Bring 'em Back Johnny

I went to the kitchen in the late afternoon to look for inspiration, but it is hard to know what to cook when you only have limited memories of what you actually like. I found a cook book and cooked a lasagna thinking I could put the excess in the fridge and have it another time. Later on, I added home cooked lasagna to the list of things I like to eat.

I was hunting through the emails for any clues on Harrison Solent Real Estate. For some reason I was exceptionally wary of that situation, I suspected something was seriously wrong there. There was one message from Ralph Solent asking me to contact them urgently about six weeks after my accident, and then nothing. Very odd.

I got an unexpected phone call from Suzi Han that evening too. Suzi had been quiet in our meeting at the office, but I could see she was also very capable. Suzi had an unusual look. She was quite tall, and had a curvy body shape, but that was coupled with Asian facial features and short straight black hair. I had caught her looking at me a couple of times in the meeting, and she had looked like she wanted to say something but didn't.

"Hey Suzi," I said.

"Oh... hi boss man." She sounded a bit tentative.

"What's up?"

"I uh... well I don't want to er..." I smiled.

"Just say it Suzi, I'm pretty hard to offend."

"Yeah, I know. Well, I wondered if you had considered plastic surgery because I know a really good guy for burns."

"Wow." I was stunned, I hadn't even thought about that. "I had it done in the hospital."

"That was just the bare necessities," she said, "this guy is brilliant."

"Really?" The idea intrigued me. I didn't miss the face I couldn't remember, but it would be nice if people would stop staring and looking sorry for me as soon as they saw me.

"Yeah, we had an explosion in science at high school and my face was burned. Not as bad as yours but..."

"I wouldn't have known if you hadn't told me."

"Told you he was good."

Suzi gave me the details of Dr Andrew Bigley, the guy she was talking about, and then we had a good chat. Instead of talking business, which frankly worried me without memories, we spoke of the company culture and the people involved in the company. It all sounded positive and I was pleased with what I had built. Suzi made an interesting comment too. She said I had often spoken with her previously about having the four key managers come to my home for a weekend meeting but it had never quite come together. The difficulty was that Alissia was in a relationship with Cassie Blake, our head of HR, and this meant that bringing partners added the complication of also bringing her and not others with equivalent positions in the company. I would need to think about that. I eventually thanked Suzi and we said goodbye.

I then rang Susan to see how she was going, and I updated her on the progress. She seemed a bit distant, and when I asked if we could meet up if I came back to the city the next day, she said she hoped so, but I didn't feel a lot of enthusiasm in her reply. I had been wondering if we could work out a relationship without the whole penetration thing, and I had almost decided we could, but this call put me off a bit. I rang off wondering if we had a future together. I had been going to ask her about the plastic surgery idea, but we didn't get that far through the conversation before it finished.

I did some more on the emails, and closed off everything that I could, and then I turned in for a restless night.

On Thursday morning I took the Lexus and my 'Johnny' keys and I headed back down the highway again. I didn't really want to, but I had a very bad feeling about the Harrison Solent situation.

Once I was parked outside Earthsafe Estate I pondered my choices. The tracker still showed my car as being there, so I knew I would have to take a look, but I didn't want to alert anybody who was doing the wrong thing that I was back in circulation. I chose not to tag in through the gate but walked in instead. I was still limping quite badly, but the harsh physio program had me confident that I could make the distance without too much pain.

The main driveway split into two in a large roundabout just through the gate. The sign said that to reach number twelve I had to take the first road, a soft left pointing towards the back of the estate.

There was nobody around as I walked slowly up the road, which wasn't too surprising in the middle of a workday. The roads on each side appeared to be mirror image, and a turnoff went in between the front four townhouses on each side. It appeared to service all four of them. I went straight ahead to the last row, and number twelve was in the left rear corner of the estate. The gardens were all clean and tidy and the grass was the same neat length. I guessed the whole place was maintained by a contractor. Like all of the others my townhouse was a pleasant looking two-story brick building. As I approached, I could see from the tracker that the car was in the garage I had to walk past on my way to the front door. I rang the doorbell a couple of times, each time hearing it ring inside and when there was no response I tried my Johnny keys. The first key turned the lock and with a low squeal of neglected hinges I was in.

