Thin Air

“Yeah, well, that’s Marvin for you. Hey. I’m Cherise. I’m the dumbass who runs around in the bikini to give the surf forecast.” Cherise rolled her eyes to show it didn’t really bother her. From this side of the conversation, I could tell that it wasn’t an act; ru

I watched the former me make a face that I resolved I would never, ever make again. “Oh, fabulous. Is he always that-?”

“Grabby? Always,” Cherise said, and leaned forward. “Okay, time for the potential compatibility quiz. Who’s the sexiest man alive?”

“Uh…” Joa

“Acceptable answers include David Duchovny, Joh

“I don’t watch a lot of television,” the other me confessed. Well, I consoled myself with the thought that losing my memory clearly hadn’t made all that much difference in my conversational skills.

“Well, I watch a lot of television,” said Cherise. “So you’ll need to catch up. I’ll give you a list of what you can start with, and yes, there will be quizzes later.”

Joa

“Pretty much. I’m little, but I’m fierce,” she said, and inspected Joa

That would have thrown most people. It definitely threw me now, observing, but Joa

Cherise blinked, looked at her nails, then at her shirt. “Damn. You’re good. Shopping,” she said. “Tonight. Shopping and mojitos. Seriously, anybody who can one-up me on color analysis must be worth my time.”

Then-me looked a little taken aback by that, searched for a reply, and then said, with a hilarious amount of consideration for Cherise’s potentially bruised feelings, “I’m not, you know, gay or anything.”

Cherise found that fu

Joa

“Deal,” she said.

It was a warm place to be, and I wanted to stay there, bask in that sensation of liking and being liked.

But I couldn’t stay.

There was a blurring sensation, like being pushed hard from behind, and I jumped tracks, falling endlessly, falling, lost, and then there was a sudden burst of light.

Rapid-fire memories. Fragments of conversations. Ice cream on the couch, watching movies with Cherise. Shopping. Chatting.

Normal life. I’d had a normal life, once.

Another lurching sensation, a blur, and when I blinked it away, Cherise was pushing open a door from a dark hallway to the outside world. Time had passed, although I didn’t have a good notion of how much. She looked over her shoulder, and I saw Joa

“So,” she was saying, “What do you think? Hot Topic? And maybe some Abercrombie. Then lunch.”

“Girl, do you ever do anything but shop?” Joa

“Well, I was thinking of dropping by the chess club, but you know how shallow those guys are…”

“Shut up.”

It was a bright, sunlit morning. The air was muggy and warm, with just a hint of salt air breeze. Joa

Cherise, of course, looked even better. She was like orange sherbet, layered in pastels, all edible colors. She could have stepped out of a hair product commercial. The poster child for healthy and vibrant.

“Just for that, I’m adding Old Navy to the list,” Cherise said, and checked her purse. She frowned at a mirror and touched up her lipstick as they crossed a weedy picnic area behind the building they were exiting, toward a parking lot. “And I’m going to make you eat sushi, too.”

“Hey,” Joa

Cherise looked up, alarmed, and focused on a man standing near the cars in the fenced-off parking area. I felt the surge of pure adrenaline go through her, sending her heart rate soaring. “Dammit. I really thought that restraining order thing would work.”

Joa

“Don’t,” Cherise whispered, and grabbed her arm. “Let’s just go back in. We can call security-they’ve got his picture. They know to call the cops.”

“Yeah, that’s done a hell of a lot of good so far,” Joa

Cherise sighed. I could feel the dread in her, honest and real. “Six.”

“And phone calls?”

“God, I lost count. And don’t even talk about the ugh-worthy letters.”

“Then this guy needs a stronger message,” Joa

“But-Jo, you can’t-”

Apparently, she certainly could. I watched myself walk purposefully toward the shifty-looking fellow standing near the red convertible. He was wearing an overcoat-a dead giveaway of weirdness in the current heat wave-and even from Cherise’s distance looked like he needed not just a shower but a full-scale disinfection. Wild-eyed, wilder-haired.

Scary.

Joa

Joa

Who suddenly lashed out at her with a fist.

I had to admit-this former version of me clearly had fantastic reflexes. She leaned back, and his punch sailed cleanly past her chin. He snarled and reached in his pocket and pulled out…a knife.

“Call the cops!” Joa

They scrambled. Cherise blurted out the facts to the 911 operator and hurried back out to follow, terrified of what she’d find…