Chapter Twenty-Six #2
Folded neatly in a pile on a shelf was his jacket, shirt, pants and underclothing.
Awesome. On the shelf above was his timepiece, his earthbound communicator, called a cell phone, and a set of keys.
He picked up the cell phone and that’s when he saw it.
The clock. With today’s date, which was not at all correct. What in the space potato farm…?
“What is today?” he asked the redhead.
The beauty rattled off a date that for him was over a month in the future, based on his memories. What?! He’d lost a month somewhere? How could that be?
Another knock came at the door. This time, Frederick Khang stepped inside his room. Excellent. Someone he actually knew.
“Frederick,” Luca said, supreme relief in his tone. “It’s so good to see you.”
His store manager smiled, then nodded at the redhead warmly. “How is the patient, Beryl?”
She teared up. “He doesn’t remember me.”
Frederick looked stricken. “But this is your girlfriend, Jake. You’ve dated for a few weeks now.”
“I don’t think so,” Luca said. Given the looks on both of their faces, that was not a popular sentiment in the room. But it was the only one he had. He would never start a relationship while on a mission. Never.
Luca glanced in the direction of the bathroom, where Ian hid, knowing his time was running short. Abruptly, he said, “Listen, I’ve got to get going. Frederick, I’ll see you at the shop later on. Thank you for stopping by to check up on me.” He didn’t know what to say to the redhead.
She put a hand on Frederick’s shoulder before exiting quietly, silent tears slipping down her cheeks.
“Jake!” Frederick said, rather urgently. “You must remember, Beryl.”
Luca was confused, way out of his element, his mind jumbled with the memories of six months on Earth that did not include a lovely, sad woman who his store manager insisted he should know as his girlfriend.
No. It wasn’t right. Clearly, he did not have all the information he needed to make sound judgments.
He resigned himself to not being a total dirtbag and said, “Wait up—Beryl, is it?”
She turned in the doorway, tears glistening on her long eyelashes, as her hopeful gaze swept his face.
Luca smiled and opened his arms in a gesture of peace.
She crossed the distance separating them and flew into him, arms wrapping around his neck.
Her soft lips on his neck, his face, his mouth.
All of a sudden, they were kissing, and it was not in the least unpleasant.
In fact, it was amazing. But it was not right to lead her on.
He lifted his head, breaking their kiss.
“Please remember me. Please, Jake.” She kissed him again. He tasted her desperation and, truthfully, he wanted to know her. But he didn’t. And when she pulled away and gazed into his eyes, he saw her bitter understanding that he did not remember her or her amazing kisses. Not even a little bit.
She released him and left the hospital room without a word.
Frederick looked almost as sad as the redhead. “I’m sorry you don’t remember her, Jake. I think you two were falling for each other. In fact, I think you loved her.”
Luca closed his eyes, savoring the subtle taste of her on his lips. “I’m also sorry I don’t remember her. Seems I’ve lost the last month of time, according to my phone here.” He pointed at the screen and the unexpected date.
Frederick briefly filled him in on the weeks he didn’t remember. “Of course, I don’t know about your time together alone. All I can say is the way you looked at her even when she wasn’t watching told me exactly how you felt about her.”
Luca nodded but he didn’t know what to say. When Frederick left, Ian came out of the bathroom. “I guess you heard all of that,” Luca said, feeling morose.
“Yep.”
“Why would I have gotten involved with anyone? What was I thinking?”
“My understanding is you lost all of your memories well over a month ago, but we believe you had help.”
Luca’s eyes narrowed. “What does that mean? Help? Who took my memories?”
Ian smiled. “A previously unknown species of invisible predator alien from a planet we thought was dark, residing in our own solar system.”
Luca shook his head. This was just really all too much. “Explain.”
Ian told him a concise version of what he knew and how the redhead—no, Beryl— had helped save him on more than one occasion. Ian said she was also instrumental in the capture of the wily predator alien that messed with all his memories.
“So I owe her my life, is what you’re saying.”
Ian shrugged. “The simple answer is absolutely yes.”
“And the complicated answer?”
“It’s still absolutely yes, but there would be more flowery explanations involved. And I know how you hate those.”
“Tell me anyway.”
Ian said, “I believe that the invisible predator alien has the power to return all of your memories. I believe he is the one who manipulated them in the first place, more than once. The alien is confined belowstairs at the Big Bang Truck Stop. That is what the 4 o’clock meeting with Diesel involves.
I believe we should discuss a few scenarios before we get there so we’re prepared. Thoughts?”
Luca nodded. “Yes. Let’s go to my workshop and I’ll grab my notes and we can discuss scenarios.”
Ian reached into his jacket pocket and pulled Luca’s notebook out, waving it in front of his face. “The senior Mr. Edgar Smithers is not your man. The wily invisible alien is, trust me.”
“I am not even going to ask how you found my notebook.”
“And I’m not going to tell you that your girlfriend, Beryl, was the one who found it. I just got lucky enough to be there when she did because Jake Jones insisted that the notebook wasn’t his and he’d never seen it before.”
Luca rolled his eyes. He really loathed not having all his memories.
“So, what? I was pretending to be Jake Jones for a month?”
Ian nodded. “Yes. When I came into your shop, you didn’t know me.”
Luca was stunned. “Did you use the codewords?”
His friend huffed. “What do you think? Of course I did. I had to pretend my imaginary girlfriend wanted a veil of iron from a movie called Void in the Shadow.”
Luca shook his head. “I really hate this invisible alien I don’t remember ever seeing.”
“Get in line.”
Luca dressed quickly and they snuck out of his hospital room and out the nearest exit. The whole time, he kept repeating the vision in his head of Beryl, first kissing him and then leaving heartbroken when she realized he didn’t know her, even though now he wished he did.
He was acting like a dirtbag jerk and vowed to make things right with her, even if he couldn’t rekindle their relationship or move it forward, no matter what her passionate kisses did to him and his lonely soul.