Hello World

My stomach lurched forwards as the world spun into view. A distant beeping echoed distinctly in the background, followed by a cacophony of white noise, but I was too disoriented to decipher what it meant or anything else. All I wanted to do was to scream, but no sound came out of my mouth. Currents of air slammed against my chest as I continued to fall. Deeper and deeper down I go.

Then suddenly, I stop falling. The beeping stops, replaced by a faint buzzing sound that slowly fades as I regain focus. When my vision cleared, I found myself in a restaurant, staring face to face with a girl wearing a pink shirt.

“- what you want?” The girl’s voice suddenly registered in my ears.

“Huh?” I asked.

“I said,” the girl’s voice rang a bit more clearly now, “have you decided on what you want?”

I stared down at the menu that I was apparently holding. A large range of Italian foods swarmed my eyes, giving me too many options to choose from.

“Uh… “

“Let me guess.” The girl said. “You want the linguini? Or the margherita? Those are like the two things you only ever order here.”

“Oh. Then I’ll just ... have either one of those?”

“Oo, a random choice.” The girl gave a mischievous smile. “Someone’s feeling experimental today.”

There must’ve been some kind of look on my face, because the girl quickly followed it up with a “Hey, are you doing okay? You look kinda pale.”

“I… don’t know? I mean -”

“Working late on that presentation again, aren’t you?” She said, cutting me off. “Well anyways, let me help you order your food. You’ve been staring at that menu for like 15 minutes now. And I’m starving.”

The girl called over the waiter and ordered two margheritas as I continued to stare at her, trying to figure out what was going on. It was clear to me that I didn’t know this person. But from the way she was talking to me about how many times we’ve been to this restaurant, I guess I was supposed to … ?

“So this is gonna sound a little weird.” I said once the waiter finished taking our order. “I know we’ve been going to this restaurant for like … many times now, but do you mind reminding me who you are and why we’re here?”

There was a short pause. We both stared at each other for a few seconds. The girl gave me an unamused squint. “Are you fucking serious?” She asked.

“What?”

“What do you mean what? You mean to tell me that you’ve suddenly forgotten that I’m your fiancee? Y’know, the one you’ve been dating for the past 7 years?”

“Oh.” I said, staring back at her blankly for a few seconds. “Wait really?”

“Oh my god, is this one of your practical jokes again? Because I swear -”

“No, no. It’s not a joke. It’s just, long hours last night, doing… things.” I replied. “Been forgetting a lot of stuff lately.”

“Well you better not forget about me,” the girl huffed, “because I’ve already told everyone about our engagement. Would be annoying as hell to call it off now. Don’t you know how long my name is? It took like 2 hours for me to design the name “Marianne” into my engagement announcement poster on Facebook. Are you telling me that I’ve wasted 2 hours of my life for nothing?”

So the girl’s name is Marianne. I was hoping that name would at least remind me of something, but all it did was make me feel more confused.

“Wait, you’re more upset about calling off the engagement because of the two hours you spent making a poster, and not the 7 wasted years dating me?”

“Well… no.” Marianne replied. “Ugh, whatever. Are the memories coming back now? Or are you going to keep up with this whole ‘amnesia’ joke that you’re trying to pull?”

“Give me more details.” I said. “How did we meet? What other restaurants have we been to?”

“We met in high school doofus.” She said. “Same class in our final year? In Mrs. Smith’s class? Remember?”

I desperately tried to remember a Mrs. Smith, but still, nothing came up.

Marianne looked more and more worried. “You don’t … remember? The class… our graduation… nothing?”

The genuine look of panic on her face was all it took for me to feel guilty.

“I’m sure it’s nothing.” I said. “Everything is going to come back to me soon. Just the stress talking. Maybe.”

“Do you need to see a doctor or something? Because I think there’s a hospital nearby, and -”

“No, seriously. I’m fine.” I cut her off, unsure of why I was suddenly so adamant on refusing to go to the hospital. “Just - give me some time. I’ll be back to normal soon.”

Marianne still looked pretty worried, but I had more significant problems at hand. None of this made any sense. This wasn’t me. There was no way I could just suddenly forget everything about myself or someone as important as a fiancee just by sitting at a restaurant … right?

A bell jingled near the entrance, interrupting my thoughts as a small boy skipped into the restaurant. His ears perked up when he saw us, scurrying over and sitting next to Marianne. He was wearing a T-shirt with some sort of cartoon animal drawn on it, but whatever it was from, I couldn’t tell.

“Hi!” The boy chirped. “Sorry I was late. The bus didn’t come.”

I stared at the boy. He looked young, probably just old enough to have started primary school.

“Ah.” I said. “And I’m guessing this is our… son?”

“What? No!” Marianne’s face reddened. “He’s my brother, James! Are you sure you’re feeling okay? Did you hit your head on the way here or something?”

“Whoa.” James said. “What happened to him?”

“I may or may not have developed a mild case of amnesia.” I explained.

“Are you sure it’s just amnesia?” Marianne asked, her face full of concern. “Because at this point I’m worried that it’s something much worse than that.”

“I don’t know how to explain it. It’s like I just suddenly woke up… in someone else’s body?”

James’s eyes lit up. “Like in those anime movies!”

“Those ani- what now?” I asked.

“Yeah, you know,” James explained, “those stories about reborning into someone else’s body? Maybe you’re reincarnated here as some kind of second chance at life or something!”

“Yeah, now I’m just even more confused.” I said.

“Do you have a spirit animal?” James continued. “Maybe if you talk to your spirit animal, you can figure out -”

“James, will you please shut up about your stupid cartoons?” Marianne yelled a bit louder than she probably intended. She cleared her throat before giving me another worried glance. “I’m sure you’re just a bit overstressed with work. If you really think there’s nothing wrong with you, then I trust you’ll be fine. Just let me know if this whole thing you have going on with you stays. Maybe I can find someone to help.”

“Sure,” I replied, “as long as your ‘help’ doesn’t involve talking to any animals.”

The three of us spent the rest of the meal discussing what my spirit animal would be if I had one. Considering how I had no idea who I was and what my life was like beforehand, I decided to choose something cool, like a tiger or a dragon. In the end, the general consensus between Marianne and James was that my spirit animal was most likely a cross between a turtle and a meerkat. I declared the conversation topic stupid and decided to move on, finishing up the rest of my pizza.

…

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