And we're back with the one chapter a day schedule. Hopefully. It's been getting kind of hard to crank out chapters lately—and I fully blame video games. Oh, and summer work for my AP classes. That too.
Also, I apologize again for the shortness of Alex's chapters.
"Oh, so the mockingbird is a symbol for Tom and the crazy dude in the house?" Bobby asked me.
I nodded and pointed at a passage in the book. "See? Scout mentions it right here, and then towards the end it is verbally said."
Bobby put his pencil down and massaged his temples. "This is confusing."
I shrugged. "Considering that I just finished reading it twenty minutes ago, I'd say you probably have a better understanding of it than I do. I skipped freshman year, remember?"
He threw his pencil at me, but I threw my eraser, which intercepted the miniature missile in mid-air. I grinned at him, and my little brother rolled his eyes.
"Stupid powers of accuracy," he muttered.
"Hey!" I said, frowning. "You're really grumpy lately. What's going on?"
Bobby scowled. "Nothing."
I cocked an eyebrow at him. "You're a bad liar."
He sighed. "My dagger is broken."
"Bobby!" I exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell me? You know how dangerous it is for a demigod to be unarmed!"
He crossed his arms. "It's kind of embarrassing. I broke it trying to kill a draconae, but it broke against a rock."
"Ah," I said. "Well, that's not too bad."
I was about to suggest getting him a new dagger when an idea suddenly occurred to me. Daggers were good for close encounters, but not for long engagements. And I wanted my little brother to be safe.
"Tell you what," I said, smiling. "I'll talk to Chiron about getting you a sword. And I know Liam is an excellent teacher."
Bobby's eyes lit up. "Really?"
"Really."
I snapped out of the memory with a start. That memory was definitely more recent: just a few months before I died. Like usual, my head ached something fierce when I snapped out of the memory.
"Are you all right?" Jake asked me, looking concerned.
"I'm fine," I grunted, sitting on a boulder. "Just a little dazed."
Jake and I had sort of developed a routine: I would brainstorm ways to try and break out of the Fields of Asphodel, and he would usually shoot them down. After a while, my memory would start to feel fuzzy, so Jake would help me out by replaying a memory for me, which helped me remember things. Then we would start over. I'd like to say we made a lot of progress because we didn't have to worry about frivolous things like food or sleep, but that just wasn't true. It turns out when you have too much time on your hands, you can only come up with so many ideas.
I watched a spirit trip over the roots of a poplar tree and fall flat on their face. They stood up quickly, looking confused. It was a common expression on most spirits here; none of them could remember who they were, and they were always trying to remember. It was really sad, actually.
I straightened as my brain finally seemed to work.
"Jake," I said carefully. "Why can you remember who you are?"
He seemed to think about that for a moment. "I'm not sure. If I had to guess, I would say helping you remember who you are is helping me remember who I am."
I frowned. I wasn't sure how that made sense, but Jake had been stuck here longer than I had been, so I was sure he knew more about this place than I did. But I was also sure I had to try something else.
"Can you show me one of your memories?" I asked him.
Jake seemed confused by my request. "Um…why?"
"I'm curious about something," I told him. In truth, my memory was still a little fuzzy, but my head was hurting too much to explore more of my memories. I needed a break, but I also needed to remember.
"All right," Jake said, twisting his face into a thinking expression. I had seen Liam do the same thing multiple times before. I tried to think of something else.
"I've got one," Jake said, interrupting my private thoughts. "Here."
Gingerly, I took Jake's hand, and I was sucked into another memory.
Instantly, I was standing in a small living room, with a glass coffee table and a carpet the color of eggshells. Several pictures hung on the wall, mostly of a family of three. I focused on one taken in front of a beach and recognized Liam's mother, though she looked a lot younger in these photos and was holding a couple of beach towels. Jake stood next to her, and though he wasn't smiling, he did seem to be enjoying himself. The little girl in a bathing suit and goggles next to him had to be Jasmine, smiling wildly. She had to have been four-years old. That means that the eight-year-old boy next to her had to be Liam.
I almost laughed. Liam's hair was sticking straight up in this photo, looking like a bird had taken up residence in it. He was wearing bright orange swim trunks, but they looked almost white compared to the terrible sunburn that Liam had. He looked like a lobster! Despite that, eight-year-old Liam was smiling the widest out of all of them.
"Are you sure this is a good idea?" a voice asked, drawing my attention back to the present. I mean, the past. Gods, this was confusing.
I looked to the couch and found Jake sitting there, though he didn't seem to know that I was present. It was strange to see him wearing clothes other than the gray robes that I knew him in. He was wearing a gray shirt and blue athletic shorts. He seemed to be the same age, roughly thirteen.
He was sitting next to another boy of about the same age. The stranger was wearing a white t-shirt with the words "I SURVIVED NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE" on them and blue jeans. He had black hair shaved close to his scalp and had russet skin the color of chocolate.
"It'll be fine," the boy told Jake. "We just sneak in, grab the drachmas, and get out before the draconae realizes what happened."
Jake looked unsure. "I don't know, Alfie. It sounds easier said than done."
I felt a chill. I was watching a memory of Jake and Alfie plotting the scheme that got them killed. They would steal from the draconae and run away, but it would follow Jake home and kill him.
"No, you can't!" I said before I could stop myself. Jake and Alfie didn't even blink, much less acknowledge me.
Idiot, I thought. You're in a memory. They can't hear you!
"Fine," Alfie said, crossing his arms. "I can do it by myself."
"Don't be like that, Alfie."
"I'll do whatever—"
"Jake!" a significantly younger voice called from another room. I craned my neck to see who it was, but I didn't have to.
In a moment, a younger version of Liam came around the corner, holding a math textbook in one hand and a juicebox in the other. By some miracle, I resisted the urge to snicker. Liam was wearing Pokemon pajamas with Pikachu on them (I was sort of horrified that I knew that, but these were the side effects of dating a massive geek). This must have been before his eyesight worsened, because he wasn't wearing any glasses.
"Jake," Liam said again. "Can you help me with my math homework?"
Jake had looked annoyed by the interruption, but when Liam spoke, his big brother's eyes softened.
"Sure," Jake said, smiling at Liam. "Can you give me a minute though, bud? Alfie and I are almost finished."
"Yeah," Liam sighed. He turned around and trudged into whatever room was beyond; I couldn't see.
Jake turned back to Alfie, looking troubled.
"He looks too much like his father," Alfie commented, his arms still crossed. I guessed that he was not a big fan of Zeus.
"He's my brother," Jake said sternly. He looked back at the room that Liam had vanished into and sighed. "All right, Alfie. I'm in. This will help him too."
Whoosh!
I was swept from the memory with no warning, and I landed hard on the ground, releasing Jake's hand.
"Feeling any clearer?" Jake asked me.
"Yeah," I lied. My head was aching even worse than before, and I still felt a little fuzzy. My best guess was that sharing memories like this slowed down the memory loss, but didn't stop it.
"I've got to get out of here," I muttered.
Like I said—Alex's previous chapter used to be part of this one, but I had to split them up, so if this seems a little redunant, that's why.
Hey! I've got more than one hundred views! It was a bit of a struggle watching those views climb up, but I will take whatever I can get.
What do you call a bear with no teeth?
A gummy bear.
