Early Morning, Penny and Sheldon are bundled up in their robes at opposite ends of the sofa, clutching packs of homemade flashcards
Sheldon holds up a card showing the Chemical symbol 'He'
Penny : "Helium."
Sheldon nods " Yes."
Penny grins, making a fist " Yes!" then she holds up a card and shows Sheldon.
Sheldon looks at it for a moment, tilting his head. "Taylor Swift"
" Yes!"
Sheldon holds up a card with a mathematical symbol on it.
"that's Pi".
"Yes"
Penny holds up a card that seems to stump Sheldon for a moment
"A Kardashian?" he hazards
" can you be more specific.?"
Sheldon furrows his brow, then tentatively offers "Khloe?"
Penny nods "Yes!"
Sheldon grins happily" See, I remembered because if it looks like Kim it's Kim, if it looks kind of like Kim it's Kourtney, and if it looks nothing like Kim it's Khloe."
he holds up a card showing two intersecting circles
"Oh, that's a Venn Diagram, and I remember because I thought to myself, 'venn is he gonna stop talking about this diagram'?"
Leonard walks over from the kitchen area with his morning coffee "What are you guys doing?"
Sheldon turns and smiles " Oh, well, we decided to use our breakfast time to expand our respective knowledge bases. "
"Ok, let's try another" She holds up a card
"Beyonce?"
"very good! "
later, in Penny's apartment, she asks "How about dancing?"
Sheldon stands and cocks his head to one side. He holds out his hands, motioning Penny to stand up.
"You showered this morning, didn't you?"
She stands nods so and he tentatively puts on hand on her waist, the other taking her hand and with a look of intense concentration on his face spins her round the room in a clumsy but quite passable waltz
"Sheldon, I never knew you could dance like that"
He looks down and shuffles his feet, stepping forward and back and counting time under his breathe
"Interesting. There appears to be a conflict between my memory and motor skills. While my recall is clear the muscle memory fades. It's like when thinking about breathing makes you end up manually breathing."
he looks up and remembers her question
"I had lessons as a boy, against my will of course. In the South, pre-adolescent children are forced through a process called cotillion, which indoctrinates them with all the social graces and dance skills needed to function in 18th century Vienna. I found it a colossal waste of my time and told the teacher so, repeatedly. But as a consequence I am Proficient in the rumba, waltz and cha-cha-cha. "
"and you can STILL dance like that? It must be years! "
"Oh, i never forget anything."
"You what? Never? Never Anything?" She stares at him incredulously
He shook his head. "Never. My recall is total. "
"you keep saying that but is it really real? you've got an actual photographic memory?"
"the term photographic is a misnomer. the technical term for what I have is an Eidetic memory. "
She looks puzzled. "there's a difference?"
"Indeed. while a photographic memory allows you to recall information about a moment with perfect clarity, as if viewing an image, an eidetic has total recall of a moment by reliving it as if there were there."He struggles for an analogy, looking round the room. "Imaging the difference between flicking back in a photo album versus rewinding a video to play a scene again"
" So it's always the same when you remember?"
He nods, suddenly subdued
She turned this over in her head then slowly shuddered in horror as she realised "So every time you make a mistake? " She hugs him close as he shudders
he lowers his head onto her shoulder, his voice low .
"Every mistake. Every insult. Every injury. Every regret. They stay with me as fresh as when they happen. They come back at every reminder. And they will never go away."
"Oh My god Sheldon, I'm so sorry. No wonder you're so..." she wanted to say fucked up but bit her tongue. "careful."
He shrugs "If I could forget I wouldn't be me. and I wouldn't be able to think the way I do."
