What I Wanted To Believe

My memory was going.

That’s what I wanted to believe.

I kept losing time. Two hours, then three, then a whole day.

I would be in one place and then I would be in another with no memory of how I got there.

I talked to my husband about it.

He said I was working too hard.

We should go on holiday, he said.

He went online and found a nice bed and breakfast on the Isle of Wight.

Remote. Picturesque. We would get away from it all, he said.

It was delightful. Fresh air, the sea, endless meadows.

The strain of my London job fell away from me like an old coat.

We went for a walk outside the castle.

I smiled at my husband and heard the sound again, that familiar yet strange sound coming from everywhere and nowhere.

Once again I remembered as I began to float away.

 

What Pegman Saw

10 comments

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  1. k rawson

    Imperfect brainwashing. Sounds like they need to wipe the chip and start again ;-)

    Really captures that dreamy sense of failing memory. Or so I suspect. I really can’t remember.

  2. EagleAye

    My gosh, I’d half believe she was working at the American Embassy in Cuba. Maybe they (Russians?) are starting another operation in London? You left plenty of room for theories in this one.

  3. Lynn Love

    I like the opne endedness of the story – and the range of theories as to what’s happening here. Personally,I’m going with an extreme witness protection programme, where even the person in protection doesn’t even know who they really are. She has an implant in her brain and every time a memory surfaces, the implant zaps her, making her forget again. But the stirred memories are becoming stronger, more persistent -one day soon she’s going to remember properyl and all hell will break loose.
    Great , imaginative take on the prompt, Josh

  4. prior..

    so, let’s see, beautiful?
    That is the word that keeps coming to mind.
    The way a vacay can refresh – from the heavy job – and maybe the impact of stress – or…. is it dementia setting?

Don't just stand there.