"Hey, watch it!" Jennifer yelled.
Stephanie turned back towards the road and saw that the traffic in front of her had stopped. She slammed on the brakes, but it wasn't soon enough. Everything was fine until their car made contact with the pick-up truck in front of them. There was a brief moment of sheer terror as they heard the crushing of metal and the shattering of glass, then they were both immersed in darkness.
At first, Stephanie couldn't quite understand what was happening, but as the sights and sounds became more apparent, it all came back to her. She was in a car with Jennifer Taylor. They were arguing. She was driving, but wasn't watching the road. Then ... they crashed!
Stephanie's eyes went wide and looked around.
"It's okay, it's okay," a man in a paramedic uniform said to her. "You have a broken leg, but we're getting you to the hospital right now."
She looked down and saw that she was on a stretcher. A couple of firemen were picking her up and putting her in the back of an ambulance. Off to her right, she saw the accident. She was lucky to be alive. The whole front part of the car was mangled beyond repair. The truck that they had hit didn't look quite as bad, but it still clearly needed to be fixed. There were three police cars, a fire truck, and another ambulance nearby. She spotted Jennifer. She was also in a stretcher and was being loaded into the other ambulance.
"She's going to be okay, too. Don't worry," the paramedic said. Once they were in the ambulance, the paramedic turned towards Stephanie. "Now, do you remember who you are?"
"Of course, I'm Stephanie ... uh ... Stephanie ..." She paused. "I can't remember my last name."
"What can you remember?" he asked.
"I was at school, talking to my friend Nadine. I think she was my friend. And then I was at the park, with Jennifer. We were messed up. Our clothes were different. I mean, I think they were."
"Sometimes memories after an accident like this can get garbled. Take your time. Sort it all through."
Stephanie tried to think. But the more time that passed, the less she remembered from her old life. She did remember arguing with Jennifer, however. Something about politics? Who they were going to vote for or something like that? They were always arguing about things like that. Stephanie was a devout Republican and Jennifer was a devout Democrat.
Unknown to either Stephanie or Jennifer, the reason that they were having trouble remembering their old lives suddenly was because they were no longer in close proximity to each other. As long as they stayed close by each other, they would always remember who they really were, but as soon as they parted ways ... they'd begin to believe that their current reality was their normal one.
