The Memory Thief

by Sarina Dorie

  “Yes, no,” he said, not shedding any light on the matter.

  If he were alone, it was only reasonable for him to return to camp and live with us. But he shook his head every time we tugged him close to the ship and he withdrew. Finally he brought more children to prove there were others like him.

  The little girl he introduced us to screamed when she saw us, then ran back and touched our hair and brought her face close to stare into our eyes. Hers were black and shaped like his. Their eyes and skin tone matched what the guidebook said about the Jomon people who had left Earth long ago.

  “Why are you always alone if you have friends and family? Don’t they care where you are?” I asked.

  “Busy. Father and mother busy.”

  “Our Poppy is always busy too,” Faith said.

  I nudged my sister with an elbow. “Say ‘father.’ He doesn’t know the word ‘poppy.’”

  Taishi nodded. “Head man and woman always busy.”

  He must have known our father’s position from watching. That night when the crew made a fire outside and ate dinner, I saw him spying on us from high in the branches of the tiaju or umbrella trees.

  “Poppy, look!” Faith squealed, pointing.

  My father looked up from his work. Taishi slipped into the shadows. Father scowled at me and shook his head. “It’s up to you to mind your sister. You shouldn’t let her imagination get away from her like this.”

  Two years before, when Mother was still alive, he would never have said that. He had crawled on the ground with us through the ship corridors pretending to be ship rats. He had let us blindfold him and play Marco Polo—much to the captain’s annoyance. These days it wasn’t just my mother I missed. It was my father as well.

  Faith’s eyes filled with tears. “But Poppy, I’m telling the truth.”

  “A good lady is quiet and meek and doesn’t interrupt,” Father said.

  I crossed my arms. “Are you saying Mother wasn’t a good lady?” It was hard to imagine her being subservient, considering she was the one who had led the mission.

  Father’s face darkened. He set his pen down, and a blob of ink splattered across the map he drew.

  “I’m sorry, Poppy. I’ll be good,” Faith promised, slinking away.

  I silently slipped after her and determined I wouldn’t bother him with the discovery of our new friends.

  Looking back on my childhood always saddened me as an adult; my world was full of regrets and ghosts of memories. With my father dead, I had no chance to make up for those years he had been grieving and we were invisible to him. Whether it was Taishi’s tribe that had killed him or another, I didn’t know. Those memories had been stolen. Now that I had returned to Aynu-Mosir, I intended to get my memories back, no matter the cost.

  Chapter Four

  In 1763, Captain Simeon Ecuyer brought smallpox infected blankets to the two planets in the Oregon territories, which he distributed to the native colonists. This resulted in an epidemic that killed ninety-three percent of the population and left the Sumerian descents vulnerable to invasion from British, French and Americans alike. Rather than face slavery, the Meso-Sumerians blew up their planets. Though there are explorers who support the F.C.F.W.P. (First Contact for First World’s People Pact) among spacefaring nations, biological warfare is still thought to be used in the outskirts of the galaxy.

  —Anonymous alien’s rights suffragist

  Sumiko led me back to the great hall. I clasped the crayon drawing to my bosom. The air of the hall was hot and stuffy. My corset felt tight and confining, more so than it had in years. My thoughts raced and I searched the villagers’ faces, yearning to find one familiar amongst them.

  Where was my sister? Had the Tanukijin enslaved her and punished her for what our people had done to their planet? I would do anything for my sister, but what if Nipa was lying and she was dead?

  By the time I was seated beside Meriwether, I gasped for breath. I tried to calm myself and not to show my fear. The drumming died down.

  Meriwether took my hand. “You’re pale. Is everything all right? What did they do?”

  “I’m well. It’s just that I fear for my—”

  There was no time to finish, as the Nipa asked, “Felicity, daughter of William Earnshaw Nipa of the star men, what do you say to our wife-swap?”

  I bowed my head. “I agree to this.”

  “What says your leader?”

  Meriwether placed my hand in the crook of his arm. “What is he saying? Where were you?”

