by Chris Wright
“Ha, well a couple of Session Ales does that for you” James said as they entered.
“Hey guys” David shouted over to the others as he entered the living room, “How are you? Happy Birthday Chief”
Samir thanked him and raised his wine glass in their direction.
“Hey, maybe we should give them a heads up about Danny?” James said to David.
David agreed, he had been acting strange and he was supposed to be heading over here soon.
“Yeah okay” David replied turning back to everyone else, “Well we just saw Danny while we were grabbing a couple of beers, he was acting weird. He ran in and started asking us where Olivia was, like we knew who that was. He then started saying that we know her from years back. We really didn't know what to say, it was strange. Anyway, he's popping over later so he's probably going to bring it up with everyone here, so we thought we'd let you know in advance”
“I don't know what he was smoking” laughed James, “But he seemed so sure we should know her. It's probably a quick fling he had and was drowning his sorrows maybe”
They changed the conversation back to normal subjects, what they had been up to, had they seen a new film that was at the cinema and so on, as the other guests slowly filtered through the door to join the party. They relayed the same information to each guest as they arrived, and not one of them there could remember anyone called Olivia. They were all in agreement that if Danny brought it up, they couldn't pretend to go along with it and would just be honest that they didn't know her and maybe stop taking these quick flings so seriously. But where was Danny? He was normally the most punctual, but was going to be the last one to arrive.
It was fifteen minutes later before he finally knocked at the door. Monique opened it and gave him a big embracing hug and a kiss on the cheek.
“How are you Danny?” She asked, “We were getting worried, you're quite late”
“Sorry, I don't know what happened. I seem to keep missing five minutes here and there and then suddenly I'm running behind. I must just have too much on my mind, plus I keep noticing things that seem out of place, it's strange” he said looking a little confused, “I need to ask about Olivia”
Here we go thought Monique. He had only just stepped in the door and it was going to start already.
Danny approached the lounge and saw everyone was there. Samir, the Birthday boy, David, James, Mike, Emma, Mateo, Gina, Jarrah and Brandon. It was quite a gathering, practically the whole group of friends, except no Olivia. She should be here, Danny thought.
“We know what you're going to ask” said David, “But we have discussed it with everyone here and none of us know anyone called Olivia”
Danny was now more annoyed with David, this silly joke had angered him at the bar, why is he carrying on with it he thought. Was this all a big joke to him? Obviously David and James had continued their funny little charade and told everyone here to go along with it before he got here. That's what has happened. But then that doesn't explain where Olivia was and the state her house was in. He needed to stop this stupid joke first and foremost before he could try and find out where she was, so called over to Monique.
“Have you got the old college yearbook?” he asked. He knew there was a picture of her in there, with him, Monique, David, Brandon, Jarrah and Mateo. It was a group photo taken a few weeks before they graduated, sitting on a grassy bank. This would shut David and James and their pathetic little joke up once and for all.
“Of course” Monique said and disappeared into another room to look for it.
There was an uncomfortable silence while she was gone, no-one wanting to change the subject quite yet. In the silence, Brandon handed Danny a beer. Brandon and Danny were close friends in childhood, they stayed friends throughout but they never quite reclaimed those glory sunny days of being ten years old, playing out in the woods, pretending to be action stars, performing dangerous stunts from trees. Brandon was an athletic black guy, the hundred metre sprinting champion on any sports day, and two hundred metres, or whatever distance you told him to run. Damn, this guy was fast. He was also clever, after College he started studying cell Biology and ended up being a Cell Biologist, his research was cutting edge and was well regarded as the top DNA/Cloning Expert in his field. They still shared a bond from those glory days, but it was something that just simmered underneath the surface. They weren't best friends, it was a mutual respect for the other as they both shared parts of their life journey together.
Monique reappeared with the yearbook and flicked through. She wasn't quite sure what this Olivia was supposed to look like and was having to read all the names on each page. This was going to take forever she thought, so she handed it to Danny.
He flicked through himself, much quicker, as he knew where he was looking. He got to the photo of them all sat on the grassy bank. Here it was he thought, this will stop this silly game. But the picture looked different, there was no Olivia in the picture. She should be stood on the end on the left next to David, her arm around his shoulder. But instead, there was no one there.
“Have you found her?” asked Emma.
Emma was white, with auburn hair, dressed more like she was going to a nightclub than a friend’s gathering. Short skirt, revealing top, maybe a little too much make-up. This was Emma though, she liked to make a show and stand out however she could, she'd always been like it. She was a cosmologist in her day job, which was complex and demanding work that required a lot of concentration so her personal life was almost like a second life, the complete anti-version of her day role.
Danny was now completely bewildered and had to sit down.
