Chapter 1: Introduction 1
Autumn
The early afternoon was clear and open and surrounded by pale blue sky. Although the car would go only thirty miles an hour, Mr. Shiftlet imagined a terrific climb and dip and swerve that went entirely to his head so that he forgot his morning bitterness. He had always wanted an automobile but he had never been able to afford one before. He drove very fast because he wanted to make Mobile by nightfall.
Occasionally he stopped his thoughts long enough to look at the girl in the seat beside him. His wife. She had eaten the lunch as soon as they were out of the yard and now she was pulling the cherries off the hat one by one and throwing them out the window. He became depressed in spite of the car. He had driven about a hundred miles when he decided that she must be hungry again and at the next small town they came to, he stopped in front of an aluminum painted eating place called The Hot Spot and took her in and ordered her a plate of ham and grits. The ride had made her sleepy and as soon as she got up on the stool, she rested her head on the counter and shut her eyes. There was no one in The Hot Spot but Mr. Shiftlet and the boy behind the counter, a pale youth with a greasy rag hung over his shoulder. Before he could dish up the food, she was snoring gently.
"Give it to her when she wakes up," Mr. Shiftlet said. "I'll pay for it now."
The boy bent over her and stared at the long pink gold hair and the half shut sleeping eyes. Then he looked up and stared at Mr. Shiftlet. "She looks like an angel of Gawd," he murmured.
"Hitchhiker," Mr. Shiftlet explained. "I can't wait. I got to make Tuscaloosa."
The boy bent over again and very carefully touched his finger to a strand of the golden hair, and Mr. Shiftlet left.
Later
Where….where am I?
The thought flashed across her brain.
What happened? Where...Who am I?
She thought back….a glimpse of an old woman, then…nothing.
She slowly raised her head from the counter it was resting on, and looked around. She was in a small diner, with a plate of food in front of her. Out the window several people were walking by, talking animatedly. She noted idly that they were getting sunburned, the pink already covering their uncovered skin. Suddenly she started at a sound behind her.
"ma'am?" the voice repeated, "are you all right?" She turned around to see a young man, maybe 16 or seventeen, standing over her with a concerned look on his face.
"I don't know" she replied, but at the sound of her voice his face lost its concerned look.
"Y'shure gon an' gave me a start there, ma'am" he said, "Ya looked like ye were… glowin', or some'thin, can't rightly describe it. But you're all right, then?"
For a moment, she was silent, but then said "Where am I?"
"Youre at Mr. Xs Diner, The man left soon after he got here...he payed for your food" he said, indicating the plate setting before her."
She glanced again at the small plate of food before her, and then, tenatively, continued. "And...Who am I?"
"Hmm? Wha-tcha mean? Ya gone an' forgot yore own name?" She looked at him with troubled eyes, and his smile faded.
"Y'aint serious, are ya?" he asked seriously, "Cause, if yer seriouse, mebbe tha old man cayne give yah a hand. Unless…"
He paused, glancing left and right, and leaned next to her ear, and whispered conspiratally "Ya aren't a…commie, are yeh?"
"Commie?" she began in a normal tone, but was cut off by the boy.
"shhhhh!" he said, glancing nervously towards the back of the restaurant, "do ya wanna get me fired?" he leaned over next to her ear and whispered "the boss don't like no talk of no commies"
"but what do you mean by 'commies'?' she asked plaintively, "What's that? And what does it have to do with me?"
"Commies…y'know," he said, "Reds? Some o' theym are right nasty folks, killin', murderin', shootin' up. Suma'them are druggies, too."
"Some of them come around here so high they can practically see over them walls. Or, not even remembering who they are." he waved his hand at her, "O'course, we kick them out right quick!"
"But…I don't remember doing anything like that. I don't remember anything!"
He looked straight at her. "Actually, now that I look at ya, ya don't look much like them, really." He paused for a moment.
"I'll tell ya what. I'll take you in to see the old man. He rekons he's some sort of psyky logist, or guyny colgist, or sumthin'. Ahm sure he cayne help yah."
"O…kay?"
"Jus' haead raht over through that door ovah theyah, ye'll fahnd'im!"
All she had ever known was to be sitting in this chair; the thought of leaving it, even when she knew she had to, terrified her. She tried to compose herself, but her face must have given her away, because the boy smiled at her.
"Go on. Trust me, he's not too bad. Ah thank you might even lahke him."
She smiled tentatively, and stood up, walking over towards the door on the far side of the room. She rested her hand on the handle, and glanced back, but he was ardently cleaning a glass, whistling as he worked. I wish he'd encourage me, somehow she thought, almost subconsciously. He finished cleaning the glass, and looked up at her, smiling. Go on, he mouthed at her. She smiled tentatively, and turned the handle, and was surprised to see that rather than the office she had expected, there was simply a staircase, leading downwards. She glanced back one more time, and then slowly began to walk down the steps.