  I glanced at Meriwether, hoping he hadn’t changed his mind. “He consents,” I said.

  I then translated. Meriwether shook his head. “No, I will not trade your virtue for a business deal.” His eyes were wild, panicked in the same way they had been when the shooting had started. “My father would not want that. I should never have suggested you come.” I had no idea how to console Meriwether other than to pat his arm and let him rant.

  I doubted his father cared so long as I married his son and passed on my fortune to his family. He only let me come because I played my trump card; I finally agreed to marry Meriwether—if he allowed me to accompany him. But now I risked the friendship and affection of the one person I could imagine loving.

  The leader’s smile turned mischievous as he turned to the comely young woman beside him. “Sumiko, would you bring out my wife?”

  Blast! Sumiko wasn’t his wife? That clue and the laughter that followed signaled something was amiss.

  “Felicity dear, you must undo this,” Meriwether began, surely still fixated on my impending doom and not his own.

  I waved him off with a far easier manner than I felt. “Stop fretting over my virtue. The leader simply wants my memories. He has no intention in bedding me.”

  He raised a finger. “Don’t tell me not to fret. I know you well enough to know what an ordeal memory exchange will—”

  From behind the shrine came a woman as tall as any of the warriors in spiked tanuki headdress—only she wore none. She strode forward, the laughing crowd parting. Her limbs were thick and her features . . . coarse at best. A dark blue line was tattooed over her mouth. From the gray hair and wrinkles, she must have been twice the headman’s age.

  She stopped before us, bowing before Meriwether. Her voice was hoarse and gruff. “Aren’t you a beauty!”

  Meriwether tugged on my sleeve. “What’s happening?”

  Old Charbonneau shook his head. Captain Ford lay on the ground laughing with the rest of them. They’d caught on, even if my fiancé hadn’t.

  Nipa inclined his head at the immense woman. “Allow me to introduce my wife, Tomomi-chan.” From the roar of laugher around us, it was obvious we had been duped.

  The woman scooped Meriwether up and flung him over her shoulder. He squealed, not unlike a baby buta. I watched in horror as she slapped him on the rump and carried him off. I leapt forward, but a guard caught me and yanked me back.

  I suspected we were off to the start of a very bad business negotiation.

  Chapter Five

  New London Times Space Gazette

  Arts and Entertainment, 1877

  Whether you wish to curl up with a good novel before a holo-fire in the comfort of your space station or you are looking for a good book for star travel, consider purchasing a babbage card with one of these bestsellers hot off the press from Earth:

  The Birds of the United Worlds of America by John James Audubon

  The Clockwork Raven by Edgar Allen Poe

  The Last of the Meso-Americans by James Fenimore Cooper

  Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, a United Planet’s Slave, an autobiography by Frederick Douglass

  The Count of Alpha Centauri by Alexandre Dumas

  Only in memories did I feel free. And even then, I didn’t trust them to be true, with the way they blurred like dreams more than reality. What hadn’t been stolen was a mixture of vivid sharpness and misty surrealism. Sometimes I forgot my mother’s lullabies, other
times I struggled to recall the sound of my father’s coarse British accent as he attempted to sound refined, or American, or funny to impress my mother. Some mornings I woke to find I couldn’t recall whether I had ever braided my sister’s blonde hair or felt Taishi’s hand in mine. Many days I couldn’t see their faces.

  Being on Planet 157 revived images that wavered like dreams, causing me to wonder if they were real or imagined. I closed my eyes and remembered. . . .

  The cool, air conditioned interior of the ship was a welcome respite after the heat of the afternoon. I sat in the common room beside my sister, drawing my own map of the jungle we had explored, the way into the valley and the path to the village that we kept secret from the adults. My art was not as beautiful as Faith’s drawings, but I suspected mine were more accurate than hers. Faith sat beside me, pressing flowers she’d found that day into her book. She tucked blonde waves of hair away from her face and continued to work.

  She was by far the prettier of the two of us and looked more like our mother. How I envied her beauty.

