Chapter 2
Rachel does not sleep very well as she tries to figure out what she is supposed to do with Kenneth. She eventually falls to sleep only to have dreams that Kenneth star in. She wakes up to her alarm clock hoping that it had all been a dream but when she peeks out her door she sees him still asleep on her couch. The first day of school she couldn't miss but she didn't have to go in to work so she would be able to deal with Kenneth.
She makes sure that Jennifer was gone before waking Kenneth up and giving him some instructions. "I have to go to class and then we will start working on trying to get your memories back," she told him. "Just watch some TV and don't get into any trouble."
In class she is completely distracted trying to figure out what her next step actually should be. As the teacher went over the class syllabus the one question that keeps coming to Rachel's mind is Kenneth actually human. The only way she's going to find out is if a doctor takes a look at him but she has to be careful and make sure they can be trusted. The only person she could think of was Melissa, who she got to know the first year she was at school. The two of them on more than one occasion raised a little hell and did a couple things she was pretty sure Melissa never wanted to get out. She was currently doing a residency which should allow her to take a look at Kenneth.
Kenneth spent the morning looking around the apartment trying to jog his memory. Almost everything he recognized but just felt strange to him. The remote seem to catch him off-guard but the television seems perfectly normal. The only thing that he had a hard wrapping his head around was the fact that she seemed to have a computer terminal in the apartment which didn't feel right to him.
Watching TV was also unsettling to him. Nothing he could put his finger on but it seemed like it just wasn't right. He ended up watching a show about California lifeguards which just seemed odd to him.
By 11 o'clock Rachel was done with classes and headed home. She grabbed him and then they were off seeing the doctor or at least the student resident. As they drove to the hospital Kenneth had a few questions.
"How can you afford to have a computer terminal in your home," Kenneth asks.
Rachel stops to think about it for a moment, "What you mean afford computer? It is expensive but not prohibitive."
As they continued talking about everything that seems to confuse Kenneth Rachel discovers that he has quite the sense of humor. She laughs at one of his jokes as she realizes that he's not like any man she had met but something about him was oddly familiar. He seemed to be polite and courteous at least on the surface.
Checking in at the nurses’ station Rachel realizes she probably should have called but surprising Melissa would probably be a little more effective. It took about 10 min. for Melissa to respond to the page. It is easy to see that she is not very enthusiastic about seeing Rachel, more like confused.
"This is a little bit strange," Melissa said as she walks up to Rachel and Kenneth.
Rachel swallows as she begins to speak, "I need a little bit of a favor. I need someone to look over Kenneth," she points to him as she speaks.
Kenneth interrupts to shake Melissa's hand, "it's a pleasure to meet you. I just hope you can help me out."
Melissa looks over Kenneth who seems to be in perfect health. "Why do you think you need to see a doctor," Melissa asks Kenneth.
Rachel steps forward. "The situation is a little bit complex," Rachel told Melissa. "I think it would be better to discuss it in private."
"I don't know why you don't go to your normal doctor to deal with this," Melissa adds. "Most the time people don't want to talk about questionable issues with people they actually know. Would it be easier to talk about these things with someone who hasn't met your parents?"
Rachel starts getting a little anxious as she speaks, "We can talk about questionable behavior like the time that the two of us and the boys from…"
"This must be serious if you're resorting to blackmail," Melissa said directing them back toward an exam room. As the three of them sat down Melissa asks what this is about.
Rachel takes a couple deep breaths before starting to explain. "Kenneth needs a physical to find out if there is anything strange or peculiar with him," Rachel said trying to be discreet.
"What you mean strange or peculiar," Melissa asks.
"Kenneth has lost his memories and we're trying to figure out why," Rachel responds.
"When don't you just go to the police? Maybe they can help you find out who he is," Melissa asks.
"The situation is a little more complicated than that," Rachel informs Melissa. "All I'm asking for is a basic physical so that we can make sure he's healthy."
Melissa finally relents and begins taking his vitals but soon starts noticing a strange pattern. After just a few minutes Kenneth starts to open up to Melissa and starts joking around making her feel more comfortable. As the two of them talk Rachel realizes she was starting to get jealous.
After the exam Melissa confronts Rachel about Kenneth's uniqueness. "There's absolutely nothing wrong with him. Not just he is healthy but seems to be in perfect health. I couldn't find a single scar or blemish that would suggest any sort of injury ever. The only blemish on his skin is where I took the blood. I have a feeling that those test results are going to be interesting." Melissa is still having a hard time believing what she had just seen. "What have you gotten yourself mixed up in Rachel?"
Rachel takes a moment to think before answering Melissa's question, "I really don't know but it seems to be confusing at the least."
