As predicted, Nathan ended up running into Sierra again the following week in the laundry room. It seemed that she timed doing her laundry with his on purpose to get that autograph.
He didn't mind even though he did have to prevent her from getting whacked by somebody's laundry basket that was piled so high they couldn't see where they were going. Honestly, did this woman have no sense of self-awareness at all? Was there something wrong with her peripheral vision?
"What's your sister's name?" he asked as he took out the pen he always carried on him.
"Scarlett with two T's. I really appreciate this; thanks, Nathan!" Sierra said cheerfully, her earlier ire at his less-than-stellar social skills forgotten.
"No problem."
He had never actually given a personalized signature before. After his second bestseller, he started generically signing his name on a certain number that were available for preorder since he sort of had a small fanbase at that point but that was it.
His message might have been kind of awkward but he did his best considering he had never done this before. 'Scarlett, I'm glad you enjoy my books! Thanks for the support. Nathan Grant'
Nathan handed the book back to Sierra. "Here you go. Have a nice rest of your day, Sierra."
She smiled. "You too."
He left the laundry room and had the faint impression of someone smiling at him even though he couldn't remember who. He recalled feeling warm because of that smile though. Who was it?
===
A few days later, Nathan squinted at the palm of his hand in confusion. He recognized his own handwriting but had absolutely no memory of writing 'Don't forget Sierra' on it.
Who was Sierra? Why did he feel like he was missing something important?
This had been happening to him a lot lately. Feeling like there was something he couldn't remember even though he should. It started shortly before that incident with the purse snatcher. Was Sierra related to that at all?
Nathan didn't understand how there could be such clean gaps in his memory that refused to fill no matter how much he strained. He knew there were some unexplainable things in this world. His power proved that.
Was he not the only powered person in the world? But what sort of power could cause someone to forget about you when you weren't with them? It definitely wasn't what he had; people remembered him fine.
Although…wasn't there a species of alien like this from that sci fi show he watched in high school? People only remembered them when they were looking at them so they were difficult to defeat. In the end they managed to do it by getting a recording of one of the creatures on national television saying "you need to kill us all on sight" so people actually did it.
Nathan didn't believe in aliens but since he was obviously some sort of psychic it wasn't too farfetched to believe there might be people out there with other powers. He hadn't thought about it much before because talking about his power always got him in trouble so he figured he was alone in this.
Sierra….Sierra…not a single impression was left behind when he thought of that name. Who was she? Why did he want to remember her in the first place? Was it simply curiosity? He normally didn't care about anyone but Amber.
Thoughts like this continued to bother him as he walked down the street to get himself some lunch from a nearby hole-in-the-wall restaurant a day after he originally wrote 'Don't forget Sierra' on his hand. Ever since it happened, he had struggled with concentrating on his novel.
Nathan only had one chapter left too! All he needed to do was collect his thoughts enough to finish it. Endings had always been the hardest thing for him to do because he wanted to make sure all the loose ends were wrapped up appropriately. That was easier said than done and he often had to go back and reread everything to be sure he didn't miss anything important.
One more chapter then he could submit his draft more than a week before his deadline. He would be able to do it easily if he wasn't so hung up on who the mysterious Sierra might be.
As he continued walking, he looked up and saw a woman get her high heel stuck in a grate where a bus was about to pull up to a bus stop. After she was hit he moved closer to get a better look and realized it was Sierra.
All of his memories of her came flooding back right as everything reset. Of all the potential accidents she had gotten in before that he had stopped none of them had been as severe as a bus accident!
Would he even have time to stop this one? He was further away than he normally was when things like this happened and he needed to act fast.
Nathan sprinted toward her but was worried it wouldn't be enough so he yelled, "Sierra! You need to move!"
She whipped her head around to look at him and he realized he had made a mistake. Her heel was what was stuck but she couldn't simply slide her foot out because of the straps buckled around her ankle. He had distracted her and now she might not have time to get the shoe off.
The bus was coming in quickly and since she was hunched over it was difficult for the bus driver to see and slow down in time. There was only one thing he could do. He needed to break the heel off to get her out of the way.
Steeling himself for the worst, Nathan realized he was going to have to be a little rough. He mentally apologized to her as he shoved her with the full force of his bodyweight. The heel broke, as he had hoped, and she managed to fall away from the bus into the empty street.
The problem was that he didn't use enough force to get himself out of the way too. He got bumped by the bus and went flying. It was barely a tap but those things weighed more than 25,000 lbs.
He landed rather severely on his arm and cracked his head against the ground too. His vision blurred as a crowd of worried strangers hovered over him. The last thing he saw as he lost consciousness was Sierra's desperate expression as she begged him to stay awake.