A story for Clay: “The Brave Knight”

There was once a girl who swallowed her grandmother’s memory. It grew inside her and gave her the ability to remember everything. A special power that brought with it great responsibility.

The girl tried to give her grandmother back the memory. But she learned that memories are mysterious and deeply personal. How we see them depends on who we are.

The girl traveled the world looking for a cure for her grandmother. Her faithful friends helped her find a man from a distant land who promised to have all the answers. Only, his answers created more questions, until everything she knew was a tangled maze.

Then, one day, she found a book of memories. The girl read the book to her grandmother every day. Every night her grandmother would visit the girl in her dreams, and this was the only place the girl felt truly loved.

Loneliness plagued the girl until she finally confessed to her parents all she’d done. Her father and mother opened their hearts to the girl. They promised to care for her grandmother, but there was nothing they could do to make her well again. And this was when the girl learned that some things have no cure.

The girl’s extraordinary memory was the only solution. She would keep a file in her brain. Each memory labeled and stored safely forever.

This is how the girl became the Memory Keeper. She filed her grandmother’s memories with a secret key. Only the bravest knight with the noblest heart could access the memories. The key, my noble knight, is a top secret riddle. Solve it and the treasure is yours.

What fills the cracks in a heart

And is stronger than glue?

In the Russian language

It rhymes with “you.”

Lyublyu

люблю

Acknowledgments

Thank you to the many people who have made this book possible:

Stacey Glick, my fabulous agent, thank you for believing in me and helping me believe in myself.

Tricia Lin, my whip-smart editor, a million thanks for understanding Lulu and helping me uncover her story. For patiently answering all my questions. And, most of all, thank you for making this whole experience a joyful one.

A huge thank-you to the entire team at Aladdin: Alyson Heller, Mara Anastas, Heather Palisi, Mike Rosamilia, Katherine Devendorf, Sara Berko, Caitlin Sweeny, Michelle Leo, and Nicole Russo. Thank you, Aveline Stokart, for my spectacular cover. I couldn’t love it more! Thanks to my copy editor, Penina Lopez, for your detailed edits and for catching my inconsistencies. Thank you, also, to Amy Cloud for being the first one to fall in love with The Memory Keeper and for bringing me to the Aladdin/S&S family.