Memory Master

All that mattered is that he had remembered Becca, and, he was quite certain, she would welcome the opportunity of their being intimate again. Becca had always been fond of him. Well, tonight, she could have all she wanted of him--and maybe more than she could handle. He grinned. He hadn’t felt this good for--well, a good while.

If his memory served, her e-exchange was 555-5588L. There was an e-exchanger at the corner of Orion Avenue and Neptune Street. He could contact her from there.

He’d expected Becca to welcome him without reservation; instead, the image on the e-exchanger’s monitor looked, by turns, shocked, horrified, and angry. “What the hell is this?” she demanded when she’d read Adam’s typewritten message: “Hi, Bec; this is Adam Waters. Long time, no see. Are you busy tonight?”

He frowned at her message and the darkness that clouded her face. His hands moved rapidly over the e-pad’s keyboard as he typed his reply: “What do you mean, ‘what the hell is this’? It’s ADAM, Bec. You remember me.”

He watched the letters of her reply flash on the e-exchanger’s monitor: “Adam disappeared five years ago.”

Of course! Adam told himself. He had vanished half-a-decade ago, when he’d decided to become--no, not when he’d ‘decided,’ but when he’d had to become--Amanda. He’d told no one where he was going or what he planned to do. In becoming a transsexual, Adam had ceased to exist, as far as anyone knew. He’d quite literally vanished. No wonder his showing up unannounced like this, claiming to be a man who’d disappeared five years ago, had shocked, frightened, and angered Becca. What could he say or do to put things right? Anything?

“Please, let me explain,” he typed.

“How did you get my e-exchange?” she demanded. “Who are you? What do you want from me? Are you stalking me?”