by Akaku Red
It was just, since Florida, since then … I hadn’t saw him again.
“Of course I would remember you. You were my precious patient, and also your case is not a thing to forget.”
I nodded.
“Four years … I think four or five years have passed since the last time we met.”
“Four years and three months!” I corrected.
“You have grown up! You can talk, you are getting better. I am glad!”
After he said those words, I felt a heavy burden in my heart.
Yeah … I was better than before, but right now … Right now, I was slowly coming back to reality.
The fear, the pain, all the unanswered questions and the man who attacked me.
I wasn’t getting better.
“The police found you in your garden shed, unconscious, and you were bleeding. They don’t know what happened.”
So, the culprit wasn't there, which meant he was still out there!
“Who called the police?”
“Er … A girl, I forgot her name. You were talking with her on the phone when she heard loud noises. She was afraid that something might have happened to you. A good girl, since she called the police.”
Charlotte— Oh … I had forgotten that we talked on the phone before I got brutally pushed into the garden shed.
“May I know what happened?”
“Don’t tell anybody about what happened. If you do … I am going to kill your family … your friends, one by one.”
My body started to shiver.
Could I tell Jeffrey about it?
What if this person was watching me?
Oh… good!
Should I really keep this to myself?
Jeffrey sighed again.
“Do you remember the time when you couldn’t speak? I tried hard to make you show me what had happened to you. I still have the ability, if I see a wound, I can imagine with what and how a person got hurt. This made it a little easier to help you finding the words with me. But now that you can speak, shouldn’t it be easier for you to tell me? You know I handle everything confidentially.”
I nodded because I remembered our time, we both struggled a lot. — And he was a person who didn’t tell anybody about my problems, even to the police.
But what made me speak up wasn’t the old times! I started to speak up because I didn’t want to be the fearful little girl again.
I wanted to improve myself, live a life without fear and … to be happy.
To see Jeffery again was amazing, but it also gave me a little push … because he was a person I wanted to meet again in a condition where I was the person I wanted to be.
“I-I had the feeling … of being watched, since we came back in London. And … I thought I was getting paranoid again … But was it today?” I asked, which made him nod his head.
“Today… While I was talking with my friend, I heard strange noises. At first, I thought it was coming from my phone, but after a while, I could track the noise. It came from the garden shed. A-And while I walked towards it, I saw that the door was open. I didn’t want to go in there, I wanted to turn away but at the same time, I got pushed in.”
I stopped, shaking my head in disbelief.
“I-I never thought… that someone was standing behind me! This person was covered up. Sadly, I couldn’t see his face, the voice was disguised, too. He was strong, he pushed me, lifted me up, and tossed me away as if I weighed nothing, and he threatened me.”
Jeffrey nodded slightly just to tell me to keep talking.
“I think my scar opened up because I hit the sharp edge of the lawn mower.”
“Yeah … We had to sow it back together again. “
I was shocked to hear those words.
“Don’t be afraid, I fixed it. You just shouldn’t overexert yourself because we don’t want your wound to open up again.”
This scar always gave me hard times … But then again … I slowly realised how much luck I had had. If it hadn’t been Charlotte who called the police to come over, then who knows what could have happened to me?
“He didn’t want to kill you.”
Jeffrey suddenly said which made my heart beat heavily.
“If he wanted to do it, he could have done it! But it looked like a warning to me.”
It took me some time to let his suggestion sink into my mind.
He could be right!
“H-He talked about killing my family and friends if I tell on him. A-And that somebody wants to kill me, too.”
I muttered.
“What if he killed my dad? What if I am next?”
Jeffrey seemed confused. This was the first time that I saw him like this.
“Wait, I need to process everything.”
He stopped me from talking.
“And before we go on, shouldn’t we talk with the police? This is a serious matter, and I can’t let you out knowing someone has been stalking you.”
I shook my head.
“He said he will kill my family if I tell anyone about it. And now that I have told you about it, I am not even sure if my family is safe now!”
I started to panic, but after a while, with Jeffrey silently holding my hand, I calmed down.
“Do you think that by hiding this, it is going to be better? If you hide it, then this person will get to you without any problems! He only threatened you because he is afraid of the police. He can’t do anything if you are under police protection. You do understand what I am saying, right? Don’t be afraid, you need to be stronger and smarter than him!”
Even though I knew he was right, I was still afraid. — Afraid to lose my mother … my friends.
“Do you remember the past? The police officer who originally brought you to me?”
I nodded; Bob Morgan, the man who had been at my school when Alice cried for my rescue.
“Yeah, I do.”
Jeffrey tightened his grip on my hand and smiled.
“We can talk with him. Nobody is going to know. He is a good guy, and he could protect you without making a fuss. At least he should know about this matter and if he knows … I can sleep better,” he joked.
“You are right.”
