Part of one of the first chapters of Broken Memory
Tim opened his eyes. A clammy cold covered him like a blanket. Dazed, he wondered how on earth he’d been able to fall asleep after his bizarre talk with his in-flight neighbor.
He looked sideways, making his cervical vertebrae scream in protest because he’d fallen asleep with his head against the wall. The cabin was plunged in darkness, but by the spooky light streaming in through the small windows, he could see that the seats next to him were once again unoccupied.
His body felt incredibly stiff – almost heavy. He pricked up his ears as he stretched his arms and legs. Nothing. No murmuring fellow passengers or crying babies. No humming engines or the quiet hiss of the AC.
He carefully hooked his hands around the headrest in front of him and hauled himself to his feet. The seat squeaked quietly. With a frown, he looked around him. No one in here, as far as he could tell. He bent down and peered out through the small window next to him. Outside, it was dark – almost evening. It took him a while to focus on the shapes and contours before he realized why he didn’t hear anything. Have we landed?
From where he was standing he could see a landing strip. The gray, artificial runway cutting through the landscape looked abandoned. A bit further away, square buildings looked dark against the backdrop of the night sky – he couldn’t see lights anywhere. It had to be cloudy, because even the stars were invisible. Why had no one woken him up? Had they forgotten about him? That seemed unlikely. A plane was always submitted to a thorough final check before the cabin crew left the plane. They had to clean up. Besides, a landing always entailed quite some noise. He couldn’t imagine sleeping through all of that.
Eyes wide, he slipped out of his seat and stood there, in the aisle, completely disoriented. An eerie feeling came over him. He felt dizzy. One second he was hot, the next he was freezing cold.
A flash of pain lanced through his head. He cowered, pressing a hand against his temple. Black spots danced in front of his eyes. He took a few deep breaths. Slowly, the black spots dissipated, and so did the killer headache. With a relieved sigh he straightened his back.
He needed a smoke. His hands patted his pants pocket as if on cue. Smoking on a plane was forbidden, but it didn’t look like there was anyone left to stop him. His pants pockets were empty. No pack of smokes, no lighter. Which made sense, he realized. He’d put them away in his carry-on. Then again, his phone and wallet seemed to have disappeared too.
He cast a look around again. Not only was his stuff nowhere to be found, it also looked as though the plane had never carried any people. No baggage, no plastic bags, no pillows, no food waste. He stalked down the aisle and popped open a few overhead baggage compartments. They were all empty, which was ridiculous. If they made time to clean this plane, they couldn’t have missed him, asleep in his seat.
He noticed his hands was beginning to tremble, and he wondered whether it was caused by the whole absurd situation or the lack of nicotine. His knees buckled, and he slumped into a seat sideways. In order to calm himself down, he breathed deeply in and out through his nose. Somehow, he was hoping to catch a whiff of something. A lingering perfume, the smell of candy. Some kind of proof that he hadn’t been the only goddamn passenger on this plane.
He didn’t smell anything.
“Calm down,” he told himself out loud. “There’s a reasonable explanation for all this. The plane landed and everyone got off, that must be it.” His voice sounded hollow and echoed off the walls like it didn’t belong to him.
He cast a look out of a window facing the opposite side of the airfield. This time, he could see the terminal. Strangely enough he didn’t see any other planes on the runway. Startled, he stood up, painfully bumping his head against the overhead baggage compartment. He swore, rubbed his painful head but kept staring outside incredulously.
This plane – the 737 he’d boarded – had been traveling from Miami to San Francisco. He was going to board another plane here in order to get home, like he’d done a thousand times before.
This was not San Francisco.
A shrill cry came from the front part of the plane.
With a jolt he turned around. Everything was quiet, but just when he thought he must have imagined the high-pitched sound, it came again, from the direction of the cockpit.
He ran forward through the aisle, steadying himself on headrests to his left and right, and tumbled down, sitting in front of the cockpit on his hands and knees.
A sound came through the cockpit door before it opened on squeaky hinges. The hairs in his neck stood up.
A girl appeared. She was slim, dressed in leggings and a red dress, and she had blonde hair down to her shoulders. She was protectively cradling a tiger cuddly toy against her chest, which stared at him with its black, beady eyes. Letting out a sigh of relief, Tim scrambled to his feet in the darkness.
The girl inched out of the cockpit one step at a time, stopping at a safe distance from Tim and eyeing him suspiciously. “Who are you?”
Tim took a few halting steps toward her. The girl back away. “Don’t be afraid.” He stopped, holding up his hands in a placating gesture. “My name’s Tim. I’m not gonna hurt you.”
