Episode 3/ All Circuits Are Dead

by BOO ghost

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Background
Cullen and Margarita find themselves on route 66 with no memory of the past or their identities. They got no ID or cash. Only clues are the road map and two tickets to Mexico. They lose time.

Cullen succumbs to a daze... gingerly, he massages his swollen eyes and forehead. I could use some morphine poppers for this killer migraine."What happened," he mutters to himself, as he sinks like a sloth into his deluxe cushion. "What is that?" he ponders. He catches a glimpse of a flying object brighter and one hundred times larger than a star." Huh," he mumbles to himself.

What could that be? Where am I? Seems I lost partial memory. I can remember basic communication, common knowledge and skills... like a tape being edited and key components of my life deleted, a selective memory dump but why?

Cullen reaches over and gives Margarita a nudge. "Wake up, stranger, you got to see this." He knocks his knee on the steering wheel during all the ruckus. "Ouch!" he moans, grabbing his banged knee, simultaneously. Margarita's in 'The Twilight Zone,' with brute force he gives her another nudge.

"What's going on?" she whispers. Her golden brown eyes open for a split second before her eyelids weld shut.

"Wake up. Look!" Cullen shakes her like an Eskimo rag doll. Whack! The delayed reaction and dB level of a hand across the face. He looks cross-eyed.

Guess I had that coming. Jumping Jupiter, she has a wicked backhand. That was a stinger.

Big brown eyes stare at Cullen, a queer look.

"OK, mystery man, why did you wake me?"

Cullen grabs her head and forcefully turns it toward the windshield. By this time the object is almost out of orbit.

"A shooting star! Oh, who are you?" She stares at Cullen. "Why are we - parked in the middle of the road? Stay away from me, you weirdo."

Suddenly, Charlene's engine starts. The head beams and radio come on. They turn and face one another, amazed beyond belief. A 'deer caught in the headlights' stare. Cullen glances at his wrist watch. It displays 2:15 AM.

"We lost fifteen minutes! Look at my watch. It's fifteen minutes slow. What on earth has happened here?"

The newlyweds look bedazzled. Unanswered riddles race through Cullen's mind at warp speed.

Why are we sitting still on a road? What was that strange object in the sky? Where did that fifteen minutes go? Where were we going? Who in Hades is this lady stranger seated next to me? Ooh, she is sexy.

Margarita looks at Cullen with curiosity. "Who am I? Who are you? Did you abduct me?"

Cullen exhibits a blank look. "I do not have a clue. I lost my memory too. All I recall is that it was 2:00 AM the last time I looked at my watch. I blacked out. Could you please open the glove compartment and check for a road map."

Whoever you are? Maybe she's a prostitute? Hope she did not have a tabefaction. I better check my wallet.

Charlene's headlamps illuminate a road sign twenty-five feet down the road. Gallinippers swarm as thick as the Okekenofe swamp. She fumbles in the glove compartment for a map.

"I found it!"

"Hand it here!" Gutterslut. He clicks on the overhead dome light and studies the map of New Mexico. He finds Route 66. "Appears that we are on new 66; between Los Ranchos de Albuquerque and Alburquerky. For some odd reason, this ghost town is circled. Jumping jelly beans, we got two tickets to Chihuahua, Mexico tucked inside this map. Does any of this ring a bell?"

She exhibits a confounded expression, her jaw wide open like a Venus fly-trap. Cullen lifts his butt off the immaculate vinyl seat. He rams his hand in his rear jeans pocket.

"Good golly, miss Molly, my wallet is gone!"

Did I have one? Maybe we were robbed by desperados?

"Check your purse for an ID?"

"Oh my gosh, my purse is gone," she whimpers.

"Surely, a lady would tote a purse to keep makeup in and powder her nose. But I do not remember robbers. By the way, who are you?"

Cullen stares, like in outer space. "You're wearing cosmetics, most likely, you owned a purse. Maybe we should stop at the nearest police station and report this freak incident. But on the other hand, they may think we escaped from a funny farm and had shock treatments. I got no clue who I am. My memory has been erased."

Hum, maybe we are crazies on the run. That's the only logical explanation I can think of. Does she have to smack that chewing gum? She is about on my last nerve, and I think, I don't have any.

"Listen up. We have no recollection of what happened or who we are... maybe we should investigate that ghost town circled on the topo map, for clues. You look Spanish. Maybe you got blood kin in Chihuahua. That would be worth investigating. We may never recover our memory."

Cullen exits the car. He retrieves a piece of chalk from his front pocket.

"What are you doing, gringo?" She rubber necks trying to see what he's doing.

Cullen marks the asphalt.

Has he gone Es totalmente loco! Is that hopscotch he is drawing?

He returns to the car and shuts the door like nothing ever happened.

Margarita stares at the pavement. "What's up?" Weirdo. "Why did you mark that road with an X?"

"I don't know, honestly; my sixth sense told me to mark this spot. I know what I saw in the sky."

"What did you think you saw?"

Fantastic, maybe this gringo is an escaped lunatic. I better keep my eyes on him.

Cullen exhibits a blank stare. "I'm not sure, but whatever it was -- was not from this world.

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