Learning to Remember

9. Christmas in June

"Candy Canes or Chocolates?" He asked as he continued his rapid fire questions.

"Chocolates to eat, candy canes to decorate with."

"Hmm." He said as he paused to think. "Traditional red and green or modern white and silver."

"Traditional red and green, no question." She shook her head as she sat the now empty box down beside the pile of full ones.

"Curious." He said as he held up a silver snowflake and motioned toward the tree.

"That's..." She stepped back and just now noticed everything was white and silver, with just a few hints of red. "Maybe I was trying something new when I bought these." She said unconfidently as she shook her head and sat on the couch, glancing at all of the open boxes.

"Hey, we all go through phases. Maybe your gut reaction is more from your upbringing than your current tastes."

"Yeah... maybe." She said as the song Tender Tennessee Christmas started playing and her mind reeled into a memory.

 ...Come on weatherman, give us a forecast snowy white....

"Come on, change it to something more current." A female voice said.

"No, this is a classic." Another female voice argued.

...But it doesn't matter, give me the laughter, I'm gonna choose to keep. Another Tender Tennessee Christmas...

"We're not even from Tennessee." The first woman continued to complain.

....Where the love circles around us like the gifts around our tree...

"Close enough, Millie. The sentiment still applies. Come on, dance with me."

"Don't-"

"Amelia!" Her eyes refocused to find John bent down in front of her, his hands on her upper arms, stroking up and down her bare skin.

She glanced around slowly to realize she was still sitting in her living room, Archie barking at her. She absentmindedly reached over to pat his head. "I'm okay Archie, quiet down."

"Oh, thank goodness." John breathed a sigh of relief at the same time the dog stopped barking and walked over, plopping down on his big dog bed on the other side of the room. "What happened? Are you ok?"

"A memory... I think."

"Oh!" He smiled. "That's great, what was it?"

"Um..." She brought her hand up to her forehead and rubbed across it, trying to clear her mind. "It was fuzzy. I..."

John moved to sit on the sofa beside her. "It's ok, take your time."

She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply. "I can't picture..." She shook her head. "I can't picture what it looked like but this song was on." She paused to listen, realizing it was nearing the end. "Whoever I was with called me Millie."

"Millie?"

"Yeah. I distinctly remember being called Millie. And something about modern Christmas music versus classic." She opened her eyes and looked at him. "That's it, I can't remember any more."

"That's good though. Another piece to the puzzle. You have two now."

"Right." She said quietly as she smiled softly at him. "And now I guess I know that the people who know me well call me Millie. Or at least that one person does."

"Your sister again?"

"I don't know. When I try to remember these flashbacks it's like I was listening and watching through a fishbowl. Everything is so fuzzy." She shook her head and opened her eyes to meet his, excitement filling her features. "Now I remember. The person wanted me to dance with them. We were in a living room and they wanted to dance."