Disclaimer: Still ain't mine.

A/N:...I've got nothing. Read!

The life after

Chapter 2

I was very nervous about calling her later that day. I picked up the phone and just listened to the tune while I was trying to collect myself.

Mum entered the room. "Hi, sweetie," she said and smiled at me.

"Hi," I replied without much enthusiasm.

"Who are you calling?" she asked.

"Err, nobody!" I said quickly and slammed the phone back on.

Mum looked at me. Then she sent me a daring smile. "Are you calling a girl?"

"No way!" I exclaimed. "I'm... uh, calling Luke. We were talking about doing something with Joey and Spence later."

"Right," Mum said, but I knew she didn't believe me by the stupid grin on her face. Then she turned serious, changing the subject. "Hey, you did remember to play some piano today, right? We had a deal."

"But Mu-um!" I started, clenching my fists.

"No 'buts'!" she said. Now her face turned irritated. "You said you'd practise today!"

"I forgot!" I muttered angrily, glancing down at my shoes.

"Yeah, you forgot - on purpose!" She rolled her eyes and sighed, crossing her arms over her chest. "You always 'forget', don't you? You always have some good explanation for not doing what I'm telling you to."

"Okay, fine! I have a date!" I yelled, not realizing how angry I actually sounded.

Mum just starred at me blankly for a second. Then she smiled exited. "Really?"

"Yeah..." I knew I was blushing. "Now stop treating me like a baby! I'm 17 years old."

"I'm sorry, Wally," she said, smiling. "It's just that you haven't had a date for a while."

"I know," I muttered. "I didn't want to date anybody."

"Fair enough," Mum said. "You can drop the piano lesson today."

"Thanks," I said. "Can you leave me alone now? I have to call... the girl." How embarrassing!

"Don't I get to know her name?" she asked with a tricky grin.

"Her name's Kuki, that's all you need to know!" I sneered. "Now leave."

Mum looked like she thought hard about the name for a second. Then she looked at me with a big smile and blinked. "Oh, Kuki." And with that she left the room.

What was that all about? It was as if she knew the name. As if she knew who Kuki was... No way! I thought. If I barely know who she is, how the Hell can my mum know who Kuki is?

I finally got to call Kuki. We agreed about meeting each other outside the movie theatre. I let her choose a movie. I can't even remember the name of it. It was so boring! But I didn't tell her. After all I didn't want to sound like an ass! Besides, I barely knew her. What if I'd upset her? At least she enjoyed it. I kept peeking at her all the time. She didn't seem to notice. Guess that was for the better.

When the movie was over we went a stroll in the park. "I'm really glad we did this, Wally," she told me, gazing at the stars above us.

"What, the stroll or the movie?" I asked.

"All of this," she replied. "It's been very fun. At first I didn't think I liked you this much, but I was wrong." She looked at me.

I smiled carefully. "Yeah, it's been fun. But I sort of liked you from before I met you face to face."

"What do you mean?" she asked, frowning.

"I've always thought that you're pretty," I admitted nervously, avoiding eye contact, while tugging one of the sleeves of my hoodie.

She laughed. "Thank you! You're cute."

"I am?" I was surprised to hear her say that.

"Yes." She grinned.

"Listen, Kuki... There's something I've been meaning to tell you," I said and stopped. I looked into her eyes. "Well, I haven't actually been for a long time, I sorta made it sound like that. But there's something I want you to know."

"What is it, Wally?"

I took a seat at the nearest bench. Kuki sat down next to me. I stared at her. She stared back, waiting for me to talk.

"I've been having a strange dream for a long time now," I began. "It's about me running around in a foggy forest. This girl is calling my name over and over. When I finally find her, she acts as if she knows me and hugs me. And all the sudden something breaks us apart. Then I see myself falling into a black hole - and then I wake up. It's been happening many times, and I'm getting worried about it. It's like a nightmare to me now!" I stopped talking and took a deep breath. "And do you know what the really weird part is?" Kuki shook her head, listening closely to every word. "That little girl that calls my name - is you." I looked at her with serious eyes. "It's you, Kuki."

She looked surprised. "I had this dream a long time before I got to know you," I told her. "In my dream we're only about 10 years old. You're wearing an oversized green sweater and black tights. My hair is bowl-cut, just the way it was when I was a kid."

"An oversized green sweater?" she asked shocked. "I always wore that when I was younger. But I can't remember it. We have a few family photos at home where I wore that sweater. It's just so weird that I can't remember it. It's as if most of my childhood memories are wiped out."

"Mine, too!" I exclaimed. "It was so weird. I remember everything clearly from that day I woke up in my back yard 4 years ago, not knowing how I got there in the first place. I can still remember it all. I saw this little girl with a blond ponytail. From that day of I can remember everything."

"You saw the girl with the blond ponytail, too?" Kuki yelled and jumped to her feet. "That happened to me, too! All of it!"

I got up, too. "This is creepy," I muttered. Then a thought hit me. I lowered my eyebrows at her and looked at her suspiciously. "You're not kidding with me, are you?"

"I wish I was," she said, lowering her eyes and folding her hands together. "I can't remember anything from before that day I woke up in my back yard. All the sudden I saw this little girl that you mentioned. She ran off before I got a closer look at her. But she was wearing this strange suit."

"Wow..." I felt like my legs were about to yield underneath me. Somebody had actually experienced the same thing I had. I wasn't crazy!

"What do you think happened to us, Wally?" she asked.

"I-I don't know..."

