Extracted - Chapter 23 – Psst! I Can’t Tell You This – Part 1 of 2

 

Extracted

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 23 – Psst!  I Can’t Tell You This – Part 1 of 2

 

“What do you think?”

Agatha stared straight ahead and didn’t answer as she considered what her husband had just asked.  The phone call from him while he was at work had come straight out of the blue, and now this new suggestion for Stephen.  “Henry,” she finally said.  “You’d do that for him?”

“We need the help here, Honey.  And it’s simple enough work.”

“How about when the tutor we just hired starts working with him?  He doesn’t even know about that yet.”

“Tutor comes first!” Henry told her.  “Then he can help us out here.  Besides, once the filing is done, that would be it, but for a few days at least, he can come here and help out.”

“Why not?” Agatha finally agreed.  “I really can’t see where it can hurt at all.”

“We just need to make sure he’s able to alphabetize things.” Henry noted.  “Otherwise, it won’t work.”

“I don’t know if he can or not, but I’m betting it won’t be a problem.  At least, I hope it won’t.  Nancy was heading into the seventh grade.  If a kid can’t alphabetize something by then, then there’s some kind of problem.”

“Okay,” Henry replied.  “We’ll let him know tonight, and he can ride into the office here with me tomorrow.”

“We’re meeting with Mr. Curmett tonight,” Agatha reminded him.

“Yeah.  No problem…I hope!  Have you heard anything from Wanda or Mike up in New York?  If Curmett is coming here, it’s a foregone conclusion that he’s talked to them already.  Mike is a congressman.”

“Not a word,” Agatha told him.  “But that’s something else I’d like to discuss with you later.”

“What?”

“Later, dear.” Agatha told him.

 

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Doctor Faucet went through the motions all day with his patients, but he couldn’t get the things he had learned last night at Judith Rameriz’s house out of his head.  There had to be some other explanation.  He just couldn’t think of any just then.  But then, maybe the reason he couldn’t think of any other explanation was because he wanted what they had told him to be true.  Because if it was, it would be a fantastic discovery.

The only problem was, they had been right.  He couldn’t tell anyone about it.  Everyone would laugh at him, and they were already making fun of him because he liked ghost hunting.  What was wrong with ghost hunting?  He enjoyed it.

The door opened and his next patient came in.  A teenage boy with major anger issues.  But the sight of the boy brought back the memory of another teenage boy who had sat in the same seat this boy was roughly plopping himself down into.  A boy who didn’t have anger issues, but a multiple personality issue.  The kid had made up a fantasy identity that he was some kind of young girl instead of the big strong boy he actually was.  Talk about someone with identity issues.  Obviously the kid didn’t want to be a boy.  He wanted to be a girl instead.  Faucet couldn’t tell that to the parents though.  Especially not at that early stage of his treatment.

As his latest patient began ranting and raving about his parents, Faucet remembered that something else had happened with that other teenage boy.  Something that had caused his parents to drop him as the boy’s therapist.  An FBI woman had barged her way into his office and in the process had mentioned something so dumb it was laughable.  She claimed that the boy believed he was a girl named Nancy, but way up in New York, there was a girl who claimed to be Stephen.  That Stephen who had been in his office.  Faucet had never heard anything so ludicrous in his life!

But as the kid in front of him ranted and raved without Faucet saying a single word to him, Faucet still couldn’t get what he had learned last night off his mind.  Had their machine really removed someone’s soul, and then put it back again, perfectly intact?  It couldn’t be.  Such a thing boggled his mind.  But if it was true, what other explanation was there for it?  Of course, there was the rub.  If it was true!

If it was true, Judith Ramirez and her band of merry tinkerers had pulled someone’s soul from his body, and then put it back again.  Faucet grunted a laugh.  His patient guessed wrongly that he was agreeing with him and continued raving.  Faucet continued to ignore him and ponder the thought of actually capturing someone’s soul.  But what would happen if someone captured that soul…and then stuck it into someone else’s body?  Had anyone ever considered what would happen then?”

As his patient ranted and raved, showing why he needed therapy, Faucet remembered the other boy again.  He thought he was Nancy, and evidently some Nancy thought she was him.  It was ridiculous!  But…what if it was true?  Was it possible that Judith Rameriz had used her crazy machine on more than just Hector as she had claimed?  Was it possible?  And if they did, would it indeed transfer someone’s identity along with the soul?  It sounded very unlikely.  Just as unlikely as Rameriz extracting someone’s soul and sticking it in a can.

