Escape, a New Life Read Free Page B

general?”
    “In general,” he chuckled.
    She laughed, “I’m sorry.  I really don’t remember a thing about last night, or how we got here.”  She thought he looked a little concerned. 
    Slowly he asked, “What do you mean, how we got here?”
    “Last night, when we were on the beach,” she said matter-of-factly.  “I have no idea how that happened.  I’m sorry, I know this must sound weird, but I don’t really remember you.  I’m Abby.”  She held out her hand.
    He stared, a bit dumbfounded for a moment.  As she rolled back the tape in her mind to figure out what she might have said to confuse him, he finally spoke.  “Well,” he said, extending a hand, “I’m Eric, and I guess we’re in the same boat.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “Well, I just woke up by those rocks over there and saw this very pretty girl out on the beach.  I wandered over because I was hoping you could tell me where I am.”
    “Wait, you didn’t drive us here?”
    “Didn’t drive us here?  I’m sorry, Abby is it?”
    She nodded her head.
    “I’m sorry, Abby, but no, I didn’t drive us here. I don’t know where here is.”
    She looked around, concerned, and sat down on one of the rocks.  It was the middle of the morning as far as she could tell, but she suddenly felt very tired and overwhelmed.  She was thoroughly worn out from the adrenaline and panic of the past twelve hours.  “I figured we came here together,” she said, confused.  “What do you remember about last night?” 
    He thought back.  His memory was fuzzy.  He had so readily assumed his friends had dumped him here that he had not put much thought into what lead up to that.  Looking at the water he remembered, “There was a real bad storm, wasn’t there?”  He looked around, slowly remembering more.  He stared up at the cliffs above the cave for some time before he spoke, trying to put together what happened. 
    He pointed, “I must have been on top of those cliffs there.  I thought I could hear someone calling out, so I stood up to have a look and…” he lost his thought for a moment and felt the back of his head.  “I must have walked right off the edge up there.  After that, I don’t remember a thing.”
    “How about before that?”
    “Before that?  Before that, I think I just got home from work, and, well, I’m not sure.  I’ll tell ya, I thought I had this one figured out, but I’m a little short on the details to tell you the truth.”
    “Well, Eric, you’re right.  It looks as though we are in the same boat.”  She told him how she woke up last night on the beach.  She was the voice he heard calling out.  She recounted seeing him in the water, and though she did not see him fall, she said she would believe it, seeing as he was unconscious when she found him and fished him out of the water. 
    He looked impressed, “Well, thank you, Abby, I guess I owe my life to you.  Now, how about we find our way through these trees and hope there’s a bar on the other side so I can buy you a drink?”  He flashed an insanely charming smile.
    “Well, I already went in there, and there’s not much but trees.  I was hoping you would know the way.” 
    He thought a minute, “So we’re both here, but neither of us remember how we got here.  Neither of us knows where we are.”  He thought a moment.  “I assume you don’t have a phone on you either?”
    Abby shook her head.
    Eric was still clinging to his original thought.  It was the only thing that made sense at the moment, “Any chance you know Phil or Jeff?  A couple buddies of mine.  Sometimes we pull pranks on each other, drop each other off in random places when we are… let’s say less than conscious.”
    That thought had not occurred to her.  Suddenly her eyes lit up, “I know Phil!  We took some classes together last semester.”
    “Last semester, as in college?  No, Phil isn’t in college.  Damn.”  He thought about it, “We must have