The "Forget You" Brew

VII.

"What were you thinking?"

Likha's hand wrapped around his arm in a death grip,and her voice was laced with more than just a tinge of annoyance and concern. Tim felt a dull ache in his chest when her eyes began to glisten with tears. She repeated her question, albeit softer this time, and those four words—"What were you thinking?"—suddenly meant so much more. 

And yet Tim couldn't utter a single word. 

"You didn't tell me why you did what you did." Her hold on him finally loosened when she felt she needed to carelessly wipe her tears away. "You are so stupid." 

"We don't have time for this conversation, Likha," Tim whispered, both hands on her shoulders now, an attempt to pacify. "Kyle should be waiting for us at the exit as we speak." 

"You stole Allison's memory jar?" 

"W-ell . . . technically, it was Kyle." 

She smacked him hard against the chest, and Tim stopped her before angry words could escape her lips. He could see how, on the way here, Likha finally was able to put two and two together, solving the mystery he and Mithi have hidden from her all these years. 

"We'll talk about this later, Likha. We have to—" His words were cut short when he saw a figure approach from the side of the building. A figure holding something that glowed. 

Likha gasped at the sight of the memory jar Kyle brought with him. He had tried dulling its glow somehow by keeping it inside his dark-colored shirt. It helped, if only a little. 

"Great job, Kyle." Tim clapped a hand on Kyle's back and gave him a gentle shove in the direction of the motorcycle. He almost chuckled at seeing the memory-jar thief's knees somehow wobble underneath him, an aftereffect of the vial shots, perhaps. "Go back to Kaipuhan," he told them both. "I'll meet you there and whip up an antidote, but first I'll have to see if Allison is still here. I'll take Feathers." 

He turned to go. 

"Hurry back. And be careful." Likha's voice was faint,but he heard it. 

Tim looked back at her and flashed her a teasing smile. "You be careful. You're the ones holding the contraband." 

. . . . .

Uncertain of what to make of what just happened, Mithi simply shrugged it off and continued to work on the day's records. Shortly afterward, he paid a visit to New Arrivals,as he was accustomed to doing at this time of day. He had a nagging feeling that Tim had been up to something the moment he stepped into Mithi's domain. The potion master's son wasn't the type to engage in a verbal confrontation. Tim had always been a silent radical,someone who found a certain thrill in sneaking behind someone's back to get something he wanted. 

In hindsight, Mithi had always wondered about that very same trait of Tim's. He never really did something to win Likha's heart all those years ago, which to Mithi had been strange, given what he'd discovered during Tim's brie fincarceration. 

"Please. Let me have my memory back, Mithi." He could still remember how Tim desperately pleaded for his memory, as though it was as essential to him as his own breath. "I'll do anything." 

If not for the Repository break-in five years ago, Mithi would have never known how strongly his friend felt for Likha. Tim hadn't been vocal about his affections, which made Mithi believe there was no competition in winning Likha's heart. But after the investigation involving Tim and the stolen memory jar, he realized that the barista seemed to have conceded to him without a fight. 

Still, he agreed to stage a scuffle between them, to"accidentally" break the memory jar containing Tim's memories as a result. It was Mithi who wrote and submitted the report stating they lost a memory jar to the mishap, and Mithi who hid the real one for Tim to collect after serving his sentence. A memory guardian back then, Mithi already knew how to "read" memory jars without having to extract its contents, and his fascination over Tim's memory jar led him to know what he knew now. 

Earlier, when Likha barged in from the front door and saw how she looked at Tim, Mithi knew he had been right in deciding to let her go. He loved her, he knew he couldn't call it anything else, but something about Tim and Likha together seemed right. She presided over the domain of stories that led to creation, while he crafted liquid catalysts supporting that creation. Together, they made a good team, and not just because of who they are. 

Mithi wondered how long it would take for his two friends to find their way into each other's arms.He held his record book as he walked through New Arrivals, noting and double-checking every memory jar tagged within the day. From the far side of Aisle 10, Mithi noticed an empty space on one of the top shelves. Upon closer inspection, he saw that the empty space belonged to a certain Allison Jeon. 

Mithi was shaking his head as he went to retrieve a ladder from the other side of the room. He went up the ladder and rearranged the shelf in such a way that the empty space would be filled in, and on his record book, he drew a line through the name Allison Jeon. Beside it, he wrote: MISLABELED. 

. . . . .

From up in the air, Tim had glimpses of his black motorcycle coasting through the woods, speeding back to the main thoroughfare so that Likha could bring Kyle back to the cafe. As soon as they were out of sight, he directed Feathers to fly west, where the town hall stood. 

Nowheretown's town hall used to hold several events each season, ranging from dances to dinners, even wedding banquets. As years went by, the mayor's priorities shifted,and the town hall merely became a venue for assemblies for officials and residents. As children, Tim, Likha, and Mithi rode their bikes to the town hall for one purpose only: to sneak inside Villa Ventana whenever they could. 

It was a fascinating place, Villa Ventana. It was a huge,round ballroom which had a similarly huge window that spanned the entire space and ran from floor to ceiling. The window allowed a view of Othertown, a place their parents had described as a world similar to theirs, but with beings whose pure hopes and dreams were able to make their sunshine every day. 

But making the sun shine over Nowheretown was the farthest from their minds at the time. All they wanted was to see what the world out there was like, what the residents of Othertown did and how a visit to Nowheretown changed them, if at all. Looking through the huge window at Villa Ventana fascinated them so much, they risked getting caught and scolded by their parents just to be able to satisfy their curiosity. 

Now that he's a grown-up, it was easier for Tim to get access to the Window Room. All he needed to do was come up with an excuse as to why he wanted to look through the window. And he did have a valid excuse. 

"I'd like access to confirm if a visitor has already left town. She needs to be administered an antidote." 

The doorman graciously let him in, allowing him five minutes in the Window Room. Immediately, he walked over to the control panel in front of the huge window and typed in the visitor's name. Almost as soon as he pressed Enter, a green glow presented itself at a location. 

Allison Jeon, 20, F
Nowheretown Departure: 20 minutes ago
Status: Unconscious 

Tim sighed and closed the search window, set out to return to Kaipuhan. Kyle had to bring the antidote back to Othertown soon and have Allison drink it if he wanted her to recover her memories as soon as possible.