Puzzle of Memories
Chapter 2
Roxas was sitting on one of a few white chairs that were set in a long row in the hospital corridor. His eyes were looking down at the pearl-white-tiled floor under his feet, while his hands were put in a tight fist, clenching at his black and grey pants. He was deadly worry about the girl that he couldn't help himself but feeling messed up inside. If it wasn't because he was in a hospital right now, he might have go to the nearest wall and bam his head on it while screaming the stress out loud. But fortunately, he didn't. At least, for now.
Back at thirty minutes ago, when he found the girl woke up, he was quite surprised, but at the same time, happy. The sleeping beauty he had waited was awake. The girl slowly scanned her head around the room, and stopped when she spotted Roxas. Her green eyes looked straight at his blue one with a complete confusion, which wasn't really weird since they didn't know each other.
Then, the girl opened her mouth, about to say something. Her lips were motioning some words, but no sound came out. She tried again, opening her mouth wider this time; panic started to grow on her eyes. Still nothing. She tried again, and again, and again, but it ended the same. Her gaze dropped to her lap, but she only stared at it blankly. She was afraid and horrified. She had lost her voice. She was mute. That fact he had just realized made him feel more uneasy than he had felt before.
Was she going to be like that forever? Being a mute girl who couldn't speak and say anything—would she be okay? No. She must be afraid. She might feel miserable.
All the thoughts were scaring the blonde boy to dead.
Just when Roxas was about to lose his composure, a click sound came from the door in front of him; the door flung open. Roxas immediately shot his head up at the white-coated man standing in front of him.
"H-H-How's she, doctor?" The spiky boy abruptly stood up and stuttered out the question he had longed to get the answer. His anxiety he had tried to hide before, now was shown all over his face.
The blonde-haired doctor gave him a wise smile and patted his shoulder in a comforting way, trying to calm down the overdrive boy. He pushed Roxas a bit on his shoulder, telling him to take a seat. Roxas tried to suppress his worry and slowly sat down at his previous seat as the doctor did the same on the seat beside him.
"Is… is she okay?" Roxas asked again rather impatiently. "S-She lost her voice. Will she be like that forever?"
The older blonde glanced at him, showing an understanding smile. "Guess I'll start the explanation from that question first, then," he said, leaning his body forward; his chin was resting on his fist while his elbows on his lap.
"About her losing ability in speaking," He started, "It's only a transient muteness."
The doctor turned at Roxas, but the blonde boy went froze on the spot. His mouth was agape a little as if he was trying to say something, but couldn't. After a while, in almost inaudibly voice, he asked unsurely, "Is that… possible?"
"There are large areas in human brain that are associated with human's ability of seeing, speaking, smelling, hearing, and tasting. The normal five senses of human." He shrugged casually. "If that part was damaged, it will causing the senses to be unable to use—in our case, it's the loss in speaking ability. But her muteness isn't permanent; it's only temporary and will last for one to three month. When she recovers, she'll be able to talk again." Then the man ended the explanation with another smile. But it's not a wise smile this time; it's more like a 'waiting-for-respond' smile.
"Sh-She'll be fine…" He assured himself, but he himself didn't sure about that, so he added, "…right?" The doctor answered with a nod Roxas heaved out a heavy breath as if he had suppressed his needs of air and tried to hold it all this time; he was very relieved to hear that.
But the next thing came from the doctor quickly washed it away again as he said, "There is one other thing I haven't told you, son. But this one might not be as good to hear as the one before."
Roxas gulped at that sentence. Not as good to hear as before meant it was a bad news—just a soft way to said it. He didn't say anything; he didn't even try to respond. But the older man could quite tell that he was waiting for him to tell what's going on. He was trying to act patiently.
"We tried to ask her a few questions about her identity: her name, her age—anything. But she seemed to remember nothing," he said and paused for a mere second before he jumped to the conclusion. "She suffers amnesia."
Okay… That wasn't really a good thing. Amnesia wasn't an uncommon terminology, but knowing a real person suffered it was still quite a shock for him.
"Amnesia…? You mean… she doesn't know anything, even about herself?" He asked with a bit of disbelieving.
"I don't think she suffers a total amnesia, but it's quite severe in her case. She doesn't remember about where she came from, why she's here, and who her parents are. But from the way she tried to say something, I could guess she remembers her name," the doctor explained patiently.
"Could… could you do something about that…?"