"I will call you with the test results later," Melissa told him as she whisked them away.
It is almost 1 o'clock and Kenneth stomach starts to rumble. Rachel looked at him realizing that he has only the one poorly crafted outfit. After grabbing some fast food Rachel decided to take him to the mall for a little shopping.
Kenneth seems a little bit confused as Rachel shoped for him. She focuses on trying to find out not just what Kenneth size is but also try to make him look fashionable. She gave him a stack of denim jeans to try on and continues shopping. He spends a few minutes trying on the pants but when he finally comes out Rachel notices how good he actually looks and can't help but remember the first time she saw him.
By the time they reached the fourth store Kenneth is no longer interested in trying on more outfits so Rachel sends him to get some ice cream. As she continues to shop she keeps picturing Kenneth in all the different outfits. She ends up buying quite a few outfits and most of them are designed to show off Kenneth's nearly perfect physique.
As Rachel waited in line she wondered what was taken Kenneth so long to get back. She begins to worry and as soon as the credit card was run she races off to find him. She races toward the food court hoping that nothing had gone wrong but she was worried about him. She has come to like Kenneth's interesting behavior and innocent honesty.
She turned down the food court and sees him talking to the woman behind the ice cream shop counter. It is clear that the transaction took place quite a long time ago and Rachel fears that the woman was hitting on Kenneth. Rachel moves closer trying to regain her composure. Once she was in earshot she realizes that they are speaking some foreign language that she had never heard before. Kenneth seemed perfectly adapted and maybe spoke it better than even English.
Finally Rachel was both close enough and courageous enough to speak up. "Kenneth, you seem to have gotten distracted," Rachel said trying to be polite.
Kenneth turns toward her and smiles as he responds, "I'm sorry I lost track of time. Nejla and I just started talking and she was surprised that I knew Slavic and then we just started talking."
This was also surprised to Rachel and was something that they would have to investigate further. "It's getting late and I think we should head back home," Rachel said quite forcefully.
"Is has been pleasure meeting you Nejla and I hope to see you again," Kenneth told Nejla.
Nejla said something to Kenneth which makes the both of them la
ugh. This did not sit well with Rachel because she didn't know who she can trust she rationalizes. Kenneth gave Rachel her now melting ice cream cone as they leave the mall. As she licks away at the ice cream she realizes that it might not have been the best choice for a dessert in this cold weather.
On the way back Rachel asks Kenneth about Nejla and how he knows Slavic. Kenneth thinks about it for a while before answering, "I just recognized her accent and before I knew it I was speaking Slavic. She did say that I was fluent but just like so many things it just seemed right."
"You're going to have to be more careful," Rachel chastised him. "We don't know anything about you and who knows what danger might be out there for you?" It is then when Rachel realizes that if Kenneth is in any danger she could be also.
When they got home Rachel realizes that Kenneth had not had a shower and was starting to become ripe. She sent him off to the bathroom to take a shower so that she could have some time to think.
She knew that she was smitten by this strange man that seemed to know nothing of his past but everything needed to survive the world. How long could she keep him a secret because eventually Jennifer is going to want a lot more answers and there really aren't any to give? If she goes to the cops and they discover something about him or discover that maybe he's not human they might do something to him. So far the only clue to his past is that he speaks Slavic so she needs to find out what other languages he might speak and maybe that might narrower down a place of origin.
Rachel began to make dinner as Kenneth turned off the shower. Shortly the phone rang and Rachel rushes to get it trying not to let the food burn.
"Hello," Rachel said getting back to the food.
"I don't know what you have gotten yourself into," Melissa said over the phone.
"So is not human," Rachel blurts out.
Melissa takes a moment to answer, "He's human. I didn't ever have to think I would have to actually answer that sort of question."
Rachel was now confused with the answer, "what's the problem then?"
"He's in perfect health," Melissa answers.
Rachel was relieved to hear the news but Melissa still sounds confused. "Then everything is good," Rachel said.
Melissa takes a moment to sort out her thoughts. "If there is a definition of textbook health it is Kenneth," Melissa told Rachel. "You don't understand he is in perfect health, beyond even perfect health. Cholesterol perfect, white blood cell count perfect and every other measurable component of health perfect and if that was all I could write a great paper on it but there's more. He has no toxins, not just well within acceptable range but no toxins. This isn't possible, even if he was say an alien this wouldn't be possible. Every living being has toxins in them, me you and even grass has toxins but Kenneth doesn't. I got some funny looks from the boys in the lab that thought I was playing a joke on them. The only thing I can think of that could account for having no toxins would be to be grown in a medically sterile environment in a tank."