I walked Kuki home. None of us felt like talking that much. We were both totally without a clue. It was too much for us, and now we had a lot of thinking to do.

"Thanks for everything, Wally," Kuki said when we were standing on her front porch. "Today was really great." She gave me a hug.

I knew I was blushing. "We've got to do this again sometime."

She nodded with a big smile on her face. "Good night, Wally."

"Good night, Kuki." We smiled at each other before she went inside the house.

This had been a grand day, a day I never would forget. I knew there was something between us now. I think maybe I was falling for her completely. I was singing to myself the entire walk home.

It was late. I checked the living room. It was empty. My parents had obviously gone to bed. I went upstairs to my room and lay down on my bed. All I wanted was to just lay there and think about everything that had happened that night. I realized that something had happened to Kuki and me when we were younger, but I wasn't sure of what it was. Maybe we knew each other once? I thought, biting my lip.

I thought hard about my past as I got back up and went into the bathroom. I could remember moving to America. I could remember a lot from kindergarten. I could remember my first day of school, and other certain things that had happened. I could remember our family vacations. Then one day it all stopped. I remembered nothing more. I just knew that I had grown up and had a nice childhood obviously. Then I could remember everything just clear from that day when I was 13 years old.

It's just so strange, I thought, looking at myself in the mirror. I brushed my teeth quickly and went back to my room. Then I took of most of my clothes and slipped under the covers in my bed. I was happy to lie down, to be able to shut the world out and just think. My thinking didn't get me anywhere else than into a deep sleep.

I opened my eyes. I wasn't in my room anymore. I was in a different room. And I had waked up in a wrestling ring. No, wait! I was standing in a wrestling ring. The ring was up in a branch that was sticking through the wall. I looked down outside the ring. It was far down to the floor.

Who'd put a wrestling ring in a branch inside a house? I thought. There was a ladder stuck to the branch that could lead me down to the floor. The branch was also sticking through the floor.

It all looked like a house of wood. A very poor house. It looked like a kid had done the job designing it. And building it...

Over at one of the walls there was a door. I went out of it. On the other side of the door the number 4 was painted on with red paint. I was now in a hall. I went to the nearest window and looked out. I was high up in a huge tree house! How'd I get up there?

"Hi, Wally!" I heard a voice from behind me call.

"Kuki?" I turned around.

She was standing a few feet away from me. Now she was only around 10 years old.

"I've been looking for you," she said. "Numbuh One told me to go get you, we're going to have a meeting upstairs."

"What are you talking about?" I shouted. Then I noticed that I was about 10 years old, too. My voice was lighter and my hair was once again bowl-cut.

Kuki looked at me with a strange face. "Are feeling OK, Wally?"

"No!" I yelled. "What is going on here? And who the crud is Numbuh One?"

Kuki laughed. "You're funny! Numbuh One is our leader, stupid head."

"Leader of what?" I asked.

Now she turned serious. "Of Kids Next Door, Wally! Geez, what is up with you today?"

"Kids Next Door?" I repeated shocked.

I got up with a gasp. "Kids Next Door!" I whispered.

I let my head rest in the palms of my hands. "What a weird dream..." Was this some kind of clue? Was this something that could lead me to my answers?

The next day I called Kuki and told her about the dream. She sounded upset about it. Like as if she knew what I was talking about, just not completely.

Mum told me to practice my piano playing before I did anything else. "It was part of the deal," she told me. "You got to go on your date yesterday, now you practice."

As I sat down to play a voice rung in my head. "I hate cruddy pianos! Why don't they all just blow up?" And it was my voice! My voice when I was younger. I could remember some hate for pianos as younger, but when did I say that?

I still didn't like playing piano, I just did it because of Mum. If I'd object she'd get pissed and we'd start a huge argument, which probably would end with her winning somehow anyway. She usually makes a good point. She always wanted me to go to a private school and stuff, but I said no. She also wanted me to start an acting class, but I said no! She always wants me to do classy things, but I never feel like it. I'm rather laid-back. I dress the way I feel like. We've been arguing about that, too, but I won that round.

Okay, so I'm pretty good at playing piano, but I'm not very proud of it. You might have noticed that some of my friends make fun of me for it.

When I was done with my piano lesson I went over to Luke's. I wanted to tell him about my date. He knew that Kuki and I went out the night earlier, but I knew he wanted details.

"Did you kiss her, dude?" he asked me, grinning. He sat down on the couch.

"No, I didn't feel like it," I admitted, lowering my eyes. "But she told me that she liked me." I sat down in an arm chair, the chair I usually sit in when I'm there.

"Cool," he replied. "But next time you slip her the tongue!"

"Don't be gross!"

"What, it's just facts!" he called out.

"Yeah, maybe I'll kiss her, but the way you put it, it sounds so disgusting!" I told him. "And I really don't want the relationship between her and me to be disgusting. Not that I'm counting on us ending up with going steady or nothing."

"What ever," he muttered. Then he changed the subject. "Hey, you want some soda?"

"Sure, why not," I replied, shrugging.

He went into the kitchen and got two cans of coke. He tossed one of them over at me when he got back and I caught it with one hand. I opened it. "Luke - did I ever tell you about the crazy dream I had about these hamsters that stole my cans of soda?"

He was taking a big sip of his coke as I said that. Now the soda ended up on the floor as Luke started laughing like a hyena. I had to laugh by the funny sight.

Luke stopped laughing eventually. Then he looked down on the floor. "You're helping me cleaning this up, Wally," he said seriously.