Touch And Go - Aiden Bates Page 0,18

of DC streets away from anything familiar, away from memories just barely in my head.

Maybe I shouldn’t have checked myself out of hospital so early. Maybe I wasn’t brave enough to face whatever was waiting for me at home. My feet just didn’t want to go back to my apartment, and I didn’t blame them. I was groggy, but clear enough to recognize that returning home could be a life-ending mistake. I had no idea who was there, or if they’d chuck me off the Arlington Memorial Bridge again.

It was dark when I licked my lips and hissed from the sting of my chapped skin. The houses around me were suburban, some two-stories, with manicured gardens and sprinkler systems… Gardens doused in fresh, wet, hydrating water. I needed it. Like a man possessed, I pushed open an iron gate. A sprinkler hissed a stream of water, and I crouched at the edge of the lawn. I considered crawling, but I didn’t want to get grass stains on my ugly—albeit most appreciated— new shirt, so I crept at a half-crouch and giggled quietly at the absurdity of my duck walk. Having a concussion with pain meds in my system was kind of like being drunk. I was desperate for water, acting like a weirdo, and finding it all absurdly funny.

With my mouth wide, I shoved my face under the water and got a mouthful before lights flashed and an alarm bleeped from the porch.

I hissed. “Let’s go, feet. Go, go, go!”

But they were pinned to the grass, and the water continued spraying in my face while I stared at the lights coming on inside the house. The place was beautiful and huge. Transfixed, I couldn’t pull myself away.

Maybe it’s Dr. Dish’s house.

“Hey!” a man shouted from the doorway; a man three times the size of Dr. Dish and looking eager to murder me…and starting toward me with a baseball bat in hand.

“Sorry!” I snapped out of my trance. I sprinted back through the gate and pounded down the suburban street as fast as I could, while the guy stopped at the edge of his property and raised the bat.

“I’m calling the cops!”

“Sorry!”

I kept running until I came to a more urban part of town, and then slowed to a jog. My wrist throbbed, and sprinting had made me even thirstier. I didn’t recognize anything, but a convenience store called to me. I slid a bottle of water onto the counter and a man in an offensively bright green polo shirt rang me up.

“Two-fifty.”

“Uh…”

The only thing in my pockets were my keys and, of course, the business card. I tapped it against the counter and considered what kind of help Dr. Dish might serve up to a concussed patient who discharged himself too early and wandered the streets for hours.

“I don’t have two-fifty.”

“Mm-hmm.” He braced his hands on the counter on either side of an inlaid lottery dispenser. I liked the shiny colors of the tickets but refocused on the guy when he snapped his fingers on front of my face. “Two-fifty or get out.”

I looked around and sighed. “Do you know where we are?”

He didn’t so much as blink, but the annoyance was evident in his voice. “Yeah. There’s the Potomac. My manager had to fish some asshat jumper out of there this morning.”

I blinked. Okay, so maybe I needed to get that concussion tended to, because I was starting to feel like I was in a David Lynch movie. I followed his nod out of the window and there it was, right outside… The Arlington Memorial Bridge. And my apartment was barely a block away. I’d walked around in a huge circle and ended up back near where I’d started. The bridge. The one that I’d fallen from…

“Sir, do you want the water or—”

“Sorry!” I dashed outside and bounced through traffic across Constitution Avenue toward the bridge. The labyrinth had been leading me there all along. If I could remember anything about how I’d ended up in the water, maybe I could figure out whether I was still in danger or if it was safe to go home. I stopped at the middle of the bridge and leaned against the stone railing in the dark of a busted streetlight and waited for the memories to come flooding back. A steady stream of light traffic at my back made it sound like I was gazing down at roaring rapids, but the water was shining as it flowed gently.

Nothing came to me