"You may have known someone else with that name. When were we married?"
Maybe he should have stayed in the hospital. It would have been easier
to convince her there. But he'd been frantic to get home. "It was quite
a smashup," he said. "You'll have to expect some lapses."
"I'm making allowances. But can't you tell me something about myself?"
He thought--and couldn't. He wasn't doing so well. "Another lapse,"
he said gloomily and then brightened. "But I can tell you lots about
myself. For instance, I'm a specialist in lepidoptera."
"What's that?"
"At the moment, who knows? Anyway, I'm a well-known actor and a
musician and a first-rate mathematician. I can't remember any equations
offhand except C equals pi R squared. It has to do with the velocity
of light. And the rest of the stuff will come back in time." It was
easier now that he'd started and he went on rapidly. "I'm thirty-three
and after making a lot of money wrestling, married six girls, not
necessarily in this order--Lucille, Louise, Carolyn, Katherine, Shirley
and Miriam." That was quite a few marriages--maybe it was thoughtless
of him to have mentioned them. No woman approves her predecessors.
"That's six. Where do I come in?"
"Erica. You're the seventh and best." It was just too many, now that he
thought of it, and it didn't seem right.
She sighed and drew away. "That was a lucky guess on your age."
* * * * *
Did that mean he wasn't right on anything else? From the expression
on her face, it did. "You've got to expect me to be confused in the
beginning. Can't you really tell who I am?"
"I _can't_! You don't have the same personality at all." She glanced at
her arm. There was a bruise on it.
"Did I do that?" he asked.
"You did, though I'm sure you didn't mean to. I don't think you
realized how strong you were. Dan was always too gentle--he must have
been afraid of me. And _you_ weren't at all."
"Maybe I was impetuous," he said. "But it was such a long time."
"Almost three months. But most of that time you were floating in
gelatin in the regrowth tank, unconscious until yesterday." She
leaned forward and caressed his cheek. "Everything seems wrong, no
matter how hard I try to believe otherwise. You don't have the same
personality--you can't remember anything."
"And I have one brown eye and one green."
"It's not just that, darling. Go over to the mirror."
He had been seriously injured and he was still weak from the shock. He
got up and walked unsteadily to the mirror. "Now what?"
"Stand beside it. Do you see the line?" Erica pointed to the glass.
He did--it was a mark level with his chin. "What does it mean?"
"That should be the top of Dan Merrol's head," she said softly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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