Inside it was immediately apparent that someone had broken in. While the front door was untouched, I guessed the internal door to the garage must have been deadlocked, because it had been forced open. I saw my F250 through the door, it was filthy and it had ladders and gardening tools sticking out of the tub. I went into the garage and started photographing everything I could see. The Ford was unlocked, and the cab was cluttered with rubbish.

Going back into the townhouse I saw that the lounge room had been stripped of all the electronics, with obvious spaces where a television had been, and also an entertainment system. One of the comfortable looking recliner chairs had a mountain of empty beer cans on the floor next to it. Still taking lots of photos I went upstairs where there were two bedrooms, both with en suites but the master having a much larger one. The master bed had been slept in, but except for another missing television not much looked out of place. The second bedroom looked undisturbed. Downstairs again, I went through a dining area to the kitchen, and here the back door to the townhouse had a smashed lock. The broken door had just been pushed shut. There was a running fridge with a dozen or so cans of beer in it, and no food at all. The toilet was filthy and the laundry again pretty much undisturbed. On the kitchen counter I saw some business paperwork for Tim Harrison garden maintenance and a set of keys for my Ford. Without thinking I put the keys in my pocket and then I left, making sure that there was no sign of me having been there. Again, I saw nobody as I went out and I eventually sank gratefully into my car seat and waited until my body settled down a bit. I had pushed myself quite hard.

It was hard to know what to do. I obviously had had a burglar, and possibly a squatter in my house. I guessed it was this Tim Harrison character and his name made me wonder if he had anything to do with Harrison Solent. On top of that I must have left my car keys in the townhouse and it looked like he had been using my Ford as a work truck. At the same time, in what was possibly an entirely unrelated situation, the real estate agent representing me had stopped sending me rental income. I needed proper legal advice so I drove away from the estate and then pulled over again. I nervously dialed the mobile number for Nathan Jones-Setting, who appeared to be my legal guy. I would have preferred that Susan was there to ease me into the call, but this just couldn't wait.

"Where the fuck have you been Russ? Fucking Antarctica?"

"Um..." I was a bit shocked by the way he answered the phone and didn't know what to say but he, on the other hand, was obviously on a roll.

"Fuck mate, we all thought you had fallen off a fucking cliff."

I grinned ruefully.

"Yep," I said, "that's exactly what happened." He was silent for a moment.

"Bullshit."

"No."

"Fuck."

"Yes."

There was a long pause.

"Must have been pretty banged up?"

"Yes."

"So, why didn't they tell anyone?"

"I had amnesia, and no identification."

"Are you takin' the piss?"

"No mate, we went over the edge of Hansard Mountain. I was the only survivor. I was busted up badly and seriously burned as well."

"Fuck, I remember that. There were, what, three Sheila's killed?"

"That's the one."

"Oh fuck," his voice went really quiet, "was Sal..."

"Yes."

"Oh faaaark," he sounded like I had gut punched him.

"I'm sorry," I said. I wasn't really sure what for.

"You don't sound all that upset," he said. He sounded more curious than accusing.

"Amnesia," I explained sadly, "I can't remember her at all."

"Fuck," he exclaimed yet again, "but you remember me."

"Sorry, but no. You are a name in my phone and the legal guy on my paperwork."

"Fuck."

It took some time to sort it all out. Apparently, I called him Nat and we had shared an off campus flat with rotating third guys for the time that we were both at university. We had stayed mates and he and his girlfriend Fiona (who we called Fee) had double dated with Sally-Anne and I regularly. The girls were each going to be maid of honour at each other's wedding. Nat and I were to be best man for each other too.

When I finally explained why I had rung it was like I had flicked a switch. The swearing mate persona was gone, and the professional lawyer replaced him. Nat was less than impressed that I had gone into the townhouse alone and told me not to do anything that risky again. He said that even with the name crossover he would treat the break in and the unpaid rent as unrelated things, and he would use his company on my behalf to chase up Harrison Solent for the money they owed, and if there wasn't a very good reason for the payments stopping, once the outstanding amount was paid he would sack them and find a new agent.

