Chapter 24: Progress

"Really? All I want to know is where you think it might have come from. Is that so damn hard?" Luke hated cursing out other jewelers but, he had just spent the last two weeks trying to hunt down the designer of Charley's unique ring.

"Okay. You should know by now that we don't normally give out that kind of information" the Martian female mouse said over the speaker.

"I know that but, this is an emergency situation. I have a customer whose daughter went missing for four years and when she got back, she had no memory of any of it and a Martian ring on her finger" Luke was beyond aggravated at the fact that Martian jewelers were never keen on divulging anyone's information. They were very secretive like that and it drove him crazy.

"I understand your frustration but, you should know that we don't talk to outsiders about others" she sighed as she got ready to hang to the phone up but, quickly had a change of heart.

"You didn't hear this from me but, I did hear a rumor about a unique ring that was made by Evermore and supposedly his number is..." she said and then hung up the phone immediately after divulging the number of the jeweler.

"Thank the Gods. That's progress" he mumbled to himself as he picked up the phone and dial the new number that was given to him. He just prayed that this would be the last person he had to call because, he was rapidly running out of jewelers who would talk to him.

"Evermore" came the sound of a gruff sounding mouse who might have smoked one to many packs of cigarettes.

"Yes. My name is Luke and I work at Fiery Phoenix jewelers" Luke stated as calmly as he could, hoping not to agitate anyone else.

"What do you want?" the mouse inquired, not really in the mood to discuss anything with anyone. At least, not since the Plutarkians took over the city.

"I was hoping you might be able to help me with a ring that was brought into me by a customer" he said.

"Why should I help you?" he asked.

"Because, this ring was custom designed for a young human female with her name engraved on the inside band" Luke was trying to maintain control of his temper.

"What's the name?" he asked.

"Charlene Davidson" Luke said.

"Yes, that's my work. What do you need to know?" he asked.

"Everything that you can possibly tell me about it and who the buyer was" Luke sighed with relief at finally lucking up and getting the right designer.

"Why do you need to know who the buyer was?" he questioned, not wanting to divulge personal information about his clients.

"Because, she's here in Gaia with no memories from the last four years" Luke said coolly, hoping not to discuss to much about his clientele.

"The buyer was none other than his royal highness, Prince Throttle. He also had me repair a chain on a necklace that was from Gaia. He said it belonged to her" he stated.

"Anything else?" Luke asked, writing everything down so he could inform Hunter of his findings.

"He also said stated that he was madly in love with her and was going to propose to her on Christmas" he said.

"Thank you. You've been very helpful" Luke said and quickly hung the phone up.

"Thank the Gods that that's finally over with. Next" he grumbled to himself as he picked up the phone and dialed the garage number.

P.O.V.

"Garage, this is Charley speaking" she said as she wiped off a wrench.

"Hey Charley. It's Luke. Is the old man around?" he said, finally glad to be hearing her voice.

"Yes he is. Papa. It's Luke" she said as she handed the phone over to her father.

"Thanks. See if you get that oil change done for me" Hunter said as he took the phone from her.

"Not a problem" she cheerfully said as she aired on the side of caution while walking around the garage.

There were plenty of occasions that she saw glimpses of shadows or heard voices coming from an unknown source, so she played it safe and always double checked herself along with her surroundings. They asked the doctor what could be wrong and he wasn't able to answer them, which left Charley with more questions along with fear.

"Okay. So that's a start. Maybe I need to go to the city and get some answers. I can't. Why the hell not? Oh! Great. Okay. Thanks for the info. Talk to you later" Charley heard her father say as he hung up the phone.

"What's going on?" Charley asked as she took the filter off and allowed the oil to drain into a pan.

"Not much. Got some information on that ring that you still wear" Hunter stated as he pointed to her left hand where the ring sparkled through the oil, grease, and dirt. He knew she wore it in order to possibly help her remember what happened.

"Papa" Charley shook her head and laughed as she put a new filter on and put the oil pan plug back on.

"Well, he gave us something to work with. He said it was a custom order ring from a very wealthy individual in Mars by the name of Throttle" Hunter was hoping that she might remember something off of that. He watched as she looked over at the car that she was working on and she appeared to be thinking. He didn't want to push her too much but, this memory loss was driving everyone crazy, including herself.

"Throttle?" she tested the name on her tongue and somehow it felt right when she spoke it.

"Yes" he said. He prayed that something would help.

"I dreamed about a prince last night but, I don't know if it would be the same person. I'm sorry" a big tear trickled down her cheek as she looked up at her father.

"It's okay. It's actually Prince Throttle who bought the ring for you" he said.

"A prince!" Charley didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the fact that a prince bought her a ring.

"He asked you to marry him on Christmas" he knew by her expression that she didn't know what to think.

"A prince asked me to marry him? Give me a break. No way would some prince ask me to marry him" Charley blew it off and thought her father was picking on her. Opting to work instead of thinking about it, she went back to putting oil into the car and then checked to make sure there was enough.

"Okay" Hunter was at the end of his rope as he watched Charley go back to work. Nothing that he said or did helped with her memories. He knew about the shadows she was seeing and the voices that were only in her head. Of course, the last thing she wanted to believe was that a Prince wanted to marry her.

"Last Chance" Hunter said as he answered the phone.

"Yup. I'll have somebody over there right away to tow your bike back to the shop. Okay. Yeah. I know exactly where you are. Sit tight and one of us will be over there in about fifteen minutes" Hunter stated and then hung up the phone.

"Charley, you up for giving a guy and his bike a lift" he inquired as she finished up and closed the hood.

"Sure, just tell me where and I'll take care of it" she happily said as she gave her father a thumbs up. She couldn't wait to drive the tow truck and be able to tow a bike back to the shop to work on.

Hunter jotted down the biker's location, handed Charley his pistol, and tossed her the tow truck keys. He watched as she hopped into the black Ford F550 king cab that had a flatbed trailer attached to it. He worried that he might not see her again but, he knew that she was also a smart and very capable young woman who knew how to handle pretty much any situation.

Charley watched as her father closed the garage doors up for the evening and started turning on the outside shop lights so she could see what she was doing when she got back. She couldn't believe it, she was finally going out on a service call f or the first time since she got back. She couldn't wait to help somebody and fix a bike.

I'm sorry it took me so long to get this chapter up. I hope everyone enjoyed it. If anyone has any questions, comments, concerns, or things that they would like to see featured in the upcoming chapters, please feel free to let me know. Many CYBER HUGS.