Barefoot in the Grass

My eyes looked up from the photograph in my hand. It was of a picnic, the last place we were all together. I was standing in the park, looking at the exact location, a grassy spot beside the pond with the fountain under a tall oak that leaned a bit too far out over the water.

I remembered nothing.

"This is stupid!" I declared, lowering the photo but not dropping it.

"Try," urged the person my index card labeled 'sister' but my brain called 'stranger'.

"To do what?! I don't remember that day, the reason we were barefoot, what was so funny, who took the picture, or even how I related to the people!"

She took my arm and pulled me to the middle of the spot. "Stand here. Close your eyes and think."

I sighed, closed my eyes, and imagined what that day might have been like. I smelled the water. I heard the ducks. I felt the sunshine. Someone laughed, a titter that stirred something deep. I concentrated.

Pulling off my shoes, I felt the grass on my feet. "We didn't have grass at home," I remembered.