Part Two

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“You think I don’t see who you really are. But I do.”

I looked up from the discharge paperwork to see Cody smiling at me. I’d gone back and tried to talk her out of leaving the hospital yet, but it was no use. She wasn’t rude or angry about it, just firm. She felt like she had given them enough time to do whatever tests they needed to do, and she remembered enough of her life now that she was ready to get back to it and remember the rest. I told her I understood, and I did, but I also held back some of my own doubt and worries. Not just about her memory, but

Is she really your wife?

how leaving before we had more answers might lead to more problems down the line. Not just for her, but for me and Evan. What if

You let a stranger, an invader, into your life? Into your son’s life?

she acted different with Evan and he didn’t understand why? Obviously she couldn’t stay there forever, but would a few more days to give them

me

more time to figure out things be so bad?

But I couldn’t say any of that to her. Not now. And especially not when what I was thinking was so impossible and insane. How could it not be her? What would that even look like? Some kind of body snatcher got her? She was possessed or a clone or something? That wasn’t the way real life worked. She had trauma from all this. Hell, maybe I did too. And it was making us act weird while we got past it. Nothing mysterious or terrible. Just people getting hurt and trying to get back to normal.

So I smiled back at her.

“I hope you do. I hope you know how much I love you. And I’ve only encouraged you to stay longer in the hospital because I want to make sure you’re okay.”

She nodded. “I understand that. I do. But I feel fine physically. And I really am remembering more every day. I think you being here helps a lot, and being home with you and Evan will help even more.”

I felt my heart speed up a little when she mentioned him and I tried to ignore it. “Um, so do you remember him yet?”

She pushed hair behind her ear as she leaned forward on the bed with a concentrated frown. “Maybe a little. It’s kind of like it was with you at first. I can see the place he would be, but I just can’t see him yet.”

I nodded slowly. “But you do remember me now? Like, not just since we’ve been in the hospital or from things you’ve been told, but you remember independent memories from before?”

Her eyes hardened slightly. “I told you I did. That it’s slippery still, but I do remember some. Or don’t you believe me?”

Sitting the paperwork down, I forced myself to go sit next to her on the bed and put my arm around her. “No, I do. I just…I don’t want you pushing yourself too hard. It may take time, and that’s perfectly okay.”

Cody leaned against my chest and put her hand on my leg. “That’s sweet. But I’m tougher than I look.” She looked up at me. “Now let’s go home.”

Giving her a light squeeze, I stood back up. “Yeah, let me tell the nurse and get the car. I think they’re going to make you ride the wheelchair out to the front even though you can walk.” I gave her a parting wave as I headed out of the room.

It wasn’t until I was in the small waiting room that led to the elevators that I stopped to catch my breath. What was wrong with me? Why was my skin crawling from her being near me?

And why was I still scared?

---

“Home sweet home.” I tried to sound cheerful as we pulled into the driveway, and for the next hour or so, things were so busy that I forgot to be anxious or scared. I took her on a tour of the house, showed her some of her things, and when we were done, she asked for some time to take a nap. I surprised myself by being a little disappointed when I shut the door to the bedroom and went back downstairs to eat lunch alone.

Maybe I really was just being weird about everything. She seemed more herself now, didn’t she? And didn’t being in a hospital, especially when you were the patient, make people weird and stressed? Besides, she wasn’t being unreasonable, was she? When I suggested we give her a couple of days at home before Evan came back, she agreed that would be best. She even joked that she didn’t want to freak him out by being weird. That sounded like Cody, didn’t it?

Sitting by myself, slowly chewing a sandwich, I made up my mind to set all my irrational doubts and fears aside. She was the one going through all this, not me. And she was the one being strong and reasonable while I wasted time and energy on what? Bullshit, that’s what. And it was time that I focused on her.

So that’s exactly what I did. Over the next day and a half, I spent most of my time with her. It was weird at first, but it got easier and more normal over time. My weird worries started circling back to my original relief and gratitude that she was okay, and the idea that I’d ever doubted that she was my wife seemed increasingly silly and strange.

That third day home, we spent the morning cleaning up some before Evan arrived in the afternoon. We were tired when we sat down, and I felt relieved that things felt closer to normal than they had since I first got the call from the hospital. Maybe remembering that day is what made me think about what Jesse had said when I’d gone to get stuff out of the car. Remember the car itself, and the license I had found.

A license that, despite all my claims to be past any concerns, I still had hidden in my trunk and hadn’t mentioned to Cody. Maybe I just asked what I did out of curiosity. Or maybe my worries weren’t quite as dead as I wanted them to be.

“So…um, do you remember a guy from the wrecker service coming out and helping you when you wrecked?”

