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Randy’s scowl deepened, but there was a flicker of shaht you knew hi He’d known perfectly well that I’d had no idea who the guy was

I wrapped o, Randy," I said, rather aet the words out

His brow creased in puzzleel?"

I spoke quietly, but with the entire force of my will behind it "Let me rephrase it: Go fuck yourself" This was the closure that I’d been wanting and then sos for you or anyone else, and if you try to start a rumor that says I am, I will Fuck You Up"

He drew back Maybe he could see in my eyes that I had no fear of him in any way and that I meant every word Hell, I was dead already I ate brains, for god’s sake

"You’re fucking crazy," he mumbled, but there was no heat in his words

I allowed myself a so fuck yourself I don’t ever want to see you again"

It was obvious he wanted to say so retort that would make me reconsider, cause me to doubthis breath

Sla out of the diner I didn’t turn to watch hi as he walked away A couple of seconds later I heard the ringing of the bell over the front door

I picked up my fork and continued to eat my pancakes as more and more pieces of memory fell into place By the ti for the rest

Chapter 32

After checking the styrofoa was still pretty frozen, I headed to the hospital The volunteer at the front desk was a hundred years old and gave the worst directions ever, but after a nuation of a cute orderly I finally found thefee, but ten minutes later I had a stack of papers that comprised all of the records and charts and reports fro to , pushed h the papers There weren’t too many surprises, which was a bit of a disappointment I wanted to find some sort of confirmation that my memories weren’t co at ist of the report was that I’d been brought in suffering from an apparent overdose No injuries had been noted

I leaned back in the seat, catching sight of nized ood way My usually frizzy hair was combed and fairly neat I had nolike death warmed over, I lookedfresh I experi look Sure, I was topped off with brains right now, but even beyond that I looked all right Pretty good in fact Cripes, as the last time I looked in the , I continued flipping through the papers, stopping when I came to the lab reports Most of it was in ter nah the list It was a wonder I’d never overdosed before Of course I hadn’t really given a shit about surviving back then I wasn’t the sort to ever take the step of co to do it in a passive way Story of my life Or rather, it was the story of nize, but I vaguely re through tox reports on autopsies I frowned I’d smoked some pot--that was the cannabinoids--and I’d taken a Lortab And then, of course, I’d been drinking I’d scored a Percocet fro else except for a Xanax the night before I was sure of it

Puzzled, I drove back to the ue, parked ht to the investigator’s office Derrel wasn’t in, but Monica was, her fingers flying across the keyboard in absurd contrast to the painstaking hunt-and-peck technique that I utilized

I tapped lightly on the doorfraave s you in on your day off?

I settled into the chair in front of her desk, suddenly unsure how to ask what I wanted to know "Well, I’ve been doing so to learn more about this business and all"

A smile lit her face "That’s cool You’re a smart chick You don’t want to be a van driver forever, I’reat as a paraht and it took hed and shook my head "Monica, I don’t even haveflat Hell, you could probably pass it right noithout even studying And then you could go train to be an EMT Basic You could get through that in just a few ht?"

"Yep That’s a two year prograraators have to have ht of having an actual career