Microstory 161: Rick Rain

This is an experimental Bellevue Profile microstory. The introduction can be found in Microstory 101. More to follow.

Rick Rain was in his college roommate’s brother’s house in Kansas City when a commercial jet airliner fell from the sky and crashed into the neighborhood. He woke up with retrograde amnesia, having absolutely no episodic memory of his life beforehand. He was found on the floor in front of the couch with only a minor head wound, believed to have been caused by the edge of the coffee table. This trauma would not be expected to be detrimental enough to cause brain damage, so medical professionals were not sure why he had no memory. His brain scans appeared to show an abnormal amount of activity, but the science had only recently emerged, and so the results were categorized as inconclusive. He was sent back to his parents in Georgia, but felt uncomfortable there. Though his family felt familiar, they also felt like strangers. After only a few months, he decided that it would be best for him to move away and take some time to develop a new life. He chose to return to Kansas City and begin work as a taksi driver. One night, a group of anomalies from out of the country were desperate to get up to Bellevue, Missouri, but they had no money. The distance was greater than city taksis normally drive, and since Bellevue was not a real city, there would be no hope for a return fare. A pretty girl in the group convinced him to take the fare on the promise that he would receive three times his rate upon arrival, at least. Because of his amnesia, he decided to take her up on it, knowing that every new experience helped define him as a person. Once they arrived, he found himself with an urge to stick around. After incidentally learning about special abilities, he felt that he had nothing to lose. And so he remained in Bellevue as one of the few early non-anomalies, and became an extremely important figure in its history. He formed a romantic relationship with the pretty girl from the original group, as well as close friendships with a number of other members. The mysteries of the plane crash and his unusual amnesia were eventually revealed, and Rick ended up proving to have a few impressive gifts of his own, as well as a background in anomalies.