Part 24 (2/2)
She liked it there. S h e f e l t t h a t w a y, t o o.
Maybe when they got together later-just the two of them, like they'd planned-they'd know.
Know what, though?
Something.
Anything.
Sashor said, ”That aspect of memory is still one of the most mysterious.”
”Do you think it's weird that I'm not sure I want to remember where we were?” she asked then.
He shrugged. ”What do you want?”
She considered saying ”To be with Lucas” or ”To be with Lucas again.”
What she said instead was another truth. ”I want Tammy-that's my mother-to accept that aliens weren't involved.”
He laughed.
”No,” she said. ”For real.”
”Oh.” He cleared his throat. ”Well, that's unfortunate.”
Scarlett liked this guy.
”I did a study once of people who claimed they were abducted by aliens,” he said, surprising her. ”I wanted to try to see if they were p.r.o.ne to false memories in other facets of life.”
”What did you find out?”
”That people who think they were abducted by aliens really want to believe they were abducted by aliens.” He smiled and picked up a tiny horseshoe from a game on his desk, tossed it at a small sand box, missed the pole. ”And that they get mad at you if you suggest that maybe they experienced an episode of sleep paralysis and it was scary and now this is how their brain has constructed a script around it. It gives their life meaning.”
”That sounds like her, all right. She keeps saying how we were chosen. For this special thing.”
”Well, you were,” he said, and he wrote down the word ”chosen,” underlined it. ”But probably not by aliens. Just don't tell her I said that.”
”So I'm pretty much doomed,” she said.
”You'll be okay,” he said. ”You're strong. All of you. And you seem like, I don't know, good kids. So whoever raised you seems to have done a decent job, if you discount the fact that it wasn't his or her or their right to do it in the first place. Either that, or you all formed a support system for each other.”
”Can I try?” She nodded at the game, and he pushed it toward her.
”Actually I have one more question for you,” he said. ”It's really just for my own research purposes.”
She took the tiny horseshoe in her hand and aimed. ”What's that?” she asked.
”I know you were only five, but do you remember anything that was happening in the world before you disappeared?”
”Such as?”
”Anything. Like a presidential election or s.p.a.ce shuttle launch. I'm interested in when a s.h.i.+ft occurs and memory starts to include not just small personal memories but has more context in the world.”
Scarlett's kneejerk feeling was to just say no, but she took a minute.
The world?
The news?
Her mother's clippings came to mind.
”Oh, like that school shooting?” she said, adjusting her grip on the toy.
”You remember hearing about that?” Sashor sat up straighter.
Well . . .
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