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(These chapters just keep getting longer and longer!) And, of course, Missus Meyer owns nearly everything.
Chapter 2 – Memories.
Charlie checked on me a couple of times already. I pretend to feel a bit out of it, and still tired. It makes me feel slightly guilty; I can tell Charlie is a good man and he's worried.
"Father?", he jumps a bit. She didn't call him that; too bad, I'll call him father as often as I like, it's kind of nice to have a father. "I think it'll be nice to go back to school in a couple of days."
"Are you sure?"
"I don't like staying here, being idle. I know you're worried because I lost my memory, but couldn't you call the school and tell them?"
"No need, it's a small town, by now everybody knows.", he smirks. "We'll see."
"Okay.", I smile. "But, please don't forget to buy me a pair of sunglasses. I don't know why, but my eyes feel really sensitive to the light. I think that's what's giving me these headaches."
"Yeah. You sure you'll be alright, by yourself? I can go to work tomorrow and stay…", I interrupt him.
"It's okay. I'll just go through my stuff. Maybe it'll spark some memories. Just leave me your number by the phone, in case I need something, will you?", he smiles at my answer.
I'm relieved when he leaves. I can finally sink completely under the covers and sprawl on my back. Breathe in, breathe out; in, out; in, out. I go into myself, into was left of her.
I'm walking into the woods, there's a thick fog, pooling around my feet. There's no smell. Trees fallen over each other, some making passages in lost trills, like natural triangular doors, around me, in a circle. I go through one of them, and then another, and another.
There was an obsession with an amber eyed boy, and then rejection. Pain from being abandoned, and then the attack. I delve a bit deeper.
So many people she pushed aside for him. This girl was strange, I've dealt with humans before this, but she was just strange. No joy in living, in just being herself, struggling to hide. Hide what? Wanting to become immortal for his sake. I try to see more of her memories. She dealt a lot with those vampires, but they were gone. There were others, her friends from school, but nothing of importance. Among them there was a male teenager face, whose name I, too, couldn't pinpoint. The memory of his tanned face is important for me somehow, framed by a waterfall of thick luxurious hair. I can't tell why, though. I sigh, I can see nothing else. He was certainly irrelevant to her. Edward and the Cullens were, apparently the brightest sun and stars shining on her life.
It's not always possible to see all of the memories from our new vessel's former life. This is one of the cases.
I remain in relaxation for a bit longer and then curl into a fetal position. I eventually open my eyes and get up. I go into the bathroom and squeal, thank goodness for small things, there's a shower stall and a tub! I start running a bath. Next, I make the bed, open the window to let some fresh air in and then I turn to the closet. I rumble through some clothes and pick a few, plus underwear. I stretch my arms, pointing them to the ceiling. I let myself drop into the bed and strip, lying down, taking deep breaths.
I get up and go into the bathroom, leaving my stuff on the bed. Ooohhh, I moan as my body touches the hot water, that is so nice. I wash my long hair and my body, then soak till the water starts getting a bit cold. I leave the tub and dry my body and my hair. I look at myself in the full length mirror in the bathroom, naked. I'm really pale, and I have long brown hair. My eyes look lifeless, but sparkle when I genuinely smile at myself. In my other humanoid form I had short hair, it suited me. This? It's going to be fun to try new hairdos. I'll cut the hair short later.
I didn't expect to retain my eye coloring, though. The eyes are the mirror to the soul… The sunglasses will help me pull this off though. I always was a bit too expressive and… well. My eyes are still adjusting to the light too. I think I'll be fine as long as I'm inside, but during the day, even inside, they prickle a bit. Something that happens in these cases. I know it will go away, with time. The same happened to Lana.
Dressed, I roam through her things. She was organized. Homework was already done and ready to turn in; one of the deadlines is set for next week, good. I find the essay. Then I go through every school book she has and put them on the side, I'll read them when Charlie brings me my sunglasses. I always was a fast reader, I love to read and write.
Maybe I could become a writer in this world. I keep that in mind for later.
I go downstairs and make some lunch for me and dad. There aren't a lot of ingredients in the kitchen so I can only settle for a pizza. I make some batter for a base; half cook it and then fill it with cheese, ham and mushrooms before I put it in the oven again. In the mean time I make a shopping list, I hope Charlie will find a bit of time to drive me to the grocery store or something. As soon as it's finished, and I'm setting the table, Charlie arrives.
"Humm, smells good."
"I hope you like it." I sweat for a bit. Luckily I already knew a few things about human cooking, I had friends who were crazy about Earth culture and I ended up learning more about it than I wanted. My friends… I wonder if Lana is still living around here? I know she took residence in a town that I think is nearby. I'll try to contact here as soon as I'm settled. I really need a map.
I'm a bit hungry and I attack the pizza with gusto. Charlie looks at me and smiles broadly.
"It's nice to see you have an appetite, Bella."
"Isabella, please."
"Okay…"
"Why do you call me Bella?", I give another bite on the slice I'm holding.
"You always did prefer it.", I chew for a bit and swallow.
"Well, right now I'd rather be called Isabella. It's a beautiful name.", I drink a bit of water and we keep eating in companionable silence. We have fruit for dessert. When we finish, I get up, taking the dishes with me and start on them.
"Father?"
"Hmm?"
"I want to go out. Humm… I mean, could you possibly take me with you? I would love to get to know the place where I live. When you get my glasses, that is.", he goes for his coat and takes the sunglasses out.
"Sorry, almost forgot to give them to you. Here you go."
"These are nice.", they won't look too big on my face and they are very dark. No one will be able to see my eyes through them, much less the color. I put them on. "Thank you, these are wonderful. How do I look?"
"Strange, I'm not used to watch you with something like that.", I laugh.
