Who Was I
By: Annette MacGregor

In which Bill talks to a lot of people. Nothing interesting happens and there are no confrontations. It all starts with...

Part 4 Later the same eveing...

"Becky, I got a chance to talk to Flo about my memory, or lack of one anyway."

"Oh, what did she say? Not to worry?"

"Nah, she said the fact my memory seems to stop suddenly is not normal. She said most folks gradually have fewer memories and/or less detailed ones. So, maybe all my years of joking about being a changeling were true!"

"Bill, quit the clowning will you. What did she really say?"

"Oh, everything but the changeling bit was what she said. She said that since the memory loss is so unusual, it might be possible to find out why, and possibly even get some of the memories back!"

"That would be nice, if only to get you to stop complaining about it!"

"Becky, I don't complain that often do I?"

"No, not really. But you do seem to not sleep as well every time the topic comes up. Maybe finding out some of it will help that go away. How's she suggesting you find out?"

"Well, she wants me to see a neurologist. I guess to rule out some sort of issue with my brain. I don' know what he'll see what with the lump of granite between my ears."

"Bill, you're doing it again!"

"What, Oh sorry honey. I didn't mean to. She also plans on referring me to a specialist in recovering memories. She said it might possibly be caused by some event my younger self was unable to deal with, and therefore blocked it off.

"Oh, that sounds scary."

"I'm not too worried Becky. Flo said the most common situation there is some sort of experience that a kid couldn't deal with. But also that most of them are pretty easy to deal with as an adult."

"That makes sense. Anything else Bill?" I can see she's still a little concerned about the last bit. I don't really blame her. Blocking off 10 years sounds like a lot to me!

"Flo also suggested I talk to a counselor a few times - before starting with the memory expert. That it would provide someone I was familiar with talking to, to help work through anything like that. I could just talk to you about all of them if you want? But I don't want to burden you."

"Bill, I love you, you knucklehead. I'd be glad to talk any time. But don't you think you'd rather look at these memories before you're telling me? While I doubt you killed anyone" she gave a brief chuckle, "you might find some of the memories a little embarrassing. I wouldn't tease you, much. I bet that's why Flo didn't suggest she talk to you about them. She figured you might be embarrassed talking to a friend!"

"Ummm. That's what she said, and I guess you're both right. Maybe I should talk to whoever Flo suggests. In any event, I've gotta make a buncha appointments. Flow dropped off a letter for the Neurologist, he's a friend of hers, and said she'd get back to me on the other two."

"There Bill, now, let's not worry about this any more! You're dealing with it."

"Okay Honey."

# - # - # - #

"Hello, this is Bill Wyman. May I help you?"

"Good afternoon Mr. Wyman. I'm Stephanie Watson from Dr. Johanson's office. Dr. Johanson asked me to give you a call to see if we could work you in this week. If you can come in early, I can squeeze you in before he goes to do rounds at the hospital. He's very busy, and doesn't have any openings in his calendar before the 3rd of next month."

"Dr. Johanson?" I say questioningly, then I recall that this was the name of the Neurologist Flo had mentioned. Wow, that's fast. She certainly has connections. "Oh yes. How early is that? Some days I can be pretty early."

"He indicated he could do it day after tomorrow, that's Thursday, at 8:00 am. Are you available?"

"Hmm. Let me check my calendar." Let's see, at least she didn't say Wednesday or Friday when I usually drop the youngest off at school... "Looks like I'm good for Thursday."

"Okay, since we have forms that are needed and there will not be anyone in the office to give them to you that early, I can overnight them to you if you like."

"Sure that would help. Would you include directions to your office in the packet?"

"Of course, but we're really easy to find!"

I gave her my address and she rang off. Well, it's moving forward, I guess. At the speed this call came through, Flo's really moving. I dunno whether to hope he finds something or hope he doesn't. Best get back to work.

# - # - # - #
`
"Hello, this is Billl Wyman. May I help you?"

"Sure Bill" it was Flo, I wonder what she's calling about, maybe she has some more name.

"Flo, I wasn't expecting to hear from you today. I just got back from dropping Genny at school. What's up?"

"Bill, I wanted to let you know I've not found a good memory specialist in the area yet."

"Oh. I didn't expect one this soon. You do have paying customers you know!"

Flo laughed at that. "Yes Bill, and I'm taking care of them. But, I did manage to find someone to start working with. Susan Flynn had a cancellation for Friday afternoon that you can take. That OK?"

"Friday - how late are we talking here? Genny's usually gets dropped off at home about 4:00."

"That's OK, it's a 1:30 appointment so you can easily make it back there. Are you between projects or something Bill?"

"No, the client doesn't mind us telecommuting a lot on this one, so as long as I have a day or two notice, I can juggle pretty easily.

"Great. I'll confirm your appointment. I think you'll like Susan. But if you don't hit it off let me know!"

"No problem Flo. I get along with most folks."

"I know you do Bill. Well gotta get back to the grind stone. I'll see you later."

Wow, things were moving right along. I've that form that should be showing up this morning too. Well best get back to this analysis.

# - # - # - #

"What - Oh, doorbell." I jumped up, and quickly walked to the door. I could see the mail truck out there, must be the forms.

"Yes?"

"I've a package for a Mr. Bill Wyman."

"That's me."

"Okay sir, would you please sign here?" And, after I signed "Thank you very much sir. Have a good day."

"Good day to you to." I closed the door after him, and looked at the return address. "Yep, the Neurologists. Well best be at it." I said to myself, as I walked back to my desk. Lets see, where was I. Okay, that's a good break. I can take a bit of time to get these forms out of the way.