  I kept my own book angled so that it hid my sketch from Father’s view. I hadn’t yet labeled it, but I knew I would have to use some kind of code so the adults wouldn’t discover our secrets. I was certain once they knew Faith and I had discovered something they hadn’t, it would be taken away.

  Under no circumstances would I allow them to take anything else from me.

  Father looked up from where he sat at the table across from us. He set down his electronic steno pad. “Miss Osborn says it is time you are fit for a . . .” He cleared his throat. “. . . a corset and other garments appropriate for a young lady.”

  “And me?” Faith asked.

  “What will she make them from? Tree bark and leaves?” I asked.

  “We still have your mother’s, ahem, undergarments.” His face flushed red, I guessed with embarrassment more than anger at my insolent tone. This was a first.

  “I am an explorer,” I said. “How can I go on long treks and climb onto a—” I almost said chiramantep, but he didn’t know we rode them with Taishi. “—tree if I’m wearing a corset?”

  “I’ll wear it! I want to look pretty like Mama,” Faith said.

  “Miss Osborn will speak with you on this matter. It’s a subject best broached between—”

  Faith tugged at his sleeve. As she did so, a red stone dropped out of her pocket. Father watched it sparkle as it caught the ship’s artificial light. Though it lacked the luster it held in sunlight, even now it was incredible to gaze upon. Father stooped to retrieve it. He picked his bionic monocle out of his pocket—the one with the strange lenses and microscopic magnification. He locked the magnets into place so that it became part of his face.

  “Remarkable,” he said. “If I am not mistaken, this is a red diamond—the rarest of all stones. What a capital find!”

  I cut my eyes to Faith. I gave her the smallest shake of my head to warn her not to say anything, lest she give our secrets away.

  She didn’t notice. Instead a hopeful smile crept over her lips. “Are you pleased, Poppy?”

  Father put the monocle away. “Wherever did you find such a thing, girls?”

  “Out in the forest,” I quickly supplied, not giving Faith a chance to be a blabbermouth. “Sometimes we find pretty stones out there.”

  “This stone has been worn smooth by water.” Father placed his fists on his meaty hips. “You two haven’t been going into the stream I told you to avoid, have you?” From the smile creeping over his lips, I suspected he wasn’t too angry if that was all he thought we’d done.

  I hung my head in an attempt at shame. “I’m sorry, Poppy. We were exploring.”

  He quickly forgot our trespasses. He was too busy showing the crew his find. I hadn’t seen him this happy in years. His face didn’t look so haggard. The permanent creases next to his mouth when he frowned actually disappeared.

  “Why, this diamond would be perfect for creating the orange rays needed for surgical procedures using lasers,” the ship doctor said.

  “No, no! Imagine how much a natural diamond that size would make if sold to the jeweler’s market on Alpha Orion III!” said Miss Osborn. As a geologist, she would know.

  Captain Monroe stroked his whiskers, practically drooling over the stone. “Place a diamond that size in the ship’s laser and we could have the most powerful weapon in the galaxy.”

  “Imagine the terraforming and terrascaping that could be done on uninhabitable planets—ones unsuited for colonists like this one.”

  I didn’t see what they needed terrascaping for. This planet had breathable air. It needed no changing.

  “We’ve got to send word to the president about this.”

  They continued to argue amongst themselves about what should be done with it. They were so busy plotting the ways they would become rich that they forgot about making me wear a corset.

  Father bade us to take him to the stream. The trickle of water running through the forest was an easy trek from the ship. Purple and green tanuki skittered away upon our approach. When no pretty stones turned up, he demanded, “Is this really where you found the stone, or did you go into the valley?”

  I was good at recognizing his temper, and this had sparked it. “No, we wouldn’t do that.”

  Faith paled and clenched her hands together. We needed to work on her poker face.

  “You went down into the valley? Where those beasts are?” Father asked. “You could have gotten mauled! You know what one did to Mr. Price’s arm before the captain shot the blasted thing.”

