7.

Plop ... plop ... plop ... plop ...

He wakes to an incomplete darkness and to a cold echoing plopping sound coming from somewhere with a distant feel, but also somewhere close enough it can be easily heard. The place is so quiet, other than that plopping sound of course, that if a pin were to fall then it too could be easily heard, so wherever this place is, whatever this place is, the simplest of sounds could easily appear enhanced.

Yeah, this place is dark; it is not a total darkness but it dark enough. He is lying on his back on a concrete floor with his head resting on perhaps a jacket for a pillow. He attempts to move but his head, his head hurts ...badly. He has to take himself a moment or two before he can even think about trying to get up again.

Something else echoes for a moment, a moment no longer than perhaps three or four seconds. It is a faraway sound, and it is odd that it also sounds nearby. It is a dog's bark, a double echoing bark, belonging to a Great Dane or a Doberman perhaps. He attempts to lift up his head to see what he might see and for the briefest of moment it is there as if it were on top of him.

'Ah ...' he screams closing his eyes in fear of what is happening and as if by closing his eyes he can make it go away.

The barking has stopped as has any movement. He opens his eyes; it has gone away, for there is no dog and there is not much of anything else but an echoing plop ... plop ... plop. No dog here, though there is one ... somewhere ... just not here. How most unusual all this is.

The next echoing sound is one he creates himself; it is a groan of pain for he feels an excruciating pain travel through his head, a sudden brain kind of pain. He brings both his hands to his head in an attempt to calm that head pain.

A few seconds or so pass and another sound soon fills this room, this place, whatever it is, wherever it is, a sound much louder than the plopping, longer lasting than the barking or any groan or scream he has released.

The new echoing sound is that of a phone ringing. It is a mobile phone ringing with a traditional tone and the phone itself is also on the ground and it is about ten feet or so off to his left. With how he feels he does not want to move. He has yet to find out as to if he is in any way hurt and is yet to find out as to if the pain he feels, is only head related.

Things may not be clear though one thing that is clear is that he is in trouble. Is he a prisoner? Has he been attacked? In this moment there is no way of knowing so he needs to answer that phone. He reaches out, stretching out as far as he can though that reach falls short, quite short. The phone continues to ring.

There are no shackles or chains, no rope, nothing which physical restrains him therefore he is free to move. He does move. He moves his whole body over an inch at a time and the coldness of the ground sends a chill right through him. For all his efforts it would appear that luck has completely abandoned him, run away in the opposite direction for the very moment in which he reaches the phone, it stops ringing. He grabs it anyway and falls back into the position he woke in, having since crouched up ever so slightly.

The exertion of reaching the phone has left him slightly breathless so while still flat on his back he takes a moment to catch himself. Before he can even begin to consider this place, the phone, or the situation he is in, the phone rings again. Having managed to reach it as the first ring ended, this time the call is surely and quickly answered for once he had reached the phone, he had not let it go.

'Hello ...' he speaks, his pain evident in that one word he says.

'Am I speaking with a Doctor Archer?' speaks an unfamiliar voice.

'... Doctor? ... What?', am I a doctor? He doesn't know, how can he not know?

'You may not know me, but my name is Henry Corbin, and I am calling in regards to room 211 at The Mulberry Hotel ...'

'Where?' he doesn't know of a Mulberry Hotel, at least he doesn't think he does. What is going on?

'The Mulberry hotel sir ...', the voice coming down the phone sounds panicked. 'Sir, if you can ... I need you to come to room 211. Please come right away ...'

The call ends. 'Hello ... hello.'

Indeed, what the hell is going on?

In room 211 of The Mulberry Hotel Bonnie asks, 'so what now?' her left hand holds onto her right wrist and Henry notices this.

'We wait' responds Henry.

'Then what?'

'We will just wait and see, take things as they come.'

8.

If things are strange as they certainly are then they are about to become so much stranger. As bonnie looks at Henry after having asked him as to what comes next, she moves towards him and plants a kiss full on and onto his lips. Henry does not back away. There is something about this moment, something about this kiss, something familiar. Maybe they have kissed before, maybe they have been lovers and maybe this moment is somehow a memory of that. It definitely does feel ... familiar.

Henry knows how odd Bonnie is or can appear to be from the time he has spent with her, but he had not expected this, and he did not expect what comes next either. When the kiss ends, Bonnie backs away and suggests that they should get something to eat, the suggestion is made in such a manner as to if the kiss has never occurred at all, but it had.

This is as odd as odd can be. For Henry, how does he react to this? What else can he do other than to suggest they get room service knowing Bonnie's dislike for crowds and this is what directly happens next. He may not know much about the past if anything at all but sure is not going to attempt to take advantage of Bonnie or the current situation so room service it is.

A variety of food comes up as neither know what they do and do not like to eat so with variety at least there is a choice. When their feast has been digested, Bonnie kisses Henry once again. With the sense that they may indeed have been lovers, Henry allows this to happen. It may be thought of as wrong if he had initiated this kiss though he hasn't, she has, though again he does not attempt to take it forwards but will make an allowance for what might come.

Just as things appear as they will move on to something more than just kissing, a knock comes to the hotel room door, and it is not room service returning. With caution, Henry goes to answer the knock while looking back to see how Bonnie is reacting. She appears calm so he does move on to answer the knock.

