The Memory Painter

“Fine, then stand.” He started the projector and turned off the light.

Linz stayed by the door. Diana was projected on the wall, smiling to the camera with her hair in rollers as she got into a waiting car. The next shot jumped to a church, with Diana outside in her wedding dress.

“It’s their wedding day,” Bryan explained needlessly.

Linz didn’t speak. Captivated by the film, she hugged her body in a protective stance as the clicking sounds of the projector ran through the dark.

The film jumped to the altar, where Michael waited with his best man, Doc. Beside him stood two more groomsmen—Conrad and Finn.

“That’s my dad,” she said, feeling dazed.

“I know.” He corrected himself, “I mean I know now.”

Conrad moved closer to Michael and Doc. Diana walked up the aisle and took Michael’s hand.

Linz watched the entire ceremony, and the silly moments that were captured afterward while the wedding photographer took pictures. Conrad was in every other shot. The film ended as Michael and Diana drove away in their Jeep, decorated with cans that trailed behind the car.

“My father knew those people?” she asked, astounded.

“That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. I had no idea he was your father. I swear.”

She stared at the blank wall where the image had been projected. The whole thing was too bizarre.

“You’re shaking.” He took her hands.

“No, I—”

“It’s okay. Watching them affected me the same way.”

“I’m not affected.” But even as she said the words, she knew they were a lie. Watching the film had filled her with the most profound ache. She wanted to cry.

She saw how hurt Bryan was by her reaction and tried to make him understand. “Look. I’m normally a logical, methodical person. I don’t date artists or talk about past lives or contemplate anything remotely esoteric. I don’t want my life turned upside down.”

Bryan reached out to touch her arm. “I know all of this seems crazy—especially this whole connection with your father—but don’t shut me out. Please, don’t be afraid.”

“I’m not afraid.” Linz stepped away. “But every time I’m with you, the moment I start to get used to things, then it changes and gets weirder. I don’t know who these people are. And I don’t care. So what if my dad knew them?”

“They were scientists who studied memory and were working on a cure for Alzheimer’s,” Bryan stressed. “They died in 1982 before we were born.”

“And you think we were them.”

“Yes.” Bryan’s eyes were unyielding.

She searched his face, shaking her head sadly. “I’m afraid the ride stops here.” She was already regretting the words but she knew they had to be said. “Let’s take a break, okay?”

Bryan gave her a little smile and brought her hand to his lips. He kissed the inside of her wrist just as he had the day they met, but he didn’t try to stop her from leaving.




TWENTY-FOUR

Linz undressed in the dark. She felt herself sinking into a depression. The emotion felt alien to her and unstoppable. When she had walked into her condo, the place seemed empty and pointless, and for the first time the colorful puzzles on her walls looked silly. As she lay in bed, she stared into the dark at Bryan’s painting of Origenes and Juliana that now hung on her wall. She had tried keeping it in her closet, but she knew it belonged in the open. Her dream had been an albatross all her life, and yet it had brought her Bryan. Was that a good thing? She didn’t know.

Unable to sleep, she went to her living room and stood in her garden. Enjoying the sand beneath her feet, she took the rake and smoothed the ground, erasing the design she had created two nights ago. Her body relaxed as her hands directed the rake aimlessly, letting it leave fine lines in the sand with its teeth. She worked until she grew sleepy.

When she finished the design and went to bed, she didn’t even bother to admire the ornate symbol she had created—a symbol only the most knowledgeable Egyptian scholars in the world would have been able to identify.

*

Returning from the break room with a third cup of coffee, Linz read the e-mail that had just arrived from her father. As usual, he had kept it short: Come see me.

She knew he wanted to discuss the party. Her sudden departure with Bryan the other night had been too strange for her father to let it slide. He would have a hundred questions, coupled with some harsh opinions, but she also had a few of her own—for starters, who were Michael and Diana Backer?

Linz took the elevator up to the top floor, but her father was on the phone.