Coda

      I stood outside for the first time since a very long time. I was in the dark of night, stood there alone shivering without shelter from the cold night's air. I saw something bright in the distant, it was a lamp post and beside it, a telephone booth. I went into the telephone booth and picked up the the telephone only for me to realize that I don't know who to call, I can't remember anything, not even my name. I reach into my pocket and took out my cellphone and called the only number I had on my contacts, I decided to call that number.

"Hello?", a familiar voice answered my call. Images flashed before my very eyes, sitting alone in a cell, cut off from the outside world. I was trapped there for a very long time, too long for me to remember. I knew this voice... it was my own, but how can that be? I'm here, that person can't be me.

"Hi", I answered back. As confused as I was, I have forgotten when I last spoke to another person. I couldn't miss this opportunity to catch up with the outside world.

"who am I talking to?" he asked, he seemed confused.

"I don't know, I forgot my name, I'm calling you from a telephone booth", I said as I tried to answer his question the best I can.

"oh, you lost your memories too. I spent a long time trying to get in touch with the outside world, I tried for so long that I simply gave up. You said you were calling from a telephone booth, are you really on the outside world? ", wait... so he has never been outside before?

"so you've never been outside before?" I asked.

"no... I'm stuck here, I'm in this kind of prison cell. ", he answered in a sad, hopeless tone.

"yeah, I know, I still can't believe I'm out of that place", I explained.

"wait... you've been in this prison before?", he asked surprised. His voice was upbeat and hopeful, something about it made me uneasy. I didn't want to give the poor guy false hope.

"yeah, I just escaped. I found a telephone booth and called the only number on my contacts", I explained.

"what is it like being on the outside world", he asked. He was excited, of course he was. Now he knows he has a chance to escape that wretched place. 

"I feel like a new person, like someone else", I have forgotten what kind of person I was before. I don't know who I was. who I am now.

"Have you talked with anyone other than me? what's going on the outside world?", he said, curious of the outside world.

"No, only you. I just escaped, I don't really know what happened in the time I was stuck in that prison.",

"Tell me how you escaped, maybe I can meet you there", he sounded eager and excited. All of a sudden I remembered my escape, lucky him I thought to myself.

"You have to be honest with yourself", I tried explaining the best I could.

"Honest with myself? what does that have anything to do with anything?" contrary to our previous conversations, he sounded upset, angry.

"Until you start being honest with yourself, you will be stuck there forever", I answered, my voice firm and unyielding.

"This is a joke, right?, You're toying with me, aren't you!". He was really angry, I don't blame him.

"No, I meant what I said". I said as I hang up

I continued walking, leaving the booth. I partially remembered my time in that prison. I received a similar call before I escaped, the conversation went exactly the same way. There's no way I was talking to a past me, there has to be a better explanation. But everything he said about himself... I also spent a long time in a prison and tried to get in touch with the outside world, I too gave up eventually. We even had similar voices. There were way too much similarities to just be a coincidence.