Eluding Memory

Chapter 7

I couldn't help feeling happy at that moment. I finally knew how to make my newfound powers work. The only problem was that my neighbours had seen it. I tried to get the pencil and notes to quickly drop back down, but they went higher up in the air the more embarrassed I got that I couldn't get them to drop. I took a deep breath and forced myself to think of a happy memory. I remembered the proud look on my teacher's face when she saw me standing up at the restaurant. When I looked again, the pencil was dropping! My thought train deviated to the man, and the pencil started to rise again. Before I could pull the derailed train back on track, a hand landed on my shoulder and broke me out of the reverie.

I turned to look at my neighbours, who looked like they had seen a ghost. Right after I turned around, the pencil clattered noisily to the ground. I assumed the notes had fallen too; only they didn't make much noise. My neighbours tried to convince me to leave the house at least fifteen times that day and many more times in the week that followed. Try as I might, I couldn't come up with a feasible and reasonable explanation for the floating objects. When I told them I didn't believe in the supernatural, they reminded me of the pencil. I pretended I hadn't seen it floating (which they obviously didn't believe) and joked that they were trying to prank me.

A week later, I got tired of pretending I knew nothing about it. I asked them to meet me in my house to catch up over some snacks. They seemed apprehensive and wouldn't say yes until I agreed to go over to their house instead. I decided I would tell them everything outright. I even wrote down the major bullet points in a notepad and took it with me. When I went over to their house, I asked them to let me finish speaking first, and then we could discuss. True to their word, they listened to every single bit of the whole story without saying a single word themselves. They didn't look like they believed it, but they let me finish. At my insistence, they even went through the notepad to see that I hadn't made up some story on the spot.

After narrating everything till the latest update, I paused to take a sip of the now-cold tea in front of me. They looked at each other for what seemed like an eternity before they turned back to me. They stated that they wanted me to prove it to them in real-time. I placed down my teacup and focused on a lamp in the room. I quickly picked out a memory from the latest embarrassing memory parade and kept my eyes on the lamp. Nothing happened.

We waited for at least five minutes, but nothing happened. The lamp didn't flicker, dim, or brighten. There were no electricity surges or sudden breezes. I frowned as I poured all of what I had into my effort. The couple began to speak in a soothing tone, telling me they understood I must have been very stressed. I felt awful. They said it's okay and that I shouldn't feel embarrassed, but I couldn't feel anything else at the moment. I buried my face in my hands, wanting to run away. That's when I heard them gasping.

I reluctantly looked up to find the room plunged into darkness. I told myself there was a power cut, and it hadn't actually been me. I believed I had deluded myself into believing I had powers and everything was just in my head. The light suddenly came back on. None of us had moved an inch. However, the light felt too bright, and I squeezed my eyes shut. When I opened them again, the light had dimmed. It was too dark to make out anything apart from the silhouettes of the couple. The light became a little brighter. Now it was perfect.

The couple turned their focus to their teacups, which were already empty. I asked them if they would like some more tea. They joked that they should have offered as they were the hosts. They apologised for the cold tea and said that I was welcome to reheat the tea in the kitchen if I wanted. I felt a little weird for having intruded in their house. I wanted to make up for it with the tea. As I began to lean forward to pick up the teapot, steam suddenly started to waft out of the spout. The teapot then lifted into the air and poured hot tea into my neighbours' teacups without spilling a single drop.

Excited that it had finally worked but still feeling a little uneasy, I lifted my cup, which was now steaming too. I took a sip of the hot tea and sighed contentedly when it soothed my throat. I was in my own world until I emptied the cup and placed it down on the table. A hand quickly shot out to touch the still-warm cup and retracted just as quickly. I remembered that I had company and apologetically turned to look at them. They looked astounded but also excited. We spent a while together, them asking me an endless stream of questions and me successfully managing to do many random things. We even tried to see if they had powers too, but they couldn't do anything. Eventually, the night had to end, and I went back home with a promise to come back soon.

The next day, I woke up feeling the freshest I had felt in years. I hummed happily to myself as I went about making breakfast. I even danced around the house like the people in movies. Eventually I stopped as I felt I looked stupid, which caused the lamps in my living room to flash like disco lights. I took this as a sign to keep dancing and kept grooving with all my energy until I was too tired to continue. I collapsed on the couch, sweaty and out of breath but happy. I had to remember something embarrassing to turn on the fan and fetch myself some water without moving an inch from the sofa.

It had barely been a minute since I had relaxed when the doorbell rang. I groaned and got up to open the door. I checked to see that the lights were normal and took a sip of water before I got to the door. I was still red in the face and panting a little from all the dancing. I figured it must have been post or something and didn't bother to pull up the edge of my frayed old shirt from when the right side had fallen off my shoulder. I opened the door, maybe even expecting to see my neighbours back, but it was nothing I expected.

It was a lady with a tote bag in her hand. I didn't know where I had seen her, but she looked oddly familiar. As I racked my brain trying to remember who she was, she looked me up and down with wide eyes. She whispered to ask if I was alone at home. My "don't tell the truth to strangers" training kicked in, and I told her my husband was right inside. I wasn't married and didn't even have a boyfriend, but this random lady didn't need to know that.

She began whispering in an urgent tone, asking me to just nod my head yes or no instead of speaking. She asked me if I was okay, and I said yes. She again requested that I not speak out loud but reply quietly. I had no idea what was going on, and I asked her what the matter was. She cursed under her breath and slid the bag to me. My overthinking brain immediately linked the bag to a bomb. I almost threw it away when I saw a booklet inside. Its cover said in bold letters, "365 Dessert Recipes for a Sweet-Filled Year."

I told the lady that I wasn't interested in buying anything. She pleaded with me to hurry and take a look inside once. I didn't really have much work to get back to, so I thought, why not humour her? Maybe the booklet did have some interesting desserts. I opened it and saw recipes for fudge, gateaux, and even a croquembouche. I chuckled; as if I'd ever have the patience to make an entire croquembouche. Maybe I could use my powers to make one and share with my neighbours, although this would require a whole lot of embarrassing memories to power the process.

While I was imagining this whole thing, my brain started to pull up an embarrassing memory. I didn't want to accidentally make something happen in front of this strange lady, so I had to snap out of it immediately. I needed something faster than just focussing my thoughts on something else, so I tugged on my ear, which pulled me back to the moment. When I looked up, the lady was looking at me in a strange mannerism that I couldn't categorise. She said she suddenly remembered something and would be back later. When I asked her about her bag, she said to leave it outside the door and that she would collect it later. I shut the book and placed it back inside the bag. The bag had some clothes, a water bottle, and a few packets of food. I placed it on the ledge outside my house and went back inside. I still couldn't figure out what that look on her face was or who she was. I returned to the kitchen to grab a snack and was scrolling through random videos on my phone when the doorbell rang again. I opened the door, expecting the strangely familiar lady to be back. She was back, this time with five police officers.