Free Lost Past by Teresa McCullough, Zachary McCullough Page A

John. John, who always had the answers, looked baffled.
    “Eric, Cara. I know I have been teaching you psychiatry, but what do you know that could bring my memory back? Clearly, I know something important, something more than how to do psychiatry.”
    Eric looked helpless, but Cara put her feet on the floor and said in a confident tone, “Let’s forget about psychiatry and try logic. Arthur told you some things weren’t natural about your life. What are they?”
    “Lack of sex,” John said promptly. “Apparently, I’ve been living like a monk and that doesn’t seem natural.”
    “You kissed me,” Mary said hesitantly.
    “That was less attraction than an exploration. Something seemed odd about our relationship.” He hastily started to add, “It is not t hat you are not attractive, but— ”
    “Forget it,” said Mary. “I’m not insulted; it was so strange. I mean, you were invisible, sexually. I can’t explain it. It was just weird when you kissed me.”
    “You are attracted to Cara,” Linda said. “But not to me.”
    “No hedging,” Eric said sternly, interpreting John’s hesitation as a way to give an answer that wasn’t completely truthful. Linda felt a brief flash of satisfaction about John being ordered around.
    “Yes, to both. Linda seems more like a daughter. Cara, well, hell, who wouldn’t be attracted to her?”
    Linda caught a brief look of satisfaction on Cara’s face.
    “Anyone else?” Eric asked.
    “There was a nurse at the hospital. A woman at the bank. A patient this afternoon. I feel that about every tenth woman I meet is attractive.”
    “And Cara?”
    “It was more. With Mary and Linda, I think I successfully turned off any sexual feelings. With Cara, I just hid them.”
    Not all that well, Linda thought. I knew he was attracted to her.
    “What else?” Cara said. “Not about me, about you. What else seems odd?”
    “The online courses I took for my undergraduate degree. I like interacting with people. Why would I take online courses?”
    “What else?”
    “I know science better in Vigintees than in English, particularly drugs.”
    “Meaning you learned it in Vigintees ?” suggested Cara. “Anything more?”
    “My apartment. Considering my financial situation, I should probably be renting something larger. But it doesn’t feel small to me, it seems luxurious. For that matter, where did my money come from? I’m worth more than a million, but with medical school, I’d expect to be broke.”
    “A million isn’t what it used to be,” Eric said.
    Linda realized with amusement that Eric was worth more than a million and didn’t consider himself rich. She knew Dad was worth more than a million, but the Nobel Prize accounted for that. In fairness, so did his frugal lifestyle. He loved traveling to conferences, but someone else paid. He owned a computer that was far more powerful than the typical consumer computer, but that was his only extravagance. His next biggest personal expense was a gym membership.
    “That makes it even odder that you lived with us,” said Mary. “I always assumed it was to save money.”
    “So did I,” Linda said. But then, she realized she never thought that, not really. John cared for her and Tom, even loved them as a parent. She never analyzed it before, because she took for granted that he was there for them. She turned to address Eric. “Did everything John taught you get out?”
    “Yes,” said Eric. “It mainly went by email, but some by phone, some by fax, and a few things by U.S. mail, FedEx, and UPS. I got confirmation from several people. It was all set up in advance. I didn’t get anyone in Antarctica, but every other continent got it at least once. Most of it came indirectly from me. People forwarded it to others. There are probably tens of thousands of copies of it.”
    “Jun faxed his notes,” Cara said. “I delivered flash drives to the Post Office, UPS, and FedEx. Pedro and Eric else also sent out emails. It’s out