[ WP ] : You do n't remember what you do for a living . Literally . You black out for 8 hours 5 days a week and a paycheck appears once per month .

I came through to the doorbell ringing. I looked around and saw I was in my crappy apartment as usual. The last thing I remembered was heading out the door this morning on the way to work. 
 It infuriated me not to be able to remember where I was all day or what I did for a living. I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a coffee mug siting on the calendar. Glancing in there appeared to be old stale coffee in it. I took a swig and it was as horrible as I expected by I swallowed and continued across the room to the door as the jerk on the other side rang the bell again. 
 “ I swear to God if you ring that bell again I ’ m going to make you eat it! ” I knew that didn ’ t make sense but I didn ’ t care. As I opened the door I glanced at the clock on the table by the door, 5:30 pm. I had lost a whole day as usual. 
 “ Hi Michael. How are you doing? ” 
 I recognized my handler right away. Since I had started this job several years ago he had been part of my life. Showing up regularly to check on me and make sure things were going smoothly. I still had no idea what “ things ” were, or exactly what my job was, but I knew I could count on my handler to show up. I stuck my head out in the hall and looked back and forth before stepping aside and motioning for him to come in. 
 “ Are you sure you weren ’ t followed? ” I knew they were on to me recently; I just wasn ’ t sure who “ they ” were yet. 
 “ No one is following me Michael ” He answered me with a roll of his eyes. I figure if he is my handler he must be trained too so I let it slide. 
 I closed the door and turned around to make sure it really was my handler and not an imposter. 
 “ Michael! ” He snapped. “ It ’ s me, your brother, John. ” 
 I felt the calmness and warmth come over me. I knew this was some kind of implanted hypnotic suggestion, but I didn ’ t care because honestly, whenever he did it I felt calm, safe, and able to focus. 
 “ Here ” He said as he handed me a pile of mail. I knew that there would be a copy of the check that had already been automatically deposited to my account in there somewhere. It was always disguised as some sort of innocent government check, a tax refund or social security etc. As I flipped through the mail my handler kept talking. 
 “ You look tired John, have you been taking the medicine Doctor Irving gave you? ” 
 I found an envelope marked Social Security. Anyone with even a little training would be able to tell it was a fake, but I knew it was more to full the neighbors and the nosey then any professionals. I put it on top of the pile and set it down. 
 “ No, I don ’ t like the way it makes me feel. ” 
 John just shook his head. 
 “ Listen Michael, I ’ m going to be on vacation next week so I won ’ t be by at all until the following week. “ 
 “ So then what about work? ” He had never been on vacation that I knew of, so I wasn ’ t sure what that meant. 
 John turned at me with a look of surprise on his face. “ Do you have a regular job John? ” 
 ‘ LOL ’ I thought to myself. ‘ If you call not being able to remember giant parts of your day normal… ’ But I kept my jokes to myself. 
 “ No, but you know what I mean. ” I spread my hands apart for emphases. “ My work… ” 
 Michael stared right into my eyes for a second before answering. “ Just don ’ t take on anything new without talking to me or Doctor Irving first. ” 
 “ Okay. ” It suddenly occurred to me that maybe I should share with him about the dead guy dressed in overalls stuffed in my closet. 
 Wow! I wasn ’ t sure how I suddenly remembered that. I had never taken my work home with me before. I still wasn ’ t positive what my work was, but I had been suspecting for a while that I was either a government spy or an assassin. Now with this new memory I was leaning towards government assassin. As the memories came back I knew that the way I had handled it showed assassin training. I could clearly remember looking out my peep hole and watching this guy messing with the light bulbs in the hall. I knew he was planting bugs, trying to narrow down where I lived, so when he walked by I already knew the hallway was empty without even having to think about it so I had opened my door and hit him over the head with a hammer. 
 “ Michael, are you listening. ” My handler interrupted my thoughts and I smiled back at him. “ Everything is taken care of, food, bills, everything. And I ’ ll be back in about 9 days okay? ” I nodded in understanding. 
 No, best not to share about the dead guy. John was clearly a bureaucrat. Good at his job… an excellent handler, but not an operator like me. No need to mix him up in this. Apparently this was my area of expertise. I would wait for him to leave and then I would get rid of the body. 
 
 John opened the door to his own home. 
 “ Hey honey. How was work. ” 
 “ Fine. ” John answered his wife, but it was clear he was somewhere else mentally. 
 “ Did you go by your brothers again? ” 
 John looked at his wife and forced a smile. “ Yeah, I don ’ t even think he 100 % recognized me. He is completely off his meds. ” John slumped into a kitchen chair and put his face down into his hands. His wife came up behind him and put her hands on his shoulders and gently rubbed. 
 “ Was it bad? ” 
 “ Yeah. I just don ’ t feel comfortable leaving for vacation while he is like this. ” 
 “ You don ’ t think he is a danger to himself or someone else do you? If so we should call someone. ” 
 John set up straight and thought about it. “ No…he has never hurt anyone, but he was talking about an imaginary job and was afraid people were following me… Babe he is just so sick it breaks my heart. ” 
 John ’ s wife hugged him hard as the back door opened up and two little boys came running in. 
 “ Daddy! Daddy! Is it true! Are we really going to Disney?! ” 
 John got a tear in his eye and pulled both boys to him. 
 “ Yes boys, we are really going to Disney. ” 