The blond-haired man turned his wise blue eyes to the boy's desperate blue eyes, looking at him with regret. "The causes of amnesia might be physically, like getting a trauma on her head; or it could be psychologically, like some bad memories in the past she tried to forget," he explained and then said with regret, "We can't do much when we know nothing about what caused her loss of memory. I'm sorry."
The man realized the desperate expression on the boy's face, but he couldn't do anything. The least he could do was giving him some explanation about the girl's condition. That way, he might feel better.
"The best thing we can do now is to keep her in state. We need someone to take care of her for some while. As the time goes by, there might a probability she would get her memories back by its own," he ended, sighing. Roxas still didn't give any comeback.
"And…" The doctor suddenly added, "You are the most important person in that part, son. That girl needs you."
Roxas jerked his head up abruptly, looking at the older man with a wrinkled eyebrow.
He was at a loss of word when he heard the last part: 'That girl needs you.' Need literally meant as an important and necessary thing. But he wasn't important to that girl. She didn't even know him. She might not even know he existed before this. How could he be important to her? How could she need him?
"Y-You can't be so sure about that, right?" He said questioningly as if what the man had said was some kind of unfunny and ridiculous jokes. "I d-don't even know her and she doesn't know about me. How could I help her regaining her memories while I myself know nothing about her?"
The doctor only smiled. "You don't know her and she might not know you," Roxas furrowed his eyebrow at the use of word 'might'; as if there was still a possibility for her to know him when they had never met before. He ignored the look on Roxas' face and continued, "But subconsciously, she does."
"Okay. I'm losing here…" Roxas said before the man could even continue, putting his hand over one side of his face. He was totally confused at his saying.
"You're the only one who talked to her since she got here, right?" He suddenly asked, somewhat getting off the topic.
Roxas nodded helplessly. He didn't know what was really happening here anymore. "But what it has to do with it?"
"All the time you spent talking to her for the past three weeks, was counted as an introduction for both of you," the older man answered. Roxas decided not to respond, but still listened anyway. "She heard what you were saying to her in her sleep. And her sub consciousness recognizes that voice of yours. Even if she consciously didn't remember that, I'm pretty sure her sub consciousness will."
Then he repeated the three words again: "She needs you, Son."
Roxas was silence again. What the man had said, as corny as it sounded, quite made sense. He might be right about that. He was the closest one to the level 'know' for that girl compared to anyone else around here.
The younger boy took another time of hesitant, but then slowly nodded. Just a small nod, but still could be seen. "I-I'll try," he said, earning a smile from the wise man and a pat on his back.
The doctor got up from his seat and started to walk off, but before he could, Roxas called for him. "D-Doctor," he called, getting the attention of the older man, "How is she doing now?"
"I gave her a sedative to calm her down. She was quite in a panic when she realized she can't remember anything. I think she's sleeping right now," he said, mentioning at the sickroom door behind him before turned to the boy again, "You want to see her?"
"N-No. I guess I should let her rest tonight," he said, shaking his head. As wise as that may sound, he was quite disappointed to know he couldn't see her tonight. But it couldn't be helped.
The blonde man only shrugged. "Well, you could visit her tomorrow."
Roxas gave him a small, yet genuine smile. "True." He felt a real gratitude towards the man.
The doctor once again patted his shoulder. "Well, then why don't you go home? Take a rest, too, will you? Or should I give you a sedative, too?" He added a last part as a joke.
Roxas let out a small laughed. He knew it was a joke, but still answered anyway. "Thank you, doctor. But I won't need that," he said, shaking his head.
-X-X-X-X-
"Heya, Roxas buddy! Where do you think you're going, huh?" A brunette boy yelled cheerfully as he did a head-locking at the blonde.
"Ow, ow!" Roxas winced when the spiky-haired boy's grab on his neck tightened and began to crack his neck up, but the boy just laughed like an innocent kid.
Just when Roxas was about to lose his soul to death (okay, that's an exaggeration), another blonde came and helped him out. "You're going to kill him, Sora," she said with her angelic voice, putting a pale hand on the brunette's shoulder.
Sora's grab loosened and he slowly let Roxas go, making the blond-haired boy falls to the floor. "Aw… Why are you helping him again, Nam?" He whined, putting both his hands behind his head. The blonde girl, whose name was Namine, only smiled sweetly.
Roxas was crouching on the floor, coughing and slowly took a deep inhale of fresh air. After he got his composure back, he threw a glare at the brown-haired boy as he stood up. "Are you planning to kill me or what, Sora?" Sora grinned innocently at his friend's rhetorical question.
