One night, Annabell was walking the streets looking for her friends. She was meeting them for a night out on the town, but she couldn’t find the place she had planned to meet them. Annabell was a young lady, long black hair with make up on, her green eyes, the colour of the untouched earth. As she walks, she hits a dead end. She finds no acquaintances, no one she knows. Annabell not knowing her way around the city feels a rush of worry come over her body, like a wave crashing down. She is stuck, lost, and unaware of her position. She hears footsteps behind her, a thud and a tight grip on her arm, then nothing. She falls down hard on the ground.
Annabell wakes up, in a white environment, nothing but pure white sheets and nurses caps. She can smell the hand sanitizer, and the porridge on the breakfast tray. She looks at her body, and sees wounds. A long wound on her arm just starting to heal and a terrible rip in her skin.
“Excuse me miss, sorry but why am here?" The nurse doesn’t hear her. So again she asks, " Miss, why am I here?" The nurse hears this time and replies
“Young lady, you must have been out hard, don't you remember?"
“No sorry, can you explain it to me?" but the nurse was busy with other patients by then.
So Annabell searched her memory for the answer, but for the life of her, could not remember a thing. She could barely remember what she had just asked the nurse. She forgot what fear was and at that point it came to her, a sudden rush of fear and anxiety....
Soon after that a doctor came and examined her, and told her “your recovery will be a full one, but may time many weeks.” Annabell was very confused and felt left in the dark about her life, she could not remember a thing, only her name and a few names but no faces to match.
After several days in hospital Annabell became friends with Craig, a patient in a room next to hers. After a time of knowing no one, Craig was someone she could say she knew. They had become quite close over the days, although they didn’t know the ins and outs of each other’s lives, they had become fond of each other. But Annabell continued to forget a lot about Craig along with her other friends in the ward she was in, so they had to keep introducing themselves to her. But Craig didn’t seem to mind, even after the other patients gave up on her, he didn’t.
He cared for Annabell even though she didn’t remember a lot about him. The only thing Annabell had planted in her memory was Craig’s face, his sweet face full of care. His brown hair and bitter sweet eyes remembering hard times. Craig had been in and out of hospital for 5 years with heart disease. But to his luck he was spared from deaths cold hand on his shoulder, and was still alive to be with Annabell.
They were friends and spent little time without the other by their side. They were very close. Craig was discharged from hospital to go home only to be alone. He came to visit Annabell numerous times, while she was recovering. After many weeks of his visits she started to remember more and more about Craig. She remembered his hobbies and favourite things.
One day when Craig came to visit he found her out of her bed. She was up and out of bed walking the ward … Craig was happy for Annabell, but Annabell walked towards the Hospital exit. He ran after her, Annabell couldn’t walk that fast as yet. Craig caught up to her. He asked her “what are you doing out of bed let alone near the exit?”
Annabell replied in a confident voice “I have recovered, I remember all about my-self and a lot about you. So I am leaving.” Craig gave her an uncertain look. “Are you sure you won’t fall, you were looking pretty unstable then. If you fell you never know what might happen… do you even know where you live now?”
Grace started to walk again, ignoring all of Craig’s warning, and as she continues, her face drops and her eyes fill with tears, but she pushes on. Her vision gets blurry, and she feels her eyes overflow with water and one drop down her face. She can no longer see where she is going, but Craig follows her along. As she staggers up the incline to the exit, the doors slide open. And she trips on the first step, but Craig saw it happening so he rushed towards Annabell and saved her from another terrible fall. Annabell burst into tears when Craig helped her to her feet,
“Come home with me for at least today until I can call your relatives to pick you up.” Craig insisted in a soothing voice. “Thank you Craig,” Annabell whispered though her tears, “you mean the world to me, you are my world the only thing I know for sure.” She leaned up and wrapped her hands around his neck and cried on his shoulder. A cry of bliss and thanks.
One morning Annabell had awoken and she went to see her lover only to find that, to her disappointment, Craig was as white as the clean bed sheet he was laying in. She fell to the floor and broke down. It was as though the world would end, and she felt numb. She got up and ran to phone, her hands shaking with fear; fear for Craig’s life.
The ambulance came flying around the corner and she screamed for the attention of it. It stopped and they came with a stretcher and lifted him up to try and save his life. At the hospital she sat by Craig’s bed, she lay in the same bad she was in while she was wounded and it bought back memories, memories of Craig. She started to cry. She pulled some Panadol out of her bag, because she had a sore head and headache from crying. She stayed that night with Craig, but he didn’t murmur. When Annabell awoke just after 4.30am she saw Craig talking. He was saying something. He said, slowly, carefully and painfully “Annabell, Annabell are you there?”
“Craig, I am here, don’t worry Craig.” She clutched on to his hand, she never wanted to let go. Craig clutched back, a moment they would both never forget. Craig didn’t feel safe to go home, he felt unstable and Annabell asked if she could stay with him. The nurse nodded.
Annabell was surprised, her head was still throbbing, like a pounding hammer, yet she had not cried since yesterday. She could think of no reason why, but she didn’t complain, all she cared for was Craig's health.
After a day or two Annabell started to feel very sick, she stayed in bed, for she had lost some control of her balance, she asked the nurse for a bowl for the sickening feeling in her stomach. The nurse kept an eye on Annabell, and as for Craig, he still had chest pains, so was kept in the hospital. Annabell was still complaining about her headache, but the nurse asked Annabell to follow her to see a doctor to have a cat scan, for she was worrying that Annabell may have more than a basic head ache. After the scan had completed, and the results came though, the doctor asked to see Annabell alone, Annabell's face dropped and Craig asked to come though, but the nurse refused his entry. The doctor said to Annabell, “This may take some time to process, and I am sorry to say, but you have a brain tumour. So I need to know how long you have been having these head aches.” Annabell just looked solemnly at the doctor for a long while, and then she simply said, “ Since Craig has been in hospital.”
She got up from her chair. With a blank look on her face, she walked out and went back to her bed, she just lay there. She didn’t say a word, she just look worried. Craig rushed up to her and asked her what was wrong, but she just said, “I am sick, I am worrying, what if I die?” Her face then went angry, then she realised what worrying had done so she stopped again, and just stayed there. Craig lay beside her, worrying to death about his lover, what if she did die. Then one morning, Craig and the nurse simply stood around her bed and looked at her cold body. Craig laid down beside her and cried. He looked at her lifeless eyes, now knowing that it was the end of a beutiful tragic love.
the end
