A few author's notes…
* This chapter includes a small insight into Norma's past.
* I should've mentioned this in the first chapter… Specific memories and flashbacks will always be written in italics.
I'm not too proud to say I'm a needy writer with this particular fiction, so please help me out and let me know what you think. I appreciate feedback to let me know if I should continue.
I hope you enjoy…
Chapter 2: Breaking Norma
After a few seconds of uncomfortable stillness in the room, Norma finally breaks the silence with a shaky whisper. "Where's John?"
The Sheriff doesn't move a muscle after hearing his wife's jumbled words. Too stunned and too saddened to even think of a response for her question at the moment, so he remains motionless.
An unnerving silence returns to the room while Romero attempts to process her request. Struggling with his emotions, his mind races at the realization of his wife's memory loss. As he attempts to contemplate the next step in dealing with this newfound situation, the Sheriff begins to feel his throat grow tight and his knees weaken. Without a sound he repeatedly wills himself to remain calm and to push his own personal feelings aside in order to handle this with the least amount of damage.
The next decision the Sheriff makes is crucial. If he says or does the wrong thing, he could lose her.
Meanwhile, the quiet slowly crushes Norma. She can no longer wait and watch this strange man stand stationary, gawking at her with a blank look on his face. With each second that gradually passes, the woman becomes increasingly more frustrated with this situation. "Hey. Whoever you are, stop staring!" She tries to shout to snap the man out of his one sided staring contest, but her voice is strained from crying. "Look, I don't know what you're doing in here because you don't look like a doctor to me, but I just need to see John and my baby boy." Tears begin to fall down her cheeks again as she starts thinking of her toddler son. "My son, Dylan, is almost two now. I've missed so many days with him because of this. I hope he hasn't forgotten about me."
Romeo blinks out of his immobile state with the sound of his wife's startling new utterance and clears his throat awkwardly. "I can assure you he hasn't forgotten," he responds trying to comfort her from afar. In his mind, he knows having her see Dylan now as an almost 23 year old could send her into some sort of tailspin she may not be able to recover from. Right then, Romero swears to himself to keep the younger man away from her until he speaks with the doctor to see what they should do about this troubling new problem.
Before the Sheriff can excuse himself from the room, he hears a whimpering noise. When he catches a glimpse of Norma, her hands are once again covering her face.
He takes a tentative step closer to her, which she senses because she continues to speak. "He can walk now, well actually he can waddle on his chubby little legs until they give out on him and then he falls down on his bottom." She sniffles with a small giggle. "He's such a smart little boy too. Dylan just said his first word and of course it was mommy." She flashes a proud smile, looking up at the man standing near her. "I can't believe such a perfect soul came from such a horrible situa-" Norma stops herself suddenly with a gasp, opening her eyes wide in shock. She almost gave away her dirty little family secret to a complete stranger. Her beautiful baby born with the finest of blonde hair and the brightest of blue eyes was brought into this world under the cruelest of circumstances anyone could think of.
From the moment Dylan was placed in her arms mere minutes after he was born, Norma vowed to never tell another living soul that her brother, Caleb, was also her adorable new baby's father by unwanted force. Her baby will never know the shame of this terrible act. No, her son will never feel anything other than love from her and the man she pretends to be his father, John.
Squeezing her eyes shut for a second she attempts to clear her thoughts, but only feels pressure and pain radiating from her wounds. "Please can you just find my husband and son," she finally pleads.
Romero senses there is something his wife is hiding, but he decides not to press the issue while she's in this delicate condition. Instead, he plays along with her delusion. "Yes. Of course Norma," he mutters uneasily as he turns away and walks through the door, securing it behind him.
In stepping out into the busied hospital hallway, Romero immediately notices Dylan and Emma in the waiting area. Luckily, at that very second the young couple appears to be preoccupied in a deep discussion with each other, facing away from Norma's door. The Sheriff knows if he speaks to the young man, he'll only get questions and at this point Romero isn't prepared to give any answers.
Quickly, the Sheriff takes the opportunity to rush away from the area in an attempt to hunt down the doctor to discuss Norma's newly discovered ailment.
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Glancing over his shoulder for a second, Dylan notices the Sheriff basically jogging from the area. With a raised eyebrow he faces his girlfriend in confusion, which Emma responds to immediately. "What's wrong?" She asks with a whisper while massaging the top his hand with her thumb, trying to regain his attention.
"I'm not sure. I just saw Romero leave my mom's room but he didn't come here to update us." His eyes meet hers with a raised brow. "In fact, it looked like he was avoiding us."
