Wallace came quickly like before. He entered the office quietly.
"Greetings, Sir. How may I assist you?" Wallace inquired.
"We need to bring back ALL of Iris's memories," Antoine replied.
"Is the girl asleep?"
"No."
"Has she given permission to see all the memories?"
"No, Wallace. We are going to give her all her memories back."
"Okay, sir. Are you sure about this? We can wait until she's asleep…"
"No, Wallace. NOW!" Martinique ordered.
Antoine exchanged a look with Wallace who seemed to be in big dilemma. Antoine desperately wanted Iris to be with him, but at what cost. Releasing the truth of all the lives she accidentally killed whilst drinking the blood might be too much. Antoine wasn't sure where his loyalty would lie.
Antoine, Martinique, and Wallace strolled out of the office and over to the living room where they expected to find Teresa, Iris, and Gina. However, there was just empty couches and a note on the wood coffee table. The note was written by Gina.
"Dear my stupid husband,
I cannot believe that you expect to give Iris all her memories back during the day like this WITHOUT her damn permission. I overheard you! We have decided to take Iris up to Fort Worth for a girl's day. See you much later.
Love,
Gina."
Antoine started to chuckle so loud but hushed himself after a glare from his father. Wallace stayed stone-cold like his pale face. Wallace tended to be less emotional. Bringing out other's gifts tended to be quite stressful so he had long ago lost any desire to retain his emotions. Most of his humanity remained minus his emotions. He had shut off what he thought hindered himself and his powers to be useful.
Martinique had scowled and swore quite loudly after reading the notice. Especially since they had gone to Fort Worth, a good hour's distance away. They would really have to wait until nightfall.
Antoine decided that instead of staying in the house with his father that he would return to the office and catch up on the past few days worth of work. It was Sunday so the office would at least be quiet.
***********************
On the other side of the metroplex, Teresa, Iris, and Gina were in a black SUV taking the paid expressway up to Fort Worth. They decided to hit the art museums in downtown and eat lunch at a famous fajita restaurant. Gina was driving with Iris in the passenger seat and Teresa in the back.
"So, Iris," Gina asked. "Have you been to the museums up here much?"
"I went on my fourth-grade field trip to the Dallas art museum but I haven't been to the ones in Fort Worth."
Teresa was shocked, "Really?! The Fort Worth modern art and American art museums are the best. I love all the collections and some of the local galleries!"
Iris replied, " I have been to the Billy-Bob-Joe's big country western bar and dance hall up here. It's fantastic."
"Let's do that for dinner!" Teresa exclaimed.
"How do you expect me to do that, pregnant?"
"You're only like 7 weeks pregnant," Teresa said.
"No, Teresa," Gina interjected. "I am pretty sure she means how she is expected to do that dry without alcohol."
"Oh," Teresa sighed. Gina and Iris laughed hard.
When they made it to Fort Worth, they parked and went into the modern art museum first. Apparently both Gina and Teresa had memberships so Iris got in free. The major exhibit was a modern photography exhibit. It was photographs of graffiti around major cities in the world. The color contrast of the black and white photos versus the color images of the same works was beautiful. It was like opening your eyes to color and allowing the whole world to fill it. Iris decided to get a few postcards from the exhibit in the museum's gift shop. Iris went to pull out her credit card but Gina insisted and bought them instead. Teresa bought a scarf with images from the exhibit dyed on white silk. It cost nearly $300 dollars! Iris gasped at the price tag on the register.
Afterwards the three were going to go to the American art museum but Iris was already starving so they left early to get fajitas. Once they were seated at a table in P's Restaurant, the women started to gobble up the chips and salsa. It was delicious. Salty and thin, crisp tortilla chips with a fresh, spicy tomato salsa. Gina ordered chicken and beef mixed fajitas with flour and corn tortillas. The food came out fast and sizzling. Iris made herself three tacos with chicken on flour. She stuffed it with sour cream, rice, and beans. It was so filling and tasty.
"Gina, what's your secret?" Iris asked.
Gina was shocked and started to cough a little. After drinking some water, she replied, "What secret?"