"Don't try to pull that amnesia shit with me, punk..." the officer began. However, he stopped dead in his tracks as he and Linda walked out the front door. Linda saw that the two of them were in what was obviously a low income neighborhood. There were several people outside, both children and adults. What Linda and the police officer noticed, however, was that all of these people were acting like they had gone insane.
Next door, a woman of about 23 was happily playing in the sandbox - wearing nothing but her underwear. Across the street a black man and a chinese woman were screaming at each other demanding their body back. A small child of about 6 sat nearby comforting a man and a woman who were sobbing and sucking their thumbs. Further down the street, Linda saw a woman crawling happily around her yard with no shirt - and her baby crawling as quickly after as possible, trying to say something. However, the activity that drew the police officer's attention and soon Linda's too was the policeman's attractive policewoman partner. On the hood of the police car, a young woman in her mid 20s had her uniform half off and had one hand down her pants and the other massaging her now exposed breasts. "My God," the policeman said, "the world has gone crazy!"
Seeing he might listen in the current situation, Linda began trying to explain who she was. "Please officer, my name is Linda Madison. I live in Burbank with my husband and three kids. You have to believe me!"
However, the officer wasn't paying attention to Linda. "Valerie!?! What are you doing?!?!" he exclaimed.
"Valerie" looked up at the policeman and smiled. Then she reached for Valerie's gun. "Fuck you! Arrest this!" she shouted with a heavy latin accent. "Nobody arrests Jose Batista!"
Three shots exploded, but not from Valerie's gun. Linda found herself once again on the ground; this time in fear, as the still unnamed policeman lowered his firearm and watched his partner's body fall into the street. A tear rolled down his cheek. Looking down, he jumped, as if seeing Linda for the first time. He holstered his pistol and pulled out his keys. "I'm sorry, ... Linda, was it?" he asked.
"Yes," she answered. "Linda Madison. What is going on?"
Looking at his former partner's body, the officer shook his head. "I don't know," he said, "but it seems like I'm the only person around who's myself. I'm officer Dan Brown, by the way."
"Nice to meet you," Linda replied. "I don't suppose you could tell me who I am, and maybe where we are and why I was getting arrested?"
Dan laughed grimly. "Sure thing. Your body's name is Jose Marcos Batista. You're 19, and one of this area of Chicago's most prominent cocaine dealers. How are you feeling, by the way?"
Thinking about it for a second, Linda answered, "Better than I've felt my whole life, actually. That's wierd."
"Not really," Dan explained. When we got here, Jose had just taken a shot of cocaine. You're high right now."
Linda would later realize how laughable it was that the next words out of her mouth were, "Oh my God, what will my kids think when they find out!?"