More light was streaming inside because of the cockpit windows. It lit up his hands, right in front of him. “Jesus!”
His hands! They didn’t look like his at all. His fingers were smaller than he was used to. His nails had a white edge, which was odd because he was a notorious nail biter. But that wasn’t even the most bizarre thing…
He completely forgot about the child as he staggered backward into the aisle. His left foot caught on one of the seats and he fell over. He was trying to break his fall, but his limbs were out of his control. Like a heavy log, he thumped down on the floor, his head hitting the armrest. Stars danced in front of his eyes.
Ignoring the pain, he inspected his body, rolling up the sleeves of his shirt and pulling up his pant legs next. His mouth fell open.
All his life he’d been black. And now, he was as white as that girl.
“Are you okay, mister?”
The world spun on its axis. A silhouette looked at him, sitting a few seats down. It took him a while to recognize the girl. He put a hand on his forehead. Gradually, everything stopped spinning and the world went back to its usual shape.
He stood up and clambered over a row of seats to check his reflection in the window. The dull light didn’t help, but what he could see made his soul go cold. Apart from his black skin color, he’d always had a black beard. That had disappeared, too. And true, he’d had a receding hairline for quite some years now, but right now he was completely bald! His nose was bigger than he was used to and he didn’t just seem skinnier, but also taller.
Touching his clean-shaven face with both hands, he stepped out into the aisle again.
“Am I okay?” he repeated. “No, I guess not, little girl.”
“I’m nine,” she quipped. “I’m not a little girl.”
Tim loathed shrieking, overactive or know-it-all kids. “Whatever.” The words came out haltingly. “What’s your name, Little Miss Smartass?”
“I’m not a…” she started out, then anxiously took a step back while her gaze darted here and there, seemingly searching the plane. “Ella,” she finally replied. “My name is Ella.”
“Ella who?” Tim asked. “What’s your last name?”
The girl shrugged.
“You don’t know your last name?”
“Where are we?” the child interrupted him. “And where are the other people?”
Tim sighed, sitting down in one of the aisle seats again. “I don’t suppose you happen to know what’s going on here.”
Ella shook her head. “I don’t know anything anymore.”
“What do you mean?”
“I woke up in the cockpit, but I have no idea how I got there,” she replied. “I know my name and how I am, but everything else…” She looked at the tiger in her arms, as though to find strength in its eyes. “I don’t remember a thing from before I woke up here.”
“You can’t be serious.” Tim shot her a baffled look.
The girl dejectedly sank down on an armrest, hugging the cuddly toy to her chest even closer. “What happened?” Her voice was like a whisper.
In the silence that followed, his gaze drifted from the girl to ‘his’ white skin, which couldn’t belong to him. He came to the conclusion he must still be dreaming.
A plaintive cry interrupted his train of thought. Tim looked sideways and saw that Ella had pressed her hands against her forehead. She was rocking back and forth. He felt the urge to get up and comfort her, but he didn’t know how to go about it. How do you calm down a frantic child? What to say? “Just take it easy,” he tried, his voice catching. “You’re not alone. We’re in the same boat here.” Only after the words left his mouth did he realize that they didn’t exactly sound comforting.
With a sigh, he got up and slogged over to the child. He slowly lifted his hand, gingerly placing it on the back of her head before pulling her into him. “Ssh,” he hushed. “Everything will be all right.” To distract her a bit, he kneeled down in front of her and pointed at the cuddly toy. The girl was holding the tiger so tightly she almost squeezed him to a pulp. “Who’s this?”
Ella lifted the toy away from her chest and caressed its head. “I found him in the cockpit. He was next to me on the floor.”
Tim wondered how a cuddly toy could possibly end up there, but he forced a smile. “And what’s his name?”
The girl genuinely seemed to ponder the question. She frowned and stared at the tiger searchingly. “Tiger,” she decided.
Tim pressed his lips together and nodded. “A fierce name.”
The silence between them turned awkward. Tim wanted to say something else to comfort the girl, but the words were lodged in his throat. After a few uncomfortable seconds he heard Ella whisper something quietly. She patted the tiger’s back and avoided Tim’s eyes. “Thank you.”
He looked at her curiously. “What for?”
“For being here, with me. Without you I’d have been all alone. I thought I was. That’s why I screamed like that. Because I was scared.”
He grimaced, taking her hand and pumping it lightly. He didn’t want to admit he was just as happy with her presence here. “This has to be some kind of misunderstanding, you’ll see.” But even as the words left his mouth, the shivers running down his spine called him a liar.