Chapter 12 #3
Noah stepped away from him. “I feel fine. Look, I’m just confused—and concerned.
All of this equipment…these ingredients…
This stuff is extremely volatile, and it’s ready to go.
One wrong move and kerblooey! I obviously know some of this stuff is mine, but who set it up? If I did, why don’t I remember it?”
Dante took a step back. “Are you telling me you forgot about the alchemy experiment?”
“What alchemy experiment?”
“You can’t remember you’re doing an alchemy experiment? Did you inhale something you shouldn’t have?”
Noah threw his hands in the air. “I don’t know what’s going on. If I did inhale something, it was an accident. You know I wouldn’t do anything like that on purpose.” He rubbed his forehead. “At least you know more than I do. What can you tell me about the alchemy thing?”
“Where’s the book?” Dante hurried to the closet where he thought Noah was keeping it. He looked through the shelves, and there was nothing even remotely like it. He even looked in and picked up boxes, in case it had slipped into or behind something. “I don’t see it. Did you take it somewhere?”
Noah shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. What book?”
Dante was becoming more and more concerned. “Come on, Bro. If you’re joking, I don’t appreciate the prank.”
“I’m not joking.”
“I believe you. You’re not that good of an actor.” Now he was downright worried about his brother and his state of mind. What was going on with him? “Let’s go check around the kitchen and see if we can find it there.”
“Okay. But I don’t know what I’m looking for.” Noah followed him to the kitchen.
Dante began opening cabinets and drawers while Noah just watched. Finally, when Dante didn’t see the book anywhere, he turned and said, “I don’t think it’s here. I’ll look in my own room, even though you never go in there.” Then he stopped in his tracks. “You don’t, do you?”
“Of course not. Why would I?”
Dante strode off to his bedroom and did a quick survey of the area. There wasn’t a lot to see. He checked his dresser drawers, his closet, under his bed, but there was nothing that looked like the ancient book Noah had brought home.
What the heck could’ve happened to my brother? That was what was really bothering him. He went back to find Noah searching his own bedroom.
“I wish I knew what I was looking for. I guess there’s some kind of book that doesn’t just contain the usual science experiments.” He held up a chemistry 101 textbook from high school.
“Yeah, that’s not it. You said you found it at an old book shop on Cambridge Street.
It’s leather-bound. The pages are all yellow, and some of the edges look a little crispy.
You showed it to me because it’s in Latin, and you thought I could translate it.
Translating it was kind of weird. It just seemed like a recipe book. ”
Noah stood tall and turned toward him. “Like a cookbook? Why would I get a recipe book in Latin?”
“Damned if I know. Maybe you were just curious about it. Knowing you, buying a book that intrigued you for no apparent reason isn’t out of the realm of possibility.”
He might pull a joke on Noah like this, but Noah would never do it to him. Even if he was trying to be a wiseass, he’d have given it up by now. “Come on, buddy. I think you should lie down for a bit in the living room.”
“You mean I’m losing my mind, apparently.”
“Maybe you’re just thinking too hard. Go relax, and I’ll get you a beer.”
“Okay…” Noah strolled off to the living room with a blank stare on his face.
What the hell could have happened to him?
Dante returned to the kitchen and grabbed that beer while looking in places he might’ve missed the first time.
Maybe his brother had a minor stroke, or maybe this was a symptom of early-onset Alzheimer’s.
He didn’t even know if phoenixes could suffer from things like that.
But there was no other explanation. He checked the oven and slid out the drawer below it, thinking maybe it was an absent-minded professor thing. The whole situation had him vexed.
Dante returned to the living room with two beers. Noah was on the couch with his feet stretched out on top of the coffee table. Dante handed him his beer without telling him to get his feet off the table. The guy deserved a break, if he hadn’t already had one of some kind.
Dante took a seat in the adjacent chair, took a swig of his beer, and watched as Noah seemed to prod his brain for some kind of information. If this was a joke, he was staying in character.
“I wish I knew what happened.” Noah shook his head.
“Me too.” Dante leaned back and asked, “Is there anything else you can remember about today?”
“Like what? Like what I’ve had to eat?”
“Sure. Anything. Anything at all. You never know what might be a hint.”
Noah leaned back and said, “I woke up in my room. Went to the kitchen and poured a bowl of that Engine 2 cereal. Got the milk out of the fridge…”
Dante was tempted to tell him to hurry it up, but he didn’t dare. He might miss a critical step, so he let his brother drone on about every possible event he could remember, from getting dressed to brushing his teeth to having a phone call from… And there it is.
“Kizzy? She called you?”
“No. I called her. I wanted to see how she was doing. She wanted to come over, but instead, I went to see her. Then something happened… It’s kind of foggy.”
Dante realized something had triggered this. And perhaps that something was Kizzy. “Where is Kizzy now?”
Noah looked around as if expecting to see her. “I don’t know. She was here a few minutes ago.”
“Here? Here in our apartment?”
“Yeah.” Noah set his beer on the coffee table and froze. “She was here along with a few other people. Her father, his friend Nick, and Nick’s wife…and someone else. I don’t remember who the other woman was. She was only here for a short time.”
“I thought her father didn’t like you.”
“Yeah, I didn’t think so either. But I feel like something—changed.” Noah rose and took different spots in the living room as if standing in different people’s shoes. At last, he shook his head. “I’m sorry. I just can’t make any sense of it.”
Maybe he got a bump on the head. “Do you feel well, physically? I was just thinking you may have gotten hit on the head or something.”
Noah patted his head, his jaw, his shoulders, and looked at his hands and wrists. Then he stretched his legs, bent his knees, and swiveled his ankles. “Everything checks out. No pain. Everything works.”
“Except your memory.”
Noah let out a frustrated breath. “I’d hate to call Kizzy and say, ‘Hey, can you fill me in on the last two hours? I’ve completely misplaced them.’”
Dante smiled sadly. If he had to say something like that to Mallory, he knew she would understand.
Even if she didn’t, they’d shared enough weirdness that it wouldn’t even be creepy.
She’d just try to help him. But would Kizzy be that understanding?
He didn’t think they had the same kind of easy relationship. “Maybe it will come back to you later.”
“I don’t know. It’s not like I just forgot a name or address. It feels more like a dream, and the further I get from it, the more it disappears.”
“Maybe you should call in sick tonight.”
Noah stared at him. “And do what? Just rattle around the apartment, hoping something will come back to me? I might never remember this rumored book or experiment. But I do remember how to fight fires. I think that would help me more than anything right now. Not that I wish for a fire… I’d never do that. I’d just like to feel normal.”
Dante wasn’t going to call him on the fact that the book wasn’t a rumor. He had seen it with his own eyes. But if he was in the same situation… Yeah, Noah needed to get his mind on something else besides questioning his own sanity.
“I get it. So you’d better clean up and put on your uniform.” Dante checked his watch. “We have another forty-five minutes before we have to leave, but we should get moving.”
As he walked to the bathroom to grab a shower, he couldn’t help wondering what the hell had happened to his brother and how to deal with it. Would just ignoring it make it go away?
Did he have the right to question his brother’s girlfriend, who seemed to have something to do with this? Listening briefly to his own heart, his inner wisdom quoted his mother. If you don’t know what to do, don’t do anything.
But if some sort of solution didn’t present itself soon, he might talk to their dad. That’s what he was there for. The head of the family always listened and was the last word on problems any of them faced.
He might not like it, but if Noah didn’t regain his memory, that’s what Dante would do.