Charming Memory

by E L Bossert

  “If you can find the scrap lumber and a sturdy tree, have at.” Jamie imagined Boo’s strong arms lifting loads of lumber and hammering them into form.

  Jamie felt better having told Boo more while still not totally coming out about her work. She realized there was risk in leaving Boo alone in her house. Boo could innocently surf channels on TV and come across one of Jamie’s movies, hear Jamie’s voice on a commercial, or a picture might appear on the internet while Boo was online. This risk seemed minimal, however, since Boo had shown little interest in watching TV outside of a couple of sports and nature channels, and she spent little time online except to check out information related to new memories.

  If Boo did find out, then they would have a long talk about Jamie’s reasons for not telling her before. It would be a test of their relationship, whatever that meant. Or the end of any future relationship they might have. Jamie would take the chance.

  By mid-afternoon, Jamie and Max had left the house and it was quiet except for Fred’s constant company. Fred kept a close eye on Boo, as if she were personally in charge of protecting Boo as part of the family. Boo felt confident that, if something happened to her, Fred would run all the way to town to retrieve Chief or Shon. At least that was the comforting fantasy.

  Boo, able to concentrate for longer periods of time now, spent part of the evening reading the book from the end table she had seen Jamie reading. She was curious about what Jamie was interested in. At dusk she walked outside to the patio to breathe in the warm, dry summer air.

  Boo closed her eyes and pictured Jamie swimming with unselfconscious grace in the pool. She remembered the way Jamie moved through the pool with power and ease. She imagined Jamie’s toned body, gliding through the water with each stroke. Boo felt an urge to run her hands over Jamie’s body, to feel her curves instead of just staring at them from afar.

  Fred’s bark brought Boo back to the present. She shook her head to push the thoughts of Jamie’s body out of her mind. She was a short-term guest in Jamie’s life, although she wondered if there could be more and if her feelings toward Jamie were reciprocated. Until she discovered her identity, and found out if she was still married, Boo was stuck. Keeping her attraction to Jamie under control was imperative.

  Boo dozed on the patio for a few minutes before returning to the house, locking the doors, and crawling into her bed.

  IN NEW YORK CITY ON a warm early June evening, Jamie met her best friend for dinner. She enjoyed the hustle of the city as a change of pace. It reminded her that life moved faster other places, and also why she left the city for someplace quieter.

  “So, tell me more about this new person in your life?” Gabriela did not hold back when talking to Jamie. That was why they became friends in college and had remained close over the ensuing years.

  Gabriela had heard the basic story—Boo saved Max, lost her memory in the process, and had no idea who Jamie was. Gabriela listened between the lines to the emotions in Jamie’s voice as she talked about Boo. It was hard to keep secrets from an old friend, even when Jamie wasn’t ready to admit things to herself.

  “She’s...a wonderful mystery,” Jamie settled back in her chair, “a gift I don’t yet know if I get to unwrap and keep. I almost kissed her the other night—“

  ”Almost? What stopped you?” Gabriela was surprised and intrigued.

  “She pulled away and went off to bed. Alone. Probably for the best...I just feel...so drawn to her. She treats me like...a real person, a friend, a confidant. It’s not a relationship tied to anything else. I loved Jenn, but this is different. It’s a clean slate, for now. Someday I’ll have to tell her or she’ll finds out about my work.”

  “Sweetie, it’s not like you’re a porn star. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.” Gabriela laughed out loud at Jamie’s lack of perspective. “You act. It’s your job. We all work. Maybe you need some grounding. And maybe, just maybe, you need to trust that someone loves you for you.”

  “Who said anything about love?”

  “You don’t have to, querida, I can hear it when you talk about this Boo Charming.”

  The rest of the evening was spent as long-time best friends do, reminiscing, catching up, and sharing their feelings unguarded. This was the grounding Jamie needed right now.

  Chapter Ten

  SARAH SLAMMED OPEN the front door and burst into Jamie’s house just after midnight.

  Startled awake from a sound sleep, Boo heard Sarah yelling as she raged through the house.

  “Where is she? What have you done with her?”

