I woke up in the hospital sometime later. Where the hell was I?
“Anna? Anna Masala?”
I sat up abruptly.
A man in a white suit was speaking to me. “Don’t worry. You were knocked out in that restaurant. There was some bleeding of the head but nothing major. Some bruising. But no real bad bruises. I’m surprised. It’s like you hit your head coming out of the car instead of being hit with a heavy metal bar.”
Car....did I hit my head on a car?.....no.... I was trying to remember something....something....but I don’t know what it was.... There was a bar....and a man.....and....a....a.....restaurant....and I was eating....I was eating something....what was it? I just knew there was something of great importance....something I had to remember....
“Now we can probably send you home,” the man continued, “but we have to make sure you’re all right. Blood pressure and blood sugar levels are fine. You’re functioning fine. Now follow the light.” He pulled out a small flashlight and started moving it back and forth. “No. Just with your eyes. Keep your head still.” I obeyed his orders, though this seemed stupid to me. “What does that sign say?” He asked. The sign said exit and I told him that. “Good. Here are your glasses.” I put them on for a moment. The world was blurred.
“Um person....Mister....my glasses don’t work. I see better without them than with....” I told him.
“Well that’s odd,” he stopped and thought. “Maybe that blow to the head was all you needed to correct your vision. Don’t do it again though.” I nodded my head. “Now stand up.” I obeyed. “Walk straight. Good. Sit down and cross your legs.” He hit the part under my kneecap. My leg lifted a bit. “Good. Any problems hearing me?” I shook my head. “Take a deep breath in.” I did so. “You’re in good shape. Are you having any pain in your head or on your body at all?” I shook my head. “You’re free to go. Sign out at the front and collect you papers. The bill will be in the mail. I think you should go to the eye doctor to get your eyes checked about those glasses. Other than that, keep eating healthy and exercising. Stay away from construction sites,” he smiled. I nodded my head and left.
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I scheduled an eye appointment in the days that passed. I was told I no longer needed my glasses. My vision was fine. I liked the idea. My ears were crooked anyway. The glasses never sat on my head correctly.
I still couldn’t forget what exactly was chewing on the corner of my mind. Restaurant, construction worker, bar. These words kept repeating in my head. But without much help. I couldn’t remember. Maybe I should have told my doctor that I couldn’t remember this. Of course he’d probably say that my memory will come back to me....
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One day on the treadmill I thought about it. I kept thinking and thinking and I totally lost track of time. I ran for twice as long as I usually run. I also picked up the wrong size weight while running. I was running with double the size of the weight. I didn’t feel bad at all.
I pulled the cord out and turned the switch off. Much to my surprise the switch had my fingerprints melted into it. The nylon cord’s weave was melted together. I stared at it for a while and wondered.
I started walking to the kitchen. My shoulder itched. I reached into the collar of my sweaty shirt to scratch it. The shirt....ripped. And then started disintegrating. A drop of sweat fell on the table and then started to bubble... What’s going on? I could think if only that incessant buzzing would stop. I looked all around the kitchen. Where was the buzzing coming from? There was no fly in the kitchen...
I followed the buzzing. Up up up. Finally I reached the attic. A fly was trying to get out of the window. I opened it for him. I watched the fly fly away for a while. Then I realized that I was watching it fly for way longer than I normally should. After all I shouldn’t be able to see the fly anymore....But for some reason I could.
I decided to leave the attic. It was hot up there and I was still sweating. I took a shower. Everything was chewing on my mind now. What exactly was it?
Maybe I should play a board game with myself.... I searched the games we had. Guess Who? No.... I hadn’t played that game alone since I was 7. What else did I have? Monopoly? No... I have bad memories of playing Monopoly with my grandmother... Somehow every time you looked her way she magically had more pink fifties than she started out with. I suspect her of cheating, but accusing people is disrespect, which is extremely disliked. She always won... and then rubbed it in my face. Dirty cheater...
Scrabble!! This is great. I can make up words all by myself! I took all the pieces out and started playing by myself.
Back, walk, mad, sad, bad, tag, black, indigo, etc. So many words. Such a small playing board. I hadn’t even gotten into complex words yet. I reached over to make the word green. Something was wrong.... I couldn’t spell it. I looked at all the letters. Why couldn’t I spell it? I held the y in my hand and thought. Why couldn’t I spell yellow? I smelled smoke. The Y block was smoking! I quickly dropped it. There was a burn mark on the corner where I was holding it.
I was thoroughly perplexed. I pulled over a piece of paper and a pencil. A B C D....What was next?.... I couldn’t think... Skip it I thought. F G H I J K L M N O.... What comes after O? I couldn’t figure it out.... Skip this one too... Q.... This was horrible. I couldn’t even say my alphabets. Uh... S T U V W X Y Z. Z was the end, right? Right I assured myself.
What was I missing? I looked at all the scrabble letters. Every letter I just named was there. But only those. Where were the letters I was missing? Where? Eh...I should call the company and tell them they hadn’t given me all the letters I thought. It wasn’t that I was angry about missing letters. I just wanted to know what was it that I was missing?
I stopped dead in my tracks. Eh, I thought again. Eh? E!! It was E!! I was missing E! Now I was getting somewhere. E? what else? I tried to say words. Back, black, yellow (which I could now spell by myself but not on the scrabble board because the block letter E was missing), mad, dad, sad, bad, tag, green, clean, beam WAIT! Green? Green? Guh....rrrr. Rrrr... R! R was another one! What else?
Complete, Complex, glass, tube, bottle, polish, lamp, desk LAMP! Lamp. What was it about lamp that wasn’t like the other words? Lamp felt weird to say. Why? What was it.... Llll...aa..mmm...puh. Puh! P!!! It was P!
But why? Why couldn’t I remember this? Puh...pr....no. Pr was wrong. No pr. Rp? Rp sounded even dumber. Rep? No. Preh? No. None of this was making sense at all.
Peh. Pehr... I just couldn’t get it. But I was excited. And jumpy. And....and pep! Peppy! I was peppy about this! The first time I felt upbeat in a while. I was actually making progress. Pep. Pep. That was it! Peppy? Pepr. Pepr! Pepper!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Suddenly it all came flooding back to me....
Peppers, spices, heat. I had an idea. An idea to help the world! And it had something to do with peppers? What was I going to do with peppers? Was I going to use the heat from peppers?
I looked at the y block. I had burned it. I kept seeing myself falling into a giant pepper. And I kept thinking of burning. And I looked at the block y again. I put the two together. Burn. I could burn!
I looked at my hand. I could burn. My hand combusted! I jumped back. I shook it out. I could burn AND fire too! I could Fire! My hand wasn’t burnt. It was strange. I could burn and fire....but I wasn’t getting hurt by it.
I looked up. I suddenly realized what I had to do.