“Good! By the way, he found you in the garden shed. And he is waiting outside in the anteroom.”
So, he saw me laying on the ground…
“May I call him in?”
I nodded slowly, maybe it was the best.
“Good, just a moment!”
Jeffrey got up and left me for a few minutes before he came back with Mr. Morgan at his side. As our eyes met, he smiled brightly and took the seat beside my bed.
“Jenny, you have grown up to be a beautiful woman!”
Just seeing him again calmed me.
I felt safe; and before I realised, I started to cry and hugged him tight. I ignored the stabbing pain coming from my back, and I didn’t even care that the drip fell over because the tube wasn’t long enough.
“Oh my! Oh my! Please, don’t cry!”
Bob patted my shoulders and started sharing tears, too, while Jeffrey tried to help me with the drip.
“I am so jealous right now! How can you greet him like that? And I only got a plain hello?”
Jeffrey started sulking, a side of him he barely showed.
But Bob didn’t seem surprised by his attitude.
“Well, I am more likeable.”
“Excuse me?”
Both of them started teasing each other, making them look like an old married couple, but they stopped once I had my emotions under control and laid back on the bed. I wiped away my tears even though others followed again.
Both of them knew me since I had been a little girl, broken and mute, and now, after four years…
I wanted to show them that I had grown up, that I could talk again and that I was doing better …
But right now, I felt the same as before — maybe that was the reason why my tears wouldn't stop flowing.
“S-Sorry … It’s so good to see you
guys again! You two are important people in my life, and we haven’t seen each other in years.”
Bob nodded.
“Yeah … A long time has passed, but now we are here. Not in good conditions, but we are here, and you are safe!”
“And you are going to heal in no time,” Jeffrey added.
“But I didn’t let you in so that you can cling to her. I wanted you to listen to what happened, you need to treat this case confidentially.”
Bob got back into his serious mode.
He looked at me sternly and signed to Jeffrey to take a seat.
“So … you want to tell me about it?” he asked, and I nodded.
This time, I told them everything I knew; from Alice, my dad, the orphanage, my creepy memories, the person who watched and attacked me, to where I was now.— Both of them were clearly shocked, and they started to think of possible answers, about everything.
Well, … what had happened wasn’t normal, unbelievable too, but at least … they believed my words.
“We need to keep an eye on you, it is dangerous right now and as Jeffrey suspected, I also think this was a warning. He wanted to tell you something, and we need to find out what!”
I agreed to that.
“I am sorry for your loss,” Jeffrey added.
We stayed silent for a moment.
“About Alice … You found her?”
Sadly, I shook my head.
“No, I couldn’t find her.”
“It really is … A difficult and suspicious situation, I just hope that everything turns out to be good, but I have a bad feeling about it.” Jeffrey sighed.
“No one is going to get hurt, I promise you, Jenny. I will be watching over you and your family. This is a secret between us, I will handle it with care, and we are going to catch this creepy guy! When we catch him, we will question him, and then we will get the mastermind.”
Bob made his hands into fists.
“We will get him,” he repeated.
“Thank you,” I muttered.
“Safety for the citizens is my job.”
He flashed me his bright smile again, which gave me new strength.
“Do I need to stay at the hospital?” I asked.
“You slept over two hours, and you seem fine. I would do a little check-up and give you some medicine, then you could go home. But I don’t know if this is a good idea.”
I disagreed. I didn't need to stay at the hospital at all.
“I really want to go home… Does my mother know about me being here?”
“No, we couldn’t reach her. We don’t have a number to call, and the only one we could get was unavailable.”
Elise, she was going to be worried if I wasn’t home.
“I really do feel better now. And now that I have talked about my problems, I feel way better … I really need to go home.”
Jeffrey sighed loudly.
“Yeah … But Bob is going to take you back!” he said sternly, trying to act all serious.
“I will do that.”
For my check-up, Bob needed to leave the room.
I still felt a little dizzy, and my back did hurt a lot, but after talking about my real problems … I felt how the heavy burden in my heart lessened, which made me endure the pain silently.
“You can always talk to me! I would appreciate it if you visited me again, and I mean in a good condition. I don’t want to see you hurt,” Jeffrey said as he gave me a long white shirt to put on. My other clothes were dirty and stored in a plastic bag.
“I will. Thank you.”
I looked down.
“Jeffrey, is it possible to lose memories?”
He eyed my every move before sighing.
“It is, but it’s not losing. The memories are hidden in your mind. Eventually, someday they will come back. Just when and how, is not a given…”
I stepped to the side so I could face him better.
“I think… I have lost important memories.”
His face softened, as our eyes met.
“No! You didn’t lose memories. You had a very scary experience. This was a defence mechanism. You hid this part of your life in your mind, so you could keep on going. And I am glad you could do so because look at you now. I am proud of you.”
“So, you think it is better to let the memories stay hidden?”
