Go Home

Wr:  I’ve been a terrible blogmiss and have been skipping saturdays.  So here is an extra Sunday Flashie for y’all.

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“Do you remember Avalon?”

The young man was slumped over in his chair, dressed in green-grey pajamas and bare feet.  He didn’t answer.

“Terry?”  The voice asked again.  “Mr. Theodore Chance?”

“I want to go home.”  The young man muttered into the table, refusing to sit up.  Across the table sat a man in a lab coat, a man in a suit, and a woman casual clothes.  To the right hand of the woman sat a video camera, with a large microphone pointed at the young man.  All of them – man, woman, camera – were watching him and waiting.

“Terry, we need to know if you remember Avalon.”  The man said.

“I want to go home.”  The young man repeated, more firmly.  Still slouching over the table, he lifted up his head to glare at each of them in turn.

“You want to go back to your bunk, Terry?”  The woman asked, her words thick with an accent.

“What?”  He looked up at her.  There was a silver circle on his temple, with a bit of medical tape across it.  “What?  No, I want to go home.  What are you talking about?”

“Miss Diane, he’s growing agitated.”  The man in the labcoat said.

“Yes I am!”  The young man shouted, slamming his fists into the table.  When he did so, he noticed the IV line in his arm, and followed the line back up to the IV bag hanging above his head.  “And what is this?!”  He shouted, starting to pull the tape off of the IV needle.

“Stop!”  The man in the labcoat shouted.  “You’ll harm yourself – “  He let out a long sigh as Terry tore away the tape and pulled out the needle.

Terry pushed his seat away from the table, ready to stand, watching the other people.  “I want to go home.”  He said firmly.

“Terry, this is your home.  For now.”  The woman said calmly.  “Do you remember coming to live here?”

“I did no such thing!”  He shouted.

“Do you remember Avalon?”

“Stop asking me that!  I don’t remember this place, and I don’t remember any of you people.”  He said, exasperated and confused.

“Doctor Rabe, could I speak to you outside?”  The man in the suit asked in an imposing monotone voice.  The man in the labcoat nodded, and the two men left the room.

Now only the woman sat across the table from Terry.  She watched him for a moment before reaching over and switching off the camera.

“Please sit down, Terry.”  She said calmly.  He sat back down, waiting to see what she had to say.

“I want – “ He began, but was interrupted when she said:

“You had a dream last night.”

The statement was matter-of-fact, cool and smooth as it left her lips.  She was right, of course, but Terry didn’t think much of it.

“A dream about a place.  A place you’ve been before.”  She continued.  She was right.  Terry looked confused, his brow furrowing and his expression becoming less annoyed.  He looked curious.

“A place that you really, really want to get to.”  The woman lowered her voice, leaning in slightly.  Terry unknowingly mirrored her actions, hanging on each word.  It fit so perfectly with the thoughts in his mind.  He did have a dream.  He did want to go back there.

“And if you think really, really hard -”  She was whispering now, leaning in closer.  “ – thinking all the way back into the dream, you’ll remember what it was called.”

Terry sighed, partly in relief and partly in confusion.  His eyes raced back and forth across the tabletop, grasping at the shreds of dream-thoughts that sat at the back of his mind.

“Avalon.”  He whispered.  “It was called Avalon.”

The silent moment of revelation was interrupted when the woman smacked the tabletop with her open palm.

“I told you, Roy!”  She shouted.  Terry jumped at the noise.  “Oh, sorry.”  She patted his hand, getting up from her seat.  The man in the labcoat re-entered the room, looking excited.

“Complete recall of visual and audio details?”  He asked.

“Complete.”  The woman nodded.  The man in the suit walked back in, and the woman looked triumphant.  “No memory of the past seven days, or of the hypnotic session.  But he still had the dream.”

“What?!”  Terry jumped up from his seat, not understanding the sudden statements.

“Sit down, Terry.”  The woman ordered.  He did so.  “Terry, go home.  Go back to Avalon.”  She said firmly, holding her hand out to him, palm up.  “Go home.”  She snapped her fingers.

Terry fell asleep.

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