Schuyler Square Day 114 Peter's Still Puzzled

“Why can’t I remember? What’s wrong with me?” Peter Van buried his face in his pillow as he tried to shut out the early morning sounds of birds chirping outside the window. It was a cheerful sound and Peter didn't want to be cheered up. He was more in the mood to hear chain saws buzzing and guillotines dropping. Everything seemed to be going south lately—his relationship with Mavis, his relationship with Chelsea, his job, these weird memories he was having about Mary Austin. Frankly, it was scaring the stuffing out of him but he didn’t know what to do about it. Life shouldn’t be so hard. He should be able to make a decision between his pregnant wife and his mistress and stick with it. He should be able to remember what happened at Mary Austin’s house all those years ago and get over it. He should be able to decide between sausage and pepperoni on his pizza without feeling like he was going to have a major nervous breakdown.

Maybe he was going through a mid-life crisis. All the signs certainly pointed to one. Dissolving marriage, the start of a paunch, and an intense desire to buy a foreign car that he couldn’t afford.

Well, so what if you are going through a mid-life crisis? That doesn’t make any of this easier to take!

What Peter needed to do was divorce Chelsea, marry Mavis and retire. Bing, bang, boom—end of crisis. The only flies in his ointment were that Chelsea didn’t seem to keen on giving him a divorce nor did Mavis seem to be all that enamored with the thought of marrying him. And if she wouldn’t marry him, then there was no way he could retire or get the hot red sports car he had his eye on.

“All right, first things first. If I can’t straighten out my love life then the least I can do is search my memory bank for what the heck happened at Mary Austin’s house when I was 15.”

Maybe he could talk to Artie Elliott down at the station. Artie was an amateur hypnotist who was sometimes used by the police to help people remember details when they witnessed a crime. Artie could put him into a trance, take him back twenty years and voila! Peter would be cured or at least he’d know what was happening inside his head.

Feeling better, Peter pulled himself out of the king sized bed he shared with Mavis and got ready for work. Maybe Artie would have time to talk to him over their lunch break. Maybe then he’d be able to go over to Mary Austin’s house and find whatever it was that he left there. Maybe then he’d finally be able to sleep through the entire night without waking up in a cold sweat.

Peter hoped so. He was too young and had too much going for him to be such a basket case. Besides, once he figured out what happened to Mary then he’d be able to concentrate on getting Mavis to fall in love with him again.