"I can imagine what the teachers will think about it. Maybe I should speak with each of them in the beginning of each class, I don't want to make them mad."
"You do that."
On the way back home I managed to convince my father to get some groceries after his rounds. It wasn't too hard considering there was nothing edible left in the kitchen. He was a bit surprised at the amount of stuff I collected but, hey, I didn't go beyond the budget, and it would last us for a while. Of course, fresh stuff would need to be bought every once in a while, but he's okay with that.
When we get home I put some of the groceries in the living room, choose a few and start dinner, nothing too complicated, and store them properly after we're done eating. I watch a bit of TV with my dad and then a movie after we get bored with the news. It was Phantom of the Opera, relatively new with some nice songs. I commit them to memory and when the movie's over I get up.
"Dad, I think I'm going upstairs, okay? See you tomorrow."
"Sure.", I know he's still worried. "Good night."
The sunglasses sure work. I don't have headaches ever since lunch time. I turn on a device connected to a screen in my room. I wait a bit and the screen is now filled with a landscape and some little pictures, and I notice a little white arrow in the middle. Okay… there's a board full of keys, which I suppose is used to enter commands and then a little device with buttons. I move it a bit and look at the screen. Ah, it's a pointing device. I grasp it lightly and softly move it around, placing it over one of the little pictures, but nothing happens.
I wish I had been able to see Bella's memories on this. It would make everything much more simple. Well, I sigh, at least I can read and understand her language; it could be worse.
I click on the left button of the pointing device. Ah, the little picture with an "e" is highlighted now. I click again. Nothing, I click again and again in rapid succession.
Something shows up on the screen. "Blackle", in big letters. I look at it curiously. There is a little stick blinking on the screen and a little rectangle under it, saying "search". I squeal. I type "food" and then I click "search".
It takes a bit to get accustomed to the keyboard and the search thing, clicking here and there, trial and error, you know, but I get the hang of it. After that I stay using the device for a bit. It's a wonderful source of information. The supermarket already gave me a few ideas on the vocabulary for food, everything was labeled, apart from what I had already learned from my friends – bless Lana for that, I'd never guess I'd need it.
I hear a knock on the door; it's Charlie.
"I thought you were already sleeping.", he enters the room and looks at screen. "Don't worry so much about lunch for tomorrow.", there was a recipe on it.
"It's okay, I'm just looking for simple things, and I couldn't sleep."
"You remembered how to work with the computer and surfing on the internet. That's good, maybe you'll remember some more soon." He kisses my forehead, and heads toward the door. "'Night, Bells."
I smile ruefully. Stupid pet names…
I go back to the search page and type "internet". Oh, okay, I get it. Goddess, and here I thought Lana was obsessed. There is an infinity of things I don't understand, but… I start searching for maps and try to make sense of the area. Forks, Beaver, La Push, Port Angeles, Neah Bay. Those names do ring a bell, I've been there before, and I know Lana lives there. Lana Brown. Same thing happened to her…
Out of body experiences can be exhilarating when you do it on your own sweet time, or scary and unsettling if you do it out of necessity. I really liked my old body. Too bad they damaged it beyond what I could repair. Like I said, the same thing happened to Lana. Fortunately we can adapt the new bodies to our needs up to a certain point. A lot of our gifts are spiritual, bound to our souls. And the things that aren't can be built.
Lana had visited Earth several times already, and was lucky to find good people; people who didn't turn her in to the authorities. Earthlings tend to believe they are the only humanoid life form in the universe and it better stay that way for a long time. Once I found her, she was already attached to a new body and to this place. She joined her efforts with another human, and is running a little pub with him. He was getting old and had no family, so it was perfect.
I search for the pub's name on the internet and find a phone number. I write it down and head towards dad's room. I listen for a moment and I can hear Charlie snoring loudly. I smile and then go down the stairs, into the kitchen. I take the phone and dial the number. I know it's late, but it's a pub… finally somebody picks it up. I recognize Lana's voice.
"Lana?", she answers yes, and I slip into our people's language. "Long life to you and your loved ones." I hear silence for a full minute. She answers me in the mother tongue.
"And to you as well. May the Goddess be with you, always."
"Lana, it's me. Arwen. I'm like you now.", she gasps.
"Just where are you?"
"In Forks.", I give her my address.
"I'll visit you tomorrow morning.", maybe she shouldn't. How will I explain to Charlie?
"Don't come here, please. I'll explain later. I'll meet you in La Push, First Beach, at ten o'clock."
"See you there.", I put the phone in the holder and head towards the front door. I look out the window, into the woods and gasp. There is a pair of huge eyes looking at me in the distance. I blink and they're gone. How odd.
I head towards my bedroom and try to get some sleep.
Morning comes and I feel so excited. I have to find a way to get out of this place and go to La Push. As Charlie drove me around, I managed to see what road headed where and most importantly… how to drive. I had learned a few basics with Lana, but I wasn't really interested at the time. If I had just pulled my head out of my ass… I might have learned something. Good thing I'm a quick study.
Harry comes early into the house to check on me and my dad. He's all geared up to go fishing with Billy Black. Humm...
"Hey, dad, why don't you go fishing with Harry? It's your day off."
"Bells…"
"I'm feeling much better. I'll be fine. I'll stay out of trouble, I promise!", I plead with him repeatedly, adding a few more arguments here and there and, at last, he says, after staring at me a bit,
"Fine. Behave."
I try not to look too happy. I'm going to see Lana. As soon as they're out of the house I run upstairs and change my clothes. I write a note to Charlie and then get in my red truck. I have a couple of problems controlling the car but I deal with it. Off I go to see Lana.
Later, I arrive in La Push. I park the car and head towards the beach. It's so quiet now, and it's a sunny day.