What the heck could’ve happened to my brother?That was what was really bothering him. He went back to find Noah searching his own bedroom.
“I wish I knew what I was looking for. I guess there’s some kind of book that doesn’t just contain the usual science experiments.” He held up a chemistry 101 textbook from high school.
“Yeah, that’s not it. You said you found it at an old book shop on Cambridge Street. It’s leather-bound. The pages are all yellow, and some of the edges look a little crispy. You showed it to me because it’s in Latin, and you thought I could translate it. Translating it was kind of weird. It just seemed like a recipe book.”
Noah stood tall and turned toward him. “Like a cookbook? Why would I get a recipe book in Latin?”
“Damned if I know. Maybe you were just curious about it. Knowing you, buying a book that intrigued you for no apparent reason isn’t out of the realm of possibility.”
Hemightpull a joke on Noah like this, but Noah would never do it to him. Even if he was trying to be a wiseass, he’d have given it up by now. “Come on, buddy. I think you should lie down for a bit in the living room.”
“You mean I’m losing my mind, apparently.”
“Maybe you’re just thinking too hard. Go relax, and I’ll get you a beer.”
“Okay…” Noah strolled off to the living room with a blank stare on his face.
What the hell could have happened to him?
Dante returned to the kitchen and grabbed that beer while looking in places he might’ve missed the first time. Maybe his brother had a minor stroke, or maybe this was a symptom of early-onset Alzheimer’s. He didn’t even know if phoenixes could suffer from things like that. But there was no other explanation. He checked the oven and slid out the drawer below it, thinking maybe it was an absent-minded professor thing. The whole situation had him vexed.
Dante returned to the living room with two beers. Noah was on the couch with his feet stretched out on top of the coffee table. Dante handed him his beer without telling him to get his feet off the table. The guy deserved a break,if he hadn’t already had one of some kind.
Dante took a seat in the adjacent chair, took a swig of his beer, and watched as Noah seemed to prod his brain for some kind of information. If this was a joke, he was staying in character.
“I wish I knew what happened.” Noah shook his head.
“Me too.” Dante leaned back and asked, “Is thereanythingelse you can remember about today?”
“Like what? Like what I’ve had to eat?”
“Sure. Anything. Anything at all. You never know what might be a hint.”
Noah leaned back and said, “I woke up in my room. Went to the kitchen and poured a bowl of that Engine 2 cereal. Got the milk out of the fridge…”
Dante was tempted to tell him to hurry it up, but he didn’t dare. He might miss a critical step, so he let his brother drone on about every possible event he could remember, from getting dressed to brushing his teeth to having a phone call from…And there it is.
“Kizzy? She called you?”
“No. I called her. I wanted to see how she was doing. She wanted to come over, but instead, I went to see her. Then something happened… It’s kind of foggy.”
Dante realized something had triggered this. And perhaps that something was Kizzy. “Where is Kizzy now?”
Noah looked around as if expecting to see her. “I don’t know. She was here a few minutes ago.”
“Here? Here in our apartment?”
“Yeah.” Noah set his beer on the coffee table and froze. “She was here along with a few other people. Her father, his friend Nick, and Nick’s wife…and someone else. I don’t remember who the other woman was. She was only here for a short time.”
“I thought her father didn’t like you.”
“Yeah, I didn’t think so either. But I feel like something—changed.” Noah rose and took different spots in the living room as if standing in different people’s shoes. At last, he shook his head. “I’m sorry. I just can’t make any sense of it.”
Maybe he got a bump on the head.“Do you feel well, physically? I was just thinking you may have gotten hit on the head or something.”
Noah patted his head, his jaw, his shoulders, and looked at his hands and wrists. Then he stretched his legs, bent his knees, and swiveled his ankles. “Everything checks out. No pain. Everything works.”
“Except your memory.”
