“So you remember that friend I told you about that just kind of disappeared off the face of the Earth?” Terry had ambushed his wife as soon as the front door had opened, leaving Connie and I to sit awkwardly in the living room and overhear.

“I guess?” She sounded like she had been completely off guard.

“Well, I found him again and you won’t believe where he was!”

“Okay… that’s good,” she answered.

“Yeah, he’s actually here and we would like your help.” His voice sounded like he was trying to sell a used car.

His wife sighed deeply and didn’t say anything else.

“Let’s go introduce you, I promise it will make since in a bit.”

Terry entered followed by his wife, a stunning woman with a no-nonsense bun and a professional outfit. She looked like she couldn’t be a day over thirty, but the way she walked was full of confidence and gave away that she was definitely older than she appeared.

“Connie, Eric, this is my wife, Patricia,” Terry introduced.

Almost forgetting my manners, I popped up out of my seat and approached with my hand out for a handshake. “Nice to meet you,” I said with a friendly smile.

“Oh yes, me too,” Connie said, following my led, “you have a very beautiful home.”

“Thanks…” she said, flipping her eyes between the two of us. “Nice to me you both.”

“There see, they’re just normal people,” Terry said, placing a hand on her shoulder. “As you can see, Eric here hasn’t aged a day since we last saw him. No one would believe that his birthday was in the 70s, right?”

She looked at me with a bit of suspicion, but nodded her head that she agreed. “I don’t think I want to know why,” she sighed, “let’s get to the point.”

“Well he has no id or other papers to prove who he is and no one would believe him if he tried to go recover them,” Terry explained. “But Connie here came up with a great idea, what if he claimed total amnesia? Could a doctor’s evaluation get him a new identity?”

“Potentially,” she said slowly, a look of dawning understanding spreading across her features, “but it might be a long process. They won’t just let you claim amnesia and not investigate to try to find the next of kin, maybe they’ll even want to go through the whole process of putting his image up on the news to try to find anyone who might know him.”

“Would that really have to happen though?” Terry was now facing his wife with a look of adoration on his face. “What if a very respected doctor such as yourself were to word the letter to imply those steps had already been taken? It would be nice if we could skip all the red tape and get him back on his feet as soon as possible.”

The room was silent, an uneasy and peeved look on Patricia’s face. She looked to me as if expecting me to chime in that I thought it would be a great idea, but I felt it would probably endear me more to her to let Terry dig his own grave alone.

“So you want me to just put my career in jeopardy for the sake of your old friend?” She snapped, though her voice was uncomfortably low. “Do you even understand how much trouble that could get me into? No, you don’t, or you wouldn’t have even asked.”

“Honey…” Terry said in a soothing voice. “I know, I know it’s a whole lot to ask and believe me, I worry about your reputation too, but this is a man who has essentially come back from the dead. How else is he supposed to reintegrate into society and have a chance at a normal life?”

Patricia’s face flushed and she let out a set of short huffs, crossing her arms in front of her. “I can’t believe you’re serious about this.”

Terry looked to me for help with a half-smile and a shrug.

“I’m very sorry,” I offered. “I don’t know what else to do and I know it’s a lot to ask someone who they’ve never met before. I would understand if you don’t want to risk it, I’m just some strange man in your house wearing your husband’s old clothes.” I held my hands out in front of me, palms up, trying to inspire the idea in her that I both meant no harm and was totally at the mercy of her decision.

“I suppose it’s my fault really,” Connie gently interjected, “I’m the one who came up with the idea. If you’re to be mad at anyone, I’m the person who should bear the brunt of it.”

Patricia turned her gaze to Connie, whose shoulders visibly sunk and she smiled nervously. “Perhaps you did, but I don’t think you were the one to decide that I had to be the doctor to do it. I’m a hundred percent sure that that idea was solely my darling husband’s.”

“They didn’t know that you were a doctor,” Terry admitted. He reached for one of her hands and clasped it tightly in his. “You know that I wouldn’t put anything about you in jeopardy if I did not feel it was absolutely the right thing to do and meant the world to me. This is my best friend, someone I truly thought was dead and that I would never seen again. I ask for you to do this out of the hope that I will have my best friend back, even if now he has to be my very much younger friend now.”

Her gaze turned back to her husband and the jaw she had clenched so tightly relaxed slightly, dropping her face from the look of anger it had developed. Letting out a sigh, she turned back towards me, her face now more uncertain than angry. “Okay, I will do it, but I need promises that all of you will stick to your story to the very letter if anything is called into question.”

