Whimsy & Wonder

Alexa stared out the window, smiling and watching the city passing by. Today she decided, was a good day. She had visited her daughter and granddaughter. They had gone to the park. Such good sunshine today. She managed to catch the bus back home too. A helpful man had gathered her stuff before she boarded. She frowned. Why did he need to grab her stuff? Well, it did not matter. She returned to beaming out the window. Soon she will be home. She checked that she had her three things. Phone, keys, and purse. All good there. Everything was in its place.

Humming a popular tune that was several decades old, she got off the bus. She shuffled towards a townhouse. Pausing on the steps, she turned to the mailbox. Any package for her today? She peered in. Yes, there was one little booklet. She grabbed it and let herself into the townhouse.

“I'm home.” She declared, her voice echoing in the quiet house.

It was so lovely to come home after a good day. She shuffled to the closet to hang her light jacket. Now her daughter and granddaughter were supposed to come over. Since she had not seen them all week, she would make a big meal for them. Now if her husband would come down and help, that would be great. She slowly moved to the stairs and, with difficulty, moved up them. When she got to the next landing, she went to the bedroom. He always slept in.

She opened the door and noted he was not in the bed. She looked around to see where he could have gotten to. She could not find where he was. He must have gone to Tommy, the silly man. She sighed and moved down the stairs. At the bottom, she frowned at what she was doing. She glanced at her hand and smiled. Oh yes, she was going to read this booklet she had. Why else would she have it?

She found a chair and settled down to read through the booklet. Oh, this seemed like a good program to watch. A competition for someone was a truly tested theme. Producers had to get numbers up for a broad audience. Funny how the show claimed the stuff that they did in it. It was impossible to get on the air. A dark part of the world might show such events, but not to a general audience.

She felt her eyes getting very sleepy. No one was supposed to be visiting today, so she might as well drift off. She promptly did so.

Grinning at the air for a few seconds, Justine glared at Clara and hissed, “Go find a seat. We are on a tight schedule.”

Eyeing everyone with caution, Clara crept towards a chair. She decided to pick the one furthest away from everyone else. As soon as Clara was seated, Justine gave a big old grin.

“And welcome back! We are continuing our introduction of our master’s, Dr Thomas Haywood, harem. So let's keep the showboat moving along!” Justine exclaimed.

As the attention of Thomas and the others returned to the stage, they were startled at a rather large ugly wingback chair. The back of the chair obscured the occupant. Justine waved her hand, and the chair slowly spun around. Revealed in the chair was a sleeping woman. As if taken by a sudden jolt of static electricity, the woman awoke.

Forest green eyes stared out dazed. As she got up from her chair, white hair fizzed around her head and down to her chest. A floral print dress hangs relatively straight down her moderate frame. She took several steps forward, unaware of the butler appearing behind her and taking the chair off the stage.

“Dear me. Have I slept in a strange place again?” She stared towards Justine, “Pardon me, miss. I seem to be in your gathering of sorts. I hope that I’m not interrupting anything. Could you tell me where I am? I need to get home to cook dinner.”

Thomas stared uncomfortably at the woman on stage. Again he barely knew the person they pulled in, although he did know where he met her. The woman was unlucky, getting knocked down earlier and ending up in this mess.

Justine gave a gentle smile at her.

“My dear, you are where you are supposed to be. There’s no rush for you to get home.” She gestured towards Thomas, “Would you please direct your attention to this man and answer some questions?”

The woman on stage stared for a long time at Thomas. Finally, a spark lit up her eyes, and she smiled.

“Hi, Tommy’s grandpappy. What are you doing here?” She chirped out.

Thomas stirred in his seat a bit uncomfortably. So the relationship with him was not that of a stranger. It was that of someone he had not seen in a long time. This person was an old classmate of his. It also had to be one that he had known since elementary school. His grandfather had died just before his entrance to a public middle school. He had very rarely talked to anyone from back then. An unfortunate circumstance had scattered those classmates to the four winds. He couldn’t place this person for any certainty. Whoever she was, she had some kind of dementia.

“How am I supposed to ask her anything?” He hissed at Justine, “She has dementia. I don’t know if anything past when I knew her will register in her mind.”

She looked upon him with pity, ”Don’t worry about that, Doc. You get honest answers out of her.”

She then gave him a grin. Her expression reminded him of a snake he once saw. It had a mouse put in front of it. He felt that the question that he should ask needed to be more personal than the last one he gave out.

“Hello there.” He cautiously spoke, “Would you kindly introduce yourself? With name, age, your relationship with Thomas Haywood; and please answer, ‘Where's the wildest place you've ever hooked up with someone before?’”

“Sure. I am Alexa Beringer. You know I am the same age as your grandson. We’re classmates at Crest Hawk.” she replied, brushing her hair out of her eyes, “I love the mountains of home. I would be there all the time. If you stare into the sky on one of the peaks, you can see the stars vividly. It is also very echoey. It's kind of exhilarating to feel that anyone can hear you.”

Thomas remembered Alexa, although, at the time, she was Alexa Goldstein. It was funny. She was the one that pushed him to where he was today. She wasn’t a friend encouraging him to excel in the subjects he was good at. Instead, she was a competitive soul brilliant in some fields of study. As far as he could recall, she excelled at math and the sciences. He was competent in those areas. However, she was flying through math and finished algebra during the last bit of their time together. She almost always had gotten top marks in science too. He had contented himself with being best in English and the social sciences.

“Thank you, my dear. Now if you sit next to the lovely lady over there, we will get you situated very soon.” Justine beamed, pointing towards Clara.

He sadly gazed at Alexa while she shuffled towards the chair next to Clara. Supposably there were treatments for memory. However, he doubted that any of them worked. It was also a shame that she was suffering from some memory woes. Hopefully, whatever happened, her memory would probably wash it out.

“Doc, that's not how that works.” Justine whispered into his ear, ”I will have to bring some adjustments for the challenge but rest assured, everyone here is going to remember everything.”

Thomas coldly stared at her. She shrugged and grinned back. She tilted her head slightly towards the stage.

“We are scooting along the way to the end of the introductions.” She purred, waving her hand around, ”Up next is a person to teach your do re mi and ABCs, welcome… ”