Artemis: Zoe - In Search of Memories
Dori
Winter in Iowa was a stereotypical Northern Hemisphere winter: snow and ice, combined with a wind that went right through you if there was nothing to break it. In the city, there were plenty of tall buildings, but out here, on the Farm, there was much less. Fields stretched off in every direction, with only the occasional outbuilding to get in the way.
Samantha shivered slightly and glanced over at her sister. She still had trouble believing that her twin was really alive. Talking to her was strange, kind of like talking to someone she ought to know, and yet didn't. That was why she had suggested they come here. Some of her fondest memories with her twin had been made on the Farm. If memories alone could jog her twin's amnesia, this would be the place to start.
Zoë was looking back at her, and to Samantha's surprise, she was smiling. "I am feeling very hopeful." She said. "This is a beautiful place. If anything can restore my memory, I'd like to think this place can."
"Yeah." Samantha agreed. "Let's walk. It's a little different here than it was when we grew up, but I can tell you the differences. How is your imagination?"
"As good as yours, I bet." Zoë seemed to be in good spirits.
Samantha laughed. "Okay, so if you turn around, you'll see the tall tree to the right of the garage. It's grown closed now, but we used to play in a hollow in the branches. There was a swing attached to some branches too. We always tried to swing as high as we could go and then jump off. Catherine, our next sister, she tried to jump like we did and broke her leg. Mom was furious."
The two sisters broke into laughter. "You know, I don't think I would want to see her mad." Zoë said reflectively.
"No, it's not pretty." Samantha shook her head vigorously. "It was easily fixed, but we still got a lecture. Okay, so out there you can see the barn." She was walking now, across the wide field. "The corncrib is to the left, and the granary to the right. The chicken coops is straight down there." She pointed down to the left as they passed the garage.
"We built this kind of clubhouse in the the hayloft when we were really little. I think Dad had a hand in it - we couldn't have been older than four. We'd climb the ladder and pull it up after us. No one could follow us up, and we could be by ourselves for hours. I remember we used to have picnics up there. Now our nieces and nephews play up there. Mom keeps a med kit by the entrance to the barn."
"I believe it. Kids manage to find every way possible to hurt themselves." Zoë commented as they walked across the field, cut down to short stubble for the winter. "What is this in the summer? It doesn't look like crops or grass."
"Prairie flowers. It has been for about a hundred years. I guess one of our ancestors got tired of it being grass and planted a bunch of flowers instead. All sorts, but between the barn and the actual crop fields is all sunflowers. You should see it in the summer. It's breathtaking." Samantha told her.
"I've always loved sunflowers. I made my parents plant a few, and I had a painting of them hanging in my room. It was a replica of a famous one from Earth, my mother...well, you know. She told me. I think the artist's name was Van Gogh."
"Oh yeah, I saw some of his art once. I always liked Monet better though, from that time period." Samantha hauled open the barn door and the two woman peered inside. "Dad wanted to put modern lights in, but Mom wanted it to be a little more old fashioned. She found some lights that look like the originals would have - gas lights - but obviously they run on modern energy and not some nasty gas. Here." She turned one on that was next to the door.
Zoë glanced around the cavernous space, her eyes widening to take in what she could in the dim light. "Wow." She breathed. "It's so...tall."
"Yeah. This is the highest part though. It gets shorter at each end, and the additions are single story. They needed the height here to have a hayloft, to store food for the horses. According to the old stories, anyway."
"Our barn on Marshall Two was made of stone. It was...different than this. But I still don't remember anything." Zoë sounded disappointed.
"Let's keep walking. There's more, back the lane." Samantha suggested. She had an idea, too, of something that would help.
As they left the barn and headed onto the path that took them farther into the property, the wind picked up. Samantha stuck her gloved hands into pockets and glanced over at her sister. "You warm enough?" She asked, concerned. Zoë had not had a mother and sister who had been making warm things for her for years.
"I'm not used to this cold." Zoë admitted, shivering. "This wind is bitter."
"There's not much to stop it once you get beyond the buildings. There's a burn pile not far. We'll get out there and start a bonfire. No one will mind, and it'll warm you up." Samantha said. She hoped the scent of the smoke might help to trigger Zoë's memory.
***
The bonfire was going merrily. Zoë and Samantha sat next to it, roasting marshmallows on long skewers.
"How did you survive the Dominion War?" Samantha asked as she rotated her skewer.
“My ex-parents -” Zoe glanced at Samantha, a shy look on her face. They had not yet talked about the people who had pretended to be her parents for all those years.
“A good way to put it.” Samantha replied, nodding.”
"Well, when they first had me, I remember living in a small house in a semi rural area. Then Dad told me we were moving and that I had to pack. I don't know, it must have been several months or even a year later. I'm a bit fuzzy on the time. Thinking back, it must have been about the time that the treaty with the Cardassians was signed. The planet we were living on was one of those that was to be handed over. I was too young to understand, and still coming to terms with the memory loss."
She leaned back and pulled in her marshmallow for inspection, then stuck it back in the fire. "I don't know how, but they got the farm on Marshall 2 where I ended up growing up. Maybe they had a feeling about what might happen and wanted to get somewhere safe." She shrugged. "I don't know why they didn't move back to Earth."
"Maybe because if they had they would have lost you and been convicted of kidnapping?" Samantha asked. "Our parents took a long time to give up hope that you were dead. They only had you declared dead when I joined Starfleet, and that was because it was a security risk to have a missing twin flapping about." Samantha sighed. "I think the year I spent in therapy at the Academy over losing you permanently sent me into this job instead of medicine."
"Losing my memory sent me into medicine, although I almost went into veterinary medicine." Zoë said thoughtfully. "There were several farms in the area and we were largely self sufficient - I think it started during the War - and there were a lot of animals. I helped the vet when he came to our farm. I just love animals."
"We have a long history of animals on the family farm in Iowa." Samantha gestured around. "If you wanted, you could always move back to Earth and live here. Most of us have other places, it would be nice to have a permanent person living here."
"We'll see. I have a lot of options. I kind of want to help the new country." Zoë looked down. She hadn’t yet told her sister of her appointment.
"Do you remember anything?" Samantha asked.
"I...no." Zoë replied, pulling her marshmallow back and eating it quickly before it fell off the skewer. "I wish this had been enough."
"There are other things we can try." Samantha shrugged. "We'll get there. You had no idea where to even start before. You were probably trying to remember a past with the parents you lived with, not even realizing your past was completely different."
"Yeah." Zoë nodded. "Thank you for trying to help."
"I'm your sister." Samantha said with a smile. "Whether you remember or not. The day I lost you was the worst of my life, and the day I heard you were still alive was one of the best. I want to have a relationship with you, and it will be a lot easier if you can remember our childhood together."
"What if I never can?" Zoë looked over at Samantha.
"Then we'll just start from the beginning. We have a lot in common, right? It shouldn't be too bad." Samantha said cheerfully.
“That sounds... all right.” Zoe replied, nodding.
“Good. Computer, end program.” Samantha replied, and the holodeck turned off. The two sisters headed out together, laughing and talking.