  A tragedy as far as I was concerned. The chiramantep could have been tamed by those who knew how. If Mr. Price hadn’t startled a mother with a cub, I doubted she would have even taken note of him.

  I was quick at supplying lies. “The animals were on the other side of the river.”

  When we took them on the longer trek into the valley and down to the stream, we were quite fortunate they actually were all herded to the other side grazing. All the adults were huffing when we reached the bottom of the valley. Miss Osborn rested against a rock, looking as though she would swoon. Mr. Price was quick to lend her his arm. Captain Monroe wrinkled up his nose at the pungent chiramantep odor.

  The chattering call of a tree snail made me look up. I caught a glimpse of Taishi peeking out from behind a tree to spy on us. I was becoming better at spotting him with his camouflage of paint and leaf clothes.

  Miss Osborn was the one to find the pea-sized, bright red stone near the banks of the river. Farther down, Mr. Price found another. I didn’t know if this was where Taishi had found his stones or he had planted them there for our benefit. He never would tell us.

  Father forgot to be cross with us. Miss Osborn neglected to fit me for a corset until another week had passed.

  The corset was a trial in itself. I hated the horrid thing. I made them happy wearing it at the ship but as soon as Faith and I trekked out of sight, I threw off my dress and bade her to help me remove it.

  “No, Miss Osborn says you have to wear it,” she said. “It makes you a proper lady. You do want to be a proper lady, don’t you? Mother was a proper lady.”

  It was a struggle to move my arms back behind me, let alone try to find the laces.

  “Fine, if you won’t help me, I’ll ask Taishi.”

  “No! That’s improper. I’ll tell on you. Miss Osborn says—”

  “What are you going to say? Your imaginary friend saw my undergarments?”

  Faith sniffled and turned away. “I hate you.”

  “I hate you more.” I felt lightheaded and sat down. Supposedly this wasn’t even laced as much as it could be. Miss Osborn said that as I became accustomed to wearing the corset she would tie it tighter to give me an hourglass figure.

  “I can hardly wait,” I’d said in my most insolent tone.

  Faith and I were still bickering when Taishi found us. Upon seeing him, Faith buried her face in the fuzzy purple leaves at the base of a tree
. “I’m ashamed to be your sister.”

  Taishi unknotted the corset and loosened it enough for me to wiggle out of with his help. “Why put you in cage?” he asked.

  “That’s what they do with women from the stars. They cage us.”

  I threw it in the bushes, but Faith retrieved it and hugged it to herself.

  “Give me look,” Taishi said.

  Faith bit her lip. “Taishi, you shouldn’t gaze upon women’s undergarments.”

  “He’s just curious. His people don’t have undergarments,” I said.

  Taishi gave my sister his best tanuki-dog eyes. She didn’t argue as he took it from her. I giggled when he slipped the corset over his head and wiggled into it.

  “I am star woman.” He pranced around, imitating the way Miss Osborn walked. One side of Faith’s mouth curved up. “I thinks my unko smell like sakura blossom and I talks like this.” He scrunched up his face into her scowl and imitated her high-pitched nagging tone.

  I fell over laughing.

  Faith giggled. “You’re wearing it upside down.”

  “Well, he’s never seen one before,” I said.

  Taishi shook his head. “I seen on Osborn-san.”

  I smacked him on the shoulder. “You rapscallion! You saw her undressing? When?” I laughed.

  Faith covered her mouth in horror.

  “No mean to. I hears noise. Osborn-san eat man flesh.” He made a face.

  My sister was just as confused as I. “What do you mean?”

  “She mate with red haired man, but strange. They eat each other’s faces.”

  “Mr. Price?” Faith squealed.

  Neither Faith nor I knew much about mating other than it caused animals to have babies. Any time we asked my father about such things he said we were too young to understand. Fortunately, the ship’s computers were at my disposal and I had done research—until Father caught me.

  I stood. “Do you think she’s mating now?” Miss Osborn and Mr. Price were supposed to be gathering food provisions.