When I got back to the hotel, I eventually wandered around the various giftshops that were scattered through the first floor. Most of the people who were in the giftshops were parents; I figured this because every few minutes, I'd see a pair of children run past me and up to the others in the giftshop.

A little girl who was going back to her parents bumped into me, and she stopped to look up at me. I looked back down at her, and for a minute or so, we stared at each other. She was wearing a dark pink shirt under blue overalls, and she had a tiny pair of white shoes on. There was some kind of cursive writing in a lighter blue on the overalls, but I couldn't see it clearly. I could tell she was looking at my neck, but she didn't know that I was trying to read whatever it said on the overalls.

Finally, when she moved back slightly, I could see what the writing said - Amanda.

"What happened to your neck?" she asked.

"I had an accident awhile ago," I said.

She stood quietly for a couple of seconds before she then asked, "What's your name?"

"Alex," I said.

There wasn't any harm in telling her what my name was, she didn't know anything was wrong with me. It was nice to again speak to someone who didn't know anything about what had happened. But, then again, it didn't really matter. She wasn't even six years old, and she wouldn't understand what I was talking about if I even described what had happened.

I then heard a lady say, "Amanda!", and the little girl ran off. I glanced over my shoulder, and saw that the little girl was standing with her mother. Her mother was looking at me strangely, as if I was planning on hurting the little girl. I shook my head, and knowing that she was okay, I then turned away and left the giftshop.

I passed the elevators and went directly to the stairway again. I walked up the stairs to my floor and made it into my room without any trouble. I sat down on the bed again and turned on the television, seeing that it was left on the tourism channel that had been once when I had gone to the park.

I left the television on and leaned back on the bed. I was feeling tired, and I wanted to sleep. I pulled a pillow up to my head and slowly rested it on the pillow before I closed my eyes. Though my eyes were closed, it felt more like I was peering into a endless pit of darkness. It was peaceful in a way.

And before I had time to stop myself, I was asleep.

I woke up when I felt a heavy thud next to me. I jolted when I woke up, and I began to look around. I was in the same hotel room, but the television was off, there was one dim light in the room, and it was night. I turned to my side and saw Alex sitting there with a suitcase, waiting for me to see him.

"Hey, you awake now?" he asked. I nodded my head and then rested it against the pillow again.

"How long was I out?" I asked.

"Three or four days. I just let you sleep, you didn't miss much," he said.

Three or four days? Well, at least it wasn't three or four years...

Alex told me that we were going to Seattle that night for the next business conference, and he had packed up all of our things. He told me that when he, Maggie, and I went back home, they were going to get married. And currently, after the trip to Seattle, he had nothing scheduled.

When I was in Seattle, I had fallen asleep again. I felt that I couldn't keep myself awake for a long period of time, despite how hard I tried to keep myself awake. I ended up sleeping through the entire Seattle trip, from the time when I had first set foot in the hotel room until the time I had to get back onto a plane.

I was able to stay awake throughout the day of Alex and Maggie's wedding. It was a small wedding, held at Nathaniel's house in mid-1981. I wanted to be more in the open at the wedding, to see Alex and Maggie better, but I kept myself hidden, unsure if anyone searching for me would show up.

Over the next few years, Maggie had her and Alex's first child, a boy they had, unsuprisingly, named after Alex. Alex and Maggie were both in their late twenties when they became parents. When Alex and Maggie went to work, Alex would drop off his son at Nathaniel's house so I could take care of him.

Alex's son looked exactly like him. Each day that I saw Alex's son, it reminded me of my brother and how he had been the one to keep the family generation going, even though it was through an affair. It sometimes scared me when I thought of how I was never supposed to see this child, that if nothing had ever happened to me, that I wouldn't even know he existed because I wasn't supposed to exist. But, as it was that I was trying to keep myself from thinking negatively, I would block out the thoughts.

I've been staying in Nathaniel's house ever since Alex drove me here after I had escaped from the hospital. On rare occasions, a family member of Nathaniel's will visit. When that happens, I just go up into the attic and spend my time there. I helped Alex take care of his son until he was five years old, when he then was put into school.

Over the span of years that went by, I mostly read. I read about many of the things I had missed when I was lying in the church attic for the better part of a century, and I would think over a lot about how the girl in Central Park asked me if I was a writer.

I thought about if I did want to write down everything that happened. I thought about if I wanted anyone to read about what had happened. And I soon remembered that I couldn't remember everything that had happened in the years.

For a few years, I would try to recall memories that would have been locked away and never seen again had I not gone searching for them. Each time I remembered something, I wrote it down into a list. Once I could remember everything and recall each event, I began to write.

I don't remember what the year was when I began to write the story down, but it did take me a good amount of time to write it. I suffered a few blackouts during the writing, and sometimes I would forget that I was even writing anything until I saw the paper with the list of events on it.

I finally finished writing on a day in mid-June, having started in October years prior to the June. I took the papers and placed them all together in a drawer, knowing that they were all in tact and safe.

Once the papers were put away, I went into the room I had spent my nights in for the past twenty years and sat down on the bed. I remembered sitting on this bed when Alex was in the room with me, when I got out of the hospital, when I had finally cried, and when I had tried to sleep. This time, I was really going to sleep for the first time in decades.

I thought over anything that had to be done. Alex's son was in college, Alex himself was coming towards retirement, and he and Maggie had two girls over the past twenty years. Everyone was set. Eventually Alex would come back and see that I was asleep, and he would understand.

So, I pulled a blanket over me, rested my head on a pillow, and closed my eyes. I didn't have anything to worry about. I stared into the darkness again and began to relax. When I was going to wake up, old wounds would be healed, and memories of things that had hurt once were going to fade away. Everything was going to be okay when I woke up.

Everything is going to be much better when I wake up.