Lost Memories

by Curry, Edna

  Mel shifted uncomfortably. “I don’t know, like anybody, I guess.”

  Ben nodded. “Anybody is right. This whole situation is odd all the way around. I hope she starts remembering something soon.”

  “Like what?”

  Ben puffed on his cigarette and blew a smoke ring at the ceiling. He shrugged. “Her name, phone number, where she lives, works, or even where she grew up or went to high school? Hell, I don’t know. I just need something to start my search. Then one fact often leads to another.”

  “Yeah, I guess.” Mel chewed his lip thoughtfully.

  “Well, something will show up sooner or later. It usually does,” Ben said.

  “I’m not so sure,” Mel groused as he got to his feet. “See you later.”

  He went to the Flame and sat at the bar in the coffee shop. He drank coffee while he waited for his sandwich.

  Joe and Pete, two of the Flame’s regulars, sat down next to him. “How’s it going with the ‘mystery woman,’ Mel?” Pete teased with a grin.

  The waitress brought Mel’s sandwich and took Joe and Pete’s ‘usual orders.’ She poured their coffee and left again.

  Mel tried to ignore the guys and ate his sandwich, but they were determined to have their fun.

  “Yeah, I’ll bet it’s pretty nice, having a live-in looker like that at your place,” Joe smirked.

  “Lay off, guys,” Mel said. “You know very well I’m staying at the cabin while she’s using my apartment.”

  “Sure, sure, we know. Pays the rent with kisses, too, I’ll bet.” Pete smirked again.

  “Get your mind out of the gutter. She’s helping me at the office, working regular hours just like Marlene did, and for the same pay.” Mel finished his sandwich and coffee, dropped some money on the counter to pay for it and walked out.

  Maybe helping Jane out had been a mistake. But he knew he couldn’t leave her on her own. Not with whoever had pushed her into the river still out there.

  But Joe and Pete had better not make any of their snide comments where Jane could hear them or they’d have to answer to him.

  ~ * ~

  When Mel got back to his office Jane was already at her desk, working.

  She looked up, giving him a welcoming grin as he walked in. “Mel, I have a question on this return.”

  “Be right with you. Have to hit the bathroom first.” The phone rang and he groaned. “Get that for me, will you?”

  “Sure.” She picked it up and assured the customer Mel would be right with him.

  A grouchy voice gave his name and barked, “Just give him a message. Tell him I got the tax return he did for me and I said he should add those repair expenses I gave him to my deductibles. He must have missed them.”

  “No, I don’t think he did miss them,” she said with a frown. “I typed up your return. I saw your note and double checked with him on it. He said those were personal expenses, not business, so they’re not deductible on your business return.”

  “Who are you?”

  “I’m Jane. I’m helping Mel here at the office.”

  “Are you a CPA?”

  “No—” At least she didn’t think she was. But she couldn’t tell him that, of course.

  “Then what the hell are you doing working on my return? I pay him to do it,” the man blustered.

  “Mel did figure out your taxes, I only typed the information up,” she tried to explain. But the man yelled in her ear. She jumped at the sudden volume and held the phone away.

  Mel came back at that moment and heard the man yelling. He made a face, went to his desk and picked up the phone.

  Jane hung up her extension gratefully and went back to her work.

  After a few minutes of talking and listening, Mel put down the phone and sighed. “What a jerk!” he said.

  She laughed. “I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks so. He wants you to help him cheat on his taxes, right?”

  “Right. I think he understands now I won’t do that. He’ll either come around to my way of thinking or he’ll have to find someone else to sign his tax return if that’s the way he wants it done.”

  Jane frowned. “Does that mean you’ve lost a client? I’m sorry if it was my fault.”

  “No, it wasn’t your fault,” Mel said. “He hasn’t said he’ll find someone else yet. I don’t care if he does. I don’t want clients who want to cheat. I’m not putting my signature on a dishonest return. If I can’t make a living honestly doing this, I’ll find another job.”

