Chapter Four: No Memory
"What do you mean 'you don't remember'?" Gru asked. "You mean like "I don't remember everything, but I have a hazy memory'?"
"I mean exactly what I said, Gru," Nefario replied. "I don't remember anything. Not how I got frozen, not where I was when it happened, not what I was doing- not even what I was thinking about. I don't remember any of it."
Stunned, Gru said nothing. Neither did anyone else. After a moment Gru broke the silence to ask: 'Does the following address mean anything to you: 505 Peak Ave?"
Nefario shook his head. "No, it doesn't."
"It was attached to the block when it showed up at our doorstep," Lucy chimed in. "We never saw who left you here."
"The AVL couldn't trace it," Gru added.
"Least Uncle Dru found a way to get you out," Agnes said happily.
"Who?" Nefario asked.
"Uncle Dru," Margo said. "He's Gru's brother."
"Sounds like I missed a lot," Nefario said.
"You could say that," Gru said. "I lost my job, then the Minions left, then I found out I had a twin brother, then I nailed Balthazar Bratt, then I got my job back, then Bratt died in custody, then my brother ran off with most of the Minions…" Gru paused to take a deep breath.
"So yeah, a lot," Nefario finished for him. "Now, why don't you take your time and fill me in again, but this time, take your time. And try to speak up, because something tells me the part about Dru dancing with onions isn't what you actually said."
The family spent the next hour or so catching Dr. Nefario up to speed on everything that had happened in the past few months, answering questions and clarifying various points. When they had finished, Nefario decided to take a nap.
For the girls, it had been a lot to take in. Agnes was, predictably, the most hyper. Margo handled most all her questions after a certain point. Edith was glad of this because as glad as she was to see her little sister happy, she wanted time to think.
"I don't remember anything," Nefario had said. For all her excitement at the doctor's unfreezing, those words lingered in her mind. And as she swung her legs over the side of the back-porch railing, she blew out a sigh.
Edith knew what it was not to remember something important. After all, she had no memories of where she had come from. Unlike Margo or Agnes, Edith had come to the orphanage as an infant. Mrs. Hattie had been unable to provide any information on her mother, who had died days after arriving at the doorstep with no identification. As for her father, she had no memory of him at all- and despite their best efforts, Gru and Lucy had never found a trace of him. Whether he was even still alive was a mystery she would likely never solve.
Okay, so maybe not the same thing as forgetting what you did on vacation. Edith took a sip from the juice box she held in her hand. Still…
Edith drained the juice box quickly, then hurried back inside. Triggering the entrance to the lab, she headed down into it. Approaching her old work corner, she clawed the dust and the cobwebs away. Then she began sorting through the vials.
"Been a while, hasn't it?"
Edith turned to see Dr. Nefario observing her carefully.
"Oh, Dr. Nefario," Edith said. "I figured I'd make something to restore your memory."
Nefario smiled, even as he shook his head. "I appreciate the thought, Edith, but you aren't nearly skilled enough for that."
Edith gave an exasperated sigh, but she knew the doctor was right. She slumped in her seat.
"Hey, cheer up," Nefario said. "I might be able to come up with something. Give me a few days to experiment. If it works, I could teach you how it's done." He paused, then added: "Speaking of which, there was something I was going to show you. Come here."
Edith hopped out of her chair and followed the doctor to a large table covered in tools and machinery. She arrived right as he was reaching his hands out to grab...
"What is it?" Edith asked. The doctor had stopped in mid-reach.
"I don't remember," Nefario said. "Dash it all, I don't remember how to do it!"
Edith felt a chill run up her spine as Dr. Nefario began frantically muttering to himself. He snatched first one tool, and then another. Each and every time, he held it in front of his eyes for several moments, staring, before tossing it back onto the table.
"Gone…" he muttered. Edith watched as he hurried to his bookshelf and pulled a volume. He flipped it open and began scanning pages rapidly.
"Dr. Nefario?" Edith said. "What's gone?"
The book slid from Nefario's fingers onto the lab floor. He turned, and in a voice uncharacteristically suffused with emotion, he replied: "Everything."
"Every what?"
"Everything I knew. All my technical knowledge. All my skills. All the theories, the results- all of it. It's all gone." Nefario walked slowly over to a chair, which he collapsed into.
Edith could scarcely believe what she was hearing. "You mean you can't invent anything?"
"I don't know how," Nefario said. "I know what I could do. What I have done. But how I did it, how to do it again- I don't remember any of it. A lifetime's worth of learning- gone."
Edith's jaw dropped.
I take it back she thought. It isn't so different. He might as well have forgotten where he came from.
She scanned the room frantically, looking for something, anything, that could solve the doctor's problem. Even before she began, Edith knew it was pointless. She didn't know the first thing about how to fix this.
But maybe Gru and Lucy did.
"Wait here, Dr. Nefario," Edith said, holding up her hands. "I'll be right back."