“Kenedi come see this, hurry. You’re going to love it!”

“Ok, here I come. What is it?”

As Kenedi arrives to Traci's room, she sees Traci standing in the middle of the room with something in her hand.

Traci lifts the soft cap shaped object made of silicone gel to eye level for both of them. She states in a normal tone, “I place this on my head when nobody is around so I can relax. I close my eyes, take deep, even breaths and begin a meditation. . .

Kenedi immediately ducks her head as if someone could see or hear her and says, "That’s illegal! You know what’ll happen for meditating! I don’t want to know. I do not love it!!”

She turns to leave but Traci grabs her shoulder in protest, “Stop. Just hear me out. Nobody comes around here and I even have a hidden spot even you don’t know about.”

Traci let’s go and questions, “You ok?”

Kenedi crosses her arms over her chest and rolls her eyes, “Yes, I’m ok. For now. But, this better be worth the risk.”

Traci smiles, “Ok. So once I found this little cap, I carried it around because it was different. And it’s cool to the touch. So one day while I was in my secret room preparing to meditate, I put it on my head because I was hot. During this meditation session I remembered the day mom took us to the pool and you beat me in a 100m butterfly race. I was mad and wanted to try again but we had to leave. We went to get ice cream and stopped by Aunt K’s house to watch a movie and have gourmet popcorn. Do you remember that day?”

Kenedi shook her head “No, but what’s the point?”

Traci paces back and forth, fidgeting , “The point is I didn’t remember before I meditated with the cap. It’s not just a one off, I’ve been doing this for weeks now. I’ve been remembering all kinds of things. But the thing is, they’re mostly good memories.”

Kenedi stands still, shock holding her hostage. “Who have you told?”

“Just you”

“That's why you've been so perky lately. Why are you just now telling me? How do you know this isn’t some kind of trick and GovAMS isn’t tracking you?”

“Because I’ve been a ghost this long and I’ve been doing this for awhile. Nobody knows.”

“Well, where did you get it?”, arms still crossed against her chest.

Traci approaches Kenedi, arms extended, “Here, hold this for me”, as she attempts to place the cap in Kenedi's arms, an old sales tactic she learned as a little girl.

Kenedi jerks away but noticed the cap falling to the ground, so she caught it by instinct, “ASSHOLE!!”, she shouts, “take it back!”

Traci looks around, “follow me”, as she leads Kenedi to her private room. “Trust me, this is so valuable, we could buy the entire family a seat on the shuttle to Mitsuna and start a new life. A good one!”

“A wealthy one” chimes Kenedi.

They reach the hidden room, it’s a small hole in the wall between Traci's room and the kitchen. Kenedi fell through during a scuffle with Traci when they were younger. It’s pretty much hidden by Traci's bed. Their parents couldn’t afford to fix it so it’s been forgotten.

Traci instructed Kenedi to climb through the hole and guided her through a meditation practice, during which she told her when to put the cap on and they continued quietly meditating together.

Kenedi complained “You’re wasting my time, I can meditate on my own. Nothing’s happening.” Traci calmly finishes an inhale and exhales before responding, “You’re not relaxed, so YOU'RE wasting your time. Meditate as you will. Feel the coolness of the cap? Fall into that.”

It’s quiet for a few minutes until Kenedi softly gasps, “Oh my. . . Wow. OK” and climbs out of the whole, “Remember that time mom and dad took all of us to the Lake to go camping for the weekend and it rained so much we could only swim in the first day? So instead of sandcastles, we built mud huts?”

“Absolutely. Best time ever! We should definitely do it agai. . .”

Kenedi cuts Traci off mid-sentence. “Wait. Do you know what this means?”

“Of course I do.”

They speak simultaneously:

Kenedi: “We can recover more happy memories, so can mom, dad, and Jon and. . . “

Traci: “People will pay us to recover their good memories. . . “

They both stop and look at one another. Kenedi side eyes Traci, Traci looks confused. Kenedi speaks immediately, “You can't help being selfish."

Traci spits, "Its the opposite but that’s hard to see when youre so self absorbed!" Traci storms out of the room but immediately returns, "Give it back. And its my room, YOU get out."

Kenedi cups her hands over the cap still on her head, "Gladly." She pushes past Traci while shoving her shoulder into Traci's shoulder. Traci spins and quickly grabs the collar of Kenedi's shirt, yanking her to the ground. She sits on Kenedi's stomach and starts choking her just enough to get Kenedi to let go of the cap and grab her arms. Traci managed to free one hand and grab the cap from Kenedi's head.

Traci stood up, cap in hand. “Like I said, I'm selling memories. Nobody is going to tell bc they're going to pay a lot of money for good memories. Once i have enough mkney, we're leaving.”