Mikaal

40: Mikaal

"Are you okay?"

"Does anyone know first aid?"

"Call an ambulance!"

The faint voices grew louder until Dalia became aware that they were coming from above her. A warm hand clutched her shoulder—a stark contrast to her shivering body.

"No," Dalia said in a hoarse voice as the scene before her came into focus. Somehow, she was on the concrete floor in the foetal position, her body still shaking, this time from the cold air that whipped across her face and limbs.

"Pardon?"

"No," she said again, her voice stronger as she pushed her hands against the rough gravel surface until she was up in a sitting position. "I don't need an ambulance." She ignored the sceptical looks of the small crowd of four or five people that had collected around her. She could feel the queasiness returning at the sound of the crashing waves in the background. 'I need to get far away from here...'

"But you were..."

Dalia looked into the woman's concerned gaze. Her partner stood close by her side, his mobile phone ready in hand. "I'm okay now. I just fainted," she said in half-truth. She forced herself to her feet to prove her point, but internally, again, she thought, 'I need to get away from here.'

"Are you sure? It looked serious, like you were having a fit and—" The woman's eyes grew wide with fright. "Your eyes were rolled back..."

Dalia bit her lip. "I'm sorry if I scared you. It's not the first time I've fainted..." Her voice trailed off as she felt the blackness threaten to overcome her again. She blinked several times to keep her reality in focus. She had to get away from this place, right now. She took a step back and looked around for her car.

"Will you at least see a doctor?"

Dalia nodded. "I'll go right now."

"Will you be okay to drive?"

"Yes, honestly, I'm okay now."

The tall woman hesitated and glanced at her partner with uncertainty.

"I used to faint all the time when I was young. I just need to sit down and have some water."

"Oh, okay, we'll walk you to your car." She offered Dalia her arm.

Dalia gladly accepted her assistance as the nauseating feeling attached to the fuzzy images returned in ebbs and flows.

She thanked the couple for their help before promptly turning on the ignition and heading off.

'What's wrong with me?' Dalia felt sapped of all her energy. She held onto her steering wheel for support as she stared blankly at the road in front of her.

HONK HONK!

"Oh!" Dalia swerved her car back into her lane, her heart beating wildly. "Sorry..." She had missed the white ute by inches. She ignored the obscenities the driver spat her way as he drove past, refusing to pay any attention to him.

'Maybe I'm not fit to drive,' she thought and took the next left turn.

It was a quiet street only a few blocks from the beach—yet far enough away—that very much looked like the Beverly Hills of Perth. She stopped in front of a three-storey house, took off her seatbelt and allowed herself to be distracted by its symmetry. It was cream in colour with a dark brown tile roof and it had four balconies, two on each side. Meanwhile, she breathed in and out slowly until her heart settled back into a regular rhythm.

'What do I do now?'

She did need to see a doctor, but first... She dug out her notebook from her backpack. She noted what she had learnt from her visit to Scarborough Beach and skimmed the pages new and old in search of her next revelation—to inspire her next step.

"What!" Dalia said as something dawned on her. Under her breath, she named the months between Mikaal's voicemail—that was left a couple of months after Blake had become the 'disappearing man' and was thus in the period she no longer had Facebook—and her birthday in December; she counted them with her fingers. "Eight months!"

Dalia shook her head in incredulity. "What the hell is wrong with me!" She closed her eyes and leaned back in her seat. How could she be in a relationship with someone for eight months and not remember any of it?

Beep Beep.

Dalia picked up her phone from the passenger seat. Her heart constricted at the sight of Mikaal's wide grin. It was a 'photo memory' that would pop up from time to time on her phone, this time reminding her of their hiking adventure. She turned the phone face down before her hand froze, still touching the silicon surface.

"Hang on..."

Dalia opened the Photos app and tapped the back arrow at the top left of the display, which allowed her to see a birds-eye view of her photos in smaller collections, based on the location and a date range.

Dalia's eyes narrowed into a frown. "This is weird."

She loved taking photos—the reason she had space issues—yet strangely, in the months around Mikaal's voicemail right up until her birthday, there were meagre numbers of photos. At least, juxtaposed against the large chunks of square previews both before and after those eight months, the scarcity was evident.

Dalia tapped one of the miniature pictures that opened up to reveal mostly snaps of food and landscapes. She scrolled the page up and down several times, squinting at the screen.

"Why aren't there any?" Not a single photo of Mikaal. And yet, there weren't any photos of Blake either...

"Did I delete them?" she asked herself, creases still between her brows. Had something happened between them that prompted her to erase their memories together?

'How about texts?' she wondered, opening the voicemail section to save Mikaal's number into her contacts. She then opened the Messages app and pulled the page down to reveal the search bar.

Dalia sighed when no message history could be found. Could she have deleted his messages?

Her face scrunched up like a prune. It was also strange that his number wasn't even saved on her phone—Blake was still in her contacts.

Dalia groaned. "This is not helping!"

She sat up straighter. She needed to stick to the facts and continue with her strategy of writing down all new information. And so back to her journal she went.

Okay, so there is no history of him—no photos, no messages—on my phone except for that one voicemail. Let's just leave that for now and focus on Scarborough Beach.

Let's suppose that's where I had my accident. God, I almost had another accident today. Thank God I was already sitting before I blacked out. But also, that wasn't a normal fainting spell...

Oh my God, I just thought of something! If an accident happened, surely I would've been taken to a doctor nearby to get immediate help! AND I know from Dr Wright that medical records are kept for all patients. So isn't it possible that I could find the doctor who helped me and learn what happened from their notes?

Dalia threw her notebook across onto the passenger seat, a surge of energy rising up from her toes, reaching her buzzing fingertips.

"Hey Siri," she said as she buckled her seatbelt and pushed her foot down on the clutch, "give me directions to the nearest doctor."

"Okay, I've found a few options. The nearest one is the Scarborough Beach Medical Centre. Would you like that one?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Getting directions to Scarborough Beach Medical Centre."

---

Hey hey hey!

Just have to say, thank you again to all of you who continue to support me through your votes and comments. I've actually started many novels but never finished any of them - but thanks to your encouragement, I am well on my way to finishing my first!

We're getting close now ;)

Stay tuned, until next time.

-Noelle