"You're on Greene Street," he replied. "Shame how they never seem to want to put signs up..."
The answer wasn't what I wanted, but it was what most people would say when meeting a lost pedestrian. Certainly they'd never assume the pedestrian didn't know what city she's in. I sighed and looked around. Then I realized I was being stupid. I did, after all, have an ID with a place of residence. The place of residence, of course, had a city. Since whoever dropped me off here probably wouldn't pick a hospital that isn't at least in the same city I was in, that was the city I was in now. It wasn't where I started, but that was, after all, ten years ago.
I found a bus stop, which had a map posted, and a half hour later I was "home". It was sparsely furnished, the refrigerator was empty, and it was hot and sweaty because the air conditioner hadn't been running. In one room were a group of plastic boxes--the same ones that all my possessions had been in. Hermetically sealed, filled with inert gas--just the thing if you want them to last two hundred years. Only it wasn't two hundred, it was ten, and I would no longer be able to fit into most of the clothes in those.
I rummaged in my purse. Perhaps "Erica" has a cell phone? I found it in short order and checked the date. August 22, 2075. Ten years and two months after I had gone under.
Then the phone began to buzz in my hands. A moment later it began ringing. I didn't recognize the number, but answered it. "Hello?"
"We've heard you left the hospital, Ms. Robinson," the voice said.
"Who is this?"
"We're your benefact--"
I heard someone shout "Jim! Enough of that!"
The first voice cleared his throat and said "All right, sheesh. We're from the Cryogenics Research Foundation. The one Dr. Wellington set up."
That's right, they did say "'our cryo project'."
"Well, I'm a woman. And I wasn't expecting that. I know you explained that but I'd still like to know why I was dumped in a hospital in..."
"Because you needed to recover," he replied. "That is what hospitals are for."
"What about my money? I wasn't in this for the money, but now that I look around it occurs to me that I may have trouble entering the job market in this condition." They had explained to me that the idea of awakening far in the future and becoming rich off of interest won't work, because it'll get eaten away by inflation--in order for me to have a lot of money upon awakening, a lot of money would have had to be set aside at the very beginning.
"Don't worry. It's all in your account, as Erica Robinson."
"I've been wondering about that too. 'Erica'. So you made me a new identity?"
"No."
"What?"
"Think about it. If we were giving you a new identity, why would we give you basically the same name as you had before? Not too useful for switching identities."
"Maybe you assumed nobody would think it's me."
"Why would they do that?"
"Um, because I'm a woman? And nobody would assume that this woman is the same person as Eric Robinson? They wouldn't just say 'maybe he had a brain transplant'. Nobody would think of that."
"Why wouldn't they think of that? It's ten years after you went into cryo. Brain transplants ceased to be considered experimental five years ago. They're pretty rare considering that there aren't a lot of bodies around--otherwise you wouldn't be stuck as a woman--but everyone knows they're possible."
"So you didn't give me a new identity."
"We gave you an official name change. You will have to get a new drivers' license, though; the best we could get you was an ID. Any other questions?"
"Yes. What happened to this woman whose body I have? And who was she?"
"She had a stroke five years ago. One of those rare types that can strike at any age." I didn't have much choice but to believe them for now. Especially since I didn't seem to be as special as I had originally thought. There's no reason why any government agency would want to do funny stuff with me; I wasn't even anywhere near the first to have a brain transplant. "Any further questions?"
I admitted I didn't have any, said "Bye", and hung up.
I began unlocking the plastic boxes. There was a strange odor from them as the gas escaped and normal air entered. Time to unpack now; it was going to be a long day tomorrow.
