The Memory Keeper

Chapter 9

"You are already able to use those abilities, wise one. You just did not do it properly."

"What do you mean?"

"Do I know more about the life of a mind weaver than you?" Piper turned to Natalie's bureau and pulled her own hair into a messy ponytail. In a vase were the sprays of rosemary the shop keeper had forced Natalie to buy, having ripped most of it up while talking with Piper. "If it were to have worked, you would have to have told him what you were doing. And Peter needed to truly be willing to give up that memory you wanted to keep. Simple." She pointed to the rosemary. "Can I have these if you aren't using them?"

Natalie made a noise of disbelief. "So why does Colette refuse that we use our gift that way? And yes, you can have them."

Piper exhaled, looking into the mirror, shaking her head at Natalie's reflection over her shoulder. "I suppose I should remind you so that you do not go asking, playing the fool in front of Colette."

"Thanks for the self-image."

Piper turned around sharply. "You cannot use it that way because if there is a memory found completely missing from a person's mind, all of a sudden, with or without their consent, just gone, simply gone, then they will start to go insane."

"How? Is there proof?"

"Remember what happened to that unfortunate client who hired a mind weaver and their assistant, the middle person? Remember, because of that, why your kind are not allowed to work with them anymore?"

Natalie had nodded. "There is no cure, though?"

"Well, yeah," Piper said, sounding a bit impatient now as she ushered Natalie out of her own room and down the stairs like it was not her apartment, but Piper's, and she wanted her out. "That is where a witch can come into the picture. But our remedies can only offer so much. Don't you know, Natalie? Remember what I told--Well, never mind."

"Told what? What were you about to say?"

Piper had stopped before opening the front door, before the two of them ventured out into the cold to meet with Colette. "Don't you know that your mind cannot handle a missing memory? That your mind will do whatever it has to until you remember, but the thing is, you never will. And that is how it all starts. Those threads in your mind are always trying to weave a memory together, word from word, picture by picture. If it has one piece but not the rest, it will try to find it. You will be forced to chase after it, tormented, until nothing makes sense anymore."

Piper looked away, holding the door open, the cold wind breaking on Natalie's face, her skirt hems billowing around the bottom of her coat. She reached for her hat to keep it from flying away, but blinked toward Piper through her lashes, unable to look away.

The witch had made an 'after you' gesture, and as Natalie stepped over the threshold and onto the stone step, in full contact with the chill, Piper said, "It is a good thing you have me, though, because I refuse to watch that happen."

***

The Corinthian columns lined the palace entryway like tall ivory knights, gas lamps tossing shadows at the wide lawn. The queen, the mind weaver, and the witch walked around the water fountain, and Natalie took full advantage of this to look closely. The stone women had faces that reminded Natalie very much of the cameo necklace charms she always admired when out window shopping with Piper. Their breasts were scarcely covered by the robes, their curvy bodies almost bent around each other, the Terra-cotta clay pots under their fleshy arms. Piper stuck her hand out, the stream of water breaking on her palm.

The brass gilded door of the palace opened, and the lord and lady stepped out. They were dressed in ivory colored royal attire, the lady's dress like a fully blossomed rose, embroidered with red designs. The lord kissed the back of Colette's hand and bowed low. Then he turned to Natalie and did the same, but with much less enthusiasm. When he saw Piper, he just turned away, ushering the three of them inside.