Forgotten (2 page)

“
Fool—we don’t wish to
herd cattle or grow crops! I’m just interested in seeing what other
toys the AllFather might have left lying around. I want to know his
secrets…to see through his eyes.”

“
You’re seeing through my
eyes already,” Y pointed out.

“
Yes, and what good does
it do me? I need eyes of my own…hands…a body.”
Master Two cackled gleefully inside his head.
“I think our friend the AllFather can help me
there.”

“
How?” Y asked, honestly
mystified.

“
You’ll see, my dear Y.
For now, just send the girl you erroneously took back to
Earth.”

“
Which part of
Earth?”

“
I don’t know—nor do I
care. Use a set of the Earth coordinates programmed into the
molecular transfer beam if you like. There should be several to
pick from—I know the Scourge stole females from there
regularly.”

“
Very well.” Y obeyed as
he always did, although he was becoming increasingly resentful. He
punched in the coordinate log and picked a likely one before
pointing the needle-like nose of the matter transference beam at
the girl who was now moving and moaning regularly. Then he pressed
the transfer control.

As she disappeared in a blinding flash of
light, Y reflected that at least Two hadn’t made him kill or
torture her. But he wondered how she would manage back on Earth
with no memory of her mate or idea of where she was or how she had
gotten there.

“
Transfer complete,” he
said.

“
Very good.”
Master Two sounded at least marginally
pleased.
“Now let’s get back to our own
ship and set a course for
Zlicth at once. I want to see
those wonderful toys…”

Y turned at once, leaving the control room
of the Father Ship without a second glance. He was glad to be
getting away from the huge, haunted-feeling ship. He only wished
their destination wasn’t more of the same. What could Master Two be
planning?

Neither he nor his ever vigilant Master
noticed the crumpled blue Dream Blossom flower left lying on the
floor where Kate had been.

Chapter One

Six Months Later…

“
So how’s work?” Mimi
asked as she forked into her steaming pile of noodles from
Sarku Japanese Bistro—
one of the many fast food joints in the International Mall
food court.

“
Not bad.” Kate took a sip
of her
Jamba Juice
Veggie Vitality smoothie. “Same old, same old mostly. I had a
woman come in wanting to return an ankle bracelet she said she’d
only bought a week ago.”

“
And?” Mimi raised one
skinny eyebrow. Everything about Mimi was skinny from her eyebrows
to her elbows to her long, graceful neck. She was built like a
giraffe which meant she and Kate looked funny together, especially
standing side by side. Kate didn’t mind though—at 4’9 she was used
to being the shortest kid on the block. Still, sometimes the
extreme height difference between herself and her friend bothered
her. Not because she thought people were looking and laughing but
because it seemed to bring back memories. Memories of someone even
taller than Mimi…

No, don’t think about
it.
Kate pushed the half-formed thought
resolutely away.

“
So this anklet—the
bracelet was tarnished, the clasp was broken, and it was missing a
stone,” she said, grinning wryly at Mimi. “I mean,
really?
I wanted to ask
if she’d been in a triathlon while she was wearing it. How else
could it get into such bad shape in a week?”

“
Customers…” Mimi shook
her head. She worked across the mall at the Godiva store so she
knew some of what Kate went through. Although selling high end
chocolates was a little different than selling extremely expensive
jewelry.

Kate shrugged. “Could be worse. Like the
lady yesterday who had a fit because we didn’t have the Pandora
bead she’d dreamed up in her head. A monkey sitting in a palm tree
with a banana dangling from its hand.”

“
Weird. Why would she want
that?” Mimi took another bite of noodles. She could eat absolutely
anything and it would never show on her long, gangly body. Kate
wasn’t nearly so lucky. As short as she was, she really had to
watch her weight.

“
Dunno,” she said,
shrugging. “But she got twice as upset when I told her that no, we
didn’t have someone in the back who could make anything she wanted
to her specification. She actually thought I could just go to the
back room and magically
make
the bead she imagined and get it back to her in
under an hour. I mean, what do I look like—a
witch?”

Mimi jumped as though Kate had poked her
with a pin.

“
Uh, well you
do
have that one thing,
you know,” she pointed out in a whisper.

“
You mean the Knowing?”
Kate sighed. She really wished she hadn’t had to tell her friend
and roommate about her peculiar little talent for finding out
private details about people when she touched them. It was a gift
that had run in her family for generations—her mother and
grandmother, both deceased—had both had it.

It was supposed to be a
family secret but when Kate had woken naked and alone in the middle
of a park in Sarasota six months ago with Mimi standing over her,
she had reached out to the other girl in blind panic. Mimi had
taken her hand to help her up and Kate had blurted out,
“Your name is Marjorie but you hate that name so
you go by Mimi. Your mother died of breast cancer exactly one year
ago and you own twelve cats even though you told your apartment
complex you only have six.”

Mimi had drawn back, aghast. But thank
goodness for Kate, the outpouring about her personal life had
fascinated her rather than repelling her, as it did many people.
She’d wanted to know more about this strange, naked girl who’d
appeared out of nowhere and seemed to know everything somehow. So
instead of driving Kate to the Salvation Army or some other charity
shelter, she’d taken her home to her apartment in Tampa and let her
stay.

Kate was beyond grateful to her new
friend—especially since she had no idea how she’d gotten to
Sarasota or what had been happening to her the past three years.
She had a serious gap in her memory that bothered her terribly.
Mimi, however, had a kind heart and a patient spirit—she was a
collector of hurt people as well as animals. She’d told Kate
everything would come back in time. In the mean-time, she was
welcome to stay as long as she wanted to.

