In Oblivion (part.3)

 “Lacunar Amnesia? What does that mean?  Won’t she be able to recognize us?” (Long pause) “Oh.. Okay.  I guess we can handle that much. It is not something worth remembering anyways.  I’ll talk to her when she wakes up. Oh, wait, she is awake already. Sarah?” Sarah woke up to her dad’s voice this time.

She turned her head and saw her dad sitting by her side, leaning close to hear her. He asked if she felt any better. “My head feels heavy”, she replied in a very weak and hard-to-hear voice.

Her dad went off to call the doctor. Then a series of check-ups and tests followed. Sarah, too weak to talk or think, could just abide with whatever she was asked to do. Even that exhausted her. She gathered fragmented information from several people- that she had been admitted in the hospital after some accident (which everyone very inefficiently shunned discussing, though Sarah did not need to ask, she knew already); and that she had lost a lot of blood, which would have turned fatal had she not been brought here at the right time.  “Bless that gentleman”, the nurse from the evening shift had said. Drifting in and out; she had been unconscious for almost a week now.

Next time she opened her eyes to her mother, Sarah asked her about the gentleman who had brought her to the hospital. Her mother told her about a guy from the ceremony. Sarah knew it would be futile to try recollecting. The same evening her mother walked in again. She was accompanied by someone.

She said, “Sarah, look who has come to see you. He’s the gentleman who brought you here.”

Then someone entered the room, but because of the darkness (which Sarah had requested as a choice) she could only see his shadowed silhouette. When he came closer, Sarah could see his face. She felt a jolt in her head. Her mother left them to catch up. The guy came, sat next to her bed, and asked her about her well-being. Sarah abruptly exclaimed: “You are the guy because of whom I had to move out of the ceremony!” It was more of a statement than an accusation.

The guy awkwardly replied (a bit meekly), “Umm, I am sorry if that was the case. I never intended to offend you. But since I see that it annoyed you, I apologize. By the way, I am Aayen, I'm your doctor.”

Sarah stared at him for a while and then said “I remember you. But I am unable to remember the person who stabbed me. I don’t remember what happened after I heard that girl scream.”

She noticed Aayen’s expression change. Though she could not make out what he was thinking. She waited for him to say something, when he didn’t, she continued. “You saved me, but I don’t remember that either. I just remember you from the ceremony.”  

For Sarah, it was really frustrating not to know what she was dealing with; thinking about it, would make her head spin. After a short pause, Sarah sighed and said, “I know I’m suffering from Amnesia, and from the information I’ve gathered eavesdropping, I know it’s called “Lacunar Amnesia”. Could you please get me some information on this, because I really need to know” Aayen, lost in his thoughts, just nodded.

After she fell asleep again, Aayen left and headed to see Sarah’s parents; he knew that if Sarah kept on trying to remember about it, she would suffer from severe migraine. This thing should never be discussed in her vicinity. This case was very delicate and thus, must be dealt with gravity. He had seen her dying once. He won’t let it happen again….

                                                           

Even after a month of Sarah’s discharge, Aayen’s visits to her place did not lessen. Sarah felt safe and in peace as long as Aayen would be around her. His absence was equally disturbing. The time, from the moment he left till he came back again, passed in slow lurks, each tick of the clock was slow and glum. It was apparent what was happening to her, but she denied accepting it. They spent some of their best times together. They would take a long walk to the beach and watch the sun set and the moon rise, talk some more, or just sit there and bask themselves in the tranquility of the nature. Sarah one day told Aayen that this feeling of absolute serenity seemed familiar to her. Whenever she looked at the ocean and thought of its depth, she felt as if she knew it already. She knew how deep it could be and how peaceful it is down there. She had been there, she said. Aayen just looked into her eyes and held her hand. Sarah at first felt an urge to take her hand away, but then she too looked in his eyes, and it was the only place where she didn’t feel lost. After a moment of long silence, Aayen said that no matter where she had been and where she would be next, he will always be there with her. And Sarah knew he meant it.

One evening when Sarah was waiting for Aayen, a text from an unknown number drew her attention.

Sarah asked for the sender’s name and the next text said “It’s me.. Dylan.”

