Faces, Names, and Memories (completed)

Chapter 20 - Truth

Immediately the mood of the room shifts. Anxious whispering spreads through like a virus.

"Something's up," Spenzo says immediately. "People don't graduate early."

"The guards, this morning, they said something about meeting President Jaz's demands, could it have something to do with that?" I wonder out loud.

"Maybe, but whatever it is, it's not good." Spenzo said.

The rumbles in my stomach were back.

We're both quiet for a few moments, observing everyone else, and I'm about to beckon to Tressa to come back over.

"Wait, Jade," Spenzo says.

"Yeah?" I look at him.

"You said that your dad was Richard Vera..."

"Yeah, owner of VeraTech industries, or was the owner of VeraTech industries."

"Well, how could he be your dad? He and his wife and most of the top scientists at the company disappeared a little over 20 years ago," Spenzo said. "Unless you're saying that you're actually 20 years old and he gave birth to you right before he vanished."

"I don't really understand it myself. But, I know he's my dad. I must have ended up here through a time machine."

"So, you're the Jade Vera, as in the Jade Vera who helped her dad with almost every project at VeraTech?"

I find myself subconsciously glancing at the door. "Apparently."

Spenzo doesn't notice. "So, that means, when you disappeared with your parents 20 years ago, you actually got transported here in a time machine."

"21 years ago, you mean, because I was in a coma, here, for a year before I woke up. I must have gotten here a few months before the rebellion."

"You know about that?" Spenzo said.

"Cale told me," I say.

"Oh okay, well Jaz has been president ever since the rebellion, to get you up to speed."

"Good to know." I say sarcastically, because it wasn't really good to know at all. I thought the most a president could serve for was two terms, as in 8 years. Apparently, a lot has changed since 2013, that most likely was a result of the rebellion.

Spenzo goes back to his seat, and Tressa comes back over.

"What's up?" Tressa wants to know.

"Besides Mika graduating early?" I say.

"I meant with Spenzo, but you don't have to tell me, if you don't want to," Tressa says.

"It's really no biggie, he just wanted to know about my flashbacks," I tell Tressa. "And, I just told him that they were all about my family and stuff."

"Oh," Tressa replies. If she thinks I'm not telling her the whole truth, she doesn't comment. I hope she doesn't think that I don't trust her, because I do, it's just, after Cale's reaction, I don't really want to tell anyone. Sure, I told Spenzo, but he confided in me, so it was only fair that I confided in him. I hardly know anything about Tressa.

For lunch we have soggy ham sandwiches with stale bread, and then for dinner it's cold, stale, sauceless noodles. We live in such luxury, am I right?

A while after dinner, the guards unlock the doors and send us to our cells. I climb into the bed and lay there while the doors along the hall click lock. When the guards' footsteps recede and I don't hear any of them anymore, I sit up and face Cale. He lying on his side facing the wall, but he wasn't sleeping.

"Cale," I whisper. He doesn't respond.

"Cale," I repeat, still no response. I'm about to call him again, when he rolls over to face me.

"Why didn't you tell me you were Jade Vera, on the first day you came here, when you told me all that other stuff," Cale whispers. "Did you just decide that you wouldn't tell me that yet; that you'd tell me some of the truth and leave that out?"

"Cale," I whisper. "I didn't mean to not tell you. I didn't know Vera meant anything, honest. If I thought it was important - at the time - I would have told you. It's not like I know your last name, or anyone here's last name."

"When did you find out what being the daughter of Richard Vera really meant?" Cale wanted to know.

"While I was telling you about doctor, that's when I put two and two together that my dad owned VeraTech," I tell him truthfully.

"Really?" Cale said.

"Really," I answer.

"And, you've been having flashbacks since the day you woke up, I'm assuming?" Cale whispers.

I nod.

"Wow, you're really slow."

"I know, but why were you so upset this morning," I want to know.

"It's nothing," Cale says. "I was just mad that you hadn't been straight with me."

I know that wasn't it, but I didn't pry.

"Are we good?" I ask.

"Yeah, we're good." Cale says.

"Good, goodnight, Cale," I whisper, rolling onto my other side.

"Goodnight, Jade," Cale says, I hear his sheets rustle as he also rolls over.

Tonight is the first night in days that I not only fall asleep quickly, but I dream about my own memories. Like the last time I had a dream like this, they're not in order, but it was comforting seeing my own memories. For one thing, they weren't someone else's. For another, they told me that there were more memories to surface, which meant that I would get more answers, and more puzzle pieces to fit in to the incomplete puzzle of my old life. The only problem with answers, however, was that with every new answer, there was new question to plague my mind.