Up above, the boy turned around as he saw her head disappear down the stairs. The old man'll know what to do, he thought. "Well that's strange," he muttered, "that glass aint halfway clean. I wonder why I ever put it down?" He picked it up and absently began polishing it again, curiously watching where the girl had gone, even long after she had disappeared.
The girl poked her head into the room and looked around at the tall shelves and lab tables around the room. Hmm, no-one home, she thought, and stepped in. She walked over to one of the tables, and saw that there were a few doors leading off the room. Huh, I wonder where he is? She thought, and started to ask the room in general where he was, but suddenly realized that she didn't know what his name was. Then, the thought struck her; I don't even know what my name is, why should I worry about his?
"Mister!" she said loudly, "is there anyone here?"
Unexpectedly, she heard a loud crash emanating from down one of the staircases, followed by a long string of curses.
"Hello?" she yelled, as she approached the door, which she saw opened to yet another staircase. "Hello?" she projected down the stairway, and abruptly the curses stopped ringing up the staircase. "I'm coming, I'm coming," a man yelled from down below, "this bloody transmodulating coil fell over right on top of my bleeding Jefferson tubes…" for a moment, he relapsed for a moment into cursing the coils existence, creator, mover, air inside it, and just about anything ever connected to it, but to her relief the voice was coming closer, and soon she saw the silhouette of a man coming up the stair, and moments later, she found her hand being shaken by the shortest man she'd ever seen.
"A pleasure, I'm sure," he said, "now, what's your problem?"
"Whaaa?" she stammered, "How do you know I have a problem?"
"Because the boy above wouldn't have sent you down here if you didn't have a problem. Now, please, tell me."
She looked down for a moment at his ingratiating smile, and then said "Could you tell me who I am?" She paused for a moment. "For that matter, who are you?"
"Oh, my," he said, "have I forgotten to introduce myself? My name is Theophilus Adelard, Scientist, Psychologist, experimental telepath, and, according to my wife, Practicing no-good money waster, but please, call me Theo. And you are?"
"Well, if you really must know, that's my problem. I don't know who I am."
"Oh, of course, of course! I heard from the conversation above that you're no drug addict or communist, so please, come this way." He began to walk away, talking as he walked, "Of course, I couldn't help you if you were a communist or a drug addict! What would the people think? Help someone like that, and sooner or later my whole business dries up! Yes, yes, can't be seen to be doing that…"
"Hey! Wait!" she said as he rapidly walked through another doorway. "How'd you know what I said?" she asked, as she followed him through the door.
He glanced up at her, and then gestured towards a strange contraption attached to one of the walls. "This is what is called an 'intercom'. It allows the user to broadcast his voice around a building, or to hear what is being said anywhere in the same building. However, mine is specially modified, with an 'invention' of mine I like to call the 'video camera'. It broadcasts an image down here to this screen…"he flipped a small switch recessed into the side, "and watch anything in the building you want to see!" he beamed up ate her, and she gave him a small smile, , but then she looked around the room, and her jaw dropped; the entire room shone with cleanliness. She looked around the room, and saw many strange objects she couldn't identify. Off in one corner was a large glass tube, Eight feet tall and 3 feet wide, with white bars encircling it. Elevated near the center of the room were several cars in various states of disassembly, but all much more angular looking than anything she had ever seen. And scattered around the room were metal tables, shined until she could see her reflection staring back from them. And then she turned around to see the most startling thing of all. Resting innocently on a desk was a sparkling, glowing image, with what looked like a black plastic typewriter resting in front of it. She took a step towards it, but stopped guiltily when Theo's voice rang out behind her. "I see you've found my computer!" she turned to see him looking at her intently. "Does it bring anything to mind? Any memories? Anything?"
"No, nothing"
"Hmmm" he said, "Well, that computer has an interesting story behind it. Maybe I'll tell you about it sometime. But first, come over here." He walked over next to the glass pillar in the corner. "This" he said, "Is a scanner, one of my own 'inventions'" he smiled faintly when he said inventions, but continued before she could say anything; "It scans your vital readings, and monitors your brain activity. So if you wouldn't mind…?"
"Mind what?"
"Well, you said you wanted to find out who you were, this might very well help. So please, step inside"
He opened a door in the glass, and held it open for a moment, so she felt obligated to step in, after which he closed the door, and all sound was cut off
"What exactly does this thing do?" she wondered out loud.