Cody had been idly flipping channels, but I felt her tense next to me as she sat the remote down. “No. I told you, I don’t remember any of that. Why?”

I shrugged, trying to sound casual. “No real reason. I just…the wrecker guy I’ve been dealing with, he said that another guy…Ronnie or Robbie or something…had answered the call first.”

“So? Maybe he did. What does it matter? They got the car, didn’t they?”

I forced a laugh. “Oh yeah, they did. It’s just, the first guy never called back in or came back to work, and the Jesse guy I’ve talked to had to be the one to go get it.”

Cody sat quiet for several moments before giving a small grunt. “Hmph. Well, that’s weird. But no, I don’t remember.” She stood up and started walking to the stairs. “I have some more to do upstairs to get Evan’s room ready before they get here. Why don’t you go get the car back? Or get it towed somewhere that they can start fixing it at least?”

“I…yeah, sure, I mean I can. That’s a good idea. But is it a huge rush to do it today? The doctor said you don’t need to drive until your follow-up in a couple of weeks. I can always get it taken somewhere tomorrow.”

She turned back with a frown. “No, go ahead and do it if you don’t mind. I don’t like the idea of those people having my car. I’m pretty sure they already stole my license.” Her eyes fixed on mine. “You haven’t seen it, have you?”

I swallowed, a new tendril of fear uncoiling in my belly. “Um, license? Like a driver’s license? No, honey. I…wasn’t it in your purse?”

Cody shook her head. “Nope. Afraid not.” She held my gaze a moment longer and headed for the stairs. “See you when you get back.”

---

The door was locked at Wright’s Wrecker, but Jesse answered on the second knock. He looked both surprised and relieved when he saw it was me, ushering me in before closing the door back and locking it behind us. I glanced between the door and him.

“You closed? I can always come back later…”

He was already waving me down into a chair. “Nah, nah. Just doing some inventory and tax stuff today while it’s quiet. I appreciate the break. Damn stuff makes my eyes bleed.”

I grinned. “I understand. Well, it won’t take long, I’m afraid. I just wanted to pay off the car’s bill and get it towed over to the dealership so they can work on it.”

“Sure, sure.” He trailed off as he started looking through papers on his desk, less like he was looking for something specific than to give a mild impression that he was. “How’s things been going with your wife? Everything okay?”

His tone and wording were weird. Not “how’s your wife?”, but “how’s things been going with her” and was everything okay. I started to lie, but then stopped myself. “I don’t know. Okay, I guess. But it’s weird. She’s weird. I know it’s got to just be the accident, but it kind of feels like she’s a different person some times.”

Jesse’s eyes snapped up to mine. “Different how?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Weird. Kind of cold. Like she’s faking it or something. Which she has amnesia, so hell maybe she is. Who could blame her?”

The other man’s expression deepened into a frown as I spoke. “Steve, I wasn’t entirely honest with you the other day.”

“About what?”

“Well, when I said I don’t know anything about what might have happened to your wife and her car.”

I felt anger flaring in my chest. “What the fuck, man? Why wouldn’t you tell me?” I started to rise from the chair. “Is this about Robbie? Did he do something to…”

Jesse’s eyes had widened in surprise. “Robbie? Fuck, man. No. I mean not that I know of. I still haven’t heard from him, and the old man is planning on taking a warrant for theft if the truck isn’t back by the end of the week. Just calm down. Calm down and sit down, okay?”

I sat back down into the chair, my body rigid with anger. “Just tell me what you know. Now.”

“Jesus, listen. I said what might have happened. Let me be real clear. I don’t actually know what happened with your wife. But seeing all this, it did remind me of something that happened to my sister’s kid a few years back. I almost said something about it the other day, but it sounded crazy and I was embarrassed.” He sighed. “And I’ve felt guilty since. So no doubt, you’ll think I’m just a nut or an asshole wasting your time with made-up bullshit, but if you have a few minutes, I’d like to tell you about my nephew Cooper.”

“Okay. What about him?”

“About how he died when he was twenty. And he looked like a little dried up old man.”

---

My sister said the doctors called it Werner’s Syndrome. I remember because it sounded German, like something you’d have in a movie where some Nazi scientist had cooked up something evil. And what it did was evil enough. When Cooper was eighteen, he looked totally normal and healthy. Never had any real health problems his whole life, and back then I lived close enough that I saw him every week or two.

Then all of a sudden, he started changing. He was stooped over and gave out of breath easy. He looked worn down all the time. Then his hair started turning grey and his first tooth fell out. They were already getting him checked by then, of course. At first they thought it was cancer, but it wasn’t. And I don’t think it was that syndrome either. That was just doctors trying to put a name on something they didn’t understand.

