The Pact - Season 1: Episode 15

We arrived just a few minutes before eight. Mandy and Steve were already there. Steve was looking really surprised at all this – and I couldn’t blame him. Steve didn’t know that there was anything wrong with his childhood. He simply thought that he had lived an entirely different one. We found a quiet spot in a corner, and Mandy started speaking.

“I knew from the very first time that Tyrone met you David, that this day had to come. And now finally it is here. It is time you all learnt the truth about what happened on the 19th of May, eight years ago. You guys were eleven years old, and Michelle was ten. But the first thing that you have to know is that you have not always lived in the same place where you actually think that you grew up. All of us, including Tyrone and me, were born and grew up in a little village called Sherwood.” She paused. I nodded my head. I remembered Sherwood quite well. I looked at David and Steve. David was looking at her with a blank look in his eyes, and Steve was shaking his head in denial.

“I know that now. When Lynn told me that someone wanted to speak to me about my childhood, she told me that we had not always lived in Lenton, but that we had been born in a place called Sherwood. She showed me some pictures of the house, and of the village, but I cannot remember any of it. I can’t. All I remember is this island.” We looked at Steve. He was still shaking his head.

“That cannot be true. I have never even heard of that place. And my sister here will tell you that we never lived there, right, Michelle?” I shook my head.

“No, Steve. It’s true. We have lived in a place called Sherwood, before moving to America. I always remembered that. Something happened to you, and you were sick, and our parents decided to move away. You got better afterwards, but you forgot Sherwood.”

“But our parents always agreed with me,” he said.

“That was for your own sake, Steve. Whenever I mentioned Sherwood, they too denied we had ever lived there. I was beginning to think that something was wrong with me. But do you remember when you had that nightmare this summer? I was so scared, because it reminded me of when you were sick. So I called up mum, and she finally admitted that we had lived in Sherwood.” Steve shook his head.

“I can’t remember it though.” Mandy spoke up then.

“Michelle, what do you remember of Sherwood?”

I tried to cast my mind back to those early days of my life. I thought that it was going to be easy to remember, but now as I sat there trying to think about it, I discovered it was harder than I had imagined. It seemed like I too had forgotten most of my childhood there.

“I remember … a little house. Playing with Steve in the attic. I remember a small market behind our house. A brook. A swing in the backyard… And I remember the woods, where we used to play as kids.” Mandy smiled.

“You don’t remember much. But you remember enough – if you remember the woods. Do you remember if you went there often?” I nodded my head.

“Everyday. Me and Steve used to go there everyday, and play with our friends there. In winter we used to go after school, and in summers we stayed there all day long. Our friends used to sleep over at our house sometimes.”

“And do you remember who those friends were?” I shook my head.

“I don’t. I know they were boys, and only one of them was a girl.” I stopped, as I suddenly remembered something clearly

“Yes, I remember now. There was that girl, another boy, and the other two boys I think were twins.” Mandy looked up at me, admiringly.

“You do remember well. But do you remember their names?” I shook my head again. I could not remember one more thing about Sherwood.

“Michelle, that girl was me. And Tyrone and David were there too.” We all looked at each other at that statement. “I know this is sounding too incredible to believe, and it is incredible. But try to imagine how me and Tyrone felt, when we moved to this island, and we started meeting our old friends from Sherwood one by one – those friends who had been taken away to a different place years before. First Tyrone started dating Lynn, and we discovered David was her brother. Then I found myself in Steve’s class, and working on the same projects – and finally when Michelle came over, she started dating David – and when Tyrone met her, and discovered who she was – he really thought he was going crazy. How could we all end up here, together again after all these years?” I was looking at her in amazement. The other two were looking at her in wonder. It was obvious they were not remembering any of it. I myself couldn’t remember the names of those friends. David suddenly looked up.

“And how do we know you’re not lying to us – and this isn’t some sort of game that you and Tyrone are playing?” I suddenly remembered something.

“Wait. We are not all here. There was another boy, right? What about him?” Mandy looked down sadly.

“Yes,” she replied. “One of the twins. I have a picture of him right here. Maybe if I show it to you, it will help you remember.” And with those words, she reached in her bag, and took out a picture, and handed it to us. The three of us crowded around that picture.

It was a picture of a blonde boy who looked like he was around ten years old. It was a little yellowed with age. The boy was standing in what appeared to be the woods, winking and waving at the camera, a charming smile on his face, and shining through his blue eyes.

We stared at that picture – and then suddenly just as if we had been practicing that moment, all three of us said in unison,

“Danny.”