"Well, technically it's supposed to bombard your body with strong magnetic waves, and then watch the differences. But..." she cut him off
"How are you talking to me?"
He looked at her with surprise from the other end of the room in surprise "The intercom, dear, the intercom" He thought for a moment, then continued "But" he glared at her for a moment, to make sure she wasn't interrupting. She smiled back innocently. "I've found it more efficient to simply monitor the natural magnetism released by your body, stimulated by a natural magnetic field. Actually, that's why I built this here, because those magnetic fields open here quite frequently. And if you'll stand straight and hold quite still, dear, you can still talk" The white bars began to circle around her slowly.
"Well…" she glanced apprehensively at the bars circling around her.
"Don't worry, dear, they're quite harmless. Now, ask me anything."
"Well…" she began again, but then paused as she saw him looking intensely at the 'computer'. His expression told her that any question that wasn't related to what he was doing right now would probably go unanswered. Instead, she put her most important questions on a back burner so to speak, and asked about something he had mentioned, that she didn't quite understand. Oddly enough, she knew what a magnetic field was, but… "I suppose a good question would be why there are those 'natural magnetic fields' around here?"
"Excellent question," he said, somewhat distractedly, "Unfortunately, the answer is more difficult…" he walked over to a small box several feet from his 'computer' and pulled a switch, causing the bars to begin to accelerate their rotations. He continued; "to the best of my knowledge, they are cause by an extraordinary quantity of 'cosmic rays' bombarding the atmosphere high above here, going extremely fast, and carrying a huge amount of energy…I've had the pleasure of feeling a few hit me myself. They carry so much energy that they carry the equivalent force of a quarter traveling at roughly five miles per hour…all right, dear, very still during this stage, and please remember not to look up or down, watch me...this may be a bit bright" suddenly, it seemed like the entire tube was illuminated in violet light. "All right, I'm activating the lasers" Suddenly, the entire tube flashed with iridescent fire. Moments later, it stopped, and when her eyes cleared, the bars had stopped rotating, and Theo was opening the door, and helping her out. "Very good, very good," he muttered, as he helped her over to a chair near the computer, and then said "hopefully, this will tell me if your brain is normal, effected….or abnormal. Then, maybe we can see where your memories went." She grimaced for a moment. Something was bothering her, but she couldn't quite figure out what it was. She watched curiously as, on the computer screen, her skeleton, then her muscles, and then her skin all filled in on the screen. "Ok, now, we'll set the computer to scan from any irregularities!" Theo commented, tapping the keys with practiced effeciency. Suddenly, she realized what was bothering her.
"You act like you've done this before" she said quietly, and he glanced up at her with a bit of guilt in his eyes.
"Well…yes, I suppose I have. What of it?"
"What happened to the others?"
He looked at her for a moment, and then his face broke into a grin. "Oh, nothing bad, i assure you. Simply…I had to make sure they didn't tell the government about this place, you understand?"
She shook her head, not understanding.
"Well, if you must know, I had to erase their memories for the time they were in here, and a little bit before, to keep them from realizing what happened. But it wasn't harmful, you understand? A simple knockout drug released into the scanner, followed by focused radio waves on a small section of the brain. Nothing harmful at all."
"Well, then why haven't you done that to me?" she asked
"For one, because if you're telling the truth, you wouldn't have anything left then and…" he paused.
"And what?" she prompted.
He glanced up at her, his eyes filled with a deep meaning. "I think you may be the one I've been looking for."
For some reason, the first words that she managed to push through her lips were, "What? You mean a wife?"
He stared at her for a moment, and suddenly burst into riotous laughter that rang throughout the room.
"What? What!" she said indignantly
"A…ha, ha, W…Ha, ha…Wife?" he sprayed "You think I'm looking for a Wife?" this apparently caused him a great deal of hilarity, for at that point, he seemed to lose all control, and for the next few seconds practically curled over himself, guffawing like a maniac.
Finally, he stopped, gasping, and with tears running down his face. "Pah! As if one wife wasn't bad enough!" he snorted, "no, my dear, what might make things more clear is if you were to look at that case over there." he indicated towards a small glass case lying on top of the desk, inside of which hung a name card.
She stared at the picture on it, clearly of a younger Theo. Finally, she looked up at him. "What about it?" she asked.
Impatience suddenly seized him, and he lifted the case off of it, and snatched the card beneath it. "Isn't it obvious? See?' he pointed his finger to a series of strange symbols along the side of the picture. "See? United States Electro-Chronical Cranial Enhancement Unit, Branch Seven…" He trailed off. "You don't understand, do you? You don't understand!" he began stroking his chin, muttering.