But what if…?

He decided that as soon as work was over, he was going to take another trip out to Judith’s fancy house and ask some more questions.  Just as soon as he could get rid of this pest of a boy who belonged in jail instead of his office.

It couldn’t be possible.  And Judith couldn’t have done that to someone else…two someone else’s if she switched their identities around.  It simply was out of the question.  But now that he had thought about it, he had to know.

Once again the question of the century crossed his mind.  Ghosts, and he was guessing that especially a soul, had memory.  How?  But he knew for a fact that they did, even though he couldn’t explain it.

 

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In some ways, Henry couldn’t believe he was doing it again, jogging with his son.  Yesterday had been bad enough.  He had barely made it to the end of the block and back again.  He had been exhausted!  But here he was getting ready to torture himself again.  No pain, no gain.  Yeah right!  Who cared?  His original son Stephen had cared, a lot!

But something else had happened during that exhausting run yesterday, he had almost felt like he had connected somewhat with this new Stephen.  Another thing that had surprised him was that the new Stephen was supposed to be mentally only twelve years old, yet at times, he had seemed more mature than that.  Was the Nancy inside Stephen smarter than he had been giving her credit for?  Who knew?  A congressman could probably afford to send his kids to some of the very best schools.  Stephen had gone to public school.  Was the difference that much?

He had felt somewhat connected with Steve yesterday, and today he needed that connection again.  He had a few things to discuss with Steve and figured that an easy jog up and down the street was the perfect time to do it.  Unless of course, you took into consideration his own body nearly dying by the time he got home.  How bad was it going to be today?

“Ready Dad?” Steve asked as they reached the road.

Henry wanted to say no, but he started jogging instead.  Steve fell into place right beside him.  “Did your mother tell you that Mr. Curmett is coming tonight?”

“Yeah,” Steve replied.  “I just don’t know why.”

“Neither do I.  He refused to say over the phone.”

“It would be very nice if they found a way to fix what happened to Nancy and me.”

“Very nice!” Henry agreed.  “Very, very nice!”

“I’m not holding my breath,” Stephen told him.

“No.  I wouldn’t either,” Henry agreed.  He decided to move on before he didn’t have the breath to talk anymore.  “Steve,” he said.  “Did your mother tell you that we told the school you won’t be there this year?”

“No,” Steve replied.  “But that was kind of obvious.  I mean, I saw some of the classes that Stephen was supposed to take this year, and I don’t have a clue about any of it.  And if you try to send me back to seventh grade where I’m supposed to be, the kids will do nothing but laugh at me.  And Dad, you’ve got to know that I don’t need that!  No way!  I won’t do it!”

“Don’t worry,” Henry assured him.  “We’re not sending you to a seventh grade classroom anywhere.  In fact, for now we’ve decided to not send you to any school, anywhere.”

“You’re not?  I don’t have to go to school?  Fantastic!  Thanks!”

“Don’t get your hopes up.  You’re going to school, but not the way you think.  We’re signing you up for an online school where you can work at your own pace until we think you might fit into a school somewhere.  And to help you, we’ve hired a tutor to come by three of four days a week to work with you.”

“A tutor?”

“That’s what I said.”

Steve considered that.  “Okay.  I don’t know how that will be, but just as long as I don’t have to go sit in a class somewhere full of seventh grade kids.”

“Not gonna happen,” Henry assured him.

“Good!”

“Steve,” Henry said, starting to really pant now.

“Yeah?”

“I need to know if you’re interested in helping us out at work for a few days.”

“Help you?  How?”

“Filing things that have gotten way out of hand since nobody who works for me seems to have the time or the inclination to put anything away once they pull it out.”

“I guess,” Steve told him.  “If you really want me to.”

“It would help,” Henry told him.  “But there’s just one thing.  You need to be able to alphabetize things.  Can you do that?”

“Alphabetize?” Stephen asked.

“Yeah, you know.  Put them in alphabetical order.  Are you capable of doing that?”

“Dad!  I’m supposed to be going into seventh grade, not kindergarten.”

