The Memory Agent & Fool Me Once by Joany Kane Read Free Book Online Page A

might have broken the physical connection with him, but
even without touching the sparks between them are combustible.
    She handcuffs his wrist to the armrest of the wheelchair, “ready for a
ride?”   She asks breathlessly.   He nods, himself flustered, as Claire
pushes the wheelchair out of the room.

 
    After Claire pushes the wheelchair out of the room, she hands the cuff
keys to the cop.   “Thank you.   We'll be in the solarium.”   She tells the guard.
    Claire pushes the wheelchair into the solarium.   She positions it so Duke has a view of
the water feature and the cityscape.   She takes a seat in the chair next to Duke and removes books from the bookbag .
    “This morning I stopped at a used bookstore and picked up some books
from the bargain table.   I thought
I'd read to you if you'd like.”
    Duke looks distracted but appreciative of Claire's efforts.   “That'd be nice, thanks.”
    Claire holds up a William Shakespeare book.   “Can you believe William Shakespeare was on the bargain
table?”
    “That is unfortunate,” Duke teases.
    “I'll start with the sonnets so I don't have to do voices.”
    Duke smiles. “Good thinking.”
    Claire flips through the sonnet chapter, landing on sonnet 46.   She begins to read.   "Mine eye and heart are at a
mortal war. How to divide the conquest of thy sight; Mine eye my heart thy
picture's sight would bar, My heart mine eye the freedom of that right..."
    Duke, looking miles away from Shakespeare, interrupts.   “I guess it really shouldn't matter
what happens in surgery tomorrow.   If I pull through, I'm going to jail.   Either option ain't all that
pleasant.”
    “Please don't think that way, Duke.   A positive, hopeful attitude will help you pull through
this.   You need to fight.”
    “What's there to pull through for? To fight for?   Jail time?   I don't have the memory of it, but I feel it, I don't have
anyone,” Duke says with such heartache it touches Claire deeply.
    “You have me, ”   Claire tenderly touches Duke's inner knee.   It's meant to be a display of comfort
and empathy, but it's most highly erotic.   Their eyes lock, and stay locked for a long moment.
    Claire, shocked as hell by her actions, removes her hand, averts her
eyes and returns her attention to Shakespeare, wanting to distance herself from
her comment and actions.   Duke,
surprised himself by Claire’s actions, is deeply pleased.  
    “Billy boy wrote one hundred and fifty four sonnets.   I haven't even finished the first one
yet,” Claire says, trying to sound calm even though she’s shaking on the
inside.
    “Read on,” he encourages as he studies Claire with a look of true
affection and appreciation.
    Claire flips through the book and picks another sonnet – the
sonnet listed with Duke’s mom’s jewelry box items.   “Sonnet one hundred and sixteen.   Let me not to the marriage of true minds , admit impediments . Love is not love, which alters when it alteration finds, or bends with the remover to
remove: O no! it is an ever-fixed mark, That looks on
tempests and is never shaken..."
    She looks over at Duke while reading and notices that it looks like his
eyes could be misting with memories.   She turns her attention back to the sonnet pleased that the efforts
could be working.
    "It is the star to every wandering bark, whose worth's unknown,
although his height be taken. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and
cheeks, within his bending sickle's compass come:   Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it
out even to the edge of doom.   If
this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved."
    After she finishes reading the sonnet, she looks at Duke.   Something's wrong. “Duke?”
    He begins to convulse.   She
rushes the wheelchair out of the solarium.   Claire hollers as she hurries towards the nurses' station.
“Help !!!”
    Claire watches with incredible concern and worry as the nurses,
orderlies