Chapter Fourteen: The Cross Reference Section
"There are always curious circumstances, but once you make sense of them they don't seem as curious or circumstantial." -Anonymous
The rest of the day went by pretty smoothly; surprisingly nothing out of the ordinary happened and the school day was over with a fairly painless amount of time. Patricia was at her locker getting the last few things for her homework when Eddie spotted her.
He couldn't explain exactly what happened, but it was like something had gotten a hold of him and wouldn't let go. He was like a mad man. Before he knew it, he was practically sprinting over to Patricia so he could talk to her. "Patricia!" he yelled, "Patricia!" She spotted him coming towards her and slammed her locker shut. She swiveled on her heels and made a dash for the door.
She was going so fast that she barely noticed the wet floor sign. She would have been better off if she had worn her usual combat boots, but this morning Joy had coaxed her into wearing some dark heels and as soon as they touched that wet floor, Patricia went flying. She landed right on her back and hit her head on the floor. Eddie slipped too. As the papers were floating down from the sky, they were both zapped into a vision.
Eddie was in a dark place, but he couldn't tell if he was inside or outside. He thought he was outside because there was a bunch of fog, but he also thought he was inside because it felt like everything was really close together. He felt claustrophobic in here. He started to walk forward when he saw a wall. The weird thing was it didn't look like a complete wall. There were bricks but in the center there appeared to be a door. It wasn't a solid door either; it was like a cell door. A figure in a loose, white dress came forward from the inside of the cell. He looked at her and as soon as he distinguished the fiery, red hair he knew it was Patricia.
Again, he couldn't explain his thoughts, but somehow he knew that this Patricia was not the same one he'd been chasing only moments earlier. He ran to the cell and as soon as Patricia saw him, she had the biggest smile on her face. "Oh, Eddie," she said, "I was wondering when you'd find me." He looked at her. She was thinner than normal and a lot paler too. She wasn't dirty, but her hair had little shine in it. She was happy to see him, but you could tell there was a darkness behind her eyes.
"What is this place?" he asked while looking around.
"It's part of my mind," she explained. "It's the part that is supposed to hold Sibuna stuff, but that stuff is missing." She looked down at the ground. "A few nights ago, this place was full and I was keeping track of all of the information; you know, keeping it organized, that kind of thing. Then all of the sudden it all just vanished and before I knew it, I was in this little cell."
"Do you know what happened that night? Do you know how the information was lost?" Eddie asked. He was hopeful that this would help him figure out what had happened and how Patricia had lost her memory.
"No," she said. "Each section of the brain holds… I don't know how to explain it… I guess you could call them pieces of the memory. It's like a filing cabinet, each section holds one specific part. I'd tell you where to go to find what you're looking for, but I don't know that information. The only one that can answer that is the one in the cross reference section. She can tell you where to go to get that information."
"And where is the cross reference section?" Eddie asked.
"In the center of the brain. She can tell you exactly where to go to find anything." Patricia smiled at him.
Eddie turned around to leave and she said, "Eddie, wait!" He turned around to look at her as she asked, "Can you unlock this door?"
"I don't have a key," he said.
"Check your pockets."
"I don't think…" he started as he reached into his pocket. His eyes grew wide as he pulled the key out of his pocket. He unlocked the doors and asked, "After this, will Patricia know the things about Sibuna now?"
"Yes," she said as the books containing information about Sibuna began to return.
Eddie was about to leave to find the reference section when the vision ended. He was back in reality again, but he had only been out for a second because it was pretty much the same scene as when he left. Patricia opened her eyes and smiled at him. They picked up the books and papers they had dropped and Patricia gave him a kiss on the cheek. They held hands as they walked back to Anubis House. Eddie didn't know what had just happened, but he was hoping that he could get the information soon.