Read Online Mumnesia by Katie Dale - Free Book Online

future’. A long list of sci-fi
films and books pops up, then – holy guacamole! – an
article about a woman just like me!
    I read it quickly, learning that she had a form
of amnesia that usually passes in time, but can recur, and
it’s caused by . . .
emotional stress
.
    My mind races.
Amnesia?
That means . . .
it wasn’t magic after all. I’ve just lost my memory .
. .
of the last thirty-odd years
! This is so bizarro! On
one hand, I’m kind of gutted that I haven’t travelled
through time, but on the other, I’m majorly relieved to
discover that there might be a way to fix this – I
don’t fancy being a twelve-year-old stuck in a middle-aged
body forever!
    All I need to do is work out what Sharon was
stressed about and fix it . . . but besides being old, unfit and
severely lacking in fashion sense, she seems to have a pretty
good life: a nice house, a cool-if-underconfident daughter, good
job, lovely husband . . . What could she
possibly
be
stressed about? I tap the mouse absent-mindedly as I rack my
brains – and suddenly all the websites disappear. Oh
fudgeballs, what have I done?
    The screen is now dotted with little pictures
with writing underneath. I scan them quickly, then spot one that
reads ‘Emergencies’. This is totally an emergency! I
click on it and a whole new screen pops up, filled with little
white rectangles labelled: ‘Home Insurance’;
‘Car Insurance’; ‘Travel Insurance’;
‘Lucy’s School Round Robin’ . . .
    I remember these – we’ve got one for
my class too. If there’s ever, like, an emergency, each
parent rings the next one on the list, who does the same until
everyone’s got the message.
    I click the square and a list of names and numbers appears.
There’s Lucy’s friend Kimmy’s number, and
Megan’s . . .
    I think of Lucy’s longing expression when
she saw Megan and her clones hanging out yesterday, of how
she’s too shy to even talk to Zak, and how sad she sounded
as we lay in bed last night when she told me about Kimmy never
having time for her any more . . . If anything, it’s
Lucy
who’s unhappy.
    Maybe that’s it.
That’s
why
Sharon’s stressed out? She’s worried about
Lucy
? Of course!
    And I know
exactly
how to fix
everything.

25 LUCY
    ‘I’m glad you’re feeling
better today, Lucy,’ my English teacher says as I walk past
her in the corridor. ‘And I like your hair!’
    ‘Thanks, Ms Banks – you too!’ Her long black
trademark braids are twisted into a funky sideways knot, and she
looks amazing. She might be a teacher, but she’s pretty
cool – and today, it seems, so am I! All day, girls I
don’t even know have been coming up to compliment me on my
new look. Everyone seems to love it!
    Except Kimmy.
    By the time I’d finished talking to Zak she’d
disappeared, and she’s been giving me the cold shoulder all
day, which is uber-frustrating as I’m
bursting
to
tell her about Shazza! But she’s deliberately sat at a
different table to me in every lesson, disappeared at break and
played sports all through lunch (surprise, surprise).
    I finally catch up with her heading back to the sports block
after school. ‘Kimmy, wait!’ I call, running up to
her. ‘Can you come over to my house?’
    ‘I’ve got netball practice,’ she replies,
walking away.
    ‘Can’t you miss it just this once?’ I plead,
following her.
    She shakes her head. ‘We’ve got a match
tomorrow.’
    ‘But I need to talk to you about yesterday!’ I
beg. ‘Please, let me explain!’
    Kimmy glances at her watch, then sighs. ‘You’ve
got five minutes.’
    ‘OK! Well, on Sunday night Mum and I had this mahoosive
argument about whether or not I could go to the ball and I made a
wish—’
    ‘A
wish
?’ Kimmy interrupts. ‘Like
Cinderella? Lucy, you know there’s no such thing as magic,
right?’
    ‘Well, that’s what I thought as well!’ I
exclaim. ‘But on Monday morning when I woke up Mum