Part Three
or: a perfectly normal medical anomaly
Missed the first two parts? Read them here!
The sun had already set by the time the girls left the police station. The yellow spots of light from the street lamps couldn’t quite chase away the darkness, but Myla had always been fond of shadows.
“Where are we going now?” Reina asked, walking confidently despite not knowing where she was headed.
“To talk to Roselle Thorne,” Myla declared.
“Great!” She strode ahead, then turned towards Myla, now walking backwards. “Do you know where she is?”
“Actually, I do. While you were busy playing with that fidget spinner, I was researching—”
“Really?” Reina interrupted. “I thought you were squinting suspiciously around the room.”
Myla sighed. “Plot holes are inevitable when the author is writing each chapter of the story weeks apart,” she answered cryptically. “Anyways, I searched the name Roselle Thorne on my phone. Turns out she’s some sort of medical anomaly. She randomly loses her memory, or stops being able to control her limbs, or passes out. But apart from that she’s a perfectly normal person.”
“Huh. What made her that way?”
“She was dropped on her head as an infant.”
“Oh.”
Just then, Reina tripped and fell on her bottom. With the glow of a nearby street lamp illuminating her bewildered expression, she looked like she could be a perfectly normal medical anomaly herself. Myla chuckled a little as she helped her partner up.
“And that’s why you don’t walk backwards.”
It wasn’t long before they got to the hospital. As they walked in, Myla explained that Roselle was there because she required constant supervision.
After showing the receptionist their badges, they wandered the inpatient halls.
“Even if she didn’t need someone to watch her, she’d be in here all the time for tests and studies,” Myla concluded. She stopped suddenly, then backed up a few feet and triumphantly pointed at a room number: B-2830.
Reina knocked on the door. There was no answer, so she flung it open. Myla winced at the ensuing bang. The first thing she saw was a blonde braid. Then the head attached to it turned around, and a pretty young woman smiled at them from across the room.
“Hello. Who are you?”
“My name is Myla, and this is my partner Reina. We’re with the Secret Service.” They approached the woman, Myla holding out her badge for inspection.
“Secret Service. Wow.”
“Are you Roselle Thorne, ma’am?” Reina asked as she shook the woman’s hand.
She hesitated before answering. “Yes, I think so.”
“Do you mind if we ask you a few questions, Roselle?”
“You just asked one,” Roselle answered, smiling. She gestured for them to sit down on the hospital chairs, and maneuvered her wheelchair so they were all facing each other.
“Were you at the Crown Point earlier this evening?”
“Crown Point?”
“It’s a hotel closer to the city center.”
“No, I don’t think so. You’d have to ask them, I don’t remember.”
“Them?”
“Who?”
“What?” This was from Reina, who’d lost track.
“Okay…” Myla took a breath. “Did you see the President today?”
“Of the hospital?”
“Of the United States.”
“No…” Roselle paused. “Who are you?”
Myla asked a few more questions, but didn’t get any useful answers. As the agents got more and more frustrated, Roselle stayed in her initial state of friendly bewilderment. Eventually, Myla and Reina realized they were wasting their time, and wished the woman a good night.
“What now?” Reina wondered as they closed the door to room B-2830.
Just then, as though the author had contrived it, Myla’s phone rang.
Author’s Note: Myla and Reina are technically adults, but they act like children and are portrayed as children in the photo, so think of them as whatever age you like. The reasons for this discrepancy will be explained at whatever later date I feel like explaining them.
Second Author’s Note: I first published this without proofreading. Bad idea. Here’s the updated version and my apologies for the confusion.
I love how you make the characters talk about the author. So funny! Great picture as well!