The Power of Forgetting Read Online Free PDF Page A

there.’
    ‘After all that
happened?’ he said mildly.
    ‘Especially
after that, it’s easy to get carried away.’ I thought of the
giants. Davey was looking at me, waiting to see what else I would
say. He seemed worried then, seeing my face. I must have been
frowning, or looking moody or something.
    ‘Come on Jared.
We’re all alright now. Aren’t we?’
    ‘I….’ the
clouds were moving again and the thickening twilight was invading
the room, ‘I really need to tell you and Marcia something. I don’t
think it’s something the Doc can hear though.’
    Davey looked at
me intently for a moment or two as if measuring the significance of
an idea he was currently toying with. I thought he wouldn’t speak,
and drift into one of those extended daydreams, but he turned away
towards my kitchen.
     
    They all came
in then: Marcia, Davey and Violette. The dear doctor was just about
to go anyway, and stood there with her coat on, and a tetchy
concerned look on her face.
    ‘Marcia, you
will keep him with you for the next day. For heaven’s sake make him
eat something!’
    ‘Doc, I’m
here!’ I reminded her.
    ‘Yes,’ Violette
was smiling in an amused way. But really she was trying to stop
being too intense. Davey’s influence; or perhaps Marcia had been
plying her with chocolate cake.
    Marcia and
Violette hugged each other and Violette left the building to get a
taxi that had just arrived outside. I let them deal with it all.
The cigarette was finished, but I still craved something else.
Perhaps as a condition I could tell a little of my story before
indulging any desire. Out there in the icy land of all our fantasy
I had hardly wanted anything; not even to smoke. Yet other things
intruded on my thoughts instead. Back here I was feeling
directionless and a little lost.
    I turned to see
the two of them come back in. I supposed that Davey would want to
see Janey soon. It would seem obvious that she would come here. But
I felt as if I could not ask. My beloved sister…. I loved her with
that kind of obsessive devotion that was weirdly discomforting to
those who did not understand it. She was better than all the other
girls. She was my Angel, my flipside. Often, she would be in the
mood the opposite to mine. We were twins….and had that connection
that was stronger than normal siblings. Yet she was like a
dangerous poison too; when she was feeling out of sorts. I wanted
her to be happy. And it was only finding Davey that had stopped her
driving herself into the ground with work.
    When we were
little; she was that grubby child who refused to brush her hair,
and was muddied from top to toe after one of her creature hunting
adventures outside in the woods and farmland near our childhood
home. She would collect creepy crawlies, while I was finding rocks
and leaves more interesting. I clothed my imagination. And that is
why I paint now. I became the artist, and she the scientist. Funny
how they don’t seem so different… we both like to look, and wonder.
If Janey saw the atoms dancing I would see the spectrum of colours
in a sunset. We loved the same things for different reasons. And
those strange little children became us two; independent, complete
without others. Even after we had both moved on.
    As for girls….
I was the boy that they all threw themselves at… for about five
minutes that is, until I opened my mouth and said anything about
the things I was actually interested in. Then it was only later,
that determined girls would try to seduce me. I was lonely and was
easily conned. They thought I must be worldly, but I plainly was
not; and most despised me. And more to the point they despised my
sister, and wanted to separate us permanently. Janey could not bear
it when she had everything going right, then some guy got jealous
of me turning up just to talk to her. They actually thought she was
lying when she told them I was her brother… I suppose it was the
body language. Janey is a very physical person. She