“Neither do I. I’m going to contact more aristocrats and see if I can at least get a group of people who can see you within a range of three days. I’ll have to ask more than just Lillian and her partners to join us. If you are going to be there for more than twenty-four hours I’d like at least a group of ten people I trust. Lillian makes one, and she has both a husband and a wife so that makes three. I’ll need seven more people.”
“This is all so complicated.” I complained.
“I know, but you don’t need to worry about any of it. I will take care of all of it. You just relax and enjoy yourself.”
“I’d enjoy myself more, if this handsome man I share a house with would walk around in his birthday suit.” I teased.
“You are becoming bolder by the second. Hate to break it to you, but that’s not going to happen, sweetheart.” He said ending his sentence with a mocking tone.
“You’re a party pooper.”
He shrugged his shoulders at me and continued his dinner preparations. I sat in the dining room and waited for him to finish making food. I was in for a long journey to find out who I was.
It was frustrating to see how much work Max was having to do to help me. He not only had to deal with his own problems, but he was also dealing with mine. It wasn’t really fair. He hardly knew me, and he definitely had no clue what I was like before I met him. I didn’t even know that information. I didn’t even remember the first time I met him thanks to losing my memory again.
I was starting to feel upset with my situation. It almost felt like someone was trying to punish me by taking everything away from me. If my memory was erased, did that mean that other people’s memories were erased. Maybe nobody would remember me if I returned to the spirit realm. The same person who wanted to take everything away from me could have just as easily made sure that nobody came for me by taking their memories of me.
Max finished up dinner and placed plates of food on the table. We had a quiet dinner because I didn’t want to bother Max. He still looked really tired, and I didn’t want to force him to use more of his energy. It was relaxing just eating with him and enjoying the flavor of the food he cooked. Once dinner was over, I showered and went to bed followed by Max.
The next month with Max was really boring. He continued to try and make arrangements for me to go to the spirit world, but while we waited we would go on walks in the woods. I’d curl some weights everyday, and then every Tuesday and Thursday, I would go to defense lessons.
Occasionally, he would take me to see a movie. A couple of times we would meet up with a detective called Karl. Apparently, I knew him before I lost my memory again, but of course I had no recollection of him.
One night, after Max got out of the shower, he started a conversation with me. “You’ve met up with Karl a couple times. Do you trust him?”
“That’s a weird question.”
“Well Karl is what’s known as a hidden spirit, but I could take him to the spirit realm with us.”
“What is a hidden spirit?”
“It’s a spirit that chooses to give up the spirit world to live in the normal world. Normally, they are supposed to give up any contact with spirits altogether, but because of his job, he has to interact with me.
Technically, he’s not supposed to talk to you, but he doesn’t know you’re a spirit yet because I told you not to tell him anything after I confirmed you were one myself. I’m sure he suspects you are one, but to him, it is also possible that you're a human involved with spirits.”
“If he’s not supposed to have contact with spirits, why would you bring him into the spirit realm?”
“Well, I really trust him, and he is powerful. He could prove to be useful if something were to happen while you’re in the spirit realm. Plus, I can easily pull some strings so that he won’t be punished for having some contact with spirits.” He answered as he bent over to pull out underwear from a drawer. As he did so, the towel that was wrapped around his waist fell off.
“Look at that ass!” I shouted and whistled at him.
As I cat called him, he turned around and posed for me. “Like what you see? Because I recall you saying I was flat”
“Shut up. Just because I said it doesn't mean that I meant it. You just have a really nice body. Have you ever shared that nice body of yours with someone?”
He looked at me with a big smirk and quickly approached me. He pinned me down to the bed and got on top of me in a position where one of his knees was between my legs and pressed against my crotch. He gave me a real quick peck on the lips and mocked, “wouldn’t you like to know.”
I could feel my face flush red as he sat there and stared me in the eyes. However, despite the awkwardness of the situation, I played along, “you could show me what you know.”
He busted into laughter, “You’re cute when you blush. You’re also cute when you’re trying to get laid. However, I don’t have sex with people I’m not dating.”
“So you’re not a virgin?” I asked as he climbed off of me.
“That’s not information you need to know. I could be a virgin. I could not be a virgin. That’s information I only share with people I’m in a relationship with.” He answered as he finished getting dressed for bed.