He would use a different business that was still under their umbrella to represent Johnny Long, the private tenant, and report the townhouse break in and thefts and chase up the insurance. Nat was a bit disappointed that I had taken my car keys and suggested that I store them somewhere safe and not mention that I had been in the townhouse, let alone having taken anything.

The one thing he was adamant about was that I was to stay totally away from the whole situation. Any attempts at contact by Harrison Solent should be immediately referred to him.

At the end of the call I knew that professionally everything that could be done was being done. Socially, he was also going to talk to Fee, tell her the bad news and they would organise a time for us to get together.

Once again, to my frustration, I had people sorting out my problems for me and I was left with nothing to do myself. I was getting worried that I no longer had any value to offer anyone.

I went to the office, parked my Lexus in my car park and headed up to my actual office, rather than my apartment. It felt funny going through the outer office where there was an empty desk instead of my PA, who had been reassigned after I had been missing for a couple of weeks. Eventually the temporary reassignment became permanent, and in our Monday meeting I had agreed there was no point in replacing her unless I became far more involved in the business again.

I spent some time staring at the contacts in my phone, wondering how many more good mates I had listed there unrecognised because of my amnesia. It was a very disturbing train of thought.

Eventually there was a knock on the door and Suzi came in.

"Hey boss man," she said smiling, "how are you doing?"

"Getting there Suzi," I replied, "but it's a long road." She nodded.

"Have you given Andrew Bigley a call yet?"

"I've been a bit busy today, but its definitely on the list."

"Cool."

She appeared to have something else on her mind so I waited.

"I was wondering," Suzi said, "because Dino has got a touch and go in Highcanter on Saturday... um..." I stared at her blankly for a moment, and then I tapped my head with my finger.

"Amnesia." I reminded her.

"Oh, sorry. I Forgot. Dino is my husband, and he is a pilot for a small charter flight airline. He's been interstate for a week now but he's flying someone into Highcanter, which is just an hour and a half past your place in the mountains, on Saturday. He's going to be there waiting for a couple of hours and then he heads off for another week."

"Right."

"So, I was wondering if Ira and I could stay... oh.. Ira is my sister, so if we could stay at your place tomorrow night and then head off Saturday morning to meet Dino?"

I wasn't sure if I was going to be seeing Susan or not, but I decided 'first in...'

"Sure," I agreed, "but Susan might be coming up too."

"No worries boss, we'll keep out of your way," she teased, and I just shook my head.

About ten minutes after Suzi left Sam came in.

"Sun's over the yardarm Reg, want to go get a brew?" I smiled.

"Good idea."

We walked the short distance to a small bar nearby and got a couple of beers. I told Sam about phoning Nat, and he looked sheepish. It seems that Sam had been a flatmate of ours for six months, and he also kept in touch with Nat. He hadn't thought outside of work when he was filling me in previously, and he spoke about a few of our university peers. We looked through my phone contacts, and Sam was able to give me the rundown on three more people that we both knew. Largely my memory of those people 'switched on' as he spoke, but it was limited. As all of this happened one beer turned into two and then three. We had some bar food and then yet another beer. Because of the looks I was getting I resolved to call the plastic surgeon the next day, I really wanted to get back to normal as much as possible and didn't like being an object of pity, revulsion or both.

Also, in the middle of a noisy bar night, Susan rang.

"Hi Susan."

"Hi Russ." She seemed to be one of those people who wanted to shorten my name. I didn't care, I was happy enough just not to be called 'Johnny'.

"Sorry about the noise, I'm at a bar with Sam, what can I do for you?"

"Are you going to be around tomorrow evening?" Damn, I thought.

"I'll be at the house; Suzi and her sister are staying the night on their way through to somewhere else." There was a long pause.

"Um... can I come up too?"

"Sure," I replied, "I'd love to see you. You want dinner there?"

"That would be great."

"Do you want me to call you when I get home tonight and give you the latest?"

