scene. 

 

“Uhhh” she checked her phone, brushing her bangs out of her eyes as she looked down. “2:34!” she answered. 

 

‘30 minutes is how long I’ve been in one of the most mind-bending situations… and I know nothing. Not who this random girl is, not where I am, and…’

 

I moved my arm to block out the sunlight shining obnoxiously on my forehead, a small moon sat next to the light. The physics of which makes no sense to me. 

 

‘This is too vivid to be a dream…This is not my world’

’

I turned to the girl who sat across from me. She chatted away on random gossip about people who I’d never heard of, and places I’d never been. 

 

“Hey uh… I’m sorry this might seem like a weird question but… is this heaven?” I asked the girl. 

 

She turned to me, a slight smile on her face and her eyebrows raised in an inquisitive manner as if she found my question a joke—. After an awkward short silence, she scoffed, still unbelieving of the genuineness of my question. 

 

“Are you for real? Did you smoke too much or what ?” 

 

“I— Uh— it’s just… I was supposed to die and—“ Her previously raised eyebrows furrowed and her mouth hung slightly open as if to say “Huh?” and her fingers that were twiddling with the grass, paused. 

 

“I don’t know where I am…”

 

I tried to ask her calmly, but her less-than-assuring reaction made me increasingly speak more hesitantly. 

 

“Elliot, are you okay?” the strange girl asked, her tone now worried.

 

“Elliot? My name isn’t Elliot.” I told her. I sat up from the grass and turned to her. We looked at each other, both with a sense of urgency. 

 

“What are you talking about? Yes, you are.” Her preppy tone switched to a more serious manner.  “Is this some new joke or something? You don’t usually joke like this—”

 

I paused, obviously this wasn’t heaven… then…

 

“It was a joke… I took it too far, sorry.” I relented. There’s no way I would complicate my situation any more than it already is.

 

“Yeah… okay.” The girl simply said. She looked like she didn’t buy it at all. 

 

“Maybe you did smoke too much. Let’s call it a day.” She stood up from the ground, brushing off whatever foliage clung to her pants then twisted her head around to look for any spare dirt.

 

 I hesitantly stood up after her. The bright sun made my eyes wince. Beyond the peaceful yellow-grass field was what looked like a gate that led to an alleyway. We walked along the greenery, the slight breeze caused my hair to tickle my nose. As we got closer to the gate, it became more noticeable that there was no entrance, just a fence. The girl stopped walking right up at the barrier, she took a few steps back before pouncing upwards and hopping the fence—- much to my surprise. 

 

The girl landed gracefully and stood up confidently as if to show off her skills, turning to me and smiling. “C’mon! You try it now!”

 

I paused and looked at her, bewildered. ‘Did she really think that I could do that?’

 

Shifting awkwardly in my feet, I replied with a little embarrassment “I don’t think I can.”

 

“What do you mean? Of course, you can!” The girl replied matter-of-factly “You did it yesterday, remember? C’mon Elliot just hop the fence.” 

 

I groaned in frustration. ‘I wasn’t here yesterday!’

 

I begrudgingly accepted her forceful invitation and prepared myself to jump and fail. Stepping back a few paces, I sprinted toward the fence taking long strides. My movement felt somehow confident— I felt like I could do this!

 

And I did. Somehow, I reached the top of the fence. My fingers grasped the rough metal wires and I winced in slight pain. ‘Fuck, what if I get tetanus?’ I then twisted my body around and over the fence and promptly dropped to the ground— like it was a reflex.

 

“See? I told you you could do it.” The girl said. She crossed her arms dramatically.

 

We then walked in and through the alleyway, where we arrived at a bustling sidewalk with modern-looking cars passing through the streets. On the sidewalk were various stores, restaurants, homes— the like. The girl took a right on the sidewalk and I followed her, gazing at the city. ‘It looks just like any other city, but this is definitely not a city from my world.’

 

We walked to a bus stop where we waited a few minutes. The silence was awkward and it was obvious that she was pondering the experience from earlier. 

 

“So…” she began. “About that freakout, was it really a joke? Or, are you for real.” She turned to me with a sympathetic look. It was surprising to see, honestly. Maybe that’s why I felt like I should tell her the truth.

So I told her the truth. I wrapped my hand around my other arm, an uncomfortable feeling grew in me, I had no idea how to communicate my situation to her without sounding insane…

 

“It wasn’t a joke… sorry. I don’t know anything…” I spoke a bit quietly, she inched forward to hear me better as I looked up at her with my brows furrowed upwards.  “I think— I’ve lost my memories.”