Rachel didn't know what to say or how to explain Kenneth's tests results to Melissa. As she stood there completely overwhelmed by the information a noise drew her attention and she looked finding Kenneth walking out of the bathroom still in the buff which disrupted Rachel's train of thought.
"Forgot to take the clothes in with me," Kenneth told Rachel without any modesty.
Rachel points toward the bags and looked away. Rachel tried to refocus on the conversation with Melissa. "I think it would be wise if you didn't tell anyone about this," Rachel told Melissa.
"I don't think anyone could actually believe this but I wouldn't mind giving Kenneth a much more thorough physical," Melissa said suggestively before hanging up.
Rachel turns her attention back toward Kenneth who is just getting dressed right in front of her. She is once again surprised by his physique and even his completely comfortable attitude with her.
After eating dinner Rachel and Kenneth just hung out talking and trying to figure out if there is any way to jog Kenneth's memory but still nothing comes. As the hours pass Rachel found herself laughing often to Kenneth's sense of humor which seems well rehearsed and fairly robust. When Jennifer got home she too joins in the fun.
Once again Kenneth slept soundly on the couch and Rachel has even more interesting dreams as she worries about who Kenneth really is. Melissa at least reassured her that he was human but that part about being grown in a tank scared her. Is Kenneth some sort of experiment that got loose but still that does not explain the light?
The next morning Rachel headed back to school and Kenneth stayed at home reading some of Rachel's and Jennifer old school books to see if anything would jog his memory. After hours of reading only the history books seemed familiar to him. As he read about ancient Rome it felt familiar but that was as far as recalling anything that was all he could get.
When Rachel got home Kenneth told her about the familiar sensation with history. "I don't get it," he told her, "it's like history might be important to me."
"So we figured out you know at least two languages and maybe studied history," Rachel surmised. She took a couple minutes to think what their next action should be. "I need to head to the library anyways to catch up on schoolwork and there you can read more about history and even look at different languages."
Once arriving at the college library Rachel directed him toward the foreign language section and asked him to see if any more languages seemed familiar. She went to work trying to catch up on her schoolwork that she had been neglecting. Kenneth spent the next couple hours looking through books trying to figure out how many languages he actually knew. Every time he encountered a new one that he recognized he put it in a pile next to Rachel. By two o'clock there were three piles with at least 10 books in each stack in front of Rachel.
She couldn't take it any longer and looked at the books. She couldn't believe it there were so many different languages that Kenneth could apparently speak and understand; from Greek to Gaelic, Mandarin, Latin and every variation of it, Japanese was also there as well as others from the Middle East and Africa, he even had a book about the Aztec language Nahuatl.
Rachel couldn't believe this and wondered if Kenneth was being a little bit too enthusiastic. As he approached with three more books in hand Rachel asked him, "there's no way you can know all these different languages?"
Kenneth looked back at her not quite surprised but maybe confused, "some of them just feel like maybe I had been there may be immersed in it but others I feel as comfortable with as English."
They spent the next 30 min. going over some of the more comfortable languages and to the best that Rachel could tell he was well-versed in them. Nothing seemed to jog any memories and it did not narrow down any location where maybe Kenneth was from.
After finishing with the language section of Kenneth studied Rachel pointed Kenneth toward the large section of history books. Rachel went back begrudgingly to studying but she couldn't focus very well and kept trying to figure out who Kenneth was. Hours passed and Kenneth looked through a few dozen history books. Once in a while Kenneth would get a strange look in his eye but then he would move on. It was after six o'clock when Rachel caught up on her studies and she was exhausted.
"Anything jog your memories," Rachel asked him.
"No," Kenneth said frustrated, "just like everything it seems familiar. The only thing different is at certain points I feel that they are wrong."
Rachel was quite interested in what felt wrong because maybe it was another clue. "What you mean exactly it feels wrong," she asked.
"Just some of the facts that I read felt wrong," he said trying to put his finger on it. "I think some of the people were misquoted or maybe the wrong date or just not the way it actually happened. Sometimes it feels like there is much more at hand and they are only guessing."
Rachel knew history was a lot of guesswork trying to put together facts well trying to sift through the fiction. Maybe Kenneth had some sort of encyclopedic knowledge lo
cked away in his head wanting to get out or maybe that was the reason why he couldn't remember anything.
They were both exhausted by the time they got home and Rachel just through some leftovers into the microwave. As they chow down they talked about some of the history that Kenneth read over. He was excited about telling the stories that he had read which made it not just bearable but almost fun especially when he started speaking in random languages.
Rachel had to go back to work the next day which meant Kenneth would be stuck at home all day. She came up with a list of things to keep him busy while she's at work but she warned him to try to avoid getting into any long conversations with Jennifer.
A Day of an Eternal Soul Page 2
