The Woman Who Wanted Her To Remember Pt. 2
Thirteen years ago, my dad and I stood by the white plain corridors of the hospital. We wasted an hour observing various patients quietly, when I suddenly blurted out:
"Dad, how do you love someone who forgets?"
I can never forget the look on his face. It seems as if remorse, pity, and regret were battling inside his eyes.
"You've been through a lot, haven't you?"
Before I can even say no, a huge bile suddenly rose up to my throat. It first clogged my airways, then it closed my mind from all the positive thoughts, finally, it crushed my heart to a million shards, intentionally molding it into a sharp, cold, and lifeless object.
A salty drop hits my mouth and as it was absorbed it burned the surface of my tongue, sealing the hurtful words that were about to be released. I did not know how my face looked like, but the way that dad looked at me, it was as if it was crumpled and distorted.
I shook my head, No.
But everything else just screamed, Yes.
"Hey mom..." I grip the steering wheel tightly until my knuckles turned white.
"Oh! I'm sorry but I think you've got the wrong person, isn't this the pizzeria?"
"No, it isn't." I grit my teeth and stepped on the gas overtaking the slower vehicles. The city's image begins to blur, so was my vision. I inhale a shaky breath and wait for her reply.
"Seems like I dialed the wrong number–" no, you just don't remember the person whom you're talking with, "I was planning to bring my daughter a good dinner since I'm late for her performance. I hope I'll make it..."
'That was fifteen years ago mom.' I thought bitterly to myself as tears stream down my face. 'You're stuck fifteen years ago.'
"I see... Well, it was nice talking to you. I hope she doesn't hold it against you, since you have to work all day from different jobs to provide for her."
"How did you know–" I press the end button and focus on the highway.
Fifteen years is a long time, but my thirteen years were the longest. Thirteen years of praying that she would never forget, thirteen years of disappointments. Three years of preparing for the worst and ten years of patience.
Ever since mom had an accident, her memory slowly fades. It starts with forgetting what she was about to do, then it leads to forgetting to her name, at last, it suddenly erases my whole existence with it. Mom forgot that she had a daughter who grew up.
Time may be a simple word, but it's complex at the same time. It is easily used, but it can never be brought back. That's what I learned during those thirteen years. No matter how much she dwells on the past, the rest simply moves on. And yet, I'm stuck with her, trying to pull her mind off the past.
The past where our family was complete, the past when I waited patiently, the past that–
Crash
Everything is now airborne, my car turns upside down and the things properly placed at the back simply scatters itself around. I feel a sharp pain on my shoulder, it seems like it is now dislocated. Glass shatters and pierces my skin, its blunt and sharp points slowly inserts itself deep within my arms and face. For a moment, I completely forgot, no, denied the situation.
It suddenly stops and everything was spinning. There were voices around me but they were slurred. I never went to the after party and so, realization falls heavily upon me:
I was going to die.
YOU ARE READING
The Train Of Regrets
Adventure"You don't know, do you?" He asks in a hush and still tone. "Know what?" He hands me a pamphlet showing a painting of two children watching a train flying over them, it was as if they were interrupted by the roars of a steam engine. I flip the paper...
