A Slow Descent

Chapter 6
Not Alone

Chapter Description: A much shorter, but important chapter. Brandon wakes up from his quick lapse of Memory loss.

When I came back to my senses, I was in a classroom. It had a big world map on the wall, about thirty fifth graders, the alphabet on the wall, and me. It took me a minute to realize I was in a fifth grade classroom. I didn’t remember going there, though. Last thing I remembered was being stuck in my room on thanksgiving, and thinking about my situation... For some reason I remembered running around a lot... But besides that, I couldn’t remember the time in between.

"Teacher?" I raised my hand. I had no idea what her name was. My voice was much higher than I remember it had been before I blacked out.

"Yes, Brandon, dear?" she nelt down.

"What’s tha date today?" I had a slight lisp now. Weird.

"It’s December 5th, dear." December fifth? I was out for that long? Almost a week, I hadn’t remembered anything. I had probably been acting ten or ten or however old I was supposed to be. If my mind was gone, then how come I was back again? I made a note to ask my parents if they had something to do with it.

I forgot how much primary elementary school is like jail. All day, had to walk around in lines with the rest of my class, I had to ask to go to the bathroom at lunch, and I didn’t even have a locker, instead, we had these things called "Cubbies" where we put all of our books and stuff.

An upside was that we got to have recess, even though it was snowing. My mom had packed me one of those huge puffy jackets, and I could barely move.

The elementary school is right next to the high school. From recess, I could see my old friends in their class, having fun without me, sharing adult thoughts and feelings that I could barely grasp anymore.

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When I got home, my mom greeted me. "Hi Brandy-boo!" she said, and started tickling me.

I got away before she could manage to make me giggle. "What’s wrong with you?" Obviously, she thought that I had still thought I was ten, and she was a bit hurt to find out that wasn’t the case.

Suddenly, though, I felt sad too. Something about hurting Mom’s feelings made me really uneasy. However, I quickly shooed away the strange feeling.

"What d’ja do to me? I blacked out for five whole days." I said.

"We gave you a bit more of the ’medicine’," she said. "To help you to adjust a bit faster, physically and mentally. Soon, you’ll be losing teeth and I see that lisp has started a bit."

"Your crazy." I said. "I’m not gonna get taken over by this stupid thing. I got too much willpower."

"Ah, even your grammar is depleting." she said. "Just like Mrs. Figg said. You HAVE too much willpower, not you got."

"Shut up. Why did you have to do this to me?" I said, tears in my eyes once again. I went back to my room.

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Mrs. Fredricks didn’t like doing that to her son, but Mrs. Figg said he needed to be told how much he was like a little kid to be one. And it was working. She had said that Brandon would most likely finally lose his memory by Christmas, because of all of the joy and gifts. She just hoped she was right.

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The next day, a new kid came to my class. He looked very annoyed and sullen. A lot like me. I figured he might make a good friend, at least while I was here.

"Hi there." I said to him. "I’m Brandon."

"I’m Alex." he said. "Nice ta meecha."

"Wanna come over after school?" I was aware of how silly I sounded, but somehow it seemed like the right thing to say.

"Sure." Alex said.

Alex turned out to be pretty cool for a little kid. He reminded me of Sam a bit, which made me sad, but I was happy again, because Alex was my new bud. We hung out for a few days in a row. Finally, I decided I needed to tell him about my situation.

"Can I tell you something?" I said,

"Shoot." he said.

"Sure you won’t laugh?"

"I won’t." he looked sincere.

I started from the beginning, I told him I was really Fifteen, and how I spent the last five months spiraling down in age, and how I had given up on escape.

"You probably won’t believe me." I said. "I probably sound really dumb."

Alex considered me for a moment. "I believe you."

"Really? Why?" I was stunned anyone would believe that.

"Because." he looked at the sky, "I’m not Ten either. I’m supposed to be Seventeen. Looks we have something in common. "

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