“What lost memory? I have a great memory.”
A man who looked like a younger version of him appeared at his side, rolling his eyes at the comment.
“Sure you do, Dad,” he said. To Darkfall, he added, “I’m Edgar Jr. Who are you, and why do you need to see my father?”
Darkfall pulled out his ID again and explained he was investigating a report of memory loss.
Edgar Smithers Jr. invited Darkfall in. He got his father situated in his favorite recliner in the living room, turned the television on to a sports channel and motioned for Darkfall to follow him into the dining room where they could speak away from his father but keep an eye on him.
“I’ll tell you what happened. It kind of upsets the old man when it comes up,” Edgar Jr. said in a low tone.
“Thank you,” Darkfall said, glancing into the living room. The elder Mr. Smithers seemed oblivious to their conversation.
“The thing is, my father had a particularly special memory go missing.”
“Just one memory?”
Edgar Jr. nodded.
“A recent one?”
“Not at all,” the young man said.
“That seems strange,” Darkfall said. “You’d think memory loss would most likely affect something recent rather than an old memory.”
“I’m no expert, but I have to agree.”
“How do you think it happened?” Darkfall asked.
“I figured the old man tripped, fell down and hit his head. It was just bad luck that the blow seemed to erase one of his old memories.” Edgar Jr. shrugged. “Honestly, it was sad, because that memory was very important to him, you know? Special.”
“What memory was it, if you don’t mind my asking?”
“No. Not at all. You see, it was a memory of when our family first arrived on Earth, back like twenty years ago or so. I mean, I was a still a kid. But for my father, after living on Alpha-Prime all his life, Earth was magical.
“He was astounded by the tall trees and all the water available on this planet. Plus, the topography that wasn’t just sand, dust and dry air, like back home. He treasured the memory of that first day when we arrived on Earth, you know?”
Darkfall nodded. He understood.
“He used to tell his siblings and cousins—basically, anyone who would listen—all about it whenever we visited Alpha-Prime,” Edgar Jr. said. “Now he can’t remember it. It’s like selective amnesia or something. Crazy, right?”
“Very interesting, for sure.” Darkfall didn’t feel comfortable calling Edgar Jr.’s father crazy.
Edgar Jr. had described perfectly the very memory that ended in a video that was played regularly to lots of people for lots of credits in a forbidden location in the Tri-Spiral Galaxy lightyears from here.
Darkfall had to wonder how that rather specific memory managed to get off-planet to a galaxy so far away.
“And it turns out that it isn’t just my dad, either,” Edgar Jr. said.
Darkfall went on alert. “Really?”
The younger man nodded. “I’ve heard the same thing happened to two other people in town. Maybe there are more folks out there, too.”
This was news to Darkfall. Perhaps he hadn’t read far enough in Luca’s notebook. “Do you know if the memories they lost were similar to your father’s arrival on Earth?”
Edgar Jr. shook his head. “Not really. I didn’t hear this firsthand, but a friend told me there was this lady who had a really over-the-top birthday celebration on Ichor-Delta at this fancy hotel there, which happened only like a year ago. But when someone asked her about it last month, she looked at them like they had lost their mind. She had no memory of it even after looking at pictures and video of the event.”
“And the other instance? Did that missing memory happen to be from Earth?”
