Soft, mahogany fingers danced along a vermilion bricked wall, causing little grains of said brick to rub off and whisper their way to the cold pavement. And then I turned around, starting my fingers' little dance down the wall again, but from the other direction. And as I did this I wondered how many shades of red there really was in the brick. I could just imagine swirls of cerise; twists of rubicund; sparks of magneta; and maybe even splats of fuchsia. And then my mind twists savagely away from my wonderland of colors and dance and I remember: I remember running, and running. I remember running so fast, I believed I could fly. And then I remember slipping; falling to earth with such velocity it felt like I was traveling to a new universe. And then all's my mind brought to memory was blackness--so heavy I possibly could have wrapped myself in it as if it were a blanket.

I scoffed lightly at the notion of a blanket made of black nothing, then I saw a small twig on the sidewalk. And so I picked it up and started to make swirls and writings on the wall out of imagination. But right when I was about to make my third large swirl, a sudden thought hit me: where was I?! All of a sudden I felt scared and alone, and I dropped the twig and allowed my back to slowly slide down the wall. My shirt hiked up all the way to above my belly button, but I ignored it as my behind hit the pavement with a thud and I kept trying to figure out what happened. Sure, I recall running, and falling, and then black. But where am I? And better yet, who am I? I realized with absolute horror that I could not recall my name when my mouth opened and my vocals rasped "Heidi". I blinked several times, hearing the name resound in my head. I brought my hand up, and without thinking, smacked the back of my head and yelled, "Shut up! I'm trying to think!"

Right then I realized that there was a slow river of crimson substance on my head, and I stared at my red stained fingers in shock. Was the red coming off the bricks? I thought, looking behind me at the wall. And then I felt like an utter idiot for not noticing that it was blood...from a gash on my head? I looked back at my hand and the blood seemed to chant Heidi, Heidi, Heidi without fault and I felt frightened. I jumped to my feet (while cursing the pain it caused my head) and right when I was about to run somewhere--anywhere--I felt a strong hand grab my bicep and pull me back.

"Are you okay?"

I stared out at the street for a while, and then I turned around to face a young boy with large eyes of a light blue color. I thought absently that he was much lovelier to stare at than the street, so I continued looking at him. The boy must have taken this as a help me look because he gently laid a hand on my cerebrum and mumbled, "Bad stuff you got there..."

Wincing slightly as he examined my head, this boy looked at me with a look of slight worry. "Whats your name?" he finally asked after we literally had the staring contest of the century. Without my actual wanting to, my mouth whispered, "Heidi. Just Heidi."

And to my surprise, this boy stated in a confident voice, "Well, Heidi, you'll be coming with me. No way am I gonna leave a girl like you out on streets like this-- lots of weird dudes that hurt people around here."

And then I felt a arm wrap around my waist, and my body was moving along with another, and then I realized the other body was this boy and my brain did a hula dance with my thoughts as I came to the conclusion that he could hurt me! Right then, I felt my voice return with the utmost power as I bellowed, "Wait one minute, eager! What the hell do you think your doing? I'm perfectly fiiinnneee!!"

Those same arms that were dragging me along somewhere (that was possibly dangerous) caught me before I tripped over a small rock. And then this boy grabbed me by the shoulders, made me face him, and stated in monotone, "You're not fine." And with that said, he grabbed my left arm and put it over his shoulders while his right arm found its way around to my waist again. I gasped at his boldness and I was about to yell something else at him when I felt the blackness envelope me again.

But this time it really did feel like a blanket around me.

--

I was the baby atop a tree top, swaying in her cradle. I was the old dog by the door that could not be awoken at all; even when a bomb went off. I was the patient who was in a coma for years. I was the bear that slept through all winter long. Most of all, I was tired, and I wanted nothing more than to sway with my baby, dog, patient, bear self in my wave of never ending sleep. But, of course, my peace state was shattered to thousands of sharp pieces as someones voice yelled, "WAKE UPPPPPPPPP!!" right in my delicate ear. Dang, I could be a wild exotic dancer how fast I jumped up-- and that frantic hand motion? Priceless, I bet.

I was still on the floor, yelping and waving my arms about, trying to get the tangled gray blankets off me, when the boy from earlier entered the room. He glanced at the little girl that had savagely woken me up with a slightly amused look, and then he said, "Anna, could you please leave my...guest alone?" The little girl nodded vigorously and as she was about to leave, her little feet made a turn about and she asked, with the zeal and eagerness that which only children could possess, "Is she your girlfriend?!"

