Chapter 4: Third DegreeIke pulled a chair over to Taylor's bed. There was no way he could fit on the bed any longer with Taylor sitting there and Zac lying on his stomach, along with a bunch of now empty dishes scattered with crumbs.
"Taylor, try to remember this. It was one of your favorite stunts. We always have ongoing bets and competitions. The three of us against anyone who wants to cross our path. We're undefeatable." Isaac said proudly.
"One day we were just hanging out with a few friends. These names won't mean anything but they were Steve, John Kayla, and Stephanie. We had just gotten into an argument with Joe, another one of our friends, earlier that day. It was over something really stupid. I don't even remember what it was. Anyway, Joe has a pet. Actually, it's his mother's. I guess it's some rare speckled cockatoo or soemthing. Don't ask me waht the stupid thing is. All I know is that it's her prized possession." Ike said with a little confusion.
Taylor chuckled. For someone trying to help him remember, he seemed to have enough difficulty remembering the story himself.
"How we came up with this plan, I will never know. The group of us were talking about revenge on Joe. One of us thought of the brilliant idea to birdnap that stupid whatever-you-wanna-call-it. We all knew if anything happened to the bird, Joe would get it from his mother. It was perfect. We were trying to decide who would sneak in for the thing, but you volunteered almost immediately. You always were a daredevil when it came to pulling these stunts." Ike continued.
"Yeah,but he got that from me..." Zac said cutting in.
"I may not remember much, but I'm not stupid. Aren't we forgetting who was born first?" Tay joked. He really liked his brothers. He wodnered if they alwasy got along this well before the accident. He made a mental note to ask about that later.
"No, you both are wrong. You get your personalities from MY individuality. But anyway, going on with the story...one day Joe's mom went out to run some errands. Joe was visiting his dad on the other side of town and had been gone all morning. You, being the big shot you are, picked the lock on the window and climbed through. The rest is obvious. You went in undetected, grabbed the bird, and got out. We all went running back here to write up a ransom note. I'll tell you, when Joe read it, and knew we would keep the bird, he was scared. We had him in the palm of our hands. It's too bad we had to give the bird back...or maybe not...it made so much noise..." Ike finished with a proud voice, as his deep brown eyes sparkled.
Zac had just finished swallowing ther est of his twinkie. "Well what do you think?"
Tay stared off into the far distance before answering. "Guys, I know you're trying to help, but I just can't rememebr right now and I'm just really confused. Can we slow down for now? This is only my first day of being out of bed for more than a few minutes."
"Yeah, okay...sure. We're just trying to - " Zac started.
"To help, yeah I know. Did you says mom wanted to talk to me?" Tay asked abruptly, ice entering his voice.
"Yeah she said to go down when you're ready." Zac said choosing his words carefully. EVen though he wasnt used to his brother's personality change, he could sense the frustration.
"Tay looked at the clock on his dresser. It was close to 3:30. It seemed like a great deal of time had pased by. He got up and threw on a pair of wrinkled, loose fitting jeans and a blue shirt he found in the closet that matched his eyes perfectly.
I've been home for two days, and already I'm getting the third degree, Tay thought to himself. He made his way to the door and began to enter the hallway.
"Hey, Tay" Ike spoke quietly.
Taylor stopped to listen but he did not turn to face him. He didn't want his brothers to see the tear running down his cheek. "Yeah?"
"Try to stay calm with mom. She loves you and she really feels bad for you. She wants nothing but the best for ya, Tay. She wants you to remember more than anything, and she may accidentally push you too hard." He said with sympathy in his voice.
"Thanks, Ike..." Tay said, smiling gingerly with appreciation. Although Ike could not see, he could tell by his voice that Tay had in fact smiled. He watched Tay close the door behind him.
When Zac felt Taylor was safe from hearing, he snickered uncontrollably. "Now we know he has no memory. He's wearing loose jeans!!! The last time he wore those...was like two years ago!!!"
Isaac laughed with him, knowing he was right.
Taylor hesitated by the door, unaware of the joking going on in the room behind him, and told himself he had the greatest brothers a guy could ask for. "I wonder if they're always this nice..." Tay said, chuckling. THen he paused once more. "Did I say that already?! I hope my long term memory AND short term memory arent gone..." He shook his head to clear his thoguhts. "Nah, it's just a bit of deja vu." he decided tastefully.