“Lasting Memories of Strange Days (A Fiction)” by Richard F. Yates
Snake was back… But back from where? He couldn’t remember…
“Well…what DO I remember? There was something about a photo-shoot for a t-shirt company??? And…did I have a black eye at one point? And wasn’t there a NEWS program that I was supposed to be on, with a ghost as a co-host? I’m so confused…” He slithered up to a bench (which he didn’t recall seeing just a few seconds before) and coiled up on it to think.
“Where am I, anyway?” He looked across the street and saw a restaurant, “Cow-Pokes Deli,” and a furniture store, Grumpy’s, next door to that. The sun was shining but hidden behind the tall facades of the buildings on the street. None of this looked familiar.
“You’re home,” said a hiss of a voice, “in lovely, downtown Henpeck.” A tall, wispy figure phased into view, shimmered, and moved a few centimeters to the left, then twitched back to the right---like a reflection rippling on the face of a pond.
“Henpeck?---Yeah, that sounds familiar,” Snake said. His tongue flicked the air searching for a familiar scent. “But where is everybody?”
“What do you mean? The streets are as busy as they always are on a Saturday…” the shimmering man’s arm swept in a wide arc across Snake’s field of vision, and Snake saw cars moving up and down the streets and sidewalks full of people and birds and dogs and monsters and ghosts, pushing strollers, swinging yo-yos, skipping along and holding hands and going about their business.
“It’s not right,” Snake said to himself. He still didn’t recognize anything or anyone. “Somethings…not quite…”
The shimmering man rippled again and was suddenly sitting on the bench a few centimeters from Snake. “Sure… This is Henpeck. The small town where you grew up. St. Valentine’s Hospital is only a few blocks away. You were born there. It’s right next to Lake Sacrifice, where the big Squirrel Days festival happens every summer!” The shimmering man smiled, and Snake felt a pulse of cold push through his skin.
“Squirrel Fest… St. Valentine’s… Yeah. It’s starting to come back… And wasn’t there a bunny?” Snake turned his head to look at the man on the bench, who rippled with a wave of red sparkles, then was suddenly standing.
“A bunny…” the shimmering man seemed to grind his teeth as he spoke, without actually having teeth… “I don’t know any bunnies,” he said as he dimmed and blurred, momentarily. “Don’t you want to get back to your house? Rest a bit? You’ve travelled a long way…”
Snake nodded and started to uncoil. He was about to slide off the bench onto the sidewalk---then stopped.
“I’ve travelled a long way? How do you know that?” Snake looked to where the man had been standing just seconds before, but he was now several meters down the sidewalk, standing ram-rod straight with his hands behind his back. He was smiling, his eyes hidden behind tiny, milky-white, circular lenses in golden, wire frames.
“I saw you get off the train, right around the corner at the Broadway Boulevard station. I just assumed you came from a long trip…” His smile twitched and flickered, and his head grew blurry, for just a second.
“The train… I was on a train?” The man was suddenly right next to Snake again.
“Yes. I’m sure it was a very long journey. You need rest.” He gestured for Snake to follow him.
“I do feel pretty tired,” Snake said. He slithered off the bench and started following the shimmering man down the busy sidewalk. None of the creatures or animals or people seemed to see them, but somehow neither Snake nor the man collided with anyone, either. They moved like ghosts through the crowd---but no ghosts seemed to notice them, either.
“Who are you?” Snake asked. He wasn’t sure where they were going, and he felt too tired to care.
“I’m just someone who’s trying to help you,” the shimmering man said.
“Help me?” asked Snake. “Why?”
“I work for the city, of course.” The man moved in waves---standing then walk-floating then standing again. He occasionally smiled back at Snake and wave for him to continue following.
“The city. Henpeck…” Snake slowed… “The town where I grew up…”
“Yes,” the man said, suddenly standing within centimeters of Snake. “You’re home now, and you’re very tired…” Snake’s body grew heavy. So heavy…
“Very tired… Yes…” Snake said. He was still moving…following the man, who was now a dozen or more meters ahead. “But who ARE you?” Snake said, half to himself, half in a dream…
“I’m Mr. Hologram…” the man smiled a bright, friendly, deadly smile---teeth, which he didn’t seem to have, but several inches long, clicking in his tiny mouth… “…And I’m here to help…”
Snake nodded. Mr. Hologram… THAT name sounded familiar---COLD but familiar---and he followed the man…as the shadows grew long…and twisted around him…and pulled Snake in…
---Richard F. Yates
(Primitive Thoughtician and Holy Fool)
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