I never thought it possible for a human to choke on their own saliva, but the boy did right then, and after that, Anna skipped off while yelling, "Ma big brother has a girlfriend!!" Moaning loudly, said big brother ran out of the room to catch younger sister. I rubbed my head while just sitting on the polished wood floor, when finally, I realized that I was in a guy's room--most likely the boy that had just ran out the door. For some reason, I jumped up and started to search my body for any opposing hickies or bite marks; he could have very well abused me while I was passed out besides the fact he was my age and had a younger sister!

Finding nothing wrong, and since my clothes were all on, I decided to finally figure out if this really was the dude's house. I rubbed the back of my head for the umpteenth time today as I moved over to a window, and then I stopped once my fingers came in contact with a gauzy material. Then I come to notice that I had a bandage wrapped around my head. I winced and tried to ignore it, and walked over to a light switch. I flipped it on, and then immediately regretted it as my head burst into painful sparks. Sitting down on the messed up bed, I grabbed my head and tried to concentrate on something else besides pounding aches... ...PAIN!!

I grabbed my head even harder as even more lights danced in my eyeballs and the voices of angry shouts and pounding feet rotated around me. I saw the outline of someone's face...no, several faces, but I could not see who they were. And the voices were so slurred and mixed up that it sounded like loud, alien speech--vocals after vocals covering the next. "Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop..." I whimpered repeatedly, but none of it disappeared. In fact, if anything, it intensified; it grew so greatly that I could barely breath, and I completely forgot I was on a bed in a boy's room until I heard that boy say, "Are you alright?"

And then I felt hands on my arms, and somehow, over all the voices, I knew that the light had been switched off. And slowly--very slowly--the voices, the faces, the noise all drained away. And I blinked up at the boy sitting above me. Apparently I had ended up laying down on his bed instead of sitting on it, and all of a sudden, I felt like getting up from this bed and getting away from him. I was about to pull myself in a sitting position, content on leaving, when he opened his mouth and said, "I hade to carry you. You blacked out. I brought you to my house because the hospital is too far away to walk to and I don't have a car at the moment to drive there. I didn't want to call 911 and risk them coming here and your injury (if you want to call it that) not be serious. I cleaned it for you, and bandaged you're head as well as I could..."

During this whole entourage of information, I stared at him. He stared back for a while, and then asked, "Where do you live and who are you're parents?"

I started to get up again but then froze, my body not moving an inch. "Who...?" I rasped, looking sideways at him. Then I started to cough, making myself realize that I was really thirsty. He went out of the room and then returned with a glass of water which I eyed warily. As cottened-mouthed as I was, I knew the cold substance would cause me to see those faces and hear those voices (The Zoo, I've decided to call it). So I shook my head no. Looking down all of a sudden and then up at his face again, I whispered, "I can't remember..."

Then, to my horror, my eyes started to sting, and I became angry at myself for having to cry at this moment. But after that, just as fast, I became frantic and began to panic as I yelled, "I need to remember! I have to go back to that one wall; I need to remember!" I sprang up from the bed, and I was about to run out the door when the boy grabbed the back of my shirt and dragged me back in. "You can't go back there"-he paused then, thinking-"Heidi...It's dangerous as hell, and, for Pete's sake--calm down!" He pushed me down in a rotating chair in front of his desk and then handed me the water again while demanding, "Drink."

And this time I did drink because I was nervous, confused, scared, and still thirsty. As I gulped down the water, he sat on the foot of his bed with eyebrows raised, and then after a moment asked, "So, um...do you really not remember anything?"

"NO, DAMN IT!!"

He looked slightly shocked when I yelled, but then even more shocked when my front of anger turned into a river of tears. I tried to stop the unwanted flow of liquid, but it was impossible. I could not believe that all I knew about myself was my name! Instead of my name vibrating through my head, hundreds of Who am I? Who am I? Who am I? took its place.

"Oh...crap." I heard his voice say between my cursed crying, and then I picked up the sound of him moving out of the room and returning again.

Feeling a hand on my arm, I lowered my palms from my face and looked at the boy with a huge feeling of loneliness. Then I saw that he was handing me a box of tissues and I took it gratefully as he said, slowly, as if contemplating, "You could stay with me...I could bring you to the hospital tomorrow, once my brother brings the car home."