The Loss

No one knew where it came from or how it happened. It was just another sunny, dull, and happy day in the small Michigan town when it began.

It occurred with the small things first (like memories of anniversaries or memories of where the car keys were).
Memories simply disappeared and even when people found where the car keys were or were reminded of their anniversaries, they would lose those memories in less than a minute.

Of course, no one really minded the few people whose memories were the first to go. Maybe they were simply getting old and possibly developing Alzheimer’s disease. Whatever the case, no one expected it would spread until everyone began having severe memory loss.

Some forgot what jobs they had, others forgot their names, and many forgot where their keys were. Even when reminders were written, things were forgotten as soon as they were read.

After the memory loss, the physical loss began. Cars that were parked on certain spots in the streets simply disappeared as soon as people looked away. Random items started disappearing with no explanation but everyone was too busy wondering about what else they had forgotten to notice what went missing.

Some rambled about how God was punishing them. Others broke down emotionally from forgetting their children’s names or from losing valuables.

No one knew how it could possibly get worse until it did: abilities started disappearing. At first, it was only the baker who lost his ability to bake, but then the mechanic forgot how to use the hydraulic lift and crushed himself with a car until everyone lost random abilities. Crashed cars filled the streets from people trying to flee (only to suddenly realize that they lost the ability to drive). Some people sat crying on the streets because they lost their abilities to communicate.

By the second week, everything was falling apart. Everyone had forgotten how to speak. Clothing randomly disappeared. Some starved because they had also forgotten how to eat. All the cars had disappeared without a trace along with random pieces of technologies such as televisions and computers (not that it mattered because everyone had also lost their abilities to use them). Some lost their will to live and sat there crying because they forgot how to die until they simply disappeared.

Cats and dogs were all lost but no one had any idea how to find them because most had lost the ability to walk.

I could not stand it any longer, so I simply walked. I walked as far as I could from that place. I was lucky that I could still walk. To this day, I have no idea what happened to the town or how it happened. I walked for miles until I collapsed near a quiet road. I was lucky that some old couple driving a pickup truck found me and drove me to a local hospital. I was treated and re-taught how to eat, speak, and read again.

I doubt that I will ever remember my name or the name of my town, but I write this to say that unexplained things happen. I can only imagine what else the people of the town lost next. They could have easily lost their youth and turned into old piles of skin and bone. They could have lost their minds and soon their bodies. All I know is that the whole town was simply just…lost.

Now you, the reader, might think that this is simply ridiculous after all, nothing is simply just lost, right?

Well, let me ask you this:
have you ever started to say something but simply lost what you were about to say?

Credit: M T