The next few texts were quite startling and confusing for Sarah. The name “Dylan” seemed very familiar, she thought, but she could not remember anything about Dylan. The way he was texting her, it seemed that he knew her very well. 

“We need to meet. ASAP!” she replied back to him. The next few hours with Aayen did not bring any peace to her. He asked her what was the matter, but she thought it better not to tell him at that time. The night too was longer than bearable.  They were to meet the next morning.

Dylan had asked her to meet at the usual place and Sarah had to ask him where that was. She reached there earlier and with each passing minute she recognized the place more and more.

After a few more minutes, her phone buzzed with Dylan’s text. “I see you.” Sarah turned and looked around to see him.

At first she felt hopeless and stupid, but then she felt a jolt inside her stomach, there he was and she didn’t have to think twice to be sure. She knew him; he too was familiar just like the place itself. “God, he is stunning.” Sarah thought.

Dylan came to her wearing his charming smile. With his each step, he kept taking Sarah’s breath away. When finally at a comfortably close yet safe distance, he teasingly asked…“Still find me stunning enough?”

 Sarah, (not sure whether she should be surprised or embarrassed) just stood there with a blank expression, her cheeks flushed red. Still embarrassed, she replied, “Yes, but do you know why I find you stunning and not charming, attractive or handsome?”

Dylan laughed heartily and said “You are testing me, right?” Sarah looked in his eyes and deep inside her stomach she felt butterflies fluttering, yet she managed a confident “Yes.”

Dylan not taking his eyes away, replied in his deep and husky voice “..because you find this word very pure and complete. You compile Handsome, Attractive, Cute and Naivety in this one simple word and make it complicated, just like you.”

They talked for hours and Sarah not even for a single second felt that she was with a stranger, apparently he wasn’t one.
“So, you know me quite well, eh? But how come I have everyone else’s contact numbers except for yours” Sarah asked randomly.

“May be you should read your journal, you might find some answers there.” He suggested.
That’s when Sarah realized that even her journal had been missing. They both looked at each other lost in thoughts, their minds flooding with questions.

They entered Sarah’s place. Aayen was waiting for her and he looked worried. Aayen almost fell off his seat when he saw Dylan. This was what Sarah needed to notice and now she demanded answers and she was not ready to settle for anything but the complete true story.

Aayen confessed that he had figured out that not only that night’s incident but all the memories (of people), that had caused Sarah to perish, were missing. He removed all signs of such people from Sarah’s life, as if they never existed. Sarah not knowing how to react just asked for her journal.

5 days later..

Aayen came to see Sarah; she had not been talking to him since that day. At her place Sarah’s mother gave him a letter and told him that Sarah had found a new job and left the town. On the envelope it was written

“Don’t read it alone, but with him. You owe me that much.”

Aayen met Dylan and opened the letter.

Dylan, as you suggested, I read my journal. I wonder why you made those promises when you never meant to keep them. Guess besides being a friend, I was just an option for you. If ever I get back my memory, I’ll come to you. So, keep your answers ready.

And Aayen, just when I thought I found someone I can trust, you had to prove me wrong. To you, I was just another patient of yours; yet there I was…fooling myself, thinking there’s more to it.

Just my luck, I guess. It seems like I’ve been living with a broken heart for ages now. At times I tried to mend it; at times I wanted to end it. Then someone came and helped me heal the wounds. But then he too dropped my heart and it shattered again, I’ve been picking up the scattered pieces since then, but some pieces are lost in time, leaving me ever incomplete. I just wish this ends soon, now I’m waiting for that day when even I will become just a fragment of memory…lost in time.

Both of you take care
and know it always…
You live in my heart.

A few weeks later, Sarah stood in the verandah of her new home. She walked in the room and looked around. At the far right corner, she had placed a table, on which very neatly and carefully arranged, were several photo-frames. They were of people she loved, her parents, friends and two people who were strangers, yet occupied the most of her heart. She went to the table and picked up Aayen’s photo, stared at it blankly then she placed it back and picked another one. Tears rolled down her eyes as she kissed the photo. The door-bell rang; placing the photo back she went to answer the door. The drops which rolled down Dylan’s photo, seemed to be his.

(The narration ends...)