  Jane smiled in relief. “Thanks. That’s how I feel too. I wouldn’t be comfortable working for someone like him, either.”

  “You had a question?”

  She nodded and he came over to her desk to look over her shoulder as she showed him the problem.

  His manly scent teased her nostrils and she had to struggle to concentrate on the problem instead of his nearness. He was so attractive. Every day she discovered more things about him that pleased her—his patience, his honesty, his willingness to help her out when he knew nothing about her at all. He was a good man and someone she was proud to know.

  She liked him way too much and she knew she shouldn’t. She might still be committed to someone else in her former life. She had no right to make a new attachment until she knew whether she was free to do so.

  But she suspected it was already too late to control her heart.

  Chapter 8

  A few days later, Marion stopped by the accounting office. Jane rose from her desk and poured her a cup of coffee.

  Marion said, “A group of us are planning a trip up river on Marvin’s boat tomorrow. The weather’s supposed to be sunny and warm. We’ll go swimming and have a cookout on the island. Would you two like to join us?”

  “That sounds good to me,” Mel said. “How about it, Jane?” He turned to see her face had turned chalky white. He swore under his breath and rose.

  Mutely, Jane shook her head. “No, thanks. You go ahead, Mel. I—I’d rather not go out on the river.”

  Marion went to Jane and put her arms around her. “I’m so sorry. Somebody slap me. Of course you don’t want to go swimming. What was I thinking?”

  “Then I’ll pass too,” Mel said. “We’ll do something else this time.”

  Marion finished her coffee, put down her empty cup and took her leave, apologizing again.

  Jane settled back at her desk. After a minute, she said, “Mel, you don’t need to forgo having fun just to stay with me. I’m fine, really.”

  “Who said I wanted to go without you?”

  She eyed him. “Don’t you?”

  “No,” he said truthfully. “I thought it sounded like fun, but I was thinking of enjoying a picnic with you. It doesn’t sound like fun at all if you’re not going.”

  “I’m sorry. Maybe I should try swimming again.” She frowned, looking doubtful. “You know, like they say you should get back on a horse and ride again after you’ve been thrown.”

  Mel laughed. “I don’t think almost drowning is the same thing at all, Jane. Let’s give you some time to recuperate before you try.”

  She gave him a relieved smile. “Thanks, Mel.”

  ~ * ~

  In a lovely house in Edina, MN, Lydia Maddet sat at her breakfast nook table, working on her guest list for Saturday night’s cocktail party.

  Sharon watched her, annoyed. “You could at least show some concern about Cara, Mother.”

  Lydia sighed and sipped coffee from a china cup. “Why, for heaven’s sake? School’s out, so she has a couple of months off from teaching those troublesome teenagers. Why shouldn’t she enjoy that time off by traveling? I don’t see why you think it’s so odd.”

  Sharon fidgeted, dying for a smoke, but knew her mother wouldn’t allow it in her house. “I know, but Cara usually plans trips ahead of time. This time she didn’t. She didn’t even ask me to check on things at her apartment like she usually does. My instincts are screaming that something is wrong here.” Sharon chewed her lip, unc
omfortable arguing with her mother, but still worried.

  Lydia shrugged. “It’s not as if she hasn’t gone on a trip alone before. And it’s only for a few weeks, not months. I’m sure she’s fine.”

  “I’m not so sure.” Sharon rose and refilled her coffee mug, deliberately scorning the delicate china her mother had set out for her. She was tall and slim and dressed in designer clothes like her mother, but drew the line at drinking out of expensive china in private, at least. In public, she, like Cara, acted as polite and proper as expected. They did, after all, have to keep up the family name and reputation.

  “Why would Cara only send you an email message about this trip at the last minute, when she left? She usually calls.”

  Lydia lifted a shoulder, crossed out a name on her list and wrote in another. “Maybe she did and I wasn’t in.”

  “Wouldn’t she have left a message? Why haven’t we heard about this trip before? It doesn’t seem at all like Cara.”

  Lydia stared at her, sighed, and went back to her list. “How do I know? You two have never confided in me like I did with my own mother.”

