March 5, 2024

The car rides are becoming clearer. I can see many details now, some of which are vivid enough to seem like they happened yesterday. I see myself sitting in the back seat of her car, with Lys, who is telling me important things I need to know. This time I've met them at the Northridge Mall, to avoid other people, to prevent confrontations like the one at Rayen and Rathburn.

I'm at the entrance to The Broadway department store (now Macy's), at the door located in the mall's parking garage. It's the entry we used when I got my hair styled at The Broadway in the 1980s. She thought it was a good place to meet because it's dark there, and no one will see us. But she and Lys aren't taking any chances. I'm on time, and I'm waiting by that door, and when they come out, they're wearing hats and big sunglasses. She says, "Do you like our disguises?" I say "yes" and one of them says, "This worked pretty well," meaning it was a good place to meet. Better than Rayen and Rathburn.

One of them says: "Do you think it's okay to take off our hats?" and the other says, "I think so."

We get into her car which is parked nearby. I sit in back with Lys. This seems to be our usual seating arrangement: one of them drives, the other sits in back with me.  This time, she is driving, Lys is in back. Lilly says, "This is the last time Lys will be coming with us." I ask why and they explain it.

I swear these car rides happened. Straight up swear.

The trouble is, I still have no context for them, no "connectors" that will provide a "before" and an "after". I don't know how the meetings were arranged. I imagine it had to be through phone calls but, as of now, I don't remember any. And yet I know the rides are real because I can hear everything Lys is saying to me. I can see myself sitting next to her in the back seat. I can hear verbatim dialogue. At least once, we went to see Ann. I'm not sure where. Maybe St. Joseph's Hospital, but more likely an annex. Someplace nondescript. It feels like NoHo/Burbank/Studio City. One time, I think Lys drove her own car. I remember she was told she had to wait outside, that she wasn't allowed in the room where Ann was.....(doing what?) (Testing me?) Checking my BP or my eyes or something? I'm not sure. (Were electrodes involved?) (I don't know). But I definitely remember that Lys was not allowed in, and she was cool about it. She said something like, "That's okay, I have to move my car anyway." Maybe she was parked in a one-hour zone. She used to have a white VW Rabbit. And even Lilly wasn't allowed in, though they let her walk me to the room where Ann was waiting.

One of these trips is the last one with Lys. I don't remember the reason. Maybe it's because Lys was all done with her part in (the program?) (I don't know). Lys was a major player in the events of 1989. So was Ann. They were much bigger players than I realised until this year. Until 2024.

When my memory first came back in 1997, I wrote a truckload of letters, requesting information. I wrote to the Governor, I wrote to Northridge Hospital, I wrote to the President, I wrote to the LAPD, I wrote to Edwards Air Force Base, I wrote to my Congressperson, I wrote to a whole bunch of people. Something like 20 letters. 

One of the people I wrote to was Ann. But I never mailed the letter. Maybe I should've mailed it. Or maybe it would've done no good.

But I swear those car rides happened. And at least one of them was to go see Ann.

One fact that does have context (and has long since been proven) is that Ann was at Concord Square. She and Lys were the "first responders", and Ann was at the ambulance that was parked in the driveway of that building when I was being examined by a paramedic. And it was Ann who drove me home the next day. We've known those things for 27 years. But I didn't learn more about Ann and Lys until this year, 2024.

If you'd asked me about Lys in 1992, I'd have said "the last time I saw her was....hmm, maybe 1986?" I thought that after high school, she and Lilly sort of drifted apart. Of course, If you asked me about Lys in 2006, I'd have said, "The last time I saw her was in 1989. She was at Concord Square and at Northridge Hospital." But if you ask me now, I can say with authority, "I saw her all the way up to (perhaps) 1993." I say "perhaps" because I don't yet know the years of those car rides. But I have zero doubt they happened.

Lilly, Lys and Ann were part of a program. Lys had studied psychology and was very philosophical. A highly intelligent woman. Lilly was math and science. I call her a Supergenius. Ann was medical, from the military end of things. This is my intuition. 

And the program may have been to help me get my memory back.

I say "may have been" but my intuition is that it was definitely for that reason.    

I once had a thing about the Navy. This was at Burton Street in early 1997. I was all worked up about it and was intuiting things about places like like Terminal Island and San Diego Naval Air Station and Miramar. By 1997, I felt an attachment to Edwards Air Force Base, and thus "identified" with the Air Force, and because I thought the other residents of and visitors to the Burton Street house were "spying on me", I deemed them Navy. "You're Navy and you're Navy and so are you." I said this to Dave Small, to Ryan, and our friend Nick, who lived down the street.

Man, was I harping on the Navy. But it was never just mumbo-jumbo. Something was ticking in my brain about the Navy, and it bugged me enough to make those accusations. But the response I got was weird. One day, Dave and Nick came up to me and flashed I.D. cards. They were in wallets, the way a policeman's I.D. card would be, and they were laminated. They had head shots of Dave and Nick; they were photo I.Ds. And they had the insignia of the United States Navy, and maybe even a special division imprinted, like ONI (Office of Naval Investigation) or something. They were authentic looking, and the guys said, "You were right all along, Adam. We are in the Navy." And I said, "Wait a minute. You guys are playing me. I just said you were in the Navy. You aren't really in the Navy......are you?" They toyed with me for a few minutes, but then finally copped: "No, man. We're just goofin'. We aren't in the Navy." I said, "Well then where the hell did you get those extremely real lookin' I.D cards?" I'm telling you readers, these I.D.s could've passed - at the very least - on a TV show like "NCIS". Or even in real life.

And the guys said, "Julie made them for us." I asked why. They said, "Because you wouldn't shut up about the Navy. We told her about it and she thought it would be funny to play a joke on you." Julie was Bob's girlfriend. I never knew her to be a talented forger, but maybe she was. Dave and Nick got the I.D. cards from someone. And Julie was as good a source as any. She and Bob where what you might call "interesting people."

But in thinking about my 1997 Navy obsession today, at a time in my life when I know more about things than I ever have before, I ask myself why I was "intuiting the Navy" and I think I have a fairly good answer. Especially for ONI. I consider those I.D. cards Dave and Nick had, and I'm telling you, they were authentic looking. Laminated photo I.D.s, with insignia that looked like what I imagine the real thing would look like. And it seems to me that it was a "long way to go" just to play a joke on me because I "wouldn't shut up about the Navy". Don't you think so? Don't you think it was a lot of work for Julie to make those fake I.D.s, just for a ten minute joke that she wasn't even there to see?

I think she went way out of her way. All that work for a joke, it just doesn't make sense to me ...unless "the joke" had another purpose. And with what I know now, I think it did.

You aren't in the Navy, are you?