Real Time Memories

“Ari?”  Toby touched the necklace laced around his neck and tried again.  “Ari?”  He received nothing but silence.  “Well, you’re a goddess, so I know you can hear me, especially touching this and what not.  Look, I don’t know if you can do it, but I’d like to understand why... .just, everything.  So, a dream tonight, a connected dream, of all of the stuff that I should know... that would be amazing.  You know?  Okay, I’ll let you go.”

Toby took his hand off his necklace and sighed.  He was crazy.  He would make a psychiatric appointment tomorrow.  The necklace... he must have been hallucinating.  When he fell and hit his head on the pavement.  After all, his bike was mangled.  He had picked it up where he had left it when he got in the car.  He must have fallen, and reconstructed memories for the lost time.  No one must have been around.  Hell, he might have only been out a few minutes.  Or something.  And he had a crazy dream, and woke up with a necklace in his hand. Or something.  Not that he remembered ‘waking up’... he was awake the entire time.

When he had left Ari, he had walked back to his bike, forgotten about his friends, wheeled it home.  So he must have gained consciousness back when he had the necklace around his neck and he was wheeling his bike home.  That had to be it.

“You talking to yourself in there, Toby?”  Toby heard his father call through the door and cringed.  What if it was all true?  He didn’t look much like his father, after all.  And what about Toby’s DNA?  What would it show?

“A little bit dad.”  Toby responded.

“Did you get a concussion today?”  His dad cracked open the door a little bit.  “I know you seemed kind of out of it when you got home.  You said someone offered you a ride home, why didn’t you take it?”

“I felt alright.”  Toby said.  He had lied to his dad when he walked into the kitchen and saw him standing there.  Well, what was he supposed to say, ‘gee, dad, I was just told by a goddess that I’m part god and you’re not really my father.  Sorry.’?

“Are you sure you don’t want to go to the hospital and have it all checked out?  I don’t mind footing the bill for a quick check up.”

“No, dad, I’m good.  Really.  Just tired.  I had quite a long walk.  I crashed a few blocks over and it was close to a hundred out today.”

“Weren’t you and Gary and those guys supposed to go out somewhere?”

“Yeah, I think I’m going to cancel on them.  I do have a huge headache.”  Toby lied to his father again.  He needed alone time.  Or a psychologist.  Maybe one of those.

“Want me to call them?”  His dad asked, ready to shut the door.

“No... I’ll do it.”  Toby said.  “You can go back to work.  Don’t worry.”

Toby got up and followed his father out of his room and into the kitchen to make his calls.  He only had to call... Gary.  And Gary would let the others know.  He dialed the number and waited for it to ring.  Seconds later, he heard a female voice on the other end.

“Your dreams will come when you sleep.”

“Ari?  Get out of my phone!”  Toby hissed, surprised and shocked.

“Okay.”  Ari’s body appeared not two feet in front of him.  The phone line went dead.  “Go to sleep, and you’ll get your dreams.  That’s all.”

“Jesus Christ.”  Toby muttered, and Ari’s tinkling laughter remained seconds after her body had disappeared.  Toby slapped himself in the forehead.

“I need a drink.  And I don’t drink.”  He mumbled, and hung the phone up.  He picked it back up and redialed Gary’s number.  It rang and Gary picked up on the second ring.

“Hey Gary.”  Toby said in response to his “Hello?”.

“Hey dude, you pumped for tonight?”

“Well actually... I took a mad hard fall earlier, and my head is pounding.  I don’t think I’m going to go with you guys tonight.  Can we go tomorrow?  Or you guys can go without me.”

“Wow, dude.  How did you fall?”

“Some woman was in my path and she didn’t move, so I swerved, hit the curb, and whacked my head on the pavement.”

“Going to leave a nasty egg tomorrow?”

“Probably.”  Toby agreed.  “I’m going to go lay down.  Don’t feel that great.”

“K dude.  See ya.”

“Bye.”  Toby hung up the phone.  He was being honest – he didn’t feel that great.

“Going to bed, dad.”  Toby yelled downstairs to his father.

“Ok Toby.  I’ll be around.”  His dad yelled back up the stairs.

Toby left the kitchen and went back into his room.  He had racked up more lies that day than he knew what to do with.  And he had a pounding headache.  Time to sleep.

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