Remember Me 3: The Last Story

They wanted her killed a second time....

SOMEONE DID NOT LIKE SHARI COOPER WRITING HER STORIES.

Remember Me 3: The Last Story
Christopher Pike
1995, 244 pages

The Peeps
Shari - Remember Shari? She's back. In Jean Rodrigues form.
Peter - still in Lenny's body and wheelchair
Roger - sexy star of the new movie based on Shari's book
Bob - obnoxious star of the new movie based on Shari's book
Garrett - or maybe I oughta say "Private Detective Garrett" and give him some dignity for a change

We meet up with Shari three years after Remember Me 2 ends. She's 21, and a famous and successful author, just like Rishi had told her. Peter is still crippled Lenny, except everyone calls him "Peter", which I thought was a little weird. Like, Peter is his pseudonym, even though he's not famous.

Even though Peter has been rendered, uh, not fully functional (y'know what I'm sayin', right?) by his injuries, he and Shari have been dating for the past three years.

Shari's most famous work, First To Die, is being made into a Hollywood movie. Against the advice of her brother, Jimmy Cooper, she had published her story, Remember Me. And she'd written another book called Magic Fire. Hey, wanna play 'spot the titles of actual Christopher Pike novels within the novel Remember Me 3?

Shari is producing First To Die with her new production company. The story is that a geek named Bob invites his classmates on a cruise and then sets them up to be stranded on the sinking boat in shark infested waters, with only enough lifeboats for 3 of the 7 passengers to get out of the water alive. Who will backstab who, who will survive, etc. Just to throw this out there, cuz I don't know everything: is that shark thing a real Pike plot (of one of his full-length books)? I'm not sure, so maybe someone can be my buddy in comments.

A geek named Bob plays "Bob". Roger, a handsome newcomer to Hollywood, will be playing the role of "Daniel", the hero.

One night, when Shari has plans with Peter to go see a mystical yogi in a church basement, Roger invites her out after work. Shari is attracted to the handsome stranger, and so accompanies him to eat lobster, without so much as phoning Peter to say she won't make it to the presentation.

After her date, Shari goes home to Peter. He's been successful coaching various youth sports teams and even working with the Special Olympics. Despite this, he still turns to the mystical, hoping that someday he will be cured. Peter tells Shari all about the meeting she missed due to "a late night on the set". Mmmm hmm. He thinks that the yogi is an Earth incarnation of Rishi, and wants her to attend the next meeting.

That night while Peter sleeps, Shari is drawn to her computer to start working on a new story. This one is called The Starlight Crystal. Wow, another Pike. We actually get a lot of Shari-typed pages of story for this one. I'm interested to see if it's like the real The Starlight Crystal when I read it. There's probably, like, symbolism to Shari's own real-life story, but whatever.

Later, on set, Roger invites Shari for lunch. She ditches a pre-planned event with Peter AGAIN to go to some cheesy restaurant with Rog. At the table, he reads her palm. He tells her that her lifeline broke 3 years ago. Is that how it even works? I thought it was like long or short. Not specific years. I have no idea. He must be pretty talented. Or creepy.

Ok, I'm gonna go with creepy, now that I know that Shari's getting Private Detective Garrett to check him out. Some shit that he said didn't add up, so Shari wants a discreet background check. After Shari made it big, she sent an anonymous cheque for 50 grand to Garrett, which he used to quit the force and open his own PI biz. When Shari visits his office, she recognizes the receptionist as Garrett's daughter. The one who Shari and Peter scared straight at the end of Remember Me. It worked!

Apparently Shari suspects that Roger might be a Wanderer himself, and wants some proof. She wants to know if he even knows he's a Wanderer and what his mission is.

Later that day, Shari has to go to that yogi thing with Peter. Roger is interested too, so he comes along with Shari. At the meeting, they do breathing, kriya, chanting, and some other stuff. The yogi hosts a Q & A where he shows off how awesome he is at avoiding/never answering questions. Roger gets pissed and tells off the yogi, then walks out of the church basement.

Shari and Peter go home. A boy from Peter's baseball team, Jacob, is staying with them. Jacob is blind, having had both his eyes removed, but that doesn't stop him from being an incredible pitcher. That night, Shari writes more of her new story. I would tell you about it, but I only skimmed it. It's all spaceships and future. I'm too old to be reading that stuff.

The next day on the movie set, one of the actresses confesses that she can't swim. The whole movie takes place in neck deep water, so they fire her. At this stage of production, there's only one person who can take her place: Shari. She steps in, and after a number of romantic scenes with Roger, her neglected sex drive is raring.

A short time later, on Peter and Shari's bed, Roger massages Shari. They are pretty close to gettin' it on when the door opens. It's Jacob, that kid that's staying there. It's really good that he's blind, and hence can't see that it's not Peter in the bed with Shari, but his intuition is good enough to know what was going on. Roger keeps quiet and sneaks out, while Shari makes like it's Peter in the bedroom and tells Jacob that Peter is embarrassed about the whole situation, that's why he's being so quiet.

