Murder Recall

Making Sense of It

Raya has returned from her journey to find her twin. She came to New Eden to visit me and to tell me what she had found out. It was a leap year in early February, bitterly cold. A brilliant sun in a cloudless sky illuminated the world completely covered in glittering snow. The air was still and as we talked clouds of vapour exhaled from our mouths and instantly formed tiny ice particles that fell to the ground. We sat in an alcove beside the kitchen warmed by the wood burning stove and drinking hot herbal tea and eating homemade scones. There was nothing to spread on them but they were so hot we had to toss them from one hand to another, back and forth, until they cooled enough to swallow.

I am getting so old, I wonder if I will ever die. I am by far the oldest person I know. Frequently I am asked what my secret to longevity is, and I can only answer that I sleep more than other people. Some people consider sleeping a waste of time, but I don't. I often have the strong intuition that there is much I must do when I do fall asleep. The dream world beckons me because I am needed there, for what? I rarely remember anything when I wake up.

Raya parted ways from Tara and Doug, who she had set out with, because fate was nudging her in a different direction. She was right to follow her hunch because she found her twin, Christie, with Alaya on a Merlin's Island. When Christie and Raya met they had long conversations and Christie gradually came to believe that Raya was her twin. Raya explained about the chips that had been implanted on their skulls and their resulting various identities and mothers, but Christie never understood what Raya was trying to explain. Nevertheless, they enjoyed each other's company, but when they talked about their various mothers, antagonism and latent jealousy would surface. Christie could not remember what Raya was talking about and she found that she just had to trust what Raya was explaining about them, but she was a little skeptical of accepting it all as truth without corresponding memories of her own. They didn't argue or exchange negative conversation but Raya could feel it and see from Christie's face that she did as well. Eventually Raya wanted to return south as there was more work she wanted to do on the central computer in Marhaven. Christie decided to stay with Alaya. Raya gave news about Maya to Alaya and would take news of Alaya and Christie back with her.

After Raya finished her visit with me and continued on her way to Marhaven, I wrote down all that Raya told me about my twins, adding it to my writings regarding what I understood about Hilda, and consequently it all seemed to reflect upon me. I put it into chronological order so that I will always remember it. In Raya's telling, she jumped around from one thing to another. I wrote the information down as I recalled it from our conversation and afterwards organized it into a rough timeline adding further thoughts as they came. Some of the information I already knew, some was new to me.

My biological mother was Winnie Laymuir. Her husband, Hudson Laymuir, not necessarily my father, designed this residence. As soon as I was born, Winnie gave me to Hilda Conner, one of her maids, to be my nanny. Hilda was the best adopted mother anyone could have and she loved me and cared for me with all her heart and soul. We were always together and she pretty much taught me most of what I know. Hilda was a twin and her sister's name was Harriet. Maya met Winnie because Maya was investigating the theft of one of Hudson Laymuir's cars. Winnie had an evil streak in her character for whatever reason, possibly surfacing into action as the result of a broken heart. Maya discovered that Winnie had murdered various people, including Winnie's lover who may have been my biological father, Hudson Laymuir, Hudson's lover, and probably others. Winnie was implicated as a key player in the assassinations of at least ten top executives of the fuel company then known as XX Fuel. Maya speculated that Winnie had made a morbid habit of murder to appease the intense hatred she had for all the people she killed. Maya never reported the information she had gained to the police. Maya forgave Winnie. Perhaps it was true justice that caused Winnie's death. Those close to Winnie said that she accidentally poisoned herself but the official version was she died from a stroke.