The Memory of Things

Kyle tries the number for the place his mom stayed in LA but gets no answer. He checks on the girl, who looks completely different without the layer of ash: “She looks sweet and lost. She looks pretty. And scared” (19). He leaves to put her pants and sweatshirt in the washer but goes back into the room unannounced; the girl opened the window the few inches it will open. Kyle is alarmed but only asks her name. She says she doesn’t know it. In the girl’s verse, when Kyle leaves, she gives up on the window, “defeated” (21). Kyle checks on Uncle Matt; he is asleep in his wheelchair. The news reports that the North Tower fell, but this must be a mistake: “It was the South Tower. I watched it go down” (2). But the news keeps saying North Tower, and Kyle realizes the explosion on the bridge might have been the other tower collapsing. He tries his parents but cannot get through.

The news reports that both towers collapsed, a third plane hit the Pentagon, and a fourth plane believed to be on a path for the White House went down in a Pennsylvania field. One reporter indicates that planes refusing to land might be shot down. Kyle finds panicky voicemails from his mom on his phone. She and Kerri are at LAX (Los Angeles International Airport), their flight canceled. She wants Kyle to call and let her know he is okay. She has no cell phone, so she makes the calls on a stranger’s phone. Kyle can’t reach the number when he tries. He thinks about trying Uncle Paul but doesn’t. Uncle Paul, Kyle’s dad, and Uncle Matt all became police officers, and Uncle Paul harasses Kyle to become one as well. Uncle Matt was in the Emergency Services Unit before his accident caused a spinal cord injury and the use of a wheelchair. Uncle Matt calls for Kyle. Uncle Matt curses the terrorists in slurred speech and asks about Kyle’s dad. Kyle says he can’t get through. Because Uncle Matt’s caretaker, Karina, did not arrive this morning, Kyle uneasily maneuvers Uncle Matt onto the toilet.

Unbeknownst to Kyle, the girl found Uncle Matt’s medications on the bathroom counter and pocketed a bottle of Valium. Now she wants a glass of water.

Kyle can still smell smoke in the girl’s clothing, so he runs them through the wash a second time. Nothing makes sense; in his literature class, the teacher taught zen koans: “Riddles that don’t have right answers” (41), like the question about a falling tree making a sound if no one is there to hear it. Kyle washes off the girl’s combat boots; the amount of ash on them makes him think she must have been very close to the first building when it fell. He gets through to his dad’s voicemail and leaves a message, relaying that Mom and Kerri are at LAX and that he is taking care of Uncle Matt. He does not tell about the girl. Kyle helps Uncle Matt off the toilet; neither notice the missing Valium. Kyle tells Uncle Matt how his school evacuated that morning; then he reveals he brought the girl home he found on the bridge. Uncle Matt tells him to call Missing Persons instead of trying to walk to any precincts. Kyle avoids the closed door to his sister’s room and tries to rest: “Here’s a zen koan: If there’s a girl down the hall and I ignore her, is it like I never met her and brought her home?” (48).

The girl asks for water from Kyle when he does check on her, but he does not bring it.

The girl finds Kerri’s diary, and inside it is a photo of Kyle and Kerri, younger. She envisions a stage with a heavy drape and walks toward it as if sleepwalking.

Kyle realizes he forgot the girl’s water, but she is asleep when he brings it. He starts lunch: three small pizzas in the toaster oven. He tries searching online for info about amnesia and learns that fugue amnesia causes the patient to forget their identity and past, and it can be brought on by sudden, intense trauma.

In the girl’s verse, she sees someone on a shoreline and wants to get to them but cannot. In the scene in her mind, the air turns smoke-scented. She sees the water Kyle brought and saves a drink to wash down the pills but pauses just before taking them.

Kyle burns the pizza, tosses them out, and starts over. He goes to get the girl’s clothes and hears something batting around in the dryer. It is an empty ID sleeve with a pink ballet shoe charm attached. He takes the girl a pizza, knocks, and opens the door.