"No, I've got a lot on tonight. Let's do it tomorrow night when I get there."

"Sure."

I hung up still wondering how committed she was to any sort of relationship with me, but I shrugged and had another beer.

Much later Sam got a taxi home and I staggered back to the apartment and slept. It had been a good night.

In the morning I had a throbbing head, but at least I remembered to ring the plastic surgeon. The first available appointment for an evaluation was six weeks away. I was happy enough with that, I knew it was going to be a long process anyway and I was happy enough just to get the ball rolling.

After that, with nothing else to do for the day, I headed out of the city to beat the afternoon rush hour. It was starting to be a relief every time I headed up to my mountain retreat. Life was nicer there. I stopped in Corriton for some extra supplies, and I bought a marinated roast that had clear instructions on it. I had discovered that I seemed to think I had a much better memory of how to cook than my attempts so far had supported. Reading the instructions and the internet were definitely my friends in oh so many ways at that stage.

I also stopped into the general store at Junifield to say hello, but the woman behind the counter said they were from out of town and had only bought the store six months earlier. I took note of what they had available and resolved to buy local when I could to support the nearby businesses.

By the time I got home Dana had already left. I could tell that she had been because the house was spotless. I took the shopping in and started dinner cooking before taking a coffee out to the deck.

I was much more relaxed at home, and after being in the city for a few days, the difference between the two places was even more obvious. But I could see that loneliness would be an issue without Susan, or at least someone else, to keep me company. I sipped my drink as I watched the small fluffy clouds being pushed across the sky by a timid invisible wind that was clearly not game enough to venture down to the lower altitude where I sat out on the deck.

I relaxed for some time, and then I found myself thinking about Dana's situation. I wondered if there was such a thing as a robot to milk cows, so I took out my phone to look. There were a lot of options available, so I started reading up on them. I went inside to put the potatoes in the pan with the roast and I made another coffee. This time I went into my office and fired up the computer because the screen was much easier to read than the phone.

After another hour or so the doorbell sounded to let me know someone was on their way up the driveway. I had left the gate open so my visitors could just drive up. I shut down my computer and walked to the door in time to see Suzi and a girl who I guessed was Ira arriving in Suzi's bright red Audi R8. Ira looked a lot like Suzi but was more slightly built and her hair was longer and dyed blonde. The girls were laughing together as they each grabbed a small case and came over to me at the door.

"Hi Reg," Suzi said, "you've met before but this is Ira, my older sister."

"In your dreams mother," Ira responded with a grin.

"Pleased to meet you... err... again," I said, staying right out of their banter.

"You too. Thanks for letting us stay."

"No worries. Want to choose your bedrooms?"

"We'll share," Suzi said with a giggle. "When the husbands are out of the way we sleep in the same room like we did when we were kids."

"And talk about the husbands," Ira confided with glee.

I showed them the bedrooms and they picked the one closest to the lounge room, dropped their bags and Suzi gave Ira the tour.

"Ping pong!" Ira screamed with delight when she saw the games room.

"Table tennis," Suzi corrected her.

"Ping pong."

"Table Tennis."

"Let's settle this over a game granny."

"Don't trip over your nappy baby."

They continued to shout happily at each other as the sounds of a game started. It sounded like they were both very good players.

I got the vegetables under way and then went back into the games room where the girls were still going hell for leather on the table tennis table. They definitely were very good, and I wisely declined a challenge and just watched as they wore each other down. They weren't keeping score and I would have been hard pressed to choose who had the advantage.

When they finally gave up, we opened a bottle of white and sat outside to drink a glass.

"Hey boss, can I look at your solar management panel" Suzi asked.

"Sure," I replied, "if you can find it."

She shook her head and went and opened one of the cupboards in the entrance hall. Yes, I instantly remembered that was where the panel was.

Ira and I made small talk as Suzi looked at the panel for some time. Then Suzi went and retrieved something from her bag and went back. It was half a glass later when she came back outside.

"What the fuck have you done to your system?" she asked quietly.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"Just the opposite. Your overall efficiency is up by forty two percent over the best we can achieve."