Though she appreciated the
sentiment, Kate wasn’t sure she
wanted
everything to come back.
After all—what if something really terrible had happened to her and
she’d blocked it out? Maybe she had a traumatic past that her mind
was hiding from her. It was just blind luck that she’d been found
by someone like Mimi. Her new friend had given her a place to stay
and even let her have her pick of the clothes her last roommate had
left in the closet.

The roommate had been 5’4—substantially
taller than Kate. But they’d had the same proportions—generous bust
and hips with a small waist. So with a little hemming, most of the
clothes were wearable. She’d had good taste too so Kate had looked
nice enough to get a job at International Mall, the swankiest and
most expensive mall in the Tampa Bay area. It was right by the
airport and had lots of international customers so Kate’s knowledge
of languages came in handy too.

The language thing was…weird. She could
somehow instantly understand and speak any language she heard
whether she knew it or not. It wasn’t like the Knowing, a gift
handed down from generation to generation. That was just part of
her DNA. The language thing hadn’t been there before the gap in her
memory—Kate knew for a fact because she could remember failing high
school French. She’d had what her teacher called a “dead ear,”
meaning she couldn’t hear or master the necessary accent to make
her spoken French sound anything but atrocious. Yet now she spoke
French like a native Parisian—she’d spoken it just yesterday to a
client at her store. And she could speak any other language as
well, even if she’d never heard it before.

Kate had no idea how she’d acquired her gift
with languages but it certainly came in handy at work. In fact, it
was the way she’d gotten the job in the first place…

She’d been walking through
the mall a few weeks after her sudden appearance in Sarasota,
looking for work after Mimi had started her shift at Godiva. Since
she didn’t own a car, it made sense to try to find a job in the
same place her new friend worked. Unfortunately, it seemed like no
one was hiring. Kate was just about to give up on the nicer shops
and go try the food court when she’d passed by a high end jewelry
store on the top floor of the mall.
Official purveyor of Rolex watches,
proclaimed an elegantly scripted sign out front. Inside, a
customer was trying to make himself understood in Farsi.

Of course, Kate didn’t know it was Farsi—she
only knew that he was speaking in a foreign tongue but she could
somehow understand it. For a moment she just stood there, stunned.
How in the Hell could she understand everything the customer was
saying when she didn’t know any language but English? She
froze—staring into the jewelry store, unable to drag herself
away.

“
No, this is not the one I
am looking for,” the customer was saying, pointing at something in
the jewelry case. “I want one with rubies—those are my wife’s
favorite stone.”

“
I’m sorry…” The saleslady
said. “I don’t understand what you’re saying. Do you speak
English?”

“
What?” Plainly the
customer was getting more and more irritated.

“
What about Spanish? Do
you speak Spanish?” the sales lady asked, switching to
Spanish.

Kate’s mouth dropped. This
she recognized—she’d heard Spanish spoken often enough to know what
it sounded like. Only, she’d never
understood
it before. Now it was
perfectly clear.

“
What are you saying?” the
customer demanded in Farsi.

“
I’m sorry,” the saleslady
said, shaking her head hopelessly. “I only speak Spanish and
English.”

“
Forget it!” The customer
threw up his hands in disgust.

It was at this moment that Kate had an
epiphany. She didn’t know how she was understanding these languages
but clearly she was. Behind her in the mall, she heard two women
walking by, speaking in Vietnamese. Kate understood every word.
Apparently this was a new gift she somehow had.

Being suddenly multi-lingual probably would
have freaked out most people but Kate was used to being unusual.
She’d grown up knowing she was different from everyone else and the
kids in her small town high school had never let her forget it for
an instant. You either hid your differences away and let them make
you a freak…or you used them to your advantage to make you
stronger. Kate preferred the latter.

But just because she understood all these
languages, did it mean she could speak them too?

Only one way to find out!

Lifting her chin, Kate stepped into the
jewelry shop.

“
Excuse me, but I think I
know what he’s saying,” she told the saleslady, pointing to the
disgusted customer who was preparing to leave. “I think I can
help.”

“
If you can, please!” She
was an older lady with an elegant coif of gray hair swept up in the
back and a simple strand of pearls around her neck. “I’d love to
help him but I can’t understand a word.”

“
Hello,” Kate said to the
disgusted customer in perfect Farsi. “Can I help translate? I know
your language.”

“
Oh, at last! Finally
someone who can help—thank you, yes!” He nodded eagerly. “I cannot
go home without procuring something for my wife. I see a piece I
like very much but I need it with rubies, not emeralds.”

“
Show me,” Kate said and
he pointed at the case. Kate translated rapidly between him and the
saleslady, amazed to hear the words pouring out of her own mouth.
Words she shouldn’t have been able to understand or pronounce at
all and yet they came flowing as easily as if the customer’s
language was her native tongue.

The saleslady happened to have exactly what
the customer wanted in another case. Before long, the sale was made
and everyone was happy. Kate was about to leave and see what other
languages she could understand when the manager of the store
stepped out from the back.

“
I saw that—a very
impressive display, young lady,” he said, nodding at
Kate.

“
Oh yes, Mr. Myers, she
was wonderful, wasn’t she?” The older saleslady beamed at Kate.
“Thank you so much—I couldn’t have made that sale without you to
translate.”

“
So do you speak other
languages?” the manager asked. “We get quite a lot of international
customers here and we’re always on the lookout for sales staff with
multilingual capabilities.”

Kate had decided to take a chance. “I can
speak and understand just about any language there is,” she’d said
quietly, keeping her voice level and calm so it didn’t seem like
she was bragging. She wasn’t completely certain it was true but it
seemed like a pretty safe bet.