“No” he said, “I don't understand”
Monique put her hand on his shoulder to comfort him, she was concerned to see him like this. She told him to relax and whoever this Olivia was, she must have been bad news as she had really got under his skin. None of this was any comfort to Danny, as he was now wrestling with so many conflicting thoughts in his head. He didn't know what to say other than apologise while he sifted through his memories, trying to figure out what could be happening. He had looked at that picture a hundred times, she was there, to the left of David, and he even remembers the day it was taken. Didn't he? It didn't make sense. The rest of them struck up a new conversation, leaving Danny sitting there quietly in his own thoughts. They were all concerned about him, but rather than carry on entertaining his fanciful thoughts, they decided it better to let him process the breakup properly, if that's what it was. This Olivia must have been special to him to make him this crazed, they thought, they had never seen him quite like this before. The conversation turned to topical news, everyone liked to debate the issues of the day, it was a fun and sometimes frustrating part of the evening, depending on whether you could get your point of view accepted or not. About five minutes in, Danny stood up.
“Sorry guys, I need to go. Have a great evening, and I hope you've had a great day Sam” He said as he strode towards the front door, “sorry again”.
He left, abruptly closing the door, leaving the others looking at each other in slight bewilderment.
“I've never seen him like that before” said Emma
“No, me neither” said Mateo, “It's probably best to leave him for tonight, he looks like he has a lot to work out in his head”
“Yes, that's probably a good idea” said Mariam, “One of us should check in with him tomorrow though, just to make sure he's okay”
Mariam and Mateo were both lovers, an unlikely couple, but their history went all the way back to College and there was a deep ingrained connection between them. Mariam was Arabic, brought up by a strict family that she had managed to break free from in her college years. She respected what her family and culture was but it wasn't for her, which was something that caused a huge rift between her and her relatives. Mateo had helped her through all that angst and that was part of the reason they were so close. She was a Geneticist, highly skilled, and highly methodical. She was q
uite a straight-faced looking woman, if it wasn't for her bursting into laughter more than anyone else, you'd think she was emotionless. Of course, she wasn't, but it was just the way she had grown up, to keep her thoughts and feelings inside so as not to cause shame. It was a habit she could never quite break.
Mateo was Hispanic, a genius software engineer. He grew up in a big family, they all competed for the attention of their mother, the father had left many years before and no one could trace him. His siblings all worked hard to bring more money into the house, and their mother was thankful. Mateo was the youngest and was the only one who ventured further than college, he gained a great foothold in one of the best universities in the state. So, they were an unlikely couple, and people often had to glance twice at them walking hand in hand, but that didn't bother them, it was their little world and they had shared love that went deeper than most peoples.
They all tried to put Danny's strange state of mind to the side and enjoy the evening, as this was supposed to be a celebration for Samir. They were all obviously concerned about Danny, but they would check up on him tomorrow. They spent the rest of the evening joking around, playing silly games and drinking just a little too much. It was Friday tomorrow, so most of them had to be up for work, but the chances of none of them calling in sick was quite slim. They had complicated debates on the latest cutting-edge developments in each of their respective fields, from Engineering Physics, thanks to Jarrah to Robotics, courtesy of Gina. Gina, an Asian woman with a slight frame and an infectious smile was the oddball in the group, quirky and with a crazy sense of humour. The highlight of the evening was her making up songs with Jarrah, a native aboriginal, playing his home-made didgeridoo. This wasn't the first time they had done this, it was a regular and quite bizarre reoccurrence, although normally Mike joined in the jam with his acoustic guitar and completely ruins it, with his off-key vocals and out of tune strings. After far too many drinks and equally too many laughs, they all started to make their way home, praying that a hangover was not on the cards the next morning.
Back at Danny's house, he frantically riffled through his closet to find his yearbook. This was driving him insane. The only explanation is that they were all having a sick joke, part of the fun for Samir's Birthday and they had somehow doctored the photograph in Monique's album to put the icing on the cake. Tomorrow they would all own up and apologise while laughing loudly about it all and Danny would join in, with Olivia making a sudden reappearance as if resurrected from the dead. He found the album and quickly paged through it to find the picture. Here it was he thought, there she is on the left. Except she wasn't there, where he clearly remembered her smiling face and her arm around David's shoulder, it was empty, nothing except for the grassy bank that was behind them. Danny dropped the yearbook in shock and slumped to the floor. He couldn't understand it, his memories of her and everything felt so real, but there appeared to be no sign she ever was real. But he knew her, he had spent time with her for years, hadn't he?
Chapter Two – Forest of Splinters
Friday
Danny awoke with a start as if a thousand nightmares had convalesced into one gigantic crash that made him leap from his bed. He looked across at the alarm clock and realised that he was ten minutes later than he expected to be. He seemed to be waking a little later each day and he couldn't understand why. He never needed to set his alarm as his body clock was always in perfect sync, but it looked like he couldn't trust his natural ability to stir from his slumber all of a sudden. He noticed he was sweating a little, and remembered having a series of graphic and frightening dreams. He was normally a sound sleeper and rarely had nightmares, so this was even stranger.
He got up and made his breakfast as usual, mindful to hurry a little bit with each task to try and make up the ten minutes he had lost. Something wasn't right, he didn't know if he was losing his mind or not, the events of the previous day were still weighing heavy on him. He had to try and understand what was happening, the memories were so clear that it made no sense. Was he having some kind of breakdown? He pondered over it as he munched his morning cereal and made the decision to phone in sick and get an appointment with a psychiatrist. He may not be able to get in at such short notice but he would try, and whether he could or couldn't, he really didn't think he could face work today. He wasn't sure of a decent one in the area so decided to phone Samir. As a doctor he would know a reputable one, and preferably one that didn't charge too much.
