The ones he had lost were always a sore point with him. Well the ones that he had loved, anyway. He liked to tuck them away in his mind, and not think about them ever again. Thinking about them just made living forever even harder, and he knew from long experience that he couldn't bring them back.
Every now and then though, he ran into someone who brought back the memories out of that corner of his mind. These people were like a shock to the hearts. Like a jolt of electricity that knocked him backwards. Knocking him into something he had locked away in one of the corners of his mind. Often, it seemed to him, far too often, these people would join the ones he locked away, until the next one came along.
The worst part of it was that he never knew when one was coming. And for reasons utterly incomprehensible to him, this entirely ordinary young girl was one. One of the shocks.
"Hello? Anyone in there? Doctor, are you even listening to what I'm saying? I swear sometimes, I think you're actually physically on another planet. "
Yes, she was most definitely quite a jolt.