AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He gets up and paces the room. “It’s been months since I woke up. Something should be coming back.” He runs a hand through his hair. “This is my place? I wouldn’t even know it if you hadn’t told me. You could take me to any house and call it mine. I hate this.”
“I know. It’s going to come back, Oliver. I swear, we’re not going to give up.”
CHAPTER17
Oliver’s frustration understandably grows over the next few weeks. Almost every day after he gets out of physical therapy and I get off work, we go somewhere to try to trigger his memory. Even walking around his childhood home and showing him where he and Alden carved their names in a beam in the attic does nothing to remind him. Tori has also taken him a few places. To his old college, and a card shop where he used to spend a lot of time playing Dungeons and Dragons.
Physically, he’s getting better. He hasn’t had any seizures and his migraines are getting fewer, but I’m afraid he’s losing hope. Some days, I feel the same way. It’s hard not to.
He’s in a bad mood when we get home today from visiting his old apartment complex. Like everything else, he couldn’t remember anything about it, or which apartment he’d lived in.
We spend a lot of the evenings watching TV in the living room or sitting outside, but he goes straight to his room when we get home. A couple of hours later, I hear him call my name.
His room is pitch dark and he covers his eyes when I open his door. “I need a pain pill. Please. And the sedative.”
“Hang on. I’ll be right back.” He must be in a lot of pain. He can take both of those pills at once, but he usually doesn’t. They knock him out cold.
I return with the pills, a bottle of water, and an ice pack for his head. Once a migraine has a grip on him, there’s not much that helps. The light is his enemy, so I only leave the door open a small crack to let me see without tripping. He sits up enough to swallow both pills, then lies flat again. His hands press against his temples.
“My head feels like it’s going to explode. I can’t take this.”
It tears at my heart to hear him in pain. I push the door shut, dipping the room in blackness again, then sit beside him on the bed. “I’ve got you.” A malleable gel ice pack is one of the few things that helps take the edge off. He lets out a little moan when I lay it across his forehead.
“I should’ve known it was coming and took a pill earlier when my sight was messing up. Like looking through a damn kaleidoscope.”
“Is there anything else I can do?”
“Can you just stay a few minutes?”
I take his hand and lean back against the headboard. “I’m right here.”
He squeezes my hand, and we sit in the darkness, waiting for the pills to kick in.
“Maybe we’re doing too much,” I suggest. “Pushing you too hard on top of your other therapies. You should take a couple of days to rest.”
“No, I need to keep trying.”
“Has anyone ever told you that you’re stubborn as hell?”
He snorts out a laugh and his hand jerks to his head to catch the pain. “Look who’s talking.”
“Okay, but we’ll go somewhere relaxing tomorrow. A park you used to go to. We can get some lunch and take it easy.”
“That sounds good.” His words are starting to slur. “I’m scared it might not ever come back. I might never know who I am.”
There’s no way I’d admit it, but I’m starting to fear the same thing. “Then I’ll help you figure out who you are all over again. You’re going to be okay.”
I’m not sure if he hears me or will remember if he does. The next sound out of him is a light snore. I stay for a few more minutes to make sure he’s really out before going to my room.
Loneliness is heavy in me tonight. It’s always worse once the day is over and there’s nothing to distract me. Despite how challenging it’s been, having Oliver here to focus on has helped me too. Just knowing someone else is in the house is enough sometimes.
* * *
When I get in from work, Oliver sits on the edge of his bed. His gaze reaches out of the window, and he looks lost in his thoughts.
“Hey.” The small smile he gives me when I sit next to him is wrapped in heaviness. “We don’t have to go today if you aren’t feeling up to it. If you’re tired…”
“I’m not tired. I want to go. I’m just preparing myself. I don’t want to be disappointed if the place is brand new to me. I keep getting my hopes up that something will click, and everything will make sense again.”
