Chapter 33

I woke up to see the note written in marker on the palm of my hand. 'Read file this is your life on the computer.' So of course being totally lost in space, I opened the laptop and began to read. Actually I carried the laptop into the bathroom and read it on the toilet.

I had always been able to speed read. The file was scary, but also represented a lot of work. I was able to skip over a lot of things, since I just didn't care at that moment who my grandmother had been. I looked at the picture gallery and tried to remember the most important ones. The last entry in the file was see folder JOURNAL.

Journal had one file titled 'day one, ' which appeared to be a recount of a day in my life. Presumably yesterday, I understood that it was in fact my first real day outside the facility since the incident. I had copied what the man Royce had said, "You ain't stupid just because you can't remember. Something had changed since I went out for a day. I accepted that I could function outside, even if I couldn't remember it, somethings had obviously managed to find their way into my brain. Maybe it was more a different way of looking at things. Maybe I had somehow managed to keep the confidence I was building, even without a memory of it.

I drew one more conclusion from the 'day one' file, I was definitely no author or English scholar. Even I had to struggle to understand it. Somehow I seemed to understand a lot of mechanical things. I suppose it was possible that those memories were stored in a different part of my brain. It was hard to believe I needed a picture to recognize Charlie and Cindy, but I could operate the computer unassisted.

That kind of information seemed to piggyback into my short term memory. For instance I could barely turn on the laptop when I first woke up, but once I began moving around in it, I was able to find and understand things on Google. I could probably find porn, if I was a mind to do that. What I did pull up on Google was a map of the area showing the facility and it's relationship to Ayers.

Without a car it was going to be hard to ease myself back into my old life. It appeared that it was going to be all or nothing. So I chose all. I was already packed to go when Royce showed up.

"Holy shit," were the first words out of his mouth. "What in the world happened to you?"

"I have no idea. As far as I know I could have been the same yesterday," I said truthfully. "I know that today we are going to be busy."

"Oh, what's the plan?" Royce asked.

"I'm going to sign myself out of here even if I have to go work the street to pay the bill. Then you and I are moving me back into my apartment on the 6th floor of the Jefferson Family Bank Building Condos. Yes I had to read that in the journal from yesterday. It was yesterday wasn't it?" I asked.

"Yes Ma'am, it was just yesterday," he said. "So what are we doing right now?"

"Right now we are waiting for a doctor to come sign the release," I said.

"Well in the meantime tell me what I should do to get things ready," Royce said.

"Like what, I'm kind of winding it up here," I admitted.

"Well do you want me to tell Sam you are coming home. If so, should I open the office. You know I have to tell your dad." Royce informed me.

"Who is my dad?" I asked.

"It's in the file along with the narrative about how I came to work for you. You might want to read that part of your bio before you get me to involved in your life."

"Okay, but you are here and you are my link to the world. I think that unless you chopped your last employer up and mailed him or her to California, you are in it to stay a while. Well at least as long as I can afford to pay you," I admitted.

"Sam had some thoughts on that. You want to hear them?" Royce asked.

"Sure why not, it looks like we are going to have a while," I replied.

"Your law license is not affected by this, at least not without a 'for cause' hearing. It's how all those ninety year old senile fools keep showing up in court. So until you do something to force a hearing, your practice is good to go. Understand?" Royce asked.

"As a brilliant man once said, losing my memory did not make me an idiot. I am paraphrasing there. What you are saying is that I can still work and earn money, I just have to make damn sure nobody calls for a 'For Cause' Hearing before the Bar Association."

"Exactly, Sam has twenty years experience and he knows everyone of the clerks and secretaries in town. He swears he can do everything, but go to court, while you sit at your desk and sip iced tea."

"There is no way we can pull criminal law off. I can remember or look up most of the procedures, but there is just too much thinking on your feet involved," I advised him.

"Oh Sam knows that. What he suggested is that you switch to doing much less specialized law. You really need to talk to him about all this. Let me know when you are ready, and I will set it up. You will also find a file in your list of files called check me out. Jeff said they were websites with information you might find useful in your day to day life."

"Jeff seems to have become very helpful," I said remembering the message in my journal to prick Royce about Jeff now and then. Before I said it, I could only guess why I made the note. Once I did say it, I knew by his expression why I made the note. Royce was jealous on some level. I also knew that I was flattered.