“Good!  I’ll take you to work with me tomorrow.  If nothing else, it will give you something to do for a few days instead of moping around because you’re bored.”

“Anything!” Stephen replied.  “Anything at all!”

 

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Curmett knocked on the door to the Marsh’s home.  The three secret service agents who had been assigned to him for this trip took up positions across the front of the house.  The door was opened by the District Attorney himself.  “Mr. Marsh,” he greeted the man.

“Mr. Curmett,” Henry replied as he pulled the door open wide and let the man in.

Curmett noticed that Agatha and Stephen were already in the living room.

“Coffee, Mr. Curmett?” Agatha asked.

“Sure,” Curmett agreed before sitting in one of the chairs in the room.  Two minutes later, Agatha brought him a steaming cup of coffee before she sat down on one of the couches with her husband and Stephen.  All three of them waited expectantly to hear what Curmett had to tell them.

“The first thing I want to tell you,” Curmett said, “is the one thing that Nancy wanted to know before anything else.  And I’m sorry, but we still have no solution for a way to switch the two of you back the way you belong.”  He was surprised to see the immediate disappointment on Stephen’s face.

“Thought so,” Stephen said sadly.

“If we do ever figure it out,” Curmett continued, “believe me, you’ll be the first to know.”

Stephen did nothing more than nod.

“With that being the situation,” Curmett told them, “there are a few things we all need to get straight.  And because of the situation I need to ask each of you if any of you have told anyone else about the memory transfer thing, where Stephen here is actually Nancy, and Nancy up in New York is actually Stephen.  I need to know exactly who you’ve all told.”  He waited, looking at each of them.

Henry shook his head.  “I haven’t told anyone.  First the entire thing was nothing but embarrassing and we didn’t want to believe it, then it just became something too fantastic for anyone to believe.  So no, I can tell you for a fact that I haven’t told anyone at all.  You Agatha?”

“Not me,” Agatha assured him.  “I’ve told a few people that he has a bad case of amnesia, that he’s completely lost his memory, and that’s it.  I think everyone will believe amnesia, but who in their right mind would believe what actually happened?”

Curmett nodded.  “So true,” he agreed.

“Steve?” Henry prompted his son.

Steve shrugged.  “I don’t get to see or talk to anyone.  Period!”

Curmett was surprised.  “No one?”

“Not so far,” Steve told him.  “Melody, the other Stephen’s girlfriend came by once, but she was more interested in trying to kiss me than anything else.  And that was…not fun.”

“Thank you,” Curmett told him.  “So were good then.”

“Why?” Henry asked.

“Because I need you all to make sure you never let anyone have the slightest clue as to what actually happened.  As much as you might think otherwise, we believe that it’s necessary for national security.”

“I’m not sure how,” Henry told him.  “But if you think so, then we all will do our best to not let the truth out.  Besides, as Agatha said, who in their right mind would believe it.  Not to mention, the last thing we need is for some news reporter getting their interest up over this.  What someone like that would do to us would….”

“We probably couldn’t live with the consequences,” Agatha finished.”

“True,” Curmett agreed.  “I just need you to understand that the President of the United States feels very strongly about you maintaining the secrecy of this issue.  Very strongly!”

“What’s he doing about it?” Henry asked.

“I’m afraid I can’t tell you that,” Curmett replied.

“But is he doing anything at all?”

“Yes.  That much I can assure you of.  He is very concerned about this.”

Henry nodded, not sure if he believed him or not.

“We’ve also asked Doctor Montcliff to come down and work with Stephen here so that he has professional help to get him through this mess.”

“She’s going to come here?” Agatha asked.

“Yes,” Curmett assured her.  “She’ll call you to set it up.”

Agatha looked to Henry.  “That solves one of our problems.”

“Yes,” Henry said, grateful for that much if nothing else.  “What else?”

“I’m afraid that’s all I can tell you.  Please know that it’s imperative that none of you let anyone know what actually happened, and that Doctor Montcliff will be contacting you soon to begin working with Stephen here and offer him whatever aide she can.”

Henry almost couldn’t believe it.  “You came all the way down here just to tell us that?”

“When the President says do it, you have little choice.”

Henry nodded.

“More coffee?” Agatha suggested.

“No.  Thanks,” Curmett told her.

 

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