The Great Forgetting Read online

  “No.”

  “How does it end for you? How does the story ever end for you, Jack? Can you tell me that?”

  “I have to do what Cole was going to do,” he said. “I think that’s all that’s left to be done. See, the forgettings aren’t happening anymore. There’s no more new forgettings. They’ve stopped. Now we just need to fight the HAARP signal. And Cole had an idea about how to do that. We need to remind ourselves why it’s important to remember in the first place. We have to get that book back into the world.”

  “The cookbook?”

  “It’s not a cookbook.”

  “It sounds like a cookbook. Like it’s the temperature you bake a pizza or something.”

  “Fahrenheit 451,” said Jack. “That’s the temperature at which books begin to burn. That’s what happened in the story. They burned all their books and realized too late that taking away our stories, our histories, strips all the meaning from life.”

  “And if you don’t bring the book back into the world?”

  “We’ll go on killing each other until we finally succeed. That book is just a beginning. A spark. If you ever see a copy, you’ll know I did what I said I’d do. If you ever see a copy of that book, you’ll know I won.”

  “Well,” she said. “I’ll keep my eye out for it.”

  Kim shut off the TV and turned to Mason. “His paranoia is complete,” she said. “But his specific compulsion is the need to bring those around him under the influence of this delusion. He manipulates. He grooms. He pushes you until you begin to question reality, until you begin to wonder if maybe you really should boil your water. He’s really quite clever.”

  “I understand,” he said.

  “You still want to meet him?”

  “Yes, please. I just need to clear something up.”

  Ten minutes later, Kim escorted Jack from the dormitory. He was dressed in soft hospital sweats. He was secured to a wheelchair by thick leather bindings. She left them alone by the windows that overlooked the pond.

  “Hello,” said Jack.

  “Mr. Felter, my name’s Earl Mason. I’m the coroner out in Somerset County, in Pennsylvania? That’s where Flight 93 crashed on 9/11.”

  Jack’s eyes widened. “What brings you here, Mr. Mason?”

  He dug into his pockets and brought out the silver watch. Etched into the back was RIP, Tony Sanders. 1978–2012. Jack smiled.

  “Where did you find this?”

  “In a field.” Mason didn’t mention the strange ape hand tattooed with a swastika. He couldn’t bring himself to say something so crazy just yet. “Tony was a friend of yours?”

  “My best friend.”

  Mason nodded. “You know, of course, that Tony was on Flight 93 that day. He was one of the passengers who fought back against the terrorists.”

  “Yes.”

  “But that happened in 2001.”

  “Did it?”

  “I was hoping you could explain the engraving.”

  Jack ran his thumb along the words, feeling the defects in the metal. “Do you know what a gradient is?” he asked.

  “Like an incline in the road?” asked the coroner.

  “Sort of. Sort of like that. If you have the time, I can explain what you found. I can tell you a story. But you have to play along a little.”

  Mason leaned forward. “I’d be very interested in an explanation. I haven’t slept well since I found this thing.”

  “So humoring me a little wouldn’t be too much to ask?”

  “Of course not.”

  “I need you to start boiling your water, Mason. Will you do that for me?”

  “Yes,” he said, with little hesitation.

  “Then come back tomorrow and we’ll talk. In the meantime you should do a little research.”

  “Research? On what?”

  “Fluoride,” said Jack. “Come back tomorrow, and we’ll share some stories.”

  A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  James Renner is the author of a previous novel, The Man from Primrose Lane, published in 2012. He teaches composition at Kent State University and is a contributor to BoingBoing, Cracked, and Cleveland Scene. You can sign up for email updates here.

  ALSO BY JAMES RENNER

  FICTION

  The Man from Primrose Lane

  NONFICTION

  Amy: My Search for Her Killer

  The Serial Killer’s Apprentice

  It Came from Ohio

  Thank you for buying this

  Farrar, Straus and Giroux ebook.

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  For email updates on the author, click here.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Notice

  Dedication

  Epilogue

  Part One: Time Enough at Last

  i. Stopover in a Quiet Town

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  ii. Perchance to Dream

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  iii. Elegy

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  Part Two: Where Is Everybody?

  i. The Lonely

  1

  2

  3

  ii. Young Man’s Fancy

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  iii. Come Wander with Me

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  iv. The Whole Truth

  Part Three: The Fugitive

  i. Person or Persons Unknown

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  ii. Escape Clause

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  iii. A Penny for Your Thoughts

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  iv. Back There

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  v. To Serve Man

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  vi. Passage on the Lady Anne

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  vii. The Mind and the Matter

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  viii. The Last Flight

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  Part Four: The Lateness of the Hour

  i. The Invaders

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  ii. Five Characters in Search of an Exit

  1

  2

 
; 3

  4

  5

  6

  Part Five: Nightmare at 20,000 Feet

  i. On Thursday, We Leave for Home

  1

  2

  3

  ii. It’s a Good Life

  iii. The Changing of the Guard

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  14

  15

  16

  17

  18

  19

  20

  21

  22

  iv. People Are Alike All Over

  A Prologue

  A Note About the Author

  Also by James Renner

  Copyright

  Sarah Crichton Books

  Farrar, Straus and Giroux

  18 West 18th Street, New York 10011

  Copyright © 2015 by James Renner

  All rights reserved

  First edition, 2015

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Renner, James, 1978–

  The great forgetting / James Renner. — First edition.

  p. cm.

  “Sarah Crichton Books.”

  ISBN 978-0-374-29879-1 (hardcover) — ISBN 978-0-374-71420-8 (e-book)

  I. Title.

  PS3618.E5769 G74 2015

  813'.6—dc23

  2015010247

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