"I do too understand!" she said indignantly, breaking his reverie "I understood every word you said!"
"But you didn't understand what was written!" He smiled triumphantly, as if this meant something.
"But what do you mean, written?"
"Err…" he tapped the desk while going cross-eyed. "Aha!" his eyes re-focused on her, to see her grinning "What? That's what I look like when I think!" He glared at her for a moment, then said "now, what was I saying…no….no…Aha!" he looked straight at her, and said "Wait here. I'll be right back." And with that he dashed over to one of the doors and practically dived down the staircase. Moments later he heard a series of crashes, followed by a litany of swearing, and moments later, Theo returned up the staircase, carrying a heavy box in his arms. "I've really got to clean that place out sometime" he muttered as he swept cobwebs from his hair. She simply stared. He glanced up at her, and said "ah, you may be wondering what I'm doing…" he set the box down roughly on one of the shining lab tables, and began to rummage through its contents "aha! Here it is!" he pulled out a sheath of papers held together by a thick covering "uhh…girl" he said slowly, "this is what we ordinary people like to call a 'book'. This one, in particular, is an English book, and it'll teach you everything from how to read to how to write a novel. I happened to write this particular one…my first book, actually. A masterful compilation, if I do say so myself." He smiled smugly. "now I doubt that you can learn anything important from it now, but…" he handed the book to her "try it anyway. If you need me, I'll be over by the computer" and then he walked over and sat down as the computer slowly analyzed her brain. He glanced over at her to see her flipping through the first several pages with her thumb a few times, and then the whole book. Hmmph he thought. Doesn't even know where to start. He glanced at the screen for a few seconds. Now this is interesting… . He started as the girl tapped him on the shoulder. "what now, girl?" he said impatiently
"I finished it, now what?"
"Oh? You might have looked through it once or twice, but you need to understand it. Go start at page one and work through it page by page, like a good girl?."
"No, I mean I finished it" she replied.
"I'm sorry, but that's impossible, girl. Please go back and start again!"
"I'm telling you, i finished it! I could quote it paragraph by paragraph for you!"
Theo turned to face her, raising an eyebrow.
"All right then" he said patiently, "what is on page 357, paragraph 2?"
"Why is the heroine's name Sophia? Why is she blind? Why is her dog a black Lab? The easy answer is that you're the God of your novel and that's the way you want things. But if you have a conscious reason for these elements, the story gains in interest because it carries more meaning: For example, "Sophia" means "wisdom" and the name can provide a cue to the reader." she recited dutifully.
Theo gaped at her.
"See, look!" she picked up the name card that was still laying on the desk.
"Theophilus Adelard, Ph. D, Head of the E-MIH Group, section seven"
She glanced up at Theo defiantly. He merely stuttered.
"b, b, b,…but that's impossible! Not even in our wildest dreams…" suddenly he was interrupted by a beeping emanating from the computer. He dashed over to it in relief.
"Look! See, nothing wrong! Nothing…changed?" his voice faded off into nothingness as he slowly turned around to look at her, a speculative look on his face. Behind his, a message slowly blinked on the screen, a message that she could now read.
Exponential intelligence growth detected. Brain enhancement level Theta Prime. Testing Level Achieved: SSS+. Recommendation: Further testing along these lines.
Theo stared at her, wordless, for a long time.
Chapter 2
"So, what exactly does that mean?" the girl asked between bites. After the computer had given its report, Theo had set it to do a more comprehensive scan, and then invited her to dinner with him and his wife, where she had served up the nicest casserole that she had ever tasted, a fact she mentioned to both of them.
The first casserole she had ever tasted, but she kept that to herself; she had noticed Theo smiling faintly when she had mentioned it.
Theo responded "Well, what it effectively means, it something stimulated your brain towards spontaneous growth, boosting your intelligence. What I couldn't understand at first was that the images I was seeing were slightly blurred… then I realized that your brain was actually changing In the time it took to complete the scan!" He seemed extremely enthusiastic at that fact.
"Why is it so important to you, anyway? I mean, you say you were part of a governmental research group, but you also say that you have to conceal your existence from the very government you used to work for. Wouldn't you want them to know about this?"
He looked at her thoughtfully "Well…yes and no, my dear, yes and no."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well…I suppose you might say, I want them to know about it, just not now. Not yet." He said now with a peculiar emphasis, and a strange look crept into his eyes. "Maybe in twenty or thirty years, they'll be ready." He concluded. Then he smiled innocuously, and the peculiar look disappeared so as to make her wonder if it had ever been there. Then, just as suddenly, he looked at her ponderously. "Actually…" the look appeared as he glanced at her again, "Well, I did say you're the one I've been looking for. Maybe it is almost time…" he trailed off again. He looked at her appraisingly. He seemed to like giving her those kind of looks, she thought absently.
