Wonderland

❄B67❄ Never The Same

Chapter Sixty-Seven

Brayden's POV

Never The Same

Mr. Forde never pulled the plug on her.

Instead, he transferred her to a hospital closer to their home. That was why on my birthday, when I went to go visit her at Harborview, she wasn't there anymore. Mr. Forde had put Heather under Dr. Boyd's care. Dr. Boyd had dealt with patients before who were affected by CO, so when Mr. Forde presented him with Heather, Dr. Boyd knew what to do.

At first, the treatment Dr. Boyd put Heather through didn't work. But gradually, after a few days, it did. Heather's health improved to the point where, on December 27, she woke up.

Mr. Forde and his wife were there to witness it. They couldn't have been more blessed. It took Heather a day to become aware of her surroundings, to the people around her, and to the things that happened to her before her attempted suicide; but it took Dr. Boyd only a few hours after Heather awoke to have realized that the CO levels in her body had caused severe damage to her brain; she was diagnosed with anterograde amnesia, the inability to form new memories, a day later.

According to Mr. Forde, Heather can recall everything up to the day of her attempted suicide, but nothing thereafter. Dr. Boyd mentioned to him that while victims of anterograde amnesia may never be able to form memories again, they could, however, remember procedural information. For example, they can remember how to make pancakes or play chess, but they can't remember what they had eaten earlier that day or the name of the person they just met. This is because the part of your brain that stores memory is different from the part of the brain that stores procedural kind of memory, hence why anterograde amnesia victims can only remember factual procedures.

Dr. Boyd's currently unable to deduce whether it's her hippocampus or medial temporal lobe that's been impaired, but he was able to conclude that Heather may never be able to live independently again. She would always need someone by her side, guiding her.

I didn't understand the severity of her amnesia until I was around her for a while, and when I did, I think I died a little inside.

She's unable to remember things as clearly as she used to. She's always questioning me things I've already talked about. Heather's there, but not really there at the same time. I could now understand why Dr. Boyd said that she'd always need someone by her side: she'll always need someone there next to her, reminding her of things. The thing that pained me the most was knowing that Heather would never be able to experience life to the fullest again, because everything she'll experience, she'll end up forgetting.

Thank god she hasn't forgotten about me, because I don't know how well I would've taken it if that were the case.

"You should show me around town tomorrow," I said, playing with a strand of her hair. Heather was nestled on my lap, her head resting against my shoulder. We were sitting in the living room. Mr. Forde took his wife and kids outside, leaving us alone in the house, because he wanted to give Heather and I some time alone together. I appreciated him for that.

"What town?" Heather asked, sounding confused.

"Rutland. Here. Where you live."

"Oh. Okay."

The room grew silent. A few minutes later, I said, "Isn't Rutland better than Seattle?" There was a part of me that clung onto the hope that maybe her amnesia wasn't as bad as her father had made it out to be, that maybe she could still remember some things.

But I was wrong.

Heather wrinkled her nose and tilted her head up to look at me, confused. "Where's Rutland?"