A Hiccstrid Story

Chapter 10

Astrid awake late the next morning which was completely unlike her. She normally awoke early in order to get to work on time but due to being on holiday and newly single she had no reason to be up early. The Berkly morning sun streamed through her closed curtains and illuminated her room in bright colours. Astrid rolled over and laid deep in thought about the revelations from the previous night. How could she forget about a boy she dated? How could she completely block someone from her life? With her upcoming doctor's appointment this morning, she was soon to find out.

Just as Astrid was about to nod off, she heard laughing coming from downstairs. Reluctantly, the woman dragged herself out of bed, threw on a dressing gown and exited her bedroom. As she made her way downstairs, Astrid found Mable, Natalie and her father sat in the living room in hysterics over some joke not yet explained to her. "Ah Astrid, good morning" her mother said, entering the room carrying some drinks. "Morning mom" she replied with a yawn. The tired woman stalked her way into the kitchen to make herself breakfast. Astrid poured some Wheat Chex into a bowel, followed by some milk and then she picked up the bowel and walked into the dining room.

The young woman ate her morning meal in silence as thoughts ran though her head of previous lives lived. Moments from high school came through to the forefront of her mind as she tried subconsciously to remember the young man she once dated. As her breakfast was being eaten, Heather stumbled into the room and into the seat next to her, her head resting on the table. "Morning Asty" came the shattered sounding voice of her friend. "Hello Heather, rough night?" A groan was all that came as a response from Heather. Astrid smiled, "what time did Theo get back last night?" Her best friend looked up from the table, "Something like 11 pm. I don't really know." Astrid laughed as she got up from her place and took her finished bowel into the kitchen.

Entering the living room again, she found only her mom and dad, her friends having vacated. "Where did the girls go?" Her mother looked up at her, "they went upstairs to get ready." Astrid's faced morphed into one of puzzled expression, "Theo, Heather, Mable and Natalie are going out shopping while your mother takes you to the hospital." She nodded her head while thinking but was quickly pulled from that thinking when her mother announced, "well you best get ready dear, we need to be leaving in 10." Astrid nodded and walked sleepily upstairs to get dressed for her appointment. She was not looking forward to be poked and prodded but she was as much curious for herself as she was to know why she had forgotten someone supposedly memorable.

Having dressed and made her way downstairs, Astrid joined her mom in the car. They drove through the town and out into the main city where they pulled into the carpark of the major hospital. Mary led Astrid into the busy waiting room where they proceeded to wait for over two hours for their doctor to call them. Once called, they went into the doctor's office where he went through the tests they would be running. Astrid was in a blur as they ran test after test after test on her from memory tests to MRI scans. Several hours of testing and waiting later, Astrid and her mother were called for the results.

Sitting in the office opposite the doctor, Astrid was nervous for the first time in a while. Usually she was confident but right now, she was worried about what diagnosis the doctor would give her. "So we have good news and bad news" the doctor said, opening the file in front of her. "The bad news is that you have memory loss." Mary looked at her daughter with worried eyes but before she could question the doctor, she continued. "The MRI scans showed head trauma caused by some sort of head injury. Now we don't know what incident caused this but it must have been quite severe to have effects lasting this long." The doctor looked between her patient and the mother, then back to her file.

"The good news is that the effects are not permanent. From what you described, it seems that you are already starting to remember things." At this point, Astrid's mother stopped the doctor to ask a rather important question. "How is it possible to only forget a single person from head trauma?" The doctor looked at her directly, "it's called selective amnesia. It's where someone forgets only certain parts of events during a period of time." Mary nodded and then looked back at Astrid. "In this case, it appears as though during the trauma, Astrid's mind latched on to the memory of this man." She looked up at the woman in question, "that is what I suspect caused your mind to 'forget' him."

