The Power of Forgetting by A M Russell Read Free Book Online Page A

and Davey had come into both our lives at the right
time. We were both in need of something that had to be found
outside of ourselves. Davey was smiling at me. ‘You have the magic
touch,’ he said, ‘she’s not normally this relaxed. Too much going
on.’
    ‘The anomaly
thingy?’ I asked.
    ‘Yeah… she said
it was quite small but measurable. But it might be nothing that we
can get anything from for the group.
    ‘What are we
looking for exactly?’
    ‘Indicators of
other activity by Project Bank.’ said Marcia with a radish between
her teeth.
    ‘Do you think
it is?’ I asked him.
    ‘Uh huh?’ he
shrugged. ‘The person to get a clear picture of it is our dear
Jules.’
    ‘Is he better
now?’ I had an image or him from George’s house going absolutely
giddy after the debrief, because he was just so over-whelmed to see
us both.
    ‘Talking in
geek speak again.’ said Davey, ‘He’s back on form. But goes really
quiet if anyone mentions the expedition now.’
    ‘Still smarting
from being sacked as a chief scientist.’ said Marcia, ‘he’s still
got the job in lecturing for the physics department. But the rest
is just a pain to him.’
    ‘I think that
Jules might be one of the people that Lorraine knew back when I was
at college.’ I said.
    ‘Really?’
Marcia looks suddenly serious.
    ‘What is she?’
asks Davey.
    ‘Well….’ I
began, ‘there is just no explaining some people.’
    ‘There’s no
excuse for them either.’ said Marcia, ‘she is the original bitch.
Total Man-eater. Manipulator is the other name she should have. And
there isn’t a man with a pulse who is totally resistant to her
charms…. that is until after she’s had a go with you.’
    ‘Well, I don’t
see what’s so good about her.’ said Davey.
    ‘Unusual.’ I
said, ‘perhaps her pitchfork got mangled in the dishwasher.’
    ‘Oh!’ said
Davey, getting what I meant all at once, ‘she was your
girlfriend?’
    ‘Yeah.
Certainly was…. As well as Hanson’s and some other poor sod…all at
the same time.’
    ‘You surprize
me Jared,’ Davey looked serious, ‘I thought you were more the type
to hang back and wait.
    ‘I am! I just
let the women persuade me.’
    ‘So I need only
my noble qualities of terror of the opposite sex to protect me?’ he
was laughing now.
    ‘Yeah…. well,
there is that. But she really is scary, and not only for that
reason.’
    ‘Very good
point…’ Janey mumbled next to me.
    ‘Janey?’ Davey
got her a plate, ‘do you want some supper now?’
    ‘Yes… in a few
Nano-seconds…. just recalling what I would like to say to Lorraine
if the occasion called for it.’
    ‘The fact is,’
I said, ‘that when we said she was a witch; it was not
metaphorical.’
*****
     

Two
     
    I stood in the
early sun. She was leaning against the wall. We waited for Sam
Wright. It was odd, until I realised that the self-assured Sam was
the same Sam who had been on the edge of Hanson’s crowd. His hair
was longer then too, and he wasn’t as clean looking. Back then he
smoked joints and played the guitar. He had done the most
incredible reinvention ever. The thing was that he didn’t really
see who I was either. Acting Expedition Leader…. After being the
silent and gloomy art student. He had rung me earlier with a kind
of shock in his voice. How could we not realise? Connections were
springing up all over the place.
    Sam was wearing
sunglasses. He had the car keys dangling by one finger.
    ‘You really
ought to look a little less suspicious.’ He said to me while
looking at Marcia.
    ‘I’m on a
spring break,’ I said, ‘and what’s wrong with me?’
    ‘You still look
like and art student.’ said Sam, tapping me on the chest and then
getting out a cigarette. He offered me one, but I shook my head.
‘Not my brand Sam.’
    ‘Indeed,’ he
said out of the corner of his mouth, ‘you are very particular about
many things. You could perhaps be a little less rigid?’
    ‘About
smoking?’ I