“Of course, of course,” Terr assured, “we will all work together to see that you will never have to answer for your report.”

“Thank you, very much,” I said, clasping my hands together and giving an appreciate bow of my h ead. “I owe you my new life.”

“We’ll see if that will end up being worth it,” she said.

“Ah there’s also one other thing…”Terry said with a warm, pleading smile. “He also needs a place to stay for a while.”

“No,” she boomed without giving it any more thought, “we cannot have him living here if I’m to write this letter. That absolutely reeks of something fishy going on.”

“But-”

“No!” she exclaimed, cutting off her husband’s plea. “I will not do that and I will not change my mind despite any methods of prodding me into it that you are going to try to pull!”

Seeing that the first path wasn’t going to work, Terry turned his attention to Connie, who immediately turned a bright pink.

“Oh uh,” she stammered, “I guess he could keep living with me, I mean he was living with me before.”

“Thank you for the offer,” I said, “but I know you’re not really comfortable with that. “

“No, no, it’s okay,” she said with a nervous laugh, “it’s not like I’ll get in trouble or anything. I just haven’t lived with anyone else since I was in the dorms a couple years ago. I really don’t mind.” She tried to smile, but I could tell that she was still uncomfortable with the idea.

“There you go, a place to stay,” Terry said. “Everything is falling into place.”

I cast Connie an understanding smile and she returned the smile with a shrug. This wasn’t what she signed up for, but we were all too deep in it now to escape. I would do my very best to make the arrangement as smooth as possible, I would be sure to never be a burden or a bad roommate. If for no other reason than the fact that she could out me any time she wanted to.

“Great, one less chance for this to blow up in my face,” Patricia grumbled, pulling out her phone. “I’m going to take notes, what are we going to say happened to you?”

“Maybe Connie found me passed out on campus and it looked like I was drunk and had hit my head on the sidewalk,” I said off the top of my head.

“Then she took him to your clinic and he woke with amnesia,” Terry added.

“Why would anyone bring someone who is unresponsive to a clinic instead of the emergency room? Are we even going to take this seriously? If not, I’m out.” Patricia looked fed up with us already.

“No, you’re right, of course,” Terry said. “Maybe he woke up before and asked not to go to an E.R., of course they’re too expensive for most people, even with insurance.”

“Alright, that might work,” she muttered, typing into her phone. “I suppose we can say that he had no id on him and the university had no idea who he was.”

“Yes and we tried for several weeks to get him recognized by anyone or for him to regain his memories, but we came up with nothing. Then it would be necessary for him to get a new identity to continue on with life and that maybe one day he will be identified and resume his old life,” Terry offered.

“It’s weak,” Patricia commented, “but I don’t think we’re going to figure out something better. We’ll just have to hope that the government employee you work with is overworked and not paid enough to care.”

“Thank you again,” I said with sincerity.”

“It’s fine,” Patricia said with a wave of her hand, “just don’t mess up and have this backfire on me.”

“I will do my best,” I promised, then turned to Connie. “We should probably go so that they can work out the details.”

“Ah, of course,” she said, picking up on the fact that Patricia probably wanted us out of her house. “It was very nice meeting the both of you.”

Terry led us past his wife and up to the door, moving quickly, almost like he thought that if we didn’t leave soon, his wife would change her mind. “It was awesome seeing you again, man!” he exclaimed and clapped me on the shoulder. “I’ll be in touch through Connie.”

Before I could say anything to him, we were out the door and he shut it quickly. I could hear him nearly running to return to his wife on the other side. I felt pretty bad for potentially putting a strain on their marriage, even if it did feel like the only answer at that point in time.

“I’ll get someone to pick us up,” Connie said, still looking dazed from everything that just transpired. “We probably want to wait at the end of the driveway and give them some privacy.”

I agreed and we walked together down the long driveway while she clicked through options on her smart phone app to get us a driver. By the time we reached the road, she slipped her phone back in her pocket and told me that the driver would be there in a few minutes. We waited, awkwardly not saying anything to each other as we waited. It was such a surreal day that I don’t think either of us knew exactly where to go from here.

“Oh shoot, I left the cat carrier,” Connie said, looking back towards the house. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and checked the app. “They’re going to be here at any point though.”

“Leave it,” I said, “hopefully I will never have to see the inside of one of those again.”