The Power of Forgetting by A M Russell

her embrace, wishing for a
simple evening; and trying to put the tea cup down on the bench
behind her.
    ‘Mum? What’s
for tea?’ she turned and placed the mug firmly back away from the
edge.
    ‘Pancakes….
with every filling you can think of,’ she detached herself from me
smiling, ‘what do you want in yours?’
    ‘Do we have
pickles?’
    ‘Definitely.’
    ‘Cheese?’
    ‘Extra, extra
mature!’ Laura laughed, ‘And those funny chillies in garlic oil.
But please don’t put them near Janey.’
    ‘Of course
not,’ I kissed her on the cheek and went through to where the
others sat. Immediately, Janey, Karis, and Marcia all got up and
went in the kitchen.
    ‘Was it
something I said?’ I joked.
    ‘Davey?’ asked
Sam squinting through his cloud of smoke, then stared at me, ‘Good
grief Jared! What the flipping heck did you do?’
    ‘It will be
back by the end of the week.’ I went and sat next to him so he
could take it in and get over the shock.
    ‘When I said be
discrete, this wasn’t what I had in mind.’
    ‘How is our
“guest”?’ I asked Sam.
    ‘About average
for the freak show that is this place,’ Sam looked at me with a
question is his eyes.
    ‘What do you
want to know?’ I said.
    ‘Is this a sign
of change, insecurity, losing one marbles, or just putting the
cutter on the wrong setting?’
    ‘The first
three,’ I said, ‘and what was going on just before I came in?’
    ‘The quantum
spaces inside everyone’s mind.’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Don’t do that,
you’re really freaking me out.’
    ‘Why?’ I asked
him.
    ‘A better
question, more suiting to the general character that you seem to
project. But go easy on the hair mousse.’
    ‘It’s some wax
stuff.’ I said.
    ‘I hear
hedgehogs are in this season.’ He stubbed out the tab. ‘I think
that Davey has gone for a strange walk around the garden with your
Leo, and the Morel guy.’
    ‘I take it
you’re not impressed.’
    ‘With what he
can do, sure.’ Sam squinted and leaned forward, ‘confidentially I
think he’s a plant. A good plant. Not a bad guy plant. It’s like
the government agencies visiting UFO spotters and having words with
them. You don’t know what they’ve got on you.’
    ‘He’s a
policeman.’ I said.
    ‘That figures.’
Sam retorted, ‘he likes poking his nose into other people business.
And from a professional point of view I’d like a few more
credentials on the guy before I let him in the house.’
    ‘He’s my
sister’s date.’
    ‘Date or
walnut?’ Sam grimaced and started to hunt round for another pack of
fags.
    ‘Have you a
different view of the matter?’
    ‘Your sister is
a woman. And I think that she is thinking like a woman does. When
some hansom young chap wipes her normal brain in a clean erase and
replaces it with the slow programme of possession; you need to
watch him. That’s all I’m saying. He’s not the others side. But he
isn’t one of us either….’ Sam rolled his eyes to the side to stop
me from commenting on this. The person in question had just come
into the room through the other door.
    The girls came
back in. then Leo, and lastly Davey. Wisely he came and sat next to
me.
    ‘I found
something out.’ He whispered, ‘are you ready for this?’
    ‘Ready for
what?’
    ‘The truth?’ He
seemed to genuinely serious.
    ‘I found out
this afternoon that I have a connection with all your lot through
my mother.’
    Now he’s got my
attention! ‘Any strange experiences. Or err…. odd things happened
to you since you got here?’
    ‘Apart from
this afternoon?’
    ‘Well of
course…. apart from that.’ He stared into my eyes with that clear
penetrating gaze. He eventually sighed, and said, ‘Do you still
have bad dreams?’
    ‘Up until
yesterday. Yes.’
    ‘I feel uneasy.
I think we need to do something practical and systematic that will
help clear up if these anomalous readings really do have anything
to do with us. I don’t think any of us are in a