Free Forgotten: A Novel by Catherine McKenzie Page A

fuck it, you know? Fuck her. ” He half empties his glass. “Fuck the both of them, come to think of it.”
    “Thank you for telling me.”
    “Sure. You want to eat?”
    “Absolutely.”
    He fills two soup bowls with large helpings of stew. It tastes as good as it smells.
    “You know, this is far and away the best Irish stew I’ve ever had.”
    “Thanks, but I’m guessing your taste buds have been good-taste-deprived recently.”
    “You may have a point, but it’s still really good.”
    “How was the police station?” he asks.
    “Only slightly less painful than work.”
    “Maybe tomorrow will be better?”
    I raise my glass in a mock toast. “Here’s hoping.”

Chapter 7: Imagine the Possibilities
    A frica again. Same dream, same smells, same wide-open sky.
    Only this time? When my mother appears? She doesn’t warn me that the coughing, flushed guide who’s serving dinner is sick. Instead, she tells me to eat everything on my plate like a good little girl. There are starving kids in Africa.
    And in that moment I know. My mother knows I’m going to get sick.
    My mother wants me to get sick.
    E mma? You awake?”
    My eyes fly open. I expect to see Karen’s face poking through the tent flap, but it’s only Dominic, standing in the doorway in his striped pajamas holding a cell phone in the palm of his right hand.
    “I think so.”
    “Your phone keeps ringing.”
    I sit up. My throat feels dusty, and my skin feels like it’s spent too much time in the sun. “Sorry, did it wake you?”
    “I needed to get up anyway. Here, catch.” He tosses me the phone. It flies through the air in a perfect arc, landing in the blankets in my lap.
    I look at the blinking message light and my heart starts to race. Please, please, please let it be Stephanie. I flip it open and look at the number. It’s local and familiar. A little too familiar. I dial into my voice mail, ready to be disappointed.
    “Hi, Emma, it’s Matt. I’ve spoken to the Management Committee, and it’s looking good, but there are a few things I wanted to discuss with you. Call me at the office when you get this message.”
    I close the phone and slump down.
    “Bad news?” Dominic says.
    “Good news, I think. About work.”
    “Are you sure that’s good news?”
    “I like my job.”
    He gives me a skeptical look.
    “What?”
    “Nothing. I’ve just never met a lawyer who actually liked what she did.”
    I throw back the covers and stand up. The cold seeps through my naked feet. “Well, now you have.”
    “Who’d you want the call to be from?”
    “My best friend, Stephanie. She’s gone looking for me.”
    “Ah.”
    I nod. “That about sums it up.”
    “Coffee?”
    “That’d be great.”
    I stare at the phone in my hand. I never called Stephanie’s mother back like I promised I would. And maybe, just maybe, they’ve heard from her. I punch the buttons and get Lucy on the first ring. I’m not the only one anxious for news. She’s glad to hear from me, but she doesn’t know any more than I do. Of course they’ll call me the minute they know anything. I hang up with a hollow feeling in my heart. When I thought of coming home, all those months, I never thought I’d feel more alone here than when I was halfway around the world.
    “Do you want eggs?” Dominic asks from the kitchen.
    “Yes, please,” I yell back. “I’ll be there in a minute.”
    I return Matt’s call, my heart fluttering. The rational part of my brain knows they must be willing to take me back, but its connection to the fears-and-irrational-thoughts part of my brain seems to be broken.
    “Emma, thanks for returning my call,” Matt says in a cheery tone.
    “Of course.”
    “I’ve spoken to the Management Committee, and everything’s all set.”
    “That’s great, Matt. Thank you.”
    Did I just thank him for giving me an opportunity to make them hundreds of thousands of dollars every year? My pleaser complex must be in overdrive.
    “We thought with it