Two more women approached the table.
Edie quickly finished the thought. “We’ll never see our friends again.”
Cassidy put on her mild smile and took the Island X postcard the couple handed her. She signed it and passed it to Edie. The card bore a picture of the island from above with a vintage text that read “wish you were here” with smaller text in between that made the entire thing read “wish you were cool enough to be here.”
“How are you enjoying yourselves?” Cassidy asked.
“Oh my gosh, this whole thing has been amazing,” the shorter of the two women said. Her light pink hair trailed down over her shoulders. “And I’m so happy to meet you. I love your work. I’ve always wanted to walk for Mizzu.”
“What’s your name?” Cassidy asked.
“Rosalind,” the pink-haired woman said. “And this is my friend, Courtney.”
Rose!Edie remembered.Rose Turner, that’s the name I forgot.The realization brought with it a cold terror that paralyzed her.I forgot Rose’s name. No, not forgot. I’m just tired. It was a momentary lapse.
But Edie couldn’t lie to herself.
Cassidy continued chatting with the women, but Edie didn’t follow the conversation. She rose as though underwater, slow and deliberate, and walked around the side of the bar. Heather tried to say something to Edie, but she didn’t hear it, and soon Cassidy stood by her side.
“Are you feeling okay?”
“I needed a break,” Edie wheezed. She couldn’t bring enough air into her lungs and her heart fluttered in her chest.
“You don’t look okay, what’s wrong?”
Cassidy gripped Edie by her shoulders and examined her face as though any answers lay there.
“I forgot her name.”
“Whose name?”
“Rose. I forgot Rose’s name. I forgot her name.” Edie began to shake in Cassidy’s arms.
“Shh, shh,” Cassidy cooed, bringing Edie into her body for a hug. “I think you’re having a panic attack. You need to calm down. It’s okay. You remember it now.”
“How would you feel if you …” Edie hiccupped as the tears started to come. “If you forgot … your friend’s name?” She let out a sob, this time because she no longer remembered who Cassidy’s friends were and the holes in her memory felt like gaps in the armor she needed for a coming attack.
“Sometimes you just forget someone’s name for a second. It’s not a big deal. You’re under a lot of pressure right now.”
Edie pulled away from the hug and kept out of arm’s reach of Cassidy.
“Who did you come here with?”
Cassidy’s eyebrows bunched together. “You.”
The breeze from off the ocean almost blew Edie over. She leaned against the wall of the backside of the bar. The plaster provided a sturdiness she needed but also trapped her with nowhere to run from Cassidy or this damned island.
“No,” Edie forced the word out. “I came here with Rose, and you came here with someone else. Two white women. They’re your friends.”
Cassidy’s eyes darted as she searched for something inside of herself.
“How is that possible?” she asked. “I can remember coming here with you so clearly, but … I remember that, too.”
“What were their names, Cassidy? You have to remember their names.”
Cassidy wrapped one arm across her waist and brought the other to her cheek. “I don’t … I don’t know. I don’t remember. I think … Apple? Was that it? Apple and … Daphne?”
Cassidy looked to Edie for confirmation, but Edie couldn’t remember either.