  Fred barked as the ceiling light in the bedroom switched on, temporarily blinding Boo.

  “Where is she?” Sarah repeated. “I know you know where she is.”

  Boo gathered her thoughts as quickly as she could. “Jamie is in New York. I thought you knew.”

  “Not Jamie, you fuckin’ creep. Gee! Where’s Gee? And her friends?”

  “Gee?” Boo’s confusion slowed her thought process. “I have no clue—isn’t she at home, with you?”

  “Jamie’s gone, you’re here alone. I told Jamie you were trouble. Chief’s on her way. Tell me where you took Gee? Now! Before I fuckin’ kill you.”

  Sarah moved toward Boo, but Fred intervened, positioning her large body in front of Sarah just enough to slow her down. Boo scrambled out of the far side of the bed.

  “What are you talking about? I haven’t seen Gee. I was asleep. I wouldn’t hurt—”

  Boo’s protest of innocence was interrupted by Chief running through the bedroom door. Chief grabbed the panicked, possibly homicidal mother from behind.

  “Whoa, stop it, Sarah. Boo doesn’t know where Gee is.” Chief trusted her instincts, and Jamie’s, believing Boo would harm no one. “I talked to Bryan on my way here. I have a couple of officers right behind me. We’ll organize a search and find Gee and her friends.” Chief loosened her grip on Sarah only slightly.

  The adrenaline coursing through Boo’s body brought clarity to her mind—Gee was missing and Sarah thought she had kidnapped the child. The accusation left Boo sick to her stomach as she literally shook the sleep from her head and focused.

  “I haven’t seen Gee, or anyone else. I have no idea where she is. I went to sleep a couple of hours ago. I haven’t—”

  ”It’s okay, Boo, we’ll find her. Sarah, we need to go to your house now and get organized. Boo, you stay here. No use in you getting lost in the dark.” Chief half guided, half dragged Sarah out of the house and into the car.

  “What the heck, Sarah? Boo has nothing to do with this. We need to find Gee and her friends and this is not helping.” Chief barely contained her anger at Sarah while trying to focus on the task at hand. Chief hoped this would be a simple trek through the woods where, as often was the case for missing children, they would find three lost, hungry, cold children who thought it would be fun to go out in the dark of night. That was the best possible ending for this story.

  The other officers were waiting for Chief at Sarah and Bryan’s house. Bryan relayed the basic facts to everyone. Gee had two friends staying overnight for a slumber party in the basement. When Sarah went to check on them, the three girls were not there. Sarah yelled for Bryan and they searched the house, then the barn. Gee’s cellphone rang in the basement when they tried to call her, and there was no answer on the other girls’ phones and no reply to texts. They called Chief as they continued the search inside and outside of the house.

  When Bryan shook Marco from sleep, the young man confessed Gee and her friends had talked about taking a midnight swim. He did not believe they were serious and ignored them.

  Bryan had waited for Chief at home while Sarah drove the lane toward Jamie’s house, searching.

  The sheriff’s dispatching officer was enlisted to contact the other girls’ parents. One of the officers started a trace on the last cell phone signals for Gee’s friends’ phones.

  The most likely place for Gee and her friends to swim was the lake. There was a
two mile trail from the property to the nearby lakeshore. Gee had hiked the trail many times for summer swims with her family. She could find her way there by staying on the trail. With flashlights, it would be a relatively easy, if ill-advised trek.

  Grabbing the truck keys, Sarah and Marco took off for the lake with one of the officers. They would search the area and walk the trail from the lakeshore back toward the house. Bryan and Chief would begin at the house and walk toward the lake. Another officer would wait at the house for the parents of the other girls and in case the girls appeared back at home.

  BOO FELT NAUSEOUS AFTER Sarah’s accusation that she could harm a child. Although it was understandable that Sarah was panicked, this was extreme. Boo resolved that in the morning she would figure out how to move somewhere else until she could piece her life back together. She wondered if she should call Jamie but decided this was for the family to decide.

  To clear her mind and shake off the horrible feeling in the pit of her stomach, Boo pulled on a pair of jeans and boots and stepped outside. Fred, sensing something was wrong, followed her closely, holding her nose in the air as if searching.

