Story of the Day

I turned on the lamp. The bulb did not seem very bright. The room was still ill-defined with only a central area illuminated well. Beyond the glow from the small lamp objects took on multiple characteristics depending on which way and for how long someone looked at them. Beyond that, individual objects slowly merged together into masses of varying shades of dark. I sat in the room without moving, trying to fix my mental location in this place and time but was having little success.

I didn't know how I had gotten here. I didn't even know where 'here' was. It seemed to be a place that should be familiar to me but I wasn't sure. I knew how to operate the fixtures I had found and I thought I might have an idea of what was in the next room but I was not yet ready to test my knowledge. Failure would cause me too many problems at this point.

I believed I was certain of my identity but even in that belief, I hadn't bothered to try and remember my name. I didn't even think about any names or even the concept of names. That sounds weird now but it was true then.

Then. When was then? I did understand time. I knew days and hours. I knew I didn't know what day or hour I was occupying. That was quite disconcerting.

{FICTION}

January 29, 1996