Forget to Remember

obtained for her. When she said she was the amnesiac they had treated before, they let her in. However, she couldn’t continue to live like this. She had to get answers.

    CHAPTER 23
    The next morning Carol slept in. When she awoke, the first thing she noticed was the bandage on her arm. A nurse at the hospital had told her how to change it. She would do that after she got something to eat. Her wound didn’t hurt, but she was hungry. She was halfway down the stairs when she heard the Ramirez phone ring.
    She knew Tina and Ernie had left for their office some time ago, in spite of being awake much of the night. Rigo was still sleeping off the effects of working the Sunday night shift at the restaurant and chasing the attacker. Carol’s arm began to throb as she sped up and went into the kitchen to answer the phone. She picked up the receiver and said hello.
    “Hello, Carol? It’s Frances.”
    It didn’t sound like Frances. She was almost whispering. “Hi. Do you have a cold?”
    “No. Listen; Victoria Brody is here.”
    “Who? Oh, the woman who might be my mother. She’s at your house?”
    “Yes. She showed up on my doorstep this morning. She drove all the way from Fresno. Farmers must get up in the middle of the night. She found my address through the Internet. Nobody’s safe anymore. Anyway, she wants to meet you.”
    Carol repressed a desire to say that since Frances used the Internet to find people, she should expect others to do the same. “Let me see if I can get myself to your house. Tina’s car is probably here. I’ll call and ask her if I can use it.”
    “You know you don’t have to do this. I can get rid of her.”
    “I want to meet her. I’ll call you back in a minute.”
    Carol hung up the phone. Excitement was growing inside her. She had to meet this woman who might be her mother.
    “Did I hear the phone ring?”
    Carol jumped, and then turned to face a bedraggled Rigo who had obviously just gotten out of bed.
    “How would you like to take a little drive this morning?
    ***
    “That pickup truck must belong to Victoria.”
    Carol looked at the older model Ford parked in front of Frances’ house. It could use a wash, but maybe the dirt was what held it together. Rigo parked behind it, and they walked up the short driveway to the house.
    Frances opened the door in response to their ring with a little smile on her face. She hugged them both. “Carol, what happened to your arm?”
    “Oh, I got shot, but I’m okay. We’ll explain later. Where’s Victoria?”
    Frances obviously had a lot of questions, but she suppressed them and led the pair through the kitchen to the back room. A woman in jeans and a flannel shirt was just rising from a sofa. Her hair was short and the color of iron. She wore glasses over a tanned face. She wasn’t as tall as Carol and quite a bit bulkier. She stuck out a calloused hand and smiled a wide-mouthed smile.
    “Carol, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
    Carol shook Victoria’s hand. Her grip was as strong as that of a man trying to make an impression. Rigo gave his first name and also shook her hand. They had agreed he wouldn’t give his last name at the moment, although she could find it out simply by reading the newspaper accounts of how Carol had been discovered.
    Carol felt awkward, especially after Frances asked whether they wanted iced tea or coffee to drink and went into the kitchen, followed by Rigo. She sat on the sofa, some distance from Victoria, who exuded what Carol suspected was a farm odor, and noticed she was already drinking coffee.
    “I understand you have a farm.”
    “Yeah, my brother and I own a pretty good spread together. It’s a lot of work, but it keeps body and soul together.” Victoria laughed a distinctive, cackling laugh.
    “Why did you decide to look for your daughter?”
    “Well, it’s like this. Pete—that’s my brother—never married. I never married. It’s just the two of us living there. We aren’t getting any younger. We began wondering who’s going to take over the place when we go.”
    “You’re still young yet.”
    “Yeah, but you gotta think about the future. Besides, whoever takes over has gotta learn the ropes. That’ll take a while.”
    “I see. Have you had any luck finding the adoptive parents?”
    “When I had my baby, I was young and scared. My boyfriend had taken off, probably back to Mexico. I didn’t have any money; I couldn’t keep her. I agreed to the adoption with the condition