There. Putting down his pen, Emory sat back in his desk chair and flipped the yellow legal notepad back to the first leaf to review his list. It was a long list, the better part of the notepad, but he didn't want to forget to write down a single thing. These would be his memories, after all, if after his purification he didn't remember who his family were or any other aspect of his civilian life. That was what the list primarily consisted of: notes on his mother, her name and other details, notes on his little sister, notes on things that were important to him. He flipped through the pages, carefully reading what he had written to make sure he hadn't forgotten a single detail. There was no getting this wrong; there wouldn't be a second chance to get it right.

Among the notes were a few mentions of the Negaverse, and Emory frowned reflexively. He didn't want to remember anything about them, but figured it would be better to have at least some information written down just in case it came up or he encountered them. Captain Quartz, his superior officer. General Schorl, Quartz's boss. And General Ruizite, the man who had corrupted him back in Chicago. His father. Hvergelmir had said it was possible they'd come after him after he purified; he wanted to be prepared for that.

He came to the last page of notes and put the notepad down. This would have to do. He thought about tearing off the pages and putting them into a notebook all nice and neat, but the pressure of the pen on the previous pages would have left impressions on the blank pages, and in case his mother called the police he didn't want to leave any clues to his whereabouts. This was also why he'd written it longhand instead of on the computer -- he was no computer geek, but he'd seen enough police procedural shows on tv to know that nothing was ever permanently deleted from a computer hard drive. There would be no trace left behind.

With a sigh, Emory leaned forward and tossed the notepad onto the desk. Now came the hard part: the excuse for his "disappearance" from Destiny City. He'd thought and thought on a plausible reason for him to leave town, and had finally settled on basketball. Everybody knew he wanted to go pro; it was his life's dream. And as he was pretty much one of the stars of the Destiny City University basketball team, it would not be unusual for him to be scouted by an NBA team. So he had carefully come up with the story that he had been picked by a team on the other side of the country, and he had accepted and would be starting with their G-League team.

The "hard part" was lying to his mom and sister. He had to be more convincing in telling this ultimate lie than he had ever been before when he'd lied to his mother. It was imperative that she totally believed him.

Emory sighed again and stood. There was no time like the present. Picking up the notepad, he carefully slid it between his mattress and boxspring, where it would be safe until he did the deed. Then he made his way to his bedroom door and opened it. "Mom!" he called as he walked down the hall. "I have some really big news…"

( wc: 578 )