“We could start dating, but you always turn me down when I ask.”
Max turned out the light and climbed into the bed with me, “Are you really interested in dating me?”
“Yeah, besides I already feel like we are because of the way you take care of me. What would you even do differently if we were dating?”
“I guess I wouldn’t do much differently. The only thing that would potentially change is the amount and type of physical contact between the two of us.”
“Then it’s settled, you’re my boyfriend now.”
“I don’t think I agreed to that.” He laughed.
“Oh well, you don’t have a choice now.”
“You’re such a generous boyfriend.” he sarcastically remarked.
I laughed at him and he joined me. We layed in bed and giggled like a bunch of high school girls for half an hour making jokes about what our relationship was going to be like. After we got all the laughter out of our systems, we fell asleep like we normally would as if our status had not changed.
As usual, Max woke me up in the morning just before he was done cooking breakfast. Nothing had changed, which was to be expected. Even then, a little bit of me wanted something to be different, but I didn’t know what I wanted to be different. Max treated me perfectly. He was already treating me like I was his partner, so there wasn't much that he could change.
I sat down at the kitchen table and looked out the window that faced the backyard. Max placed a plate in front of me and sat down in the chair opposite of me. We ate our meal in silence and moved into the living room when we were done eating.
We sat down on the couch, and Max turned the channel to some show about teenagers trying to make a living in New York. After he put the remote down, he looked at me, “So I’ve got to make a call to Karl, but I think I have everything figured out about our trip into the spirit realm.”
“Really! When will we be going?” I nearly shouted out of excitement.
“Sunday morning, we will start our trip by driving to the airport. We will then take a plane to Eureka, California. From there we will go somewhere with no traffic and jump into the spirit realm. From there we will meet up with a small group of spirits that will be traveling with us. I have Lillian, Corey, Miriam, Gus, and Baxter. I’m going to ask Karl if he will join us, but I don’t see him telling us no.”
It was only Tuesday morning, which meant I had almost a week before the trip would begin. Despite having to wait, I got really excited. “That’s amazing!”
“You seem excited.”
“I get to see the spirit realm, and I might get to find something about my past.”
He smiled and patted my head, “You are something. Anyhow, you’ve seemed to progress pretty well in your defense training. Before you lost your memory again, you wanted more freedom and part of the deal was for you to take defense lessons. Then there was an undecided part of the deal. I want to get you chipped.”
“Like a dog?” I asked, disgusted.
“Yeah, like a dog but with a tracker on it. After your case is solved, and I know you’re safe, the chip can be removed. You got really lucky when that hunter found you, and something like that may not happen again. You could really die if something happens again. With the chip, I’d be able to find you if you went missing.”
“Isn’t that a way to invade my privacy though?”
“It could be used like that, but I only plan to use the tracker function if you go missing for more than a day. Even then, I might not find you alive.”
“Okay, I’ll let you chip me, but you have to promise to take it out later.”
“Promise. Let’s just relax for a little bit before you go to your defense class this afternoon.”
"Earlier you listed five people that would be going with us. I thought you wanted ten to go with us?" I questioned him.
"Well Karl may go with us which will make six, but since we won't be in the spirit world for more than twenty-four hours, I don't think ten people will be needed as much."
After our small conversation, I laid my head on his lap and watched the show about the teens. The show would switch between them being in classes and them trying to get jobs. It was weird watching them because the way they had school didn’t match how I thought school was supposed to be.
I didn’t remember much of my past, but I could remember small factual details like the order of colors in a rainbow. I guess spirit school could have been one of those facts I could remember.
To satisfy my curiosity, I brought my thoughts to Max, “This isn’t how I remember school being.”
“Well, how do you remember school being?” He asked me.
“I don’t know. It was more hands on: less paperwork, more action. Although I don’t remember being in school, I feel like school was less boring than what is being pictured in this show.”
“Spirit school is different from human school. Each type of spirit has their own experience because each spirit has to go to classes that pertain to their talents. There are a few mixed classes in lower level grades like history, writing, and math. By the time we get to the equivalent of human third grade, we learn to control our talents and spend more time growing our powers.
Most spirits don’t really have to improve skills like math and reading for their careers. There are a few spirits, like myself, that do need to improve upon these skills, but for the most part there is no real need to go into the depth that human schools do.”
Comments (2)
See all