"Anwyay, Roxas," Namine said, breaking the death glare Roxas threw on Sora. "We're planning to go to my family café. Are you going?" She asked sweetly.
Roxas scratched his head, feeling a bit unsure. He was planning to go to the hospital right away to see that girl just after school, but turned down a friend's invitation wasn't nice either. He had to choose his priority.
"Uh… Namine…" He said uncertainly after a few thoughts, "I-I don't know. I really want to go, but… but I got something I have to do. So… Sorry."
Namine made a quite disappointed look, but quickly covered it with a smile. "That's fine, Roxas," she said, "Maybe later when you have time?"
"Yeah," Roxas answered rather guilty, "Next time." The girl was smiling at him again.
"Uh… I-I'll see you guys, then. Tell Riku and Kairi I can't come. Bye," Roxas waved a quick goodbye and immediately ran off from his friends, wishing they'll forgive him for lying to them. But, hey, that wasn't really a lie, right? He did have something to do.
Namine and Sora watched the back of the blonde as he was getting far from them. When Roxas finally was out of hearing, Sora, with his hands still on the back of his head, said, "He seems to ditching us quite a lot lately, no?"
The girl didn't answer for a minute, but then she slowly said, "I hope he doesn't."
-X-X-X-X-
There he was again, finding himself standing in front of the white door of the hospital sickroom. He had been staring at the room sign hanging on it for some minutes now. After a few minutes, he took a breath as his grip on his backpack strap tightened. He tried to calm himself before he slowly pushed the door open.
As soon as he walked in the room, a pair of emerald eyes quickly turned their attention to him, making the calmness he had just gotten a minute ago gone in no time. Roxas gulped at the innocent, yet intense stare that was thrown at his direction.
"H-Hey," he managed to give the girl a greeting. He waved a hand to her, trying to be as casual as he could. If anything, it only made him look more awkward. "H-How do you feel?"
The girl opened her mouth a bit, but didn't answer. Instead, she pointed her right index finger at her throat and Roxas was smart enough to catch what she meant.
"O-Oh," He said when he remembered her condition and quickly apologized, "Sorry."
The girl only shook her head, means 'It's fine.'
'Man, it will be harder to communicate like this,' Roxas thought in his mind, scratching the back of his head.
Just then, bliss fell from the sky; Roxas got an idea. He shrugged off his black and white backpack from his shoulders, zipped it open, and rummaged through it, searching for a certain something. When he finally found that 'something', he quickly took it out and offered it to the girl.
The girl looked at him then at the offered thing in his hand. He stared at it for a while before slowly took it.
It was a note book, an A4-sized note book. It had yellow spiral bound and orange PVC cover, with white flower designed on the left corner of the front cover. Along with that note book, she found a pencil with matching pattern inside the note book. It was a nice book.
Actually, it was a note book he got from Namine. 'For always helping me,' she said when she gave him. But Roxas was never actually using it. Not with the light orange cover, not with the floral pattern on the left corner. Hell, no! He would never use that girlish note book. How could a boy use that kind of book?
On the contrary, Roxas thought the note book was perfect for the girl. The light colour of the book however matched with the image the girl gave to her surrounding: calm, but at the same time, cheerful. Although he still didn't know about her personality, but her aura was just telling him that.
"I'm giving it to you," Roxas said after a while when he realized the girl was quite keen at the note book, "You could write down what you want to say on it, so it would be easier for us to talk." Roxas unconsciously smiled when he finished his sentence.
The girl stared at him for some minutes; a quite unreadable expression on her face. Then, she looked down at the note book again, took out the pencil from inside of it, and started to write something on the first page. When she finished, she slowly lifted the book up and turned it around so Roxas could read what was written on it.
On the very first line of the page, written in a neat handwriting: 'Thank you.'
And below it, another sentence was written. 'I'm Olette. You are?'
Roxas smiled at the girl introduction. "I'm Roxas. It's nice to meet you, Olette."
'Nice to meet you, too, Roxas.'
Author's Note:
Whoa... I'm finally updating this one. Sorry for the very, very, very, very, very, very long update. I just... ehm... had been busy for... ehm... some while.
Anyway, I want to say many thanks for anyonr who read this story. Especially for heynamassu, xXlil'eveXx, and Nellen for your reviews. Actually you're the reason why I try to continue this story. YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST...!!!!