# I woke up and I was late for work by Mikey Mann That was my first thought when I came too. If you consider the memory loss it was actually a very reasonable thought. Rehabilitation took about a week before the medics gave me the thumbs up and my medical bill as they wheeled me out the front door. I had been in the cryogenic vat for just over 700 years give or take a decade or two due to a glitch in their system and subsequent bankruptcy about 500 years ago. Most of us lost our data except for the timers hard coded into our tanks. I don't even know my own name. The company was largely liquidated and the government at the time took custody of us left in cold storage. My timer was up and it was time to get going on that bill. What was left of my memories faded that first day. Everything about my old life is gone but I am often surprised by the little things I know. I'm a blank slate now, the doctor explained the issues with my storage destroyed a lot of my brain and muscle structure which is easily repairable now adays but that I effectively died and that I am essentially a new person now. One of the nurses described my hair as raven black, so I decided to go by that for my name. Raven Black. --- I sit on a park bench watching the cars and trains on the Trans-Atlantic Highway and listen to this generations equivalent of a saxophone being played by a young looking person with four arms, lots of people had additional body parts and I accepted it rather quickly which was amusing to me. I find that I really like who I am and how I react and think. I take another bite of my New-New York hot dog which tastes and looks like a regular hot dog, somethings never change. --- It's been about a month now, and I'm staying with this older couple that lends their space to people like me that are thawed out and have nowhere to go. They've been helping me try to find work so that I can start making payments to my medical bills but I still have 11 months before I need to start paying. Things should be bleak and dreary but as I sit here scribbling in my diary, I can't help but watch the off-world ships come and go from their ports and I know that I've never felt so free in this life or the last. The smell of the city air is rough with pollution and garbage but the sweet sent of the cafe next to me is calling to me, I think I'll ask for a coffee, most people give free stuff to those in my situation but not everyone though. --- I've been working with a guy called James for a few weeks now and he's a really taken to me. He's in his mid or late 20s, he hasn't said and I haven't asked, where I got into the freezer around my mid 30s, I don't actually know because my records are corrupted, but I may as well be an infant child in this world and James has filled in the role as my guide. We spend everyday together now, wandering the streets and talking about the past of which I remember little to nothing and about the present of which he has a whole life of experiences here. He is calm and a resourceful leader of his small team of private eye / bounty hunters of which I have become. Most of my days go to following around adulterers and insurance frauds and getting photos of them doing things they shouldn't be doing. I enjoy the work despite ruining the fun for others, but I'm not sure if I want to do this forever. --- James and I are lovers now. It was late at night after a shift and we hung out on his complex roof and well it just kinda wordlessly happened. We stayed up for a while and I got to talking about wanting to get one of those off-world ships and just go out there and never come back. James didn't seem to like the idea so much but was supportive all the same and said he would keep an eye out for something good. I fell asleep in his arms, I can still remember how he smells. --- It was the damnedest thing, I had just clocked off for the day and I went for one of my usual walks where I try my best to get lost and I was on the corner of Columbus and 3rd and I felt this shiver run across my body and I remembered being there with my dad as a little girl. My dad had just gotten me a strawberry ice cream cone and I was very excited about it. Then it was all gone. I was there late into the night trying to spark something else, anything else. I walked around a five block radius, I went into every building I could, asked around and interviewed people. I felt so desperate, like the woman who used to be me saw only but a glimmer of light from within the deepness and she took over and used every last bit of herself trying to hold onto something, anything. In the end I read everything on my Lens about the history of this area and even found the name of the ice cream shop, Holey Cream. It went out of business centuries ago, before the Water Wars. The building changed hands several times and has gone through several renovations, it even burned down once when it was an AT&T. Now its a family owned cobbler for the past four generations. I just sat there leaning on the building next to where the memory took place, looking at the sky and the stars as the off world ships come and go, savoring the taste of the cold cream and strawberry for hours while the city kept on going without me. I feel like I should be sad, or that I lost something, but I had already accepted that was all gone. That feeling though, like my whole world had stopped, I felt the love and care of my father and not even James has ever made me feel that safe. It's been 8 months since my last entry. Even with the Universal Basic Income and my wages I'm still over my head in debt. I have these skills now and I feel like I'm wasting my time following people who have only ever struggled to survive like everyone else or the worst scum this city has to offer. There is a whole galaxy out there and this planet only keeps feeling smaller. I want to get lost out there.