Wednesday, February 6, 2008

jamie and eric-23-dinner's discovery

“Uh-huh,” Eric grumbled. The ring thing was stupid, but it was really the way the girls were treating him had Eric in a bad mood. The girls giggled again, as if Eric’s annoyance fueled their secret little joke.

“Eric,” Bridgett asked, suddenly going serious, “do you remember how we met?”

“No,” Eric spat out, wishing the girls hadn’t come along.

“Well that was a while ago. And it was just like ‘oh hey Eric this is Bridgett.’ What do you remember about me?”

Eric held his tongue, holding back the your annoying comment. “Dunno, you were kinda weird when you first came back to campus.” Eric shrugged.

“Before that.” Eric was a little suspicious where this was going. “Think carefully.”

“Uh…” Eric eyes strayed upwards in memory. “I dunno. I remember you being around.” He shrugged. “Oh and that you couldn’t help me with math.”

Eric caught the tail end of a meaningful glance between Bridgett and Jamie after a sip of soda. Dahlia looked confused and eager to share the gossip.

“What?” Eric asked.

“Eric why didn’t you tell anyone you couldn’t remember anything before the accident?” Bridgett asked frankly.

Dahlia exclaimed wordlessly. Jamie was looking at him too now.

“Oh come on I remember stuff.” Pause. “I remember that I’m Master Brown’s apprentice or I was, I’m not sure what I am now, and so are Jamie and Dahlia. I remember that I took a bunch of stupid classes. And did stuff. I’m telekinetic. And Jamie’s an illusionist… And we’re bonded.” Bridgett had a concerned quirk to her mouth. Jamie’s expression was surprisingly neutral. Dahlia looked almost horrified.

“What about me? What’s my natural ability? Do you remember meeting me?” She asked worriedly.

“Uh…” Eric was blanking. He was sure he knew. “Yeah I know… Uh… You do stuff… We meet when you were little.” Eric rubbed the back of his head, his checks feeling hot. Another test he was failing. “Hey, I remember how I met Jaime” Eric said, pointing in his direction to add emphasis. “I remember how stupid we looked in those red wool jackets with shoulder pads. We were visiting the college for ‘conflict resolution training’ and I found him in the bathroom, cry- ing.” Eric let the last word die realizing that was a personal detail that he probably shouldn’t have shared with the girls.

Jamie was staring at his plate, wide eyed.

“So you’ve lost a period of time in your memory. You have just enough left to string together a congruent past.” Bridgett concluded cheerfully.

“Hey I don’t have memory problems, and if I did you shouldn’t be so happy about it.” Eric demanded.

Bridgett through up her arms in surrender, “Woah, I’m not happy that you have a problem. I’m happy that we figured it out. The first step to recovery is recognizing the problem after all.”

“Yeah…” Eric answered skeptically.

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