June 2007, Three Weeks

[ellectrical]

After three weeks, everything had finally come into place. It had rained until late into the previous night, but the sky was clear by morning, and Elle had packed her bag (a large black purse) with what she'd borrowed from X, her map, her gun, even another plastic bag of Girl Scout cookies, before locking the door to her room and heading out to the street.

She gets an early start, making her way to the alley a couple hours before she thinks he'll show up. After double-checking that the employees of the club have really cleared out, Elle checks her surroundings, then moves to the double doors, and sets her purse down on the wet pavement.

About ten minutes later, with the aid of a torsion wrench and bump key, the padlock on the door has slid open. She leaves it hanging on the chain, puts her tools back into her purse, and moves away.

There's a space on the other side of the alley - it gives her cover in the form of the hair salon's dumpster and is kept dry by a short, striped awning that juts out from the wall, over the dumpster and the door on the other side. Elle positions herself, and waits.

Patience is not one of her virtues.

But sometimes, when she wants something bad enough, it doesn't really matter.

Comments

[ellectrical]

Meanwhile, Elle is dimly glad that she didn't learn whatever haggis was that time she was in Ireland.

"You can ask about something."

She doesn't sound evasive. But she's not that great with overly broad questions.

As though to reinforce this point, "I won't lie this time."

[walksthebounds]

"All right -"

Jamie lifts a pickle spear, but seems content to use it mostly for gesturing at the moment.

"So this fellow, this Claude - he knew you when you were young, right? That's what you were after hearing about?"

[ellectrical]

"He used to work where I used to work."

Elle isn't really touching her food, instead mostly focusing on the soda she'd ordered.

"I went there when I was six."

[walksthebounds]

Jamie shakes his head.

"Well, I know you didn't ask me - but if you ask me, I don't know if I'd say going out and poking at all that's the best thing. It's like scratching a scab."

[ellectrical]

(what I don't understand is how you could want it
even if I could return it
because if your life sucks that bad

did I ever ask for it to stopIt's mine.)

It's because they're in such a public place that the obvious spark of anger his comment has caused doesn't become any more literal.

In a very low tone, "No, I didn't ask you."

[walksthebounds]

Jamie holds up his hands instantly, a gesture of surrender.

"Then ignore me."

He shouldn't say anything else, but after a moment, he does anyway. "I just - don't get what you're trying to get from this."

[ellectrical]

Elle looks away, but the tension in her stance remains.

"Didn't you hear what he said."

[walksthebounds]

"I've got ears," Jamie says, with a small shrug. "Missing some context, I expect."

Claude spoke in half-sentences - broken-off prepositions, ending in nouns that Elle knows how to fill in, presumably. Jamie doesn't.

"I heard - he said you were hiding, and they took you away. Of course it didn't sound pleasant. But was it news?"

[ellectrical]

"Yes," she murmurs.

She looks back to Jamie. "Seems like something I'd remember, right?"

[walksthebounds]

". . . I don't know if I'd be the one to ask," Jamie says, after a moment.

He's starting to forget more things about his life than he remembers. It's not something he's too sorry about.

"You think - what, you've got amnesia? You've been blocking out things that happened when you were younger?"

[ellectrical]

She shakes her head.

"I didn't do anything." Her voice is flat, and brittle - it sounds less like an explanation, and more like a confession.

[walksthebounds]

"Someone made you forget?" Jamie guesses, after a moment.

It's like playing twenty questions.

[ellectrical]

"Yep."

Her voice is a little harder when she continues, "So I'd kind of like to know what they took."

[walksthebounds]

Well. Jamie will admit there's something of a difference in comfort level between the things you forget on your own because your brain decides they aren't worth the bother, and things someone else makes you forget.

"D'you know why they did it?"

[ellectrical]

"Kind of hard when I don't know what it was."

It's sharp, and immediately, her eyes fall back to the table.

Her tone is calmer when she asks, "Do you remember those - files I found?"

[walksthebounds]

"I remember you finding them," Jamie says honestly. "I couldn't tell you anything of what was in them."

[ellectrical]

"I told you they said something was wrong with me."

She's hacking it down, a lot, but she doesn't really care that much. "And I'd get worse, and then something happened and I'd get better, and I didn't know why."

Beat.

"I lied about that."

[walksthebounds]

". . . thanks for the heads-up now."

Jamie takes a gulp of his drink before asking, "So . . . you did know what was wrong with you, is that what you're saying?"

[ellectrical]

"I knew what made me better," she answers, without pause.

"I was going to - find who made me forget."

[walksthebounds]

"And do what?"

Can you get your memories back that way? Maybe it works like that, in Elle's world.

Or maybe she just wants revenge. Which is fair, he supposes.

[ellectrical]

It didn't work like that. She'd known that.

Elle still answers, "I want it back."

[walksthebounds]

"Can the fellow do that? Just drop it back into your head like a missing film reel?"

He sounds genuinely curious.

[ellectrical]

"No," she admits.

"But he could've told me about it."

She folds her arms. "I didn't even know for sure if it happened."

Since, obviously, she couldn't remember.

[walksthebounds]

"And now you know."

And are you happier? he wants to ask, but he doesn't. He puts his bread and cheese together, instead, and takes a large bite.

[ellectrical]

Elle actually laughs - it's nearly a shriek, and she even covers her mouth, and glances around to see if it attracted any attention.

Once she's satisfied that anyone else's interest has been lost, "You think that was it?"