“Not exactly, you will remember someday. Hopefully in a condition when you can take all the hardships.”
I sighed.
“Sometimes, I really wish I could forget my past completely…”
“As long as you win peace, then you can live on.”
Again, he was right.
“You are a good girl, Jenny. Oh, by the way, you shouldn’t attend school, you need to recover!”
He patted my head and accompanied me to the lobby. There he gave me a paper to excuse me from school, some medicine to put on my injuries once I got home, and then we went over to where Bob was waiting.
“You need to come by on Friday, we need a check-up and maybe pull out the stitches. I guess you still remember how to take care of and treat a wound like that?”
I nodded.
“Good! Be careful on your way.”
“I will. Until next time, Jeffrey.”
We bid our goodbyes before we left the hospital.
Bob helped me get into his car since I had difficulty finding a position that didn’t hurt.
On the way home, I couldn’t really think, the pain was really strong.
“You don’t look well. Are you sure you are better at home?”
I nodded.
“I don’t really like hospitals, and this wound isn’t something which needs to be supervised by doctor. I’ve already had enough problems with this scar.”
My voice was heavy because my breath was out of control. When I took too much air, the pain grew stronger, which was why I needed to breathe short and fast.
“You said your father was murdered earlier this year?”
He changed the topic since he knew he couldn’t convince me to go back to the hospital.
“Yeah.”
“What if he isn’t dead? You said you didn’t hold a funeral. So, how do you know he is dead?”
I felt dizzy after his spoken thought.
“Elise said that there was nothing left of him … Why would my mother lie?”
“I don’t know… Sometimes people tend to lie if they need to protect someone. Also, a regular fire can’t completely dispose of a dead body. The bones can take a lot more than you think.”
Well, he was right, we couldn’t be sure about anything, but the pictures in my mind made me feel unwell. I didn’t want to imagine Rick’s dead body on a floor as the fire surrounded him.
This was too cruel…
“Sorry, I didn’t want to put you this image in your head. I just got … a little mad. Because you never had the chance to have a good childhood and even now … you can’t be a normal girl. It’s unfair.”
I looked down on my lap.
“It is… but as you said, everything is going to be fine, right?”
Bob sighed loudly before he let out a little laugh. His moustache above his upper lip started moving because of it.
“I guess we should change the topic.”
I nodded.
“Did you know… Back then, I wanted to adopt you,” he said after a while.
I looked back up at him incredulously.
“You look surprised, but yeah … I had really wanted to adopt you since the first time we met. You reminded me of my little daughter who passed away. I tried to get you and spoil you because you deserved it. Yet, since I was a single man with a dangerous job, they didn’t let me. I fought the case for a few years, I never gave up … Eventually I needed to, after a new family took you in.”
As he spoke, I couldn’t stop myself imagining a life with this amazing man.
But … It was sad to hear that he couldn’t get me just because he was living alone.
“I feel touched. I am happy to hear this,” I said while feeling shy somehow.
“I am glad to hear that you aren’t disgusted by the idea.”
“Why should I be? I always thought you were cool.”
He smiled again.
“But … How did your daughter die?” I asked because this was the first time that I heard about it.
His smile disappeared, and his brown eyes darkened. He looked much older now as he began to speak.
“She was six when a man captured her and killed her. This man killed her on a sunny day. My daughter was playing with her mother in a park. It was by accident that he chose her. If it hadn’t been my daughter, he would have taken someone else. — She was in the wrong place at the wrong time… It happened a long time ago, and I got through it, because it was during that difficult time that your case was passed on to me. You gave me new strength, and even though my wife left me, and my girl was in Heaven, you, the ‘little mute girl’, gave me the will to continue to live.”
The story made me sad, I really pitied this little girl, and I wished that she was at least happy where she was now. I also silently prayed that Bob would never forget her.
His last words were nice to hear because I wasn’t aware that I gave people this kind of feeling — like Dean, he had also said that I was special to him.
“Thank you. And I am sorry for your loss.”
He nodded.
“I am glad you are back in London. I promise to keep you safe!”
Bob parked the car in front of the door, but before he helped me out, he looked at me briefly.
“What do you want to tell your mother?” he asked whilst moving his hands over the steering wheel.
“I-I haven’t thought about that.”
I muttered.
“I am all for the truth, but if you have the feeling you can’t tell her about that, then you should think about an excuse.”
The way he spoke was serious. — And the last bit made me feel guilty.
I didn’t want to tell her about it because I didn’t want her to be worried about me, and I was afraid … if I told her, she would cancel her work in Denmark.
“If you don’t trust her, then—"
Bob started to speak again, but I stopped him before he could finish his sentence.
“I do trust my mother! I just don’t want her to cancel her work because of me, she is already worried about everything.”
Bob started laughing again, but he stopped after he saw my strained look.