Chapter 2
My eyes opened to light coming in through a window that caused me to frown, my window didn't let direct sunlight in, but it was the sound of birds from outside that really threw me. I felt totally disorientated, not recognizing the color of the walls and come to think of it where I was laying wasn't as comfortable as my bed. I slowly sat up realizing I was still dressed in my T-shirt and jeans and then saw the band around my ankle. Feelings of frustration and anger came flooding back into my head as well as the memories from the previous day. I stumbled into the bathroom to use the toilet and sink groaning when I saw the state of my hair and face. I looked as bad as I felt and really needed a shower. As the water heated up I undressed and looked down at the bracelet wondering if I could get it off without sending out an alarm, it was tight to my skin and to be honest was causing the skin to go red with the irritation from it and my ankle was beginning to swell a bit. I went to take my watch off and discovered it was missing along with any jewelry I'd been wearing, now they'd gone too far, those earrings were a gift from Ranger and I only changed them when I was going out somewhere special. Soaping up a sponge I washed myself and then tried to soap under the bracelet, it wouldn't budge and the more I tried to move it the more my ankle swelled. With a towel round my body and one round my head I went to the closet to find something to wear, as I moved them apart I had weird feeling that some of the clothes looked like mine and holding them to my nose smelt like mine as well. Once dressed and with my hair finger combed and tied back in a ponytail I emerged into the hallway. It was eerie, there was no noise coming from anywhere. As I entered the kitchen I saw Stretch sat at the table reading a newspaper and drinking coffee.
"Good morning Miss Plum what would you like for breakfast?"
I couldn't cope with the normality of his question when absolutely nothing was normal, my eyes watered and tears fell down my cheek.
"What's wrong Miss Plum?
I lifted my leg and placed my foot on the chair next to him.
"Look at my ankle, it's too tight, my ankle's swollen and sore"
"Oh dear, we need to sort that out"
"Yes you do"
"It must be one of the smaller ones because it won't go any bigger. Give me an hour to get a new one and then I'll swap it out"
He put the paper on the table and left me alone in the kitchen trying to decide what to do next. I found a bowl, cereals and milk and then poured out a coffee into a mug, the milk and sugar were already out on the table. As I sat down I noticed the newspaper folded up on the table next to me and couldn't help but read the name of the paper but picked it up just to make sure I'd read it correctly. The New York Daily News was what had my attention, was I in New York? It had todays date at the top and reports of local sports fixtures, shit, why New York and how was I supposed to get home? First things first I really needed to get my head around what I may have seen during the last week, I mean that would help whoever was going to come and question me but I felt I needed to write everything down, that way I could add detail to it and if I remembered something then I could add it. I placed my half eaten cereal and mug by the sink, no way was I washing things up, someone else could do it. In the lounge I started to look for a pen and paper but wasn't having much success, I didn't want to tell Stretch what I was planning on doing and I really didn't know why. Back in the kitchen I found a pen in one of the drawers but no paper, shit what could I use? Maybe there was something in the bookcase. Back in the lounge I ran my finger across the spines of the books, weird because most of them were Science fiction novels, not one book would have appealed to me. There was one poetry book that seemed quite thick written by someone called Stanley Kunitz so I took it down and began to flick through the pages realizing that the reason it was so thick was because there was only print on one side of a page. Could I write in someone else's book, I mean it was something I would never dream of doing, it seemed rude to defile the pages of a printed book, but the more I thought about it the more it seemed like a good idea. I took another book from the case and with both books in my hand went into my bedroom, according to Stretch there were no cameras in here but I spent the next 20 minutes making sure he hadn't lied to me. Once satisfied I opened the poetry book half way through and at the top of the page wrote down the day, Tuesday and underlined it, I needed to remember everything that had happened.
