The Eyre Affair_ A Novel - Jasper Fforde [351]
“They learn quick,” I observed. “That’s Ibb and that’s Obb. Ibb and Obb, this is Arnold.”
“Hullo!” said Arnold, thinking for a moment. “Do you Generics want to go and see Willow Lodge and the Limes?”
They looked at one another for a moment, realized they were sitting just that little bit too close and moved apart.
“Do you?” said Ibb.
“Well, only if you want to—”
“I’m easy—it’s your decision.”
“Well y-es, I’d really like to.”
“Then let’s go—unless you’ve made other plans—?”
“No, no, I haven’t.”
They got up, took the tickets from Arnold and were out the door in a flash.
I laughed and went though to the galley.
“Who’s the elderly woman?” asked Arnold.
“It’s my Gran,” I replied, switching on the kettle and getting out the coffee.
“Is she—you know?”
“Goodness me, no! She’s only asleep. She’s one hundred and eight.”
“Really? Why is she dressed in this dreadful blue gingham?”
“Has been for as long as I can remember. She came here to make sure I didn’t forget my husband. Sorry. That makes me sound as though I’m laboring the point, doesn’t it?”
“Listen, don’t worry. I didn’t mean to come over all romantic just then. But, Mary, well, she’s quite something, you know—and I’m not just in love with her because I was written that way. This one’s for real. Like Nelson and Emma, Bogart and Bacall—”
“Finch Hatton and Blixen. Yes, I know. I’ve been there.”
“Denys was in love with Baron Blixen?”
“Karen Blixen.”
“Oh.”
He sat down and I placed a coffee in front of him.
“So, tell me about your husband.”
“Hah!” I said, smiling. “You don’t want me to bore you about Landen.”
“It’s not boring. You listen to me when I hark on about Mary.”
I stirred my coffee absently, running through my memories of Landen to make sure they were all there. Gran mumbled something about lobsters in her sleep.
“It must have been a hard decision to come and hide out here,” said Arnold quietly. “I don’t imagine Thursdays generally do that sort of thing.”
“You’re right, they don’t. But sometimes falling back and regrouping is not the same as running away.”
“Tactical withdrawal?”
“Right. What would you do to get together with Mary again?”
“Anything.”
“And I with Landen. I will get him back—just not quite yet. But the strange thing is,” I added slightly wistfully, “when he comes back, he won’t even know he’d been gone—it’s not as though he’s waiting for me to reactualize him.”
We chatted for about an hour. Arnold told me about the Well and I talked about the Outland. He was just trying to get me to repeat “irrelevant benevolent elephant” when Gran woke up with a yell shouting, “The French! The French!” and had to be calmed down with a glass of warm whiskey before I put her to bed.
“I’d better be going,” said Arnold. “Mind if I drop round again?”
“Not at all,” I replied. “That would be nice.”
I went to bed after that and was still awake when Ibb and Obb returned from the concert. They were giggling and made a noisy cup of tea before retiring. I lay back and tried to sleep, hoping that I would dream of being back at our house, the one that Landen and I shared when we were married. Failing that, on holiday somewhere. Failing that, when we first met—and if that wasn’t available, an argument—and lastly, anything with Landen in it at all. Aornis had other ideas.
15.
Landen Parke-Somebody
Before Aornis Hades, the existence of mnemonomorphs was suspected only to SO-5, who, through deceit, idleness or forgetfulness, never told anyone else. The files on mnemonomorphs are kept in eight different locations and updated automatically between each location every week. An ability to control entropy does not necessarily go with the skill to alter memories; indeed, Aornis has been the only entity (thus far that we know about) who can do such a thing. As Miss Next demonstrated between 1986–87, mnemonomorphs are not without their Achilles’ heel. There is one question we would all like answered about Aornis, however, since no physical evidence of her remains: Was she real, or just a bad memory?
BLAKE LAMME, (EX-SO-5)
Remember Them? A Study