He made his call to work, told them he was sick with a voice as gruff as he could manage, and then flicked through his contacts to find Samir, promptly dialling. After a few rings, Samir's familiar voice greeted him.
“Hey Sam” Danny said, “apologies for bailing out so early last night, my head was kind of all over the place, well it still is, I guess. Did you have a good birthday?”
“Yeah it was great” Samir replied, “I can't remember that much by the end of the night to be honest, ha-ha. I can't remember you leaving that early, but the details are sketchy when I think back”
Danny thought that it was an odd reply as he could have sworn he'd only been at Monique's for around five minutes, but put it down to all the alcohol Samir had indulged in. It was either that or Danny's own memory was getting even more seriously screwed up, which was something he really didn't want to contemplate at that moment.
“So, well, I was wondering if you knew of or had an acquaintance who's a psychiatrist. Someone you trust who's good?” asked Danny.
“A Psychiatrist? Is everything okay?”
“Well I don't know, I'm hoping so, it's all to do with last night” Danny replied.
“Last night? Umm...okay. Well let me look, I'm thinking Steven might be the best bet, give me one second” Samir said as he thumbed through his address book. He had so many contacts in his profession that it was much better to have them written down in a good old-fashioned way “Yeah, Steven is cool, I would recommend him, Dr. Monroe”.
He relayed the number to him and Danny jotted it down.
“Thanks Sam. I hope everyone didn't find me too strange last night, I really should apologise to them” Danny said.
“I really can't remember” Samir replied.
“Well I know David and James thought I was crazy as I'd already mentioned it when I popped into the bar to see them”
“David?” replied Samir.
“Yes, and James, they were both in the bar before they met you guys” Danny informed him.
“Yeah, I remember James saying he'd stopped off on his way to us, but David? Was he someone James was with, in the bar?” Samir asked.
“David, David, you know David”, Danny said frustrated. Was Samir playing jokes with him too now?
“Sorry Danny, I don't know a David, you must be getting mixed up”
Danny swallowed hard, trying to compute all this nonsense, this couldn't be happening again.
“I'm not playing any more games Sam, I know you know David, we were all at Uni together, this is just nonsense and not funny, I can't be doing with it” Danny snapped back, “But thanks for the number, I will ring him straight away”
“Ok, look, sorry, you sound upset, I'm just saying I don't know who it is you're talking about, James arrived on his own last night”
Danny muttered something under his breath that Samir couldn't hear before thanking him again and putting the phone down. Samir was confused, Danny seemed adamant that someone called David was at the party, but Samir can't remember anyone by that name and they certainly weren't with James. It certainly sounded like Danny had some issues, perhaps seeing Dr.Monroe was the best thing for him.
Danny phoned Mr. Monroe shortly after, not sure whether he would have to say what he thought was wrong with him. If he did, he had no idea how he would relay it. He managed to get an appointment for later that day and thankfully didn't have to divulge anything, although he knew that it was only delaying the inevitable. That was a lot easier than he thought, he honestly didn't expect to get in tod
ay at such short notice. He was still confused about Olivia, and Samir had only added to the confusion. He was clearly joking when he said he couldn't remember David, he was there just last night, they all spoke, they all knew each other. He was already questioning his memories and it wasn't helpful for his so-called friends to be playing tricks on him. They may find it funny, but it was only adding to Danny's paranoia and nervousness at what he felt was happening to him.
He had a few hours to relax before he needed to set off, so he decided, being a creature of habit and still unable to accept that he could be going mad, to stop off at the coffee shop and see if anyone had seen Olivia. He was also hoping that Julie might be there, she would be able to corroborate seeing Olivia, and if not then he knew that something really must be wrong with him. He would need a photograph of Olivia to show people, so searched desperately for one. He couldn't find any, yet he knew he had loads of them dotted around. He even checked on his computer and where he expected there to be pictures of the two of them or her with the rest of the group, there was nothing. He took a deep breath as he started to question his sanity further.
He decided the best thing to do was set off for the coffee shop and see if he could find Julie, and so with that he pulled on his coat and picked up his keys. It was the usual short walk to the coffee shop, the air was fresh and crisp again, it almost made his doubts and stress fade away. As he approached the coffee shop, he thought he saw Julie walking away as if she had just visited, he looked at his watch and noticed he was another ten minutes later than he expected, to which he shook his wrist violently. His watch must be playing up now too, great, something else to deal with.
He ran towards who he thought was Julie and cried out her name. The lady turned around and he saw that it wasn't Julie at all. In fact, she looked completely different to what he thought he had just seen, different colour hair, different clothes, and a different build. He must be under so much stress and confusion he thought, that he was now seeing things. He entered the coffee shop and looked around for Julie, but she didn't seem to be there. He knew it was probably a long shot, but he didn't think it would hurt to look. He asked the lady behind the counter if she had seen Julie or Olivia and she hadn't, of course she hadn't, maybe he'd imagined Julie too.