She lies and tells Jacob that it's 10 PM (it's, like, 7) and he should go to bed, so he won't be awake and surprised when Peter gets home for real. Like, Peter shows up, and Jacob would be all: "You weren't sulking in the bedroom for the last 2 hours because I came home and ruined your sexin', what?"

Jacob isn't tired, so Shari decides the better course of action is to get him the hell out of there. She takes him to Disneyland, where they ride Space Mountain a zillion times, but Shari makes up different names for the ride and tells Jacob it's a different ride every time. Man, oh, man, it is NOT safe to be a blind person around Shari Cooper.

After Disney, they go back home. Peter's there now, and Shari only needs to take one look at him to know she needs to confess. But... why? Is she only capable of lying to the visually impaired? She waits until Peter is all tucked into bed before telling him what she and Roger had done there earlier. Christ, Shari! He's paralyzed. He doesn't even have the luxury of angrily jumping out of the bed. Shari feels guilty and leaves.

Guess where she goes? The very same hotel where Roger is staying while he works on the movie. Oh, but it's ok, because she's not in the mood now. Shari, you're getting on my nerves. Then she starts writing on her early 90s laptop. More Starlight Crystal. Blah.

The next morning, Shari visits Garrett's office and finds out that Roger's license plate is a fake. And he has a shady past, including demonstrating a huge tolerance for alcohol, simulating a rape during an acting class assignment, and beating up an old girlfriend he was co-starring in a play with, causing the play to close after only one show. What a winner, eh?

Shari calls up Peter and tries to explain that Roger has some kind of hold over her and she can't promise to not see him again. Uh, girlfriend, maybe you oughta go back and re-read what Garrett just told you. Anyway, Peter is super understanding. He wants them to see the yogi for help. Shari is going to think about it, but I think she should take any offer Peter makes. After they hang up, Shari gets a call from Bob, the jerk from her movie. He says that someone has an evil plan involving the rental sharks, and wants Shari to meet him at the tank.

After she calls Roger to come with her, they arrive to find Bob on a boat in the tank HOLDING A GUN! He puts a leaky inflatable boat in the shark water and tells Shari to row across the tank and back. After she does completes her task, Bob orders Roger to do the same thing. Roger's like, "I don't thaaaaank so", and karate chops the gun out of Bob's hand, before tossing Bob overboard into sharkland.

The police come and question Shari and Roger. And there ain't nothing like a near-death experience to bring people together, so of course Peter is able to forgive Shari now.

Garrett calls and wants to meet Shari at the beach to give her some more info about Rog. It's the beach next to where Shari had originally died, so she tries to suggest other locations, but Garrett is firm. Shari and Peter drive to the beach, where Shari introduces Peter as "Lenny". That is the only Lenny reference in this entire book.

Garrett leads them into the condo from where Shari had fallen to her death. He's creating ambiance. And he's pissed. His daughter read Shari's book, Remember Me, and almost died of a heart attack, seizure, and stroke when she got to the end and read the bit about herself. Also, Shari was lazy and called the alcoholic detective "Garrison", which Garrett immediately recognized as himself. He wants to know why the hell she was sick enough to choose Shari Cooper as a pseudonym, then write about the real Shari Cooper's death in such detail.

Shari doesn't really explain anything (yogi-style!), and Garrett gets to the point. Rog is bad. Then - oh! - Roger shows up with a gun. He's really really bad. Shamone. He orders Garrett, Shari, and Peter onto the balcony. Tell me once again - who's bad? Roger makes Garrett get up on the railing. Garrett's old, and presumably uncoordinated, so he falls. He splats on the ground and dies instantly.

Roger herds Shari and Peter to Shari's gravestone. He is a Black Wanderer, sent to destroy Shari because her writing challenges established concepts and that can't happen. Wait a tick - this is the entire point of this series of Remember Mes?

Shari says she writes about the future. Everyone knows it's fiction and fantasy. Rog tells her that she's writing about THE PAST. All this spaceship shit happened long ago, and reading about it could stir ancient memories. Roger throws Shari into an open grave and starts burying her. ("My dad will wonder where I am!"/ "He'll never know you're gone!" - hahahahaha). Then - from behind - Roger is smacked with a shovel! It's Peter, taking Gloria Estefan's advice.

After all this drama, Shari decides to go see her original mother, Mrs. Cooper. Mrs. Cooper had read Remember Me and been pretty disturbed by it, according to Jimmy Cooper. Shari, as Jean, tries to explain how she was able to tell Shari's story. Shari starts feeling shitty and asks if she can lay down. Mrs. C. takes her to Shari's old room and tucks her in. Shari closes her eyes... forever.

In the end, Peter's still walking. At the end of Shari's funeral, he hands a disc with The Starlight Crystal on it over to Jimmy, asking him to finish the story.

And that is the very very end of Remember Me: The Trilogy.


Beyond next week, I'm totally unscheduled, recap-wise. If there are any requests off the Pike Book List, I'll do those. If not, I'll just do whatever I want. I don't feel like doing another biggie right away, so I'll probably save Final Friends until summer is over. Cool? Cool.