Astrid's journalistic mind finally took over and she started asking questions to gauge the seriousness. "If it's only temporary, then why can I still not remember him?" The doctor leaned forward and rested her elbows on her desk. "That is unclear. However, it's my theory that because you were away from anything that reminded you of him, your mind healed over the memories." Astrid nodded, looked at her mother and then back at the doctor, "hence why I am remembering him now. I am in a place that holds memories of him." The doctor nodded and picked up her file again.

"Now, as for a treatment plan" she started, "I recommend revisiting places where you used to spend time with this man." Mary suddenly had an idea and quickly voiced it, "would speaking with the man directly or looking at pictures or videos help?" Astrid looked at her mother puzzled but couldn't voice her questions as her mother quickly explained. "Well that's great, I have plenty of pictures and videos of you two together. He also lives in town so we can sort something out." Astrid was unable to voice her concerns at the last bit as the doctor commented on the idea and then discharged them with the diagnosis after booking a check-up in two weeks' time.

Mary drove her daughter back through the city and out into the country. They headed in the direction of Berkly with the afternoon sun disappearing over the hills. The town was rather quiet with most people walking as opposed to driving. Although it was to be expected as it was late afternoon/early evening where most where eating tea in restaurants or cafes. Astrid wasn't paying attention to the people of her home town, she was too busy thinking about the outcome from her appointment at the hospital. As diagnoses go, hers was a good one and the doctor seemed confident that her memories could return with enough work and effort. Astrid was acutely aware that they had spent the whole day at the hospital being tested and diagnosed. That didn't bother her much though as her mind drifted to other thoughts.

Mary parked the car on the drive at their house and then the pair made their way into the house. The laughter and joy from the living room filled the downstairs, causing Astrid and Mary to creep over to inspect what was happening. In the Hofferson living room, Theo and Adam were wetting themselves as Natalie and Mable told stories from their time at university together. Heather appeared to be absent from the scene which made Astrid question where her best friend was. "Hello honey, looks like you are having fun" Mary said as she kissed her husband's head. "Ah welcome home dear, Theo and I were just being told about Astrid's time at university." Astrid gave a stern look to her friends which only made the rooms occupants laugh further.

"Speaking of university, where is my friend Heather?" Astrid asked. Theo looked over to her and answered quickly, "asleep, she had a long day." Nodding, Astrid took a seat next to her father and was about to join the conversation when it was steered away to her hospital trip. "So what happened at the hospital?" Mable asked with interest. Astrid looked at the fire roaring in the fire place. "I have selective amnesia, I suffered some sort of head trauma which caused me to forget him." Adam hummed in thought as Natalie and Mable started asking question after question after question.

After several questions, Mary walked into the room and finalised the topic. "Good news is, she can regain the memories through either meeting the man or looking at videos or pictures." Nods of understanding came from all in attendance as Mary took her seat on an armchair. The topic from there stemmed away from Astrid's diagnosis and hospital trip to plans for getting her memory back. Astrid smiled as her friends started planning recovery exercises for her. It occurred to her for the millionth time just how great her friends were. After everything they had gone through over the years, her friends knew just what to do to make her smile.

As Astrid was thinking, Heather walked downstairs and into the living room. "Hey Astrid, what have I missed?" she said sleepily. Astrid giggled, "nothing much, just my medical diagnosis and these two planning my recovery." Heather managed a small smile from her lips as she listened to Mable and Natalie continue planning Astrid's recovery, completely unaware that she had entered the room. It made the parents also smile as they got up and left the room quietly to leave the group to their own devices. Astrid looked over at Heather a whispered to her, "what's got you so tired?"

Heather looked at her a smiled, "I saw my brother today." Astrid's jaw dropped but she quickly recovered. "That's amazing, what happened? How did it happen? When did it happen?" Heather yawned and smiled again, patting her friend on the shoulder. "It happened while we were out today, we just sort of bumped into him." Astrid hugged her friend tightly then asked for more details quickly. Heather simply looked at Theo who took the hint, "I'll tell you, in case Heather falls asleep mid-sentence." This conversation was finally picked up by Mable and Natalie who chimed in and agreed to help tell the tale.