Either way, it didn’t matter. My sister watched as her baby got eaten up in less than three years. I was there when he died in hospice. He was the last of them to go.

---

I blinked. “Last of them?”

Jesse gave me a ghastly, joyless grin. “Oh yeah. It wasn’t just him it was happening to. It was also his two best friends. Same fucking age, same fucking deal. They all aged eighty years in two or three. They all went crazy before the end,” He sighed. “Or at least so they say.”

I wasn’t sure how to react. I didn’t think he was lying to me, but even if it was all true, why was he telling it? Still, if it helped me understand what was going on in the end, I needed to keep him talking. “So you don’t think they went crazy?”

He shrugged and rubbed his face. “Hell, I don’t know. I know that they all got real strange, but who the fuck wouldn’t going through something like that? Seeing your life disappear in front of you when you’re still a kid?” Jesse shook his head. “And I know that one of his friends…one of the other two that were dying from whatever it was...they wrote a story about it. When her family figured out she’d posted it on the internet and word got around…well, my sister lost it. She was out of her mind with grief already, and she felt like the friend’s story was making light of it or would upset Cooper or…I don’t know. It just made things worse for all of them, I guess.”

“But the story, was it true or not?”

Jesse let out a loud laugh. “Fuck, man, I don’t know. I don’t know about all of it. Some of it was weird. Ritual with some stupid name and you know, typical internet ghost story bullshit the kids are into now.” He stopped laughing, and his eyes looked wary and afraid. “But I know at least parts of it were true.”

I stared at him. “How?”

He leaned back in his chair and looked at the ceiling. “Because I saw them that morning. The morning after the night they talk about in the story. I was working as a mechanic at a gas station at the time, and about six or seven, right after I got there myself, Cooper and his two friends come rolling up in his mom’s old Camry.” When he looked at me now, his expression was haunted. “They were all terrified. Like shaking and crying, and they were all filthy and stunk. I wanted to call the cops, but Cooper said it was okay. That they were okay. They just needed help cleaning up the car before they went home and my sister saw it.”

Jesse let out a long breath. “Those kids and the car…they had pissed and shit in there. I asked them how and why, but they said they couldn’t remember. But that wasn’t the worst part. It was the mud. A thick, dark mud that somehow stunk worse than the rest. I spent an hour spraying and vacuuming that car out with them helping me, and we got rid of most of it, but I could still smell it when we were d…”

“You think that’s like the mud on Cody’s car?” I didn’t want to stop him talking, but I couldn’t help but ask. I didn’t know what to make of any of this, but the more he talked, the more afraid I was growing. “Is that it?”

He nodded. “That’s part of it, yeah. When I got to the car, that mud was still fresh. I recognized the smell right away. That and other stuff from the story...seeing your wife’s car…” Jesse trailed off for a moment. “Coop made me promise to never tell his mom about that morning, and I kept that promise. I almost broke it about a hundred times. But they all seemed fine after that at first. And then when they started getting sick and aging wrong, people were talking about cancer and German syndromes, not cars filled with stinking dirt and shit. It felt like bringing it up would just cause more problems without helping anything.” Jesse wiped at his eyes and looked away. “By the time the story came out, it was too late. It wasn’t long after that the first of them died, and within a couple of months they were all gone.”

I puffed out a breath. “I’m so sorry. God.” We sat silent for a few moments when another question came to me. “Did the story talk about imposters? Like fake people or anything?” My stomach twisted as I realized I wasn’t embarrassed asking that question anymore.

Jesse waggled his hand side to side. “Kind of maybe? It was really bizarre. I think it talked about things climbing into the kids and people climbing out. People that weren’t really people. Shit, I didn’t believe it at the time, and I still don’t I guess, but…I don’t know. Seeing your wife’s car was kind of like seeing a ghost.”

“Did…did your nephew ever tell you more about what happened to them before you saw them that morning?”

Jesse shook his head. “No. If he ever talked to anyone about it, it must have been one of those other poor kids.” He grunted. “Well, I guess that’s not true. They found a note he’d written under his pillow when he died. It was a line from his friend’s story.”

“Do you remember it?”

“Yeah. It upset my sister so much, I don’t think I could ever forget it.” His face looked troubled as he uttered the words.

“There is only one of us.”

---

I was getting back in the car when I got a call from Cody’s number. I barely had time to answer before my wife’s voice was talking to me excitedly.

“Where are you?”

“I’m just leaving the towing place. Are you okay?”

“I’m way better than just okay! You need to get home soon!”

I frowned as I cranked up the car. “Why? What’s going on?”

“They got here early! Our baby’s home!”

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Part Four