.
Jade had started simple, but she had a theory she wanted to try out.
First she had Delia tell her about Homecoming that year, which was an easy and quick answer, because Derek had not gone that year, or any year to any dance, it wasn't his thing.
As Jade had asked the question she was looking at a photo of a bunch of girls, including Delia all dressed up with their dates for the Homecoming dance. So she asked, "yes but what color dress did you wear?"
Delia felt played and surprised:
"Wait I went to the dance?!" she clearly had no memory of this.
"Yes, so you don't remember that?"
"No! not at all!"
"What if I told you, you wore a green dress? What then? anything about that night"
To Jade it was a simple line of questioning, but to Delia it felt like teasing.
" Let me see!"
Delia grabbed at the screen, turning it around.
In it, she saw a Facebook photo of her new self, in a green dress, with her hair up and a guys arms around her waist, she was smiling a large smile. She looked nice, tasteful, not as good as some of the other girls...she felt like she knew their names. James was the guy with his arm around her, before he had never talked to him, he was sort of part of the background of school, now she seemed to know his name and what kind of guy he was.
Jade could see recognition happening in Delia as she looked at the photo.
"So tell me about that night."
Delias tone seemed to change as she talked about it, her voice become raised an octave or so and her cadence shifted to a quicker pace. For a moment it was as if she had lived that night herself, she talked about being picked up, how she was asked, she knew about the dress, the place they ate, something about trying to run in heels during dinner (she wasn't totally clear on every detail) And she knew about dancing. It took her a good while for her to tell the whole story, but as she did Jade went from being interested in a purely objective way, to really wanting to know all the details about the evening. At some point it became fun, and they went on further, looked at more photos and Delia told more stories. It was like watching lights get turned on one by one in a dark apartment building. Before they knew it an hour had passed, and giggling like the school girls they were, Jade had a moment of clarity and asked:
"So what was Homecoming like as Derek then?"
"you know I don't remember." Delia's voice hadn't changed since she had started remembering, it had taken on a sweetness that she lacked before, as she tried to remember her old life that sweetness waned, as if something was caught in her throat, dragging it deeper. It was like a spell breaking, and suddenly Jade became a scientist again, wanting to know why and how this was happening.
"say more" Jade pushed
"Well I don't know, I mean we didn't do much, it was nothing as fun as actually going to the dance, I can tell you that. I guess it just seems like the smaller of the two events."
This could be true, because it made sense, doing something trumps doing nothing, but what she wasn't sure of was if that would always be true. Delia didn't use to remember the dance, but now, because of her added stimulus, not only did she remember it, she preferred remembering her memory over the old one. Jade wasn't paying close enough attention to Delia, or she would have also noted the change in cadence, tone, pitch and posture that remembering brought on.
Delia broke the line of thought that Jade was in.
"Lets see your profile, I want to know who you've been with." To Delia this was now the game that it felt like when they were just browsing Delia profile, but Delia didn't know. Jade had avoided looking at her profile, in the same way that people don't like to hear the sound of their own voice on recordings, Jade didn't feel comfortable looking into her own life, she would rather focus on others. Reading her posts and profile would reveal too much and she was still trying to hold on to the old Jay. But she was about to get a crash course in her new self, courtesy of Delia.
