Transplanted Life
Thursday, September 14, 2006
 
Gertie certainly had a busy day
For me, it was just another day that started out kind of bland and turned dark and rainy as it went on. Those aren't much fun; I look up from my cube at around three o'clock, see the weather outside through a window way on the other side of the room and start grumbling about how I didn't remember an umbrella or the like. I get more work done, because I wind up putting off going outside to catch the bus until maybe next time, because it might not be raining by then.

I was kind of curious to get home, just because of the text message I got from my roommate. I suppose she didn't have much time to type it out, but I would have been even more intrigued if her message had been more informative than "Omfg i saw amy s!" Maybe I'm just older than my apparent years and cranky, but what good is such a ubiquitous communications device if you're not actually communicating?

It wasn't until I got home and talked to her that I found out she meant Amy Sanada. I have to admit that even for me, the name took a second to fully register. It is, of course, the name of the girl Korpin switched his mind with before switching out of it a few weeks later. She's been missing ever since, or so I thought; it turns out that she has been out in California for the last two months or so. Gertie spotted her movie into her dorm room this afternoon, surprised, as you might expect - we'd just sort of been presuming her dead, since Korpin didn't seem much like the leaving loose ends behind type. After all, if someone is willing to kill the body they must have thought of as theirs, whoever it was in Amy's body must have been nothing, right? So we figured he'd kill her and destroy the body completely, so as not to leave any trace.

Anyway, immediately after text-messaging me, Gertie calls up Agent Jones, figuring he's probably aware of everything, but what the hell? Apparently, he and the FBI were completely unaware that Sanada - or whoever it is - was no longer missing. They set a new record getting from the Federal building in downtown Boston to Harvard Yard, where Gertie's been keeping an eye on Miss Sanada. Jones and his partner find Gertie, who points them to her.

It's apparently not a very long interview; as soon as Jones and Lowen are within her sight, Mrs. Sanada starts yelling in Japanese, holding her daughter. Mr. Sanada gets between them, and tells Jones that Amy and her mother would prefer not to speak with them. Gertie doesn't get everything - Lowen kind of gives her a look every time she has edged a little closer - but what she picks up is that Amy and Asuka were not at all impressed with the job the FBI did in finding her. Jones says it's important to know how she escaped in order to bring her kidnapper to justice, but Sanada says that Amy doesn't remember any of that - that everything was very traumatic. Lowen says that maybe with some help, she'd be able to remember how and where she got free, but Mr. Sanada asks why anyone would want to remember that. Lowen suggests that Amy's kidnapping may not have been an isolated incident. Gertie doesn't think Jones liked her bringing that up, but it does make Sanada a little uncomfortable. Eventually, he takes one of Jones's cards and says he'll talk to Amy, but he doesn't think she'll change her mind. The important thing, they seem to think, is that Amy get back to her old life.

"So," Gertie asks after telling me all this after we get home, "what do you think is going on, body-switching expert?"

Well, I figure, there's a few possibilities. First, Korpin never switched out of that body - the whole thing back in May was just an elaborate misdirection. He lays low, maybe uses that time to learn all he can about the Sanada family, and tries to live her life. I don't think that coming back to Boston makes a whole lot of sense if that's the case, but Korpin seemed to like dancing near the lion's mouth in his original body; maybe Korpin 2.0 does too. Or, I suppose, it could be misdirection of another sort - he could have been in some other body all along, having kidnapped Amy Sanada, got the Feds looking in the wrong place, and maybe switched to a third body at some unknown time.

Or this Amy's story could basically be true but incomplete - someone else could have been switched into that body, and is choosing to lay low because Korpin has threatened him/her or he/she is afraid of being thought a nut. Lord knows that's possible; it's basically my story.

Hmm, Gertie says. Well, if that's the case, we do know where she lives. We could go talk to her.

I say it sounds like she wants to be left alone, but she asks me if I would have wanted to know if there were others like me three years ago. I suppose I would have, even though I wouldn't have been able to tell anybody that. I say it probably can't hurt much to talk to her sometime, and Gertie is practically giddy. I've known she was excited about the whole mystery deal, but I don't know if she realizes just how dangerous this game could be.

-Marti
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
 
Next year, we're planning a trip to Toronto
It wasn't too long ago that the Boston Film Festival was a real festival, where you get the program and plot out where you want to go, figure on maybe seeing two movies on a weeknight and up to five on the weekend. You had to ponder whether you could get from one of the three movies playing at Copley Place to Boston Common. You could go through two books of ten tickets, decide whether you wanted to do a movie that might not play for months or might not play at all, see stars or see indies, all that good stuff. Last year it just imploded, and while there's a few more choices this year, it's not what it was.

Kate lost patience during the short program Sunday morning, which was a technical nightmare. That's when she made the crack about just going to the Toronto Film Festival, which runs at about the same time period as Boston's, and just has more movies and more choices. It's a big Oscar-preview festival, too, while some of the stuff at Boston... well...

She's bouncing back well, though, which is cool. As she puts it, thirty is staring her in the face and she can't afford a lot of self-pity time. I suppose I should get used to thinking that way, because women can't wait forever to start a family. It's funny, though, that she's a little jealous of my brain not being programmed to get married and have children before middle age makes it less likely, but we've got that programming for a reason. As much as having it can make us nuts, it does keep use continuing the species. It's quite possible I'll wake up in ten years and realize I'm not married and getting into "high-risk pregnancy" territory.

Bah. Thinking about that's not doing me any good, and it detracts from the important thing, which is that Kate's well past feeling sorry for herself and looking at other guys.

-Marti

Powered by Blogger

Note: This blog is a work of fantasy; all characters are either ficticious or used ficticiously. The author may be contacted at JaySeaver@comcast.net