Post by StoryGirl83 on Jun 12, 2009 20:50:02 GMT -5
Chapter Three – The Memory
Flashback
Chris let out a sigh as his latest customer walked off. A steady line of customers had come to his register for over an hour, but now it looked like there was a break.
A break for him, at least. He chuckled at Brian appeared to be negotiating with a customer. Brian pointed across the room and the young lady shook her head. Brian said something Chris couldn’t make out form where he stood, a frown on his face.
Chris smiled. I’d better help him. As he approached them a soft voice reached his ears, but not the words. Making his presence known, he asked, “Brian, may I be of assistance?”
The young woman turned around before Brian could answer and Chris gasped.
Genevieve Lawson stood in the door way, preventing him from entering. “I wouldn’t.”
Chris frowned. “What happened?”
She shook her head. As she did light from outside hit on a dark matt clumped in her hair. “Chris, just trust me.”
Chris reached up and touched the clump of hair. His fingers came away wet and sticky. He looked at the red drops on his fingers and inhaled sharply. “Genevieve?”
Tears welled up in her eyes. “It’s not mine.” Her voice was a bit choked up as she added, “It’s Brian’s.”
Chris’ eyes blinked open as he starred at them. I knew him then? He looked at the clean, uninjured young man in front of him. It was hard to imagine him as the occasionally wild eyed, always seeing way too much, Brian Hietzman he’d known then. He’s that Brian? He didn’t even know this Brian’s last name, but the longer he looked the more he was sure. At one time this young man had been his friend, his ally. At one time, this young man had died as so many others before and after him for a cause that was sometimes hard to see an end to, but end it had. And this was the result, the living dead like Brian and Genevieve.
“She says she needs to talk to Mr. Hollis, but she wants to go in the back and I keep telling her she can’t.”
Gen would insist. But what could she want with Mr. Hollis?
“I just want to talk to Uncle Reggie,” she protested.
“Uncle Reggie?” both young men asked surprised.
She grinned. “Reginald Hollis is my godfather.”
Chris starred at her, laughter growing in his chest. Of course he is. Of course my soon to be former boss is the godfather of one of the friends of my other me. Wonder who else I will come across that he knew. It was perhaps not the best policy to refer to oneself in the third person, but it did help keep track of if he had actually done something or if it was this other guy who looked like him, but lived a totally different life that just so happened to have a lot of the same people in it. People like Brian. And Gen. “Brian, why don’t you take . . . Miss Lawson to see Mr. Hollis.” It wouldn’t do to let on that he knew her name was Genevieve. “She still can’t go in back, but she can wait by the door while you get him.”
Genevieve looked at him puzzled. “How’d you know my name?”
Apparently a last name isn’t vague enough, Chris realized as her struggled for an answer that didn’t bring up the insane topic of multiple time line memories. Then, a remembered conversation with Mr. Hollis gave him the answer he sought.
“You are Everett Lawson’s daughter, right?” And that was definitely a name he couldn’t get from the other time line. He hadn’t known her father’s name in that time line. “Mr. Hollis said that Mr. Lawson was his best friend, so I figured if he was going to have a goddaughter, who better than the daughter of his best friend. Was I wrong?”
She smiled, but her curiosity didn’t abate. “Yes, that’s my father.” She gave him a curious look as if she was reading his mind, which was ridiculous, because Gen was a mortal. He was certain that there wasn’t a magical bone in her body. “That isn’t how you know though, is it?”
His silver tongued spy wasn’t as careful with her words in this time line. That she never had been with him wasn’t relevant. She had no memory of that time. “No,” he admitted, “but I did have that conversation with Mr. Hollis and it is how I drew that connection. Your name came from elsewhere, something earlier.”
“So have we met before?”
“You’ve never met me before,” Chris told her. And as little or much as that was or wasn’t me, the same goes for the Gen he knew, so I guess I never really met you either.
Genevieve shrugged. “If you say so. Thinking about it though, you do look familiar.”
Chris raised an eyebrow, surprised. “Really? ‘Cause I don’t remember that.” Does she attend college with me? It’s kind of up her alley. Or maybe . . . He smiled. “Have you ever been to The Manor on a busy night?”
She grinned. “Yeah. Why?”
“Cause my mom owns it and I’ve helped her there in the past. Could that be it?”
She considered this for a moment, than nodded. “That’s probably it.”
Chris grinned, glad that was over. “All right, Brian, go take her to find Mr. Hollis. I see someone headed toward my register.” Not waiting to see if they did as he suggested he started to turn. Something stopped him and he looked at Genevieve. “Nice to meet you, Miss Lawson.”
“Genevieve.”
I know. “I’m Chris.” And then he turned around and walked away. This time, he didn’t look back.