On the other side of the door there is a man, an older gentleman who is a few inches shorter than Henry. The gentleman's head is balding on top with short hair around the sides and back. He is dressed casually all be it a bit grubbily.

The two stand in silence for a moment or two before the older man speaks.

'You rang this phone' he says holding up a phone he had found lying on the ground next to where he woke not all so long ago.

Then it hits Henry. 'Doctor Archer, hi come on in.'

'I don't know if I should ...'

'It is alright doctor; we need your help.'

'I am sorry', speaks this older man. 'I'm no doctor and I have no idea at all as to what is going on; I don't think I should have come here.'

With that this fellow begins to move away. Henry can't help but wonder if this fellow is also suffering from memory loss and if their coming together wasn't by chance. Only one way to find out, Henry must go after him. He had hoped this doctor fellow would come, he more than half expected it, but more possible memory loss? Henry couldn't have seen such a thing coming, if indeed it has come.

'Stay here' he tells Bonnie. 'I will be back real soon ... let me in when I knock, OK?'

'OK' she replies.

And off down the hall Henry goes.

'Excuse me ...' he says. The other man is still moving away. 'You are suffering memory loss ... aren't you?'

The older man stops instantly. 'Yes ...' he unwillingly says, 'how do you know that?'

'Because I am too, we are in the same boat and so too is that lady back in the hotel room you came to just now. I think our meeting is not by chance. Please can you come meet with us; maybe we can figure some things out together.'

In this moment Henry notices an on-comer, a young lady coming this way down the corridor. He doesn't take any time to think much of what she may or may not look like only that maybe he should keep his voice down, he wouldn't want to attract any unwanted attention and soon enough she has passed them both by, continuing on to turn a corner at the end of the corridor they so happen to be in.

The visiting man takes no notice of this lady at all for he fears he may be about to walk himself into some sort of trouble though when he thinks about it what has he really got to lose that he hasn't lost already? Suspiciously, he moves to walk side by side with this stranger back towards the hotel room while also keeping an eye on this other fellow, trying to access the character of this man.

He certainly doesn't want to walk himself into even more trouble than what he already is in, but he must do something about what is happening to him, perhaps this moment is what the doctor ordered, so to speak.

Henry knocks on the hotel room door; it had fully closed over when he moved out into the hallway corridor. A few seconds pass and the door is yet to open so he knocks again.

'Bonnie, it's me, Henry. Let me in.'

'You guys have names? You know who you are?' asks Henry's companion.

'Well, kinda, I'll explain more when we get inside', he knocks again. 'Bonnie, it's alright. Our visitor is here to help'. Henry turns to the guy next to him. 'Do you know if you are Doctor Archer?'

'You know as much about me as I do' he shrugs. 'I might be this doctor person however for some reason I feel as the thought of me being a doctor is like having a jigsaw puzzle piece that just doesn't fit the puzzle, if that makes sense.'

'Well, you sound like a doctor. We can call you Archer for the moment if that is alright with you?'

'Sure ... until we know otherwise anyhow.'

Henry knocks at the door once again. 'Bonnie please, we are no good to one another like this. Let us in and we will get to the bottom of everything ... I promise.'

The door clicks open, and Henry pushes it slowly in an attempt not to alarm Bonnie any further. Bonnie has moved to sit on the bed. She has brought her knees to her chest and has wrapped her arms around her legs. She looks as if she has completely withdrawn into herself.

'What's wrong with her?' asks Archer.

'She doesn't do so well with others. It may be something that has carried over from her regular life but at that I can only speculate.'

'Great, this will make things all the more difficult ... we'll be fine. We will work this out.'

'Three of us now' speaks Henry. 'Better than each of us being alone.'

'There are eight of us' says Bonnie.

'What?' asks Henry.

'I remember ... a big room ... eight beds ... we had one each.'

'We? ... What else do you remember?' asks Archer moving closer to Bonnie.

'Hold on now ... give her some room' says Henry for Bonnie clearly looks a little distressed with this stranger coming close to her.

'I don't know ... I don't know' she says raising her voice. 'I just see it ...' her voice calming somewhat as she begins to leak tears. 'It is like a flash in my mind. I am sure we were there in this big room, each of us. but I know no more than that.'

'That's something ... I guess' says Archer as his eyes begin to wander and while he backs up a bit, feeling a little eager to alter the conversation. 'As odd as that is. So, what's your story?' he asks looking at Henry.

Henry speaks of his day, playing down the amount of money he so happens to have. Seeing how Archer is dressed, Henry inquires as to how Archer's day has been up until now. Indeed, Archer is not wearing a suit though he is wearing black shoes and slacks, a light blue shirt, and a wine colours jumper all of which look slightly grubby as if he had come from dirtied surrounds rather than having come possibly from living a few days rough. It could be off-duty doctor's attire.

As to how Archer's day began, well it began just before a call came through to him from Henry and this call was indeed not all so long before he came to be at this Mulberry Hotel. With what occurred between the two men out in the corridor outside Room 211 no time was taken to properly pay attention to anything else that may have been going on.

While Henry attempted to convince Archer to come to the room there was indeed that passer-by. Little could either man know that once the passer-by had turned at the end of the corridor, she stopped to eaves drop on what was occurring between these two men she had passed, and little could they have known that in her hand she had a piece of paper with ROOM 211 handwritten upon it.