  Sharon swallowed. Was her mother going to start on that again? “Well, Grandma is more the warm and fuzzy homebody type, you know.”

  “You mean it makes a difference that she baked cookies for you girls and I hired a cook to bake them for you?”

  “Of course not, Mama.” Sharon sent her an exasperated look. But in all truth, that was a lot of the problem. Grandma had cared for her own family and showed her love in every action. Lydia hired someone else to care for her children and had left them on their own whenever she could.

  So, Sharon and Cara had learned at an early age to put on a proper and polite front in public and to do as they pleased in private. Maybe that’s what Cara was doing now, her own thing. Still, it felt all wrong to Sharon. “Cara didn’t even call me to say goodbye before she left,” she complained. “If I hadn’t asked you if you’d heard from her after she didn’t answer my phone calls or emails, I wouldn’t even know she’d left.”

  “Honestly, Sharon, you’re making a mountain out of a molehill,” Lydia said in a frustrated tone. “Cara’s not a child any more. She doesn’t have to check in with us every time she makes a move.”

  Sharon got to her feet and picked up her mug.

  “Maybe I am worrying over nothing. I’d better get back to the office. I promised Jim I’d fill in for his secretary for a couple of hours today.”

  Lydia frowned. “Couldn’t he hire a temp?”

  Sharon grinned. “Of course he could, Mama. But I’d rather do it myself. I like the fringe benefits.”

  “What fringe benefits?”

  “This way I get to kiss him between patients.”

  “Ha. He’s probably too busy scrubbing up or sterilizing his torture instruments to use on his next patient.”

  Sharon laughed. “Thank goodness not everyone hates dentists as much as you do, Mama. By the way, isn’t it about time for your next session on that root canal?”

  Lydia’s green eyes flashed fire. “Not for another twelve days. And if he wasn’t my son-in-law and people would talk, I’d go to someone else. I swear he enjoys prolonging each session for me because he knows how much I hate having my teeth worked on.”

  Still grinning, Sharon stood. “I’ll give him your love, Mama.”

  She put her mug in the dishwasher and peeked into the refrigerator. Various covered dishes filled the shelves, telling Sharon her mother’s private chef had been by to cook several days’ worth of food, ready to heat and eat. That was the latest craze. Well, it was several notches up from eating frozen dinners anyway. If Daddy were still alive, he would have royally fussed at the exorbitant cost, but since Mama lived alone now, she did as she pleased.

  Sharon grinned at the irony of that and popped her head back into the breakfast room. “Save me some of that salmon loaf for lunch tomorrow, will you, Mama?”

  “All right.”

  “I’m going to stop by Cara’s apartment to check on stuff for her. Be sure to call me right away if you hear from her, won’t you?”

  “Yes, dear, I will. You’re such a worrywart. Bye, now.”

  Sharon drove across town and stopped at the new building where Cara leased an apartment. Cara’s little red Ford Taurus was in its usual parking space, but that wasn’t unusual. If she flew, Cara would have taken a taxi to the airport rather than paying parking fees there.

  She and Cara had keys to each other’s apartment so that when either planned to travel, they could care for each other’s pets and plants. Now Sharon used her key to get through the security door and open Cara’s mailbox. Obviously, no one had picked up her mail since she’d left. That was another odd thing. Whenever Cara planned to be away from home for more than a few days, she asked Sharon to bring in her mail and pay any regular bills that would be due before she returned. Cara hated getting overdue notices or paying late fees. So why hadn’t she done that for this trip?

  Sharon rode the elevator to Cara’s apartment. She had to make several tries with the key before getting it to work. But once inside, everything seemed as neat as usual in the apartment.

  She put the mail on Cara’s desk and glanced through the bills, deciding they could wait a couple more weeks. Maybe Cara would call or email her soon with her usual instructions. She might have just forgotten. After all, as a high school teacher, she must have been really busy getting ready for this trip along with the usual year end rush of having to turn in her reports on student grades.