  A sound came from the west. Far away and muffled by the wind, Boo dismissed it as a bird or animal. Then she heard it again. The sound originated from the hills over which the sun had set.

  Fred lumbered off toward the path leading into the woods.

  “Fred, come back,” Boo called to the disappearing dog. “I don’t need for this night to get any worse.”

  Fred turned her head to look at Boo but ignored the plea.

  “Darn it.” Boo grabbed a small flashlight from inside the kitchen door and stepped off the patio in the direction she had last seen Fred.

  The night was lit by only half a moon high in the sky. The fireflies added twinkle but were little help in piercing the darkness.

  “Fred, come back here, please.”

  Fred appeared just within sight, then lumbered off again.

  “This is not the time for a walk, Fred.” Boo realized she was attempting to reason with a dog. On the other hand, right now, the dog made far more sense than the humans. Boo continued to follow.

  “Fred, where are we going? Are you trying to tell me something?” Boo saw car lights driving toward the front gate. She heard two voices on the path toward the highway, yelling the girls’ names. Boo did not want to distract anyone from their important search. Plus, she had been ordered by Chief to stay put. An order she was now disobeying. Although, she reasoned in her own defense, she was just following the dog.

  Fred kept up the back and forth, appearing and disappearing, leading Boo to the west. It was a path they had walked several times in the daylight, but the heavy darkness rendered it unfamiliar. The small flashlight barely penetrated the blackness of the deep woods to illuminate the dirt track worn by years of people and animals walking the same line.

  Seeing only a few inches in front of her feet, Boo walked into several low limbs. Crickets kept a steady chirp around her. Occasionally animals scurrying through the woods created a noisy ruckus. The beady double eyes of snakes glowed from the side of the trial. Most were garden-variety non-venomous snakes, but there were also copperheads in these woods who were nocturnal during the warm summer months. Boo tried not to think too much about how or why she knew this fact.

  Fred and the trail were leading in the direction of the sounds Boo heard earlier.

  “I hope you know where we’re going, or we are in big trouble.” At this point, Boo wasn’t clear if she was talking to Fred or herself. She put her trust in Fred, figuring if they found someone or something she could call Chief. Otherwise, no harm done. Unless a snake bit her or she fell into a hole. Then she would need to rescue herself to avoid delaying the other search mission.

  Boo and Fred traveled a little under a mile in fifteen minutes. They came to the area of a large pool in the creek that flowed between the hills. Boo had been by it several times on her daily walks in the woods. There was a steep drop-off, about thirty feet on the near side of the creek, and a small rocky beach on the other bank. Boo had been told that the kids were not allowed to swim here because of snakes and other unseen creatures that might be lurking in the waters.

  As Boo approached the cliff, she heard two children crying.

  “Gee? Is that you?” Boo called into the pitch black.

  “We’re over here. Hurry,” young, frantic voices called back.

  Fred led the way towards the voices while Boo reached for her phone to call Chief. When there was no answer, Boo left a hurried voicemail explaining where she was. She followed Fred and the voices to two girls huddled on a flat rock at the top of the cliff. Boo did not recognize either of them.

  “Where’s Gee? Is she okay?”

  “She’s down there. She fell off.” The girls pointed over the edge of the cliff.

  Boo carefully peered of the edge, pointing her flashlight into the darkness.

  “Gee?”

  “Boo?” Gee’s voice sounded weak. “Boo, help me.”

  Boo could barely see the young girl, wedged into a two feet wide crevice between the side of the cliff Boo was standing on and a rock jutting out below. Using the dim flashlight, Boo surveyed the small outcrop. The drop was about seven feet to a four feet wide by ten feet long ledge.

  “Do you have flashlights?” Boo shone her light on the two crying girls, clinging to each other.

  “Our phones died.”

  “Use my phone. Stand here and shine the light right there.” Boo directed them to the spot she wanted lit. “Don’t move. If I can’t get back up, you need to call for help. Okay?”

  The girls nodded.