"If it is time...well, i must say, they've chosen quite a looker this time. I feel quite fortunate!"
Again, he gave her his strange, appraising look, and she felt so discomforted that she blurted out, "Uh-They? Who are 'they'?"
Theo blinked. "Why, the powers that be, my dear. The fates! Clotho, Lachesis, Atropos! The personifications of the past, present, and future!"
He looked as if he was about to continue, but at that moment his wife came bustling in, carrying a round steaming object in her hands.
"Oh, hush, Theo! Don't overwhelm her with your silly Theo-logy!" she turned to the girl apologetically, "I'm sorry about that, dear. He does go off like that from time to time, but there's no need to worry! Most of what he spouts is nonsense." She smiled so warmly that the girl felt compelled to smile back.
"Now, how about a slice of Cherry Pie? It's fresh out of the oven, and i made some ice cream, special, just for you!"
The girl had no idea what Cherry Pie looked like, but somehow she knew what it was, or at least what it was supposed to be. The object in her hands seemed to match it to a tee.
"Why thank you, ma'am! I'd love some."
Theo's wife tut-tutted her, "Now, now, don't call me Ma'am, it makes me feel old! You can call me Libby, just like rest of the folk around here do."
The girl nodded gratefully, her mouth currently occupied by huge a bite of cherry pie. Finally, she managed to swallow the over sized bite.
"Mmm-ss'good!"
Libby smiled, patting the girl in a matronly fashion, "Nothing warms my heart more than a compliment from a young innocent soul like yourself. Thank you..." her eyes widened, and she put her hand over her mouth, "Oh deary me! I've completely forgotten to ask you for your name!" She drooped slightly, then perked up, "Well, better late than never! You dont mind, i hope?"
The girl shook her head, smiling sadly.
"I'd really love to tell you what my name is...but, to tell you the truth I don't know myself. I just woke up in the diner a few hours ago, and i can't remember anything that happened before that. The boy in the diner said that Theo might be able to help me, but...well, he found out some strange things, but no name. I'm still lost, and nameless." She looked down at her plate, feeling bad that she couldn't even give this wonderful woman her name. To her surprise, when Libby next spoke, her voice was outraged, but not at her;
"Theo, i'm appalled! This poor girl is without a name, and you don't even let her choose another name to go by until she remembers it? How could you?"
Theo sank down into his seat, mumbling, "She didn't seem to want to find it that badly..."
"She was just being polite! And here you are, with all that library full of names, and you dont even bother letting her look through it? Come along, lass, we'll find you a name, and maybe you'll remember your real name in the process!"
"NO!" They both twisted their necks to see Theo angrily mopping coffee off his shirt with a newspaper from where he had abruptly stood up at her mention of the library; his eyes were shooting daggers at her.
"Don't you remember! I told you never to tell anyone about that library! No-one!"
Libby rolled her eyes in dismissal, "This girl needs a name, and you have that strange old library, and you don't use it for anything else! I'm showing her! Come along, lass!" With that, she stormed out the side of the dining room, leaving Theo and the girl behind. She smiled apologetically, and followed Libby, leaving an irate and soaked Theo behind.
"Never...not in all my years..."
After a moment, he shook his head. It wouldn't make a difference anyway.
Two Hours Later
"So, you've decided, then? Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure, Ma'a- i mean, Libby. Thank you so much for letting me use this library!"
"It's my pleasure, child. Now, tell me what you've decided, i cant wait to hear!"
The girl had spent two hours leafing through the various books in the library, a very strange library, to be sure; It was little more than a single bookshelf, covered from top to bottom with books containing only names. Another oddity was the way in which the books were organized; they seemed to be organized by some sort of dating format, rather than any sort of alphabetical order that she might have identified from reading the writing book she had read. The most odd thing about them all was how each one caused a tiniest bit of recognition as she read through them, as if she had known someone named each name, once.
But, even though she had quickly scanned every book, and then read through each one individually, page by page, she had always returned to page one of the very first book. Somehow she couldn't get that name out of her head, and eventually she decided to claim it as her own.
"I want to be called...Asatea." Yes. The name rang right in her head, like she had found a resonance in herself.
"As...atea? Hmm." Libby looked at her with humor, "That's certainly an interesting name! Well, Asatea, Supper is at six, and i've made a bed for you upstairs. It's nice to meet you...again." She smiled, and with that, withdrew, leaving the girl-no, Asatea, behind, with a small smile on her lips.
Asatea. Yes, that was her name.
Clotho