SD241906.29 ||"Memories"

Posted on 24 Jul 2019 @ 8:06pm by

444 words; about a 2 minute read

Mission: Thought & Memory
Location: Private Quarters, USS Odin

Her evenings tended to end this way, buried beneath the covers, a small bowl of popcorn on the nightstand, together with a few pieces of chocolate, always dark, and a cup of tea. Edison was always there as well, usually curled up against her in about the center of her double-bed. A quote sprang to mind, not surprising given her eidetic memory; one of the students in her study group had mentioned it. 'In ancient times, cats were worshiped as Gods. They have not forgotten this.' She smiled fondly down at the large male who kept her on schedule with a combination of tactics he'd perfected in the three years they'd been together. She used the fingernails on her right hand to stroke his back, gently, rhythmically, and was rewarded by a soft sound that was somewhere between groan and purr.

The movie she was watching was part of a collection that he had given her; a collection so vast that even now, she was only about a third of the way through. Her interest in mathematics and computers and a host of other things have left little time for fiction of any sort. Thus the collection, a combination of science fiction, horror, drama, and comedy. This one was 'Strange Holiday with someone called Claude Rains as the lead actor. A fisherman takes his boat out and when he returns, its to an alternate reality where the Nazis had won World War II.

The idea was admitted preposterous but she watched anyway. Part of what Remy loved about these movies and why she seldom watched them with anyone else, was that he he did a preamble and sometimes stopped the film to bring up a point or two. The sound of his voice, that French Creole accent, the deep rumbling timbre, and the way the film would freeze as he argued his side of a point. So many memories tied up in those moments. She tossed a piece of popcorn at the vid and found herself launching into a discussion of why it wouldn't have worked.

After a few moments, his voice came back and he was laughing. "You were arguing back, weren't you, cher?"

She pulled the blanket up across her nose, holding it in place with her hands curled into fists, and fought back the sudden tears that threatened.

"Don't cry," he whispered.

And then the movie started again and she wondered, not for the first time, how he had known. How he always seemed to know. She slid down the pillows the curled up, pulling Edison close, and watched while tear slid unheeded down her cheeks.

 

RSS Feed