  Her answering machine had been unplugged. Odd. But maybe Cara had done that because she’d be gone too long and most messages would be old by the time she got back, anyway.

  Looking around, she noticed that Cara had gotten a couple of new houseplants, a lovely double blossomed purple African violet and a green, long fronded fern. They needed water and were looking pretty wilted already. It’s very odd that Cara bought new plants when she was planning a trip and didn’t even ask me to water them, she thought. She looked around for Cara’s cat and was relieved when she didn’t find it. Cara must have boarded it at her veterinarian’s as she usually did. That was a good sign that her sister had planned to be gone.

  Feeling somewhat better, Sharon watered the plants and left.

  ~ * ~

  At Mel’s accounting office, Jane watched Mel talk on the phone to a client. He was so darned attractive. She loved the way his dark hair curled around his ears. It was just wavy enough. Her fingers itched to play with it. Why couldn’t her hair have a bit of a curl like that? Hers was long and straight as a stick.

  Mel hung up the phone. He glanced at her and sent her one of his friendly smiles. Warmth slid down her middle, settling moisture between her thighs. Lordy, but she had it bad. She wanted the man in the middle of a workday.

  She smiled back shyly, then ducked her head and went back to work on the form in front of her. Soft warmth slid against her ankle. She jumped and looked down. It was only Tuxedo. The black cat waved his fuzzy tail and arched his back, begging for her attention. She reached down and obliged him by running her hand along his back and smoothing his soft fur.

  If only she could be so frank about asking for the attention she wanted. She didn’t dare, did she?

  What was going to happen to her if she never got her memory back? Dare she make a new life for herself when it might come crashing down around her head at any moment if she remembered her former life and it had prior claims on her?

  Could she stand the emotional turmoil of that? She doubted it. She felt too fragile at the moment. But she knew one did whatever one had to do and somehow survived.

  At closing time the next Friday evening, Mel handed Jane a paycheck.

  “Oh, but I meant to just work to pay for my keep here,” Jane objected.

  “Don’t be silly,” Mel said. “You’ve more than earned it and I’m only paying you what I paid my former assistant. You’re already more help after a few days than she was after month
s of training.”

  “Thank you.” Jane felt thrilled at his unexpected compliment. She reached up and gave him a kiss.

  “I made the check out to ‘Jane Doe,’” he said. “I asked the bank and they said they’d cash it for you. But giving you IRS credit is a problem.”

  Jane chewed her bottom lip. “Yes, I suppose it is, because I don’t know my real name and social security number. I don’t suppose I could get a new one, temporarily?”

  Mel laughed. “Hardly. I think we’ll just ignore that problem for now and hope your memory returns by the time I have to file the quarterly reports. Okay?”

  “That’s fine with me. I’ll buy our dinner tonight to celebrate my first paycheck.”

  Mel shook his head. “Nope, it’s my treat tonight. I have plans for us. You can buy lunch tomorrow, okay?”

  “Sure. Where do you want to go eat tonight?”

  “I’d like to show you the Lagoon out on Deer Lake. Marion always says that’s such a romantic place. I think there’s a band, too. Are your feet healed enough to try a dance or two?”

  “Yes. I’ve been wearing shoes all this week. I’d love that. Give me thirty minutes to shower and change clothes.”

  “All right. I’ll go change at my cabin and come back here to pick you up.”

  An hour later they were seated by the window overlooking the lagoon for which the restaurant was named. The sun was just dropping near the horizon, and streaks of brilliant color lit up the western sky and shimmered across the lake. Beds of red, white and gold flowers lined the shore and several large bird houses and feeders were set on poles.

  “Look at the pretty Purple Martins. This is a gorgeous setting. Those flower beds must be a lot of work to take care of.”

  “I’m sure they are, but the owner loves them.”

  They ordered seafood platters and lingered lazily over the delicious meal, then went downstairs to the dance floor. The large room was dimly lit and small tables lined the walls while the center was clear for dancing. A small combo band sat on a small platform in the corner, playing. A good crowd was already on the floor, swaying to a slow number.