The "Forget You" Brew

V.

Kyle didn't like flying very much.

But that was exactly what he was doing now, on apigeon twice his size. A pigeon, for god's sakes. If he ever lived to tell this tale, he knew his friends would say "Dude, you were so high." 

And he literally was high, at perhaps fifteen thousand feet. From this height, he could barely make out the cottages below. Not that he tried long enough. Looking down made him feel dizzy. It was uncomfortable, but he held on to Tim tightly, fearing for his life. 

Thankfully, the pigeon's flight path seemed steady, like it knew exactly where it was heading. And maybe it did.Before getting on its back, Tim had stroked the creature's head once and murmured something to it. The barista pressed his forehead against its wing, as though giving it an affectionate snuggle, and was then given permission to ride.Maybe every Nowheretowner knows how to speak to animals, Kyle thought. 

"Do you think Likha is mad?" Kyle asked, recalling how she'd yelled at them to "get back down!" as she ran out of Finders Keepers. It was clear that whatever Tim had up his sleeve at the moment was something that merited alarm. 

Tim only shrugged his shoulders, then said, "She'll get over it." 

Kyle could swear he heard the barista chuckle too. 

A voice came through the radio now strapped onto Tim's belt. "Tango, requesting ETA." 

"Five minutes. Is Mithi around?" 

"Not even a question. You know how much of a workaholic he is. Besides, he hasn't yet forgotten what you did the last time, so he's all paranoid and shit." 

Tim laughed. "Damn, that was five years ago. Can't he cut me some slack?" 

"Apparently not." 

"Listen. Think you can open a window for me?" 

"'Round where?" 

"New Arrivals." 

"How new?" 

"Less than an hour ago." 

"Name?" 

Tim glanced over his shoulder at his passenger, who took a second before speaking up. "Jeon. Allison Jeon." He spelled Allison's surname for good measure and waited until the person on the other end of the transmission spoke up again. 

"I don't see it in my records—perhaps it hasn't been tagged yet?" 

A curse escaped Tim's lips. Untagged memories were even more difficult to retrieve since it will be Mithi, current director of the Repository of the Intangible, who would be overseeing them. He and Tim weren't exactly on good terms. 

Kyle felt his stomach lurch when Tim held back the pigeon's harness, abruptly halting the feathered creature's flight for the meantime. "Let's wait it out until your girl's memories are tagged and transferred to New Arrivals." 

"I'm not exactly following all this properly. Can you tell me what that's supposed to mean?" 

. . . . .

Likha grumbled all the way to the Repository, upset and worried about Tim's plan of action. If it were anything like the Thing he did five years ago, Mithi might not be as forgiving. 

She went off-road, not caring if she scratched or dented Tim's motorcycle. This was his fault, leaving her alone to"rescue" him should something happen. 

And knowing Tim, something will. 

The only son of Nowheretown's best potions master,Tim had a lot of pranks up his sleeves even at a young age.Already concocting potions at twelve, he would often trick playmates Likha and Mithi into drinking "lemonade" or"tea," which had them croaking like frogs for a day, ors uddenly grow a patch of fiery red hair on their heads. Both Likha and Mithi had learned to stay away from any of Tim's brews, but every so often, he succeeded in tricking them into having a sip. 

When Tim's father passed away and the old Brew Lagoon he owned closed down, it was Mithi who encouraged Tim to reopen a similar shop that could provide Othertowners a place to go for liquid fixer-uppers.Hence, Kaipuhan Kafe. Unlike Brew Lagoon, which mostly served wines and spirits, Kaipuhan had a more"wholesome" menu, and allowed even younger Othertowners to have their fill of fluid self-esteem, courage, willpower, and whatever else they needed at the moment. 

But five years ago, a hostile abandoned bunny at Mama Kata's bit Likha, making her very ill. Mithi, distraught over what had happened to his then-girlfriend, implored Tim's help. The novice barista was reluctant at first, unsure if his knowledge about potions and antidotes would suffice. But seeing Likha on her deathbed shook him to the core. 

Tim worked tirelessly day in and day out, trying every brew, every mixture he could come up with to nurse Likha back to health, but the poison was just too potent. She would get better for an hour, then relapse. It was an exhausting cycle that almost drove him mad. 

The last attempt at an antidote required Tim to trigger a mutation in Likha's body. "To be able to cope with the poison," he explained to Mithi, "Part of her has to turn into the creatures she loved most." 

With Mama Kata and Mithi's blessing, Tim administered the antidote, and she survived. There was no reversing the spell after that, but Likha could care less about her appearance and was eternally grateful that Tim was able to save her life. 

Likha didn't understand what happened shortly after that. Tim began acting aloof, not acknowledging her whenever she stepped inside Kaipuhan with an Othertowner who needed help. She initially thought it was only guilt gnawing at him for partially turning her into an animal, but she reassured him that she was going to be all right, and that he need not feel remorse over what's been done. 

"I'm alive, right? I have you to thank for that. I can't thank you enough." 

And then one day, Tim was caught breaking into the Repository. She'd asked both men, on separate occasions, about what had happened that day, but none of them ever really talked about it in detail. It seemed to Likha that Tim and Mithi have decided to keep quiet about the incident, and though she was dying to know, she never probed about it ever again. 

But now, Likha felt like she knew what Tim was up to.The Repository of the Intangible was a place for forgotten dreams, memories, and feelings—and if Kyle's friend Allison had taken the afforgeto to "erase" him from her heart, then . . . 

Oh god, Tim. Don't do it. 

. . . . .

"You stole your memories back?" 

"Basically, yes." 

The pigeon—Kyle learned its name was Feathers—now perched on a tree branch, waiting to take flight. Tim was still waiting for his friend (code name Sierra, a memory guardian) to notify him of New Arrivals, and while they were on standby, he'd explained to Kyle everything he could about the Repository. 

"Does that mean you regretted drinking your own afforgeto?" 

"I wouldn't use the word regret," Tim replied. "The funny thing about memory is—and I realized this on my own—that no matter how strong a potion you use to forget,it seems to weave its way back into your life in the most unexpected, oftentimes simplest ways. They come in the form of a smile, a twitch of the nose, the way someone speaks your name . . . 

"It's like a damn loophole on the spell, a glitch of some sort. One day, I heard someone call my name, and my heart felt like it was being crushed from the inside. And I hated that feeling. I hated it so much I wanted to know why it was happening . . . why every time I looked at her face, I felt it." 

The radio sounded off all of a sudden. "Tango, this is Sierra. New Arrivals has just been updated, and Allison Jeon's been tagged." 

Tim sighed, as though unburdening himself of the thoughts anchored to his story. He glanced at Kyle again. "Hold on tight," he said. "Let's make this quick and uh . . .hopefully painless."