With a few phone calls and some parental approvals, Sarah stayed the night in Zoe’s room and Karyn was instructed to arrive (with her little sister at Mike’s request) at 10:00 the next morning.
That night, Zoe had a dream that Wario, the video game character, had stolen her name. She kept trying to get it back, but she kept ending up with names that weren’t hers. Alice. Allison. Amy. Angela. She wasn’t sure why they all started with the letter “A,” but they did. Eventually the nameless girl caught Wario in a lie, which voided a contract that she could not remember ever signing. And it wasn’t written in her handwriting, either. But just before she was able to grab for it in order to rip it apart, she woke up.
She was in her bedroom. Sarah was on an air mattress on the floor.
“Isn’t it odd that just a few days ago, we were complete strangers?” Zoe mused out loud.
Sarah turned on her mattress, stirring awake. “We’ve known each other for years,” she moaned as the sleep left her.
Then the two caught one another’s eye, and as if silently communicating, each registered the truth of the other’s words.
Sarah felt unease at the fact that one of her closest friends was essentially a manufactured memory. Zoe felt unease at the fact that her emotional connection to Sarah was strong enough that they could tell what one another was thinking.
Then a knock came at the door. “Hey, girls,” Roger’s wood-muffled voice followed the knock. “It’s 9:30. You should probably start getting showered and dressed if you want to be ready when your friend gets here.”
