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“I know, Dali.” I pat his head. “I’m not thinking straight.”
He cocks his head to the other side. I grin.
“You don’t think I’m going crazy, do you?”
He puts his head down and sighs.
I grab his ears and play with them. “Oh, you think I’ve always been crazy, do you? Do you?”
Suddenly, I hear Bart barking in the distance. Dali lifts his head. His ears perk up. I get on my feet as well as I feel a stab of worry.
I know that bark.
Dad!
I run in the direction of the sound and find him barking at my father, who seems to be in a panic, running back and forth and banging on the walls and windows.
“Dad!” I run to his side. “What are you doing?”
“Get me out of here.” He bangs on a wall. “Why are they keeping me here? Where am I?”
I frown because I immediately know he’s having an episode. And here I thought he was getting better because he hasn’t really had an episode since we moved to DC.
“Dad, it’s fine.” I put my arms around him. “Just relax. You’re safe. You’re here with me in DC.”
“DC?”
“Washington, DC,” I explain. “We’re in Mason’s apartment, remember?”
He pulls away and gives me a puzzled look. “Mason?”
I nod. “Mason Burke, my husband.”
He still doesn’t know what I’m talking about.
I place my hand on his shoulder. “You remember Mason? He lived next door. He has an older brother named Leander and a younger sister named Giselle.”
“Leander,” my father mutters to himself as he looks away. “Giselle.”
“He’s a businessman now. He’s fighting cancer.”
“He has cancer?”
“I mean he’s helping the world fight cancer. You said yourself that he’s amazing. He’s my husband now. We got married.”
For a moment, he stays silent, still. Is his memory finally coming back?
Then he lifts his head and looks into my eyes. My heart leaps to my throat. Why is he looking at me like that?
Then he says the words I’ve been dreading to hear.
“Who are you?”
My heart sinks. My strength leaves me and my knees feel weak. Still, I keep myself standing and put on a smile.
“Dad, it’s me, Aster. Your daughter.”
“Who?”
“Aster, your daughter,” I tell him again.
His eyes narrow. “I don’t have a daughter.”
The words break my heart and nearly wrench tears from the corners of my eyes, but I try to be strong. I tell myself that this, too, will pass, that my dad’s memory will come back any second now.
Any second.
“Carol and I don’t have a daughter,” he says again. “You’re lying. You’re a liar.”
I shake my head. “Dad…”
“Get away from me!” He pushes me away.
I fall to the floor and Bart barks louder. Dali joins him, too.
“All of you, get away from me!” my father shouts before running off.
Dali goes after him.
“Dali!” I call him back.
But Dali doesn’t listen. He saw my father push me. He can feel my pain. He knows my father is a threat. He pounces.
“Dali!”
The dog grabs my father’s arm. My father screams and tries to shake him off, hitting him over and over.
“No!” I scream.
I don’t know what to do anymore. I can’t think. They’re both getting hurt and I can’t stand it.
“Help!”
The nurse comes running. He grabs my father’s other arm and injects him with a sedative. As soon as he starts to lose consciousness, I grab Dali. He finally lets go of my father, knowing that the threat has been neutralized.
But as I look at my father lying unconscious in the nurse’s arms, something tells me my nightmare has just begun.
~
“Dali bit your father?” Mason looks at me in shock after I tell him what happened.
I let out a sigh. “It’s unbelievable, I know. But it’s not Dali’s fault. It’s my dad’s. He had an episode and he pushed me.”
“He pushed you?” The look in his eyes reminds me of the one Dali had.
“He was having an episode,” I remind Mason. “He didn’t recognize me.”
“So he pushed you and Dali bit him?”
I nod.
“Then the nurse sedated him?”
“There was no other option. He wouldn’t calm down. He was hurting Dali.”
“I see.”
I shake my head and run my hands through my hair in frustration. How on earth did all this happen? One moment, everything was fine and the next…
“How’s Dali?” Mason asks me.
“He’s alright,” I answer.
He seemed upset but not hurt. He’s tough.
“You should have a vet check him just to be sure,” Mason says.
I nod. That’s not a bad idea, but first, I have to make sure my dad is alright.
Just then, the nurse and the doctor come out of his room.
I get out of my chair. “How is he?”
“He’s fine,” the doctor tells me. “I’ve already given him the shots he needs and dressed his wounds. He’s calmed down as well.”
“And his memory?” Mason asks.
I hold my breath as I wait for the answer.
The doctor sighs. “I’m afraid he still doesn’t seem to remember where he is or who he is. As far as he’s concerned, he’s thirty and he’s a photojournalist who’s starting both his career and his married life.”
