Excerpt: The Charm (Working Title)

“Do you ever wonder what happened before us?” he questioned.
“What do you mean?” I asked, “I moved here when I was two. It’s not like there was much happening the first couple of years. Or do you mean what was here before we got here? Like, history wise?”
“No, like those childhood memories you can’t quite grasp,” he said, “when you were too young to judge the world. The ones of ponds and soft sheets and the sound of your mother’s voice.”
“To tell you the truth, I don’t remember much before you. The early years are a little fuzzy. I can barely conjure outlines of playgrounds, the tapping of jump ropes on pavement. notes passed between aisles while the teacher’s back was turned. So much of my childhood is lost the present. I’m twenty years old, and all I can remember is life after you.”
“Aren’t you ever scared of what you’ve forgotten?” he asked. “Like, maybe you knew someone who was meant to be your savior. Maybe that boy who passed on that note was the one you were meant to be with. And what about when you’ve gotten old? What if, in eighty years, you’ve forgotten all the people who mattered?”
I laughed. “I like to think I’ll remember all of the important ones. Anyway, when I‘m a hundred, I‘ll remember you.”