Free Interfictions 2 by Delia Sherman Page B

for him for decades.
    Dunbar wondered if it would be better to be senile in order to forget. He wondered if it would be better to be like his mother. Or patient HM? Or Heidi?
    Heidi had remembered Dunbar's lecture on patient HM and did something terrible to herself. She reasoned that if she damaged her hippocampal structure she could block the storing of new information and stop accumulating new details of her life. She flew down to a hospital and had her hippocampus severed.
    * * * *
    Dunbar went every Wednesday to lunch with her at the hospital.
    DUNBAR: Heidi. How are you today?
    HEIDI: Dunbar! It's so nice to see you.
    * * * *
    DUNBAR: Heidi. How are you today?
    HEIDI: Dunbar! It's so nice to see you.
    * * * *
    DUNBAR: Heidi. How are you today?
    HEIDI: Dunbar! It's so nice to see you.
    * * * *
    After a few years, he stopped.
    Heidi did not notice.
    * * * *
    He had been a young man the first time he had come to the moon, and here he was again.
    "Are you ready, sir?” asked the young man who had been assigned as his handler.
    "One minute,” Dunbar said.
    He needed to look out the window for a little bit longer. He was now dressed, except for his shoes. He could not bear to put them on. They were a little too tight, because of the difference in gravity.
    He was being rewarded for all of the work he had done on memory techniques. And here he was, standing in the one place he wanted to forget.
    * * * *
    4. Fourth Memory
    Dunbar and Gertie had come to the moon for a romantic weekend. It was expensive and decadent, but they felt that they were more the type of couple that would go to the moon than to a tropical island. So when the prices came down low enough for civilian space travel to be affordable, they jumped at the chance to go.
    "We are going to the moon!” they said.
    They kissed the whole space flight up. They marveled at the architecture of the space station. They enjoyed the free shampoos in the bathroom of the hotel.
    "Newlyweds?” the bellhop had asked.
    Gertie blushed. Dunbar had wanted to ask her, but he was slow and shy.
    Once in the room, they made love with the window shade open so that they could see the earth rise. There were three hurricanes on the Atlantic.
    They were in each other's arms when the conversation went from lover talk to something else. Something dark. Something ugly.
    A suspicion.
    "You were checking up on me?"
    "I had to know."
    "How much I loved you?"
    "It was because I loved you so much. I loved you with all of my heart."
    "Why didn't you leave it alone?"
    "I'm not comfortable with your jealousy."
    "You're not happy unless there is an argument."
    "You kept it from me."
    "That was my right. I am my own person."
    "By doing that, you betrayed us."
    "But I had to know. You left me no choice."
    "You broke the trust."
    "It was only that one time. I wouldn't ever again."
    "I don't know if I could ever love you the same way now."
    "You are a coward."
    "You are disgusting."
    "You are weak."
    "I hate you."
    "I can't stand that look in your eyes. Hard."
    "I will never forgive you."
    "I wish I had never met you!"
    Dunbar got out of bed and put his pants on. He got out of bed and cursed her out.
    He got out of bed and left the room. He got out of bed and slammed the door.
    There was no relation between the door slamming and the crack that had been building for months in the window of their room, but after the fact, it seemed like it because just as Dunbar slammed the door, the window gave up on itself and began to splinter.
    By the time Dunbar was stomping down the clear tube to the bar in the hotel, the crack had gotten larger.
    By the time Dunbar had gotten his drink and sat by the scenic window, fuming, swearing that he would make her sorry, the window had shattered. All of the contents of the room, including a naked, crying Gertie, had been sucked out into space.
    By the time the emergency bells went off and the guests were escorted to safety, Dunbar realized that he would never be