Hmm. I wonder what some of these questions are all about. Good grief. Do I have any pieces of metal in my body? Like what, a cast iron stomach. Wait - I remember when Danny broke his ankle - they had to put pins in... Okay. But I still wonder why that one's there. I can understand the questions about surgeries and allergies and meds just about every doc I've seen asks those. Oh here's another obvious one. List any injuries to your head or spine. RIGHT. What's this Right Handed or Left Handed I wonder what that's about. Ahhh - I knew they had to have a release form somewhere. I'd best put Flo down too. I've seen some doc to doc reports before, and sometimes they're better than what I've seen face to face with the doc.

"Well, that takes care of that." I fired up google maps to check out and follow the directions. "Ahh. That's where they are. Not too far from the mall. Wait, mall... Why am I thinking about shopping... Right, I've two birthdays coming up in the next few weeks... Best take advantage of things and hit the mall after it opens tomorrow."

# - # - # - #

Wow. Getting up this early to go see a doctor isn't my usual thing, but at least it's better than my before the crack-of-dawn wakeups when I have to fly out for a client meeting. Should be a turn coming up soon. Ahh, there's Jefferson St. Now, down here on the right. Well, there's no missing THAT sign. I wish all the places I had to find were so easy. And, how nice can you get, reserved parking under the building. I bet even that fills up.

I popped out, and checked the listing. Ahh, only one floor up on the lift. I walked over to the lift as another guy walked up and got in. "First" he said.

"I'm heading there as well." I replied as I pressed the button. I let him head out first, and looked for a room number sign. "Hmm, I wonder if he's going to the same place I am" I said to myself. And I saw him unlocking one of the doors.

"Hello, Is that Dr. Johanson's Office?"

He turned around. "Yes. May I help you."

"Yes, I have an appointment with him in a few minutes."

"Oh, you must be Bill Wyman. I'm Stephen Johanson, come on in and we can get started."

"Hello Doctor. Dr. Broadhurst gave me this letter for you, and I've this pile of forms your office sent me to fill out."

He laughed at the last. "I bet you were wondering at a couple of those questions. Let me quickly read through this stuff. Florence told me a few things on the phone, but I really want to look through this before we chat. I'll explain the things you have questions on after that. Okay?"

"Sure Doc. Let me know." I wandered over and looked at some brochures on the wall.

"Okay Mr. Wyman. I've been through Florence's letter and your responses. I'm guessing you were wondering about the question about metal in the body and handedness. Right?"

"How did you guess Dr. Johanson?"

"Oh, I didn't read your mind. Almost everyone wonders about those two. The metal question is in case we need to do an MRI of you. The metal would react with the magnetic field. As to handedness. The brain developes slightly differently for left and right handed people There are some other variations as well, but most of them probably don't apply to your case."

"Thanks Doc. I was wondering about those two. Thanks for seeing me on such short notice!"

"Well, Florence indicated in your letter, that you had a significant block of memory loss. She also suggested that you didn't believe it was trauma related, since your family didn't seem to know of some event. So, that makes sense. There are two reasons I say that. First, the kind of trauma required to cause that amount of memory loss is not something others wouldn't remember, and you'd have been a while recovering. So, even if they didn't see the event, your family would have been through the recovery which would have been memorable to them. Second, with trauma induced memory loss, it's generally not permanent, except sometimes for the event itself and a little time around it."

"Okay doc. I'd kinda guessed some of that. What's left?"

"Well, there are a few more things that might contribute, and we can look at them. I'm not really expecting one of them to turn anything up. What I'd suggest is that we start with a CAT scan of your upper spine and head. I can then look to see if anything looks out of the ordinary. If something does show up, that isn't clear; we can dig deeper with an MRI. In addition, we'll do some blood work, to see if you have any unusual levels in some of the trace elements that support normal brain activity."

"Those are easy. I was worried you'd need to poke a hole or something."

"Well, I guess I could if you wanted me to, but I generally prefer to leave my patients intact."

I laughed at his joke. "Okay doc. If you'll give me the script for the lab, I'll get the blood work done now they're just a bit away aren't they?"

"That's right. If you go and talk to Stephanie, she can set up the CAT scan and a follow-up appointment after the scan, and I'll bring you the Lab referral in a minute."

When I got out to the reception area, I could see that someone was there. "Hello, Stephanie?" At her nod, I continued "Hello, I'm Bill Wyman. Dr. Johanson asked me to talk to you about scheduling a CAT Scan, and then a follow-up appointment."

"That man. I'll have to go check what he wanted scanned. You gave him the whole pile of papers I sent, right?" On my nod, "Well, I'll have to go grab that too, I need your insurance information in order to pre certify the scan. I'll be right back." and she was off. And before I could blink almost, she was back.

"Mr. Wyman, Dr. Johanson asked me to give you this blood work sheet. There's no need to fast for any of these tests. We should have the results back about a week after they're done. If there's anything requiring a follow-up, we'll be calling you. Otherwise, don't worry about it, and Dr. Johanson will go over what it means when you see him next. How flexible are you on when we can schedule the CAT Scan Mr. Wyman?"

"If you can give me a few days notice, I can be very flexible."

"Okay, how about I give you a call this afternoon and we can schedule the CAT Scan, and then the follow-up."

"Okay, sounds good to me." I then paid her my insurance co-pay and headed off to visit the vampires, and then to the mall.

Continued… How does Bill's visit with the Vampires go? What's next? Does he spend the morning in the mall?

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Well, here are some more dribblings. Maybe something interesting will happen one of these days. Please feel free to speculate (I could use the ideas). Comments are appreciated!