Memory Keeper | Teen Ink

Memory Keeper

January 27, 2011
By A.C.Worsham GOLD, Cocoa, Florida
A.C.Worsham GOLD, Cocoa, Florida
15 articles 0 photos 19 comments

Favorite Quote:
"We can't just slay the dragon with our bear hands!"
"Yeah, we need gloves!"
-Spongebob


Emily stood before me, standing on the ledge of the rooftop.

“Emily!” I hollered, my heart racing. “You’re going to fall!”

She didn’t look at me, she just gazed down at the notebook she always carried.

“Emily!” I yelled, taking a step towards her. Her head shot up, her icy blue eyes piercing into my own.

“Luke.” She whispered, her voice barely audible over the sound of traffic below.

I held out my hand to her, even though we were a good yard apart. “Come on Emmy.”

Her brows narrowed. “Stop calling me that.”

I took another step towards her. “Please, just come over to me and we can talk.”

I didn’t know what we would talk about. Perhaps we could talk about the fact that, besides himself, no one on the entire planet knew she existed, or they could talk about why she seemed to know everything about him.

Emily gripped her notebook to her chest. “It’s against the law to talk to you.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked her. “Who are you Emmy?”

Emily wiped a tear that fell on her cheek. “I’m not a normal girl Luke.” She looked at me and smiled a little. “I like that you treat me like one.”

I took another step towards her. “Then what kind of girl are you?”

She looked up at the sky. “My family has a long line of memory keepers in it.”

“What is a memory keeper?” I asked.

“It is a person who documents memories however insignificant, and stores them away.” As she said this, she held up her pad of paper and a small key around her neck. “We do it with this. When we come of age we are assigned people to document. You were one of mine.”

“I don’t think I believe you.” I said, my mind wandering over the possible things she could be taking. Mushrooms could make you have hallucinations. Maybe she was on them.

Emily held her key up a little higher. “Watch.”

I stopped breathing as a blue ray of light burst from the key, small bulbs or light floated out and in them were images. Images of me doing all sorts of things. Sleeping, eating, the first day of school, when I road a bike. All in the small balls of light around me, then, as soon as they had floated out, they were gone, absorbed back inside the key.

Emily looked down, sheepish. “I wasn’t supposed to show you that. But you’re a good person. You won’t tell.” She gave me a smile.

I struggled to take a breath. “You…you…”

She smiled wider. “When you were in first grade you saved a dog from getting hit by a car. That was so nice.”

Suddenly she was in my arms, her dark hair brushing my chin. “You won’t tell, right?”

I put my hands on her back. “I…I won’t.” I said finally.

She looked at me. “Promise?”

I bit my lip, my head was spinning in disbelief. “Promise.” The words formed on my lips. She pulled away.

“Good.”

And before I could stop her she ran to the edge of the roof and leapt off.

“Emily!” I screamed. I raced to the ledge, bracing myself to see the worst, but Emily wasn’t on the city streets below, she wasn’t anywhere, vanished in thin air.



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