Remember Me

Chapter 4

When Blake opened his eyes all he could see was white. The sudden brightness of the room hurt his eyes. “Blake? Oh, thank God you’re awake”. It was his sister, Amanda. And that’s when he realized he was in a hospital bed, with an IV stuck to his arm. What happened to him? He wondered.

“Amanda? What’s going on, why am I here?” he said, his voice sounding hoarse. For how long had he been blacked out?

She looked at him with her brown eyes, and softly said, “You came in here at about 12 am rushing and with the palest color in your face, like you’ve seen a ghost or something, and then you saw mom all hooked to those cables and I think you lost it. You collapsed on the floor next to mom’s bed and a nurse took care of you. Now you’re here. You’ve been out for like 9 hours… I was getting worried.”

Then he remembered. The forest. Margot. The necklace. Where was the necklace? He was wearing a hospital robe, and he wondered whether they touched any of the stuff in his pockets or not. He needed to see it again, because after this haze of confusion he was starting to think he had imagined the whole thing, but he couldn’t ask his sister for it, otherwise she would think he was completely insane. Did she remember Margot? Amanda had been 15 at the time he started going out with her, so maybe she did. But he didn’t want to ask, that would probably raise some questions… the whole family knew how hard it had been for Blake to get over Margot’s death.

“Wow, okay… so, how’s mom doing?” he asked, suddenly remembering the reason he was there. “Did she worry? Please tell her I’m okay”

“Mom is… doing fine, I guess. Her condition hasn’t changed since I called you… She was asleep when you came in. We didn’t tell her you blacked out, but now she knows you’re here.” He could hear the sadness in her voice; Amanda and his mother were very close. Growing up with 2 older brothers made her the little girl of the house, and of course his mom was closer to her.

“Well, I’m glad she’s still here. Can I see her?” Blake was dying to see his mother, he didn’t remember most of last night, and her life was hanging by a thread, so he wanted to spend some last moments with her, just to say goodbye.

“Yeah, I’ll go check with a nurse if you c-“Blake was already unhooking the IV’s needle and standing up. He felt alright, he had a huge headache, but he could surely walk. “Blake! What are you doing? You can’t do that! Wait!” Amanda protested, but Blake, being as stubborn and impatient as he was, was already out the door.

When he saw his mom, he understood why he blacked out. She was barely recognizable. She had thin strands of hair barely covering her head, her face looked tired, and the signs of her age and sickness were showing strongly. She was hooked to all sorts of cables and machines, the only things standing between her and death. It pained him to see his mother like that; she was so strong, always putting her children’s needs before her own. The only thing that assured Blake that was his mother were her beautiful green eyes, just like his. They opened wide in recognition when she saw Blake.

“Oh my God, Mom, I missed you so much” Blake said, walking closer to her bed and hugging her as carefully as he could, not to mess up one of the cables attached to her weak body. “Sorry for not making it here sooner, I’ll stay with you all day” he said, making a promise to her. She couldn’t speak, but she nodded softly, holding Blake’s hand tightly.

That day, Blake talked to his silent mother about a lot of things, he knew she could hear everything he was saying, and he told her everything in his life, except one thing… Margot’s ghost. He couldn’t bring himself to say what happened in that forest aloud. And he didn’t want to scare her with those things, anyway.

The next day, his mind was set up to something: going to the forest again. Part of him wanted Margot to rest in peace, to forget about her, to let it go. But the other was aching for answers, aching to see Margot again, even if it was for a little amount of time.