  The faint cucumber odor wafting in the air was the scent of a copperhead. Boo spotted snake eyes to one side of the ledge. A copperhead bite would be painful but not deadly. The other side of the ledge looked clear.

  Boo heard someone in the distance calling her name. Fred barked a loud response. The phone rang but the girls held it in position.

  “Help me, please,” came the plea from below.

  Boo immediately jumped to the lower ledge. A seven foot drop was a lot farther than she remembered. Then again, she did not remember a lot of things very clearly these days. Her momentum almost carried her off the lower ledge toward the creek pool twenty feet further below, but she landed in a wide stance and caught her balance. A rush of adrenaline kept her from noticing the sharp pain in her right ankle, the same one that was hit by the truck when she saved Max.

  The snake made a lightening quick strike towards Boo, then recoiled. It was too far away to make contact and slithered off the far side of the ledge into the darkness.

  Boo took the flashlight out of her pocket to illuminate Gee. Most of the girl’s small body was wedged in a crevice.

  “Gee, can you move?”

  “I’m afraid if I move I’ll fall. My leg hurts.”

  “Okay, I’ll put my arms under yours to lift you up.” Boo had been in good shape a couple of weeks ago, and the physical therapist was working to maintain her muscle strength, but even in top form this would be a tough position to lift Gee from.

  Feeling dizzy and lightheaded from the jarring landing of the jump, Boo sat down to prevent herself from falling over. She braced her legs on the side of the cliff she had jumped from, one on each side of Gee.

  “Alright, when I say, you try to move your arms and grab me.” Boo put her hands as far as she could under Gee’s arms. “Okay, now, grab my shoulders.”

  Gee froze in fear.

  “Gee, you have to trust me. Just grab my shoulders and climb up.”

  Boo was vaguely aware of a voice calling from the near distance above her and the girls screaming back, hurry, while Fred barked encouragement.

  “Come on, Gee.”

  Gee finally took hold of Boo’s arms, working her hands up to Boo’s shoulders. Boo lifted enough for Gee to kick herself free as Boo pulled her onto the ledge. Boo scrambled to her knees, shining the flashlight to ass
ess Gee’s condition.

  “Are you hurt?”

  “My ankle. It hurts,” Gee cried.

  There were scratches all over Gee’s legs and arms, but nothing was bleeding profusely. In the flashlight’s beam, Gee’s ankle looked bruised and swollen.

  A large spotlight appeared from above. Chief peered down at the two dusty figures stranded on the ledge below.

  “Are you two okay?”

  “I think Gee might have a broken ankle. We need to get her to the hospital.”

  “Bryan is right behind me. He’s bringing a rope and a horse to carry her out. Can you lift her up to me?”

  “I think I can.” Boo forced herself to her feet.

  Gee hesitated, her entire body shaking.

  “We can do this.” Boo spoke the words calmly, trying to reassure Gee, “I’ll brace myself against the side of the rock and lift you up. Even if you fall, you will just fall right back down on me. You can’t fall down there again. I promise. Ready?”

  Gee nodded, allowing Boo to lift her up until Chief, crouched on her knees on the ledge above, could safely reach for the child. Chief grabbed Gee’s arms, lifting her the rest of the way up. With the three girls now safe, Chief turned back to Boo.

  “It’s okay. I’ll hang out here for a few minutes. Or, I might go for a swim. How dangerous could that be?” Boo hoped she sounded more nonchalant than she felt. She had a throbbing headache and the ground beneath her was doing a slow, wavy dance.

  “Hang tight. We’ll throw you a rope and have you up in a minute.”

  Bryan and the officer from the house arrived on the two horses. Sarah and Marco were on their way back to the house to join the other parents.

  A rope was tied off on a tree and lowered to Boo, who expertly tied in a few knots and climbed the cliff face. Chief and Bryan fashioned a splint for Gee’s ankle from sections of a tree branch and the rope. Bryan put Gee on the horse in front of him while the other two girls were led out on the second horse.

  Boo limped heavily and slowly back to the house, sometimes leaning on Chief to steady herself. Fred led the way, refusing to leave Boo behind.