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The doorbell rings. Eugene — an affectionate eighty-year-old who has just finished breakfast (eggs and bacon) — opens the door. “My name is Jennifer, I’m researching memory. May I ask you a few questions?”
Eugene invites her in and — while cooking eggs and bacon — begins to answer. He describes the house in California where he lived as a young man, and tells her about a trip to Australia.
After finishing his plate of eggs and bacon, Eugene says he’s hungry — so he gets up and makes himself… eggs and bacon again. Meanwhile, at Jennifer’s request, he repeats in the correct order a list of five animals she read aloud just seconds before.
But there are many things Eugene cannot remember. He doesn’t know his age, and apologises for not recognising anyone in family photos — including his grandchildren. He doesn’t recognise Jennifer, even though she has visited him nearly 200 times. Eugene Pauly — known as patient E.P. — cannot even remember that he suffers from a form of amnesia caused by viral encephalitis, which among other things makes him eat repeatedly because he doesn’t remember having already eaten.
One day, Eugene disappears. His wife searches everywhere, calls neighbours and friends, and is about to notify the police — when she finds him sitting calmly in his armchair with resin on his fingers. She realises that Eugene has walked — alone — his usual long route to the nearby pine forest and returned home.
The next day, Jennifer and Eugene walk the same route together. Before returning, she asks him which house is his. Eugene hesitates: “I don’t know.”
Yet moments later, he confidently turns down the correct driveway, opens the door, and sits on the couch.
Like patient TN — who could navigate a room despite being blind — Eugene remembers without knowing he remembers.
He knows where home is — without knowing that he knows.