Twinepathy (Part 3): An Erased Whatchamacallit

Hullo, everyone! Are you enjoying this so far? Are you excited about yet another post? Are you even reading this, or are you just skipping to the part already? *laughs awkwardly* For those who are reading this, I’ve set the cover reveal for November 1st!!! Eeek! I’m so excited! Well, I’ll let you get to reading now… (Need to catch up? Check out the first part here.)

It’s weird how much things can change in only a few minutes. With those three words, “I don’t remember,” our entire futures were changed. Not just for me and Brooklyn, but for the little girl, and Denver, and Jenna and Blaze and – darn, I’m getting ahead of myself again. So much for trying to be dramatic.

Brooklyn suggests to Denver that he go and get ready for his date. Knowing how nervous he gets, he’ll probably try on every piece of clothing he owns. He’ll be up there a while. Brooklyn gets the little girl to drink some more water, still asking her about random things to check her memory, like her name, age, what she was doing here. But she can’t remember anything.

Read her thoughts. A telepathic message from Brooklyn. It’s understandable why she didn’t say it out loud. The girl would freak out. And, come to think of it, we probably need to find something to call her other than “the girl.” I place a hand encouragingly on the girl’s knee and use that to strengthen my connection to her thoughts. They go something like What’s going on? Who are these people? Can I trust them? Who am I? What am I doing here? Oh boy, I’m so scared. Where’d that guy go? Is it safe here? What happened to me? Why can’t I remember anything? I look past those surface thoughts and… nothing. It’s blank, like a newborn baby’s brain. Not completely blank, though – there are a few memories there, but only ones since she woke up on our couch.

Confused, I pull out of her thoughts. I’ve never been in the head of an amnesia victim before. It’s both intriguing and, to put it bluntly, scary. What would it be like to not remember anything? With my connection with Brooklyn, I’m guessing we could restore each others’ memories, or send our own memories to the other person. But this… true amnesia? Absolutely, positively frightening.

Anything?

I shake my head in answer to Brooklyn’s telepathic question, still a little shaken by the insider view. Brooklyn pulls me into the kitchen. “What are we going to do?” she asks me in a low voice when we’re out of earshot.

“We should probably give her a temporary name,” I suggest. “Like Sydney. Or Madison. We should stick with Mom and Dad’s city name theme. Maybe we can convince them she’s our long lost sister.”

Brooklyn rolls her eyes. “Focus, Al. We need to figure out what to do before Mom and Dad get back.” She pauses. “We can’t keep her here.”

“You make her sound like a pet,” I say, leaning against the counter. “Have you thought about asking her what she wants to do?”

She gives me a withering glare. “She’s just a kid, and she’s a kid that has amnesia. What about her memories?”

I shake my head. “Nothing. It’s like an empty warehouse in her brain, except for the new thoughts and stuff that are coming in since she woke up. It’s like all her memories just disappeared.”

Brooklyn frowns at the table. “So it’s not like she just can’t get to them. They’re not there.”

“Like an erased whatchamacallit.” I wave my hand in the air vaguely. “Those computer things Ezra and Denver go nuts over.”

A frown flits across Brooklyn’s face at the mention of Ezra, but she moves on. “No clue what you’re talking about. But you need to focus.”

I throw my hands in the air. “I am focused! I’m trying to figure out if there’s any way we can fix her memory. It it’s like the computer thingamabob, then Denver might know how to fix it.”

“That’s not our main problem right now,” Brooklyn insists, putting her hands on her hips. “We need to figure out what to do n—” Her eyes pop wide open as she stares over my shoulder.

“What?” I ask, turning around and looking out the window. Panic rises in me. It’s too early, too soon…

Mom and Dad are home.

Duh-duh-duuuuhh… Sounds like they’re in a bit of trouble! What’s going to happen next? Guess we’ll have to wait until next week…

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