Forget Me Not

Chapter Ten

Korn worked Saturday mornings.

It was only when they had a large order to fulfil or the machines needed some maintenance he couldn't do during normal operating hours. With neither of those to do, he caught up on some paperwork and was home by noon.

Knowing he had the rest of the weekend to himself; he left his work phone at home and went to the junkyard. He planned to pass by, get some lunch, then go hang out with the old man and chat for a while. He wanted to sift through the new intakes in hopes of finding a capacitor for the bike he'd promised to put together for Anna.

She'd made him promise not to tell her dad but that was the first thing Korn did. Only when her father had given the go-ahead, did he finally start putting it together. She hadn't been happy that he had narced on her.

"But you have to understand that your dad is always going to look out for you. And it is not my place to go against his wishes."

"Yeah...but did you have to tell him that I was going to keep my grades up?"

"You need the incentive," Korn said aware that he sounded exactly like his over-protective parents.

It had all worked out because her father had been really happy about it. "She wants to use it to go to and from school and I can't think of a reason not to let her. It will be cheaper than buying her one of those scooters."

"The Vespas?"

"Yeah." His voice sounded distant and Korn watched him look out in the distance like he was remembering something from a long time ago.

"Khun...?"

"As long as you don't mind," he said breaking out of his reverie.

"I don't have a problem with it. But she still needs to take lessons and get her provisional licence. And you have to buy her all the protective equipment."

"Deal."

The rest had just been Korn having fun. If he found this last piece, there was every chance Anna would be the talk of her class. The main body of the bike was still a scooter but instead of the newer models, it was vintage. She would go to school in style and he had no doubt someone would make her an offer for the bike. But Korn knew Anna would never part with something she had been gifted.

Korn had just come back from the market. He arranged all the new pieces he had to take apart, clean and reassemble on a drop cloth beside him. The main frame of the bike was leaning against the wall. It provided the inspiration he needed to keep working when he was tempted to head up to his apartment and rest from the tiring week.

Settled into the repetitive work of disassembling, cleaning and reassembling the different pieces, he didn't initially notice when Nack came up to the side of the building where he was working.

"P'Korn," he shouted before waving and taking the last few steps towards him.

"What the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm sorry to come to your house but I was sent by P'Dan. It's important. He couldn't get through to you on the phone. So, he asked me to come over and find out if everything was okay."

P'Dan had access to his home address. It was one of the details needed for his personnel file. The fact that he'd sent someone to get him, meant something was very wrong.

"What's this about?" He asked, hoping that Nack had not been restricted with the information he had.

"There was an explosion at the factory?" Nack said hurriedly, "P'Dan said you need to come quickly."

Korn didn't bother packing everything up. He bundled all the parts and equipment in the drop cloth and secured them so none of the pieces could fall out. Putting the bike and all the bits and pieces back into storage, he rushed up to his apartment and grabbed his phone. The 16 missed calls and 12 text messages confirmed what Nack had said.