"It's probably nothing Dylan," she tries to reassure in a calming voice even though she's just as puzzled as her boyfriend. "Maybe he's getting her water or something. Don't jump to conclusions."
Dylan wiggles his hand free from hers and then sharply stands up from his chair. "I'm just going to see what's going on."
"Don't do that," Emma strains her neck to look up at him as she reaches to grab his hand to have him sit next to her again. "Just wait for Romero to get back and talk to you. You don't know if something is wrong or not."
Successfully, he pulls his hand away from hers. His thoughts begin to spin, causing even more curiosity to build within him. "If something is wrong with my mom, don't you think I should know about it?" He responds angrily.
Emma drops her hand to her lap in defeat. Her eyes lower to stare at the ground as he towers above her.
"Sorry. I didn't mean to snap at you like that," he apologizes regretfully. After taking a deep breath, he leans over and places a soft kiss on the top of her head. "It's fine Emma. I'll be right back," he promises with a nervous smile.
As Dylan turns to walk away, Emma looks up with a worried expression.
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Filling his lungs with a deep breath, Dylan cautiously turns the handle to his mother's room and hesitantly steps through the doorway. He quietly shuts the door behind him and proceeds to approach the woman who now is sobbing uncontrollably. The sounds of her cries are so distracting she doesn't even notice the young man now standing near her.
Instead of hovering over her, Dylan pulls a chair from next to the wall and places it near her bedside. "Norma?" He tries to get her attention by speaking but when that doesn't work he carefully reaches his right hand to touch her shoulder, proceeding with caution.
Norma flinches dramatically at the movement, wincing when the shooting pain she feels in her neck and head begin to throb wildly. Instantly she drops her hands from her eyes to her lap and panics at the new face she sees. "Who are you?" She asks frantically. "I told the dark haired man who was just in here that I need to see my husband and son." Though the young man is a stranger, there is something oddly familiar about him at the same time. She immediately puts the feeling of familiarity to the side as her uneasiness consumes her. "You're not John!" She yells, now regaining her voice. Quickly, Norma raises her hands from her lap to hold out in front of herself in a defensive manner.
Dylan pushes the chair he's seated in with his legs until the back of it hits the wall with a bang. He recoils as the impact bumps him forward in surprise. Aggressively he stands from the chair and narrows his eyes at the woman. Dropping his jaw slightly ajar, adrenaline fills his veins and the volume of his voice unconsciously rises as an automatic reaction to her shouting. "No, of course I'm not John! I'm your son, Dylan! Stop the games Norma!" For some reason he couldn't stop himself from growing angry with the belief his mother is up to her old tricks again. His mind instinctively floods with the wrong emotion, but he can't clear the thoughts of his history with Norma and all the nastiness which previously severed their connection as mother and son.
Norma claws at her wounds with trembling fingers, attempting to free herself from the cloud of confusion which is rapidly possessing her mind. "NO! NO! NO! My son is only two. You're not him, you can't be!" She screams at the top of her lungs.
Dylan abruptly stops all movements, realizing this isn't one of her games. The color instantly drains from his face at the sight of his mother's condition, finally understanding what is happening. The guilt overwhelms him as he realizes the harm he's potentially caused for his mother. "Oh God, I'm sorry Norma. I'm so sorry. I should've known you wouldn't lie to me like this. I wasn't thinking."
The erratic sounds of the machines are triggered in the room, causing Dylan to cringe in the chaos. Just as in earlier today, the sound prompts Norma's door to fly open. A trained medical team rushes into the room, along with an infuriated Sheriff trailing closely behind.
Without time to register any of this, Dylan is roughly pulled backwards by his right bicep causing his neck to jerk backwards. The young man is aggressively dragged toward the open doorway by his infuriated stepfather's tensed grip, but he is putting up a fight and isn't going to leave easily. "Stop it! Let go of me! I'm sorry Norma! I'm so sorry!" Dylan shouts as he tries to struggle out of the tightening grasp hauling him toward the door. Dylan is strong, but the Sheriff is a little stronger as he successfully maneuvers the young man out of the area and into the crowded hallway. A second later, the door is slammed shut behind them by one of the nurses inside the room.
In hearing all of the commotion and witnessing the disturbing scene in front of her after returning from a quick break to the water fountain, Emma swiftly jogs over to the pair of agitated men. "What happened?" She questions as she strokes her boyfriend's back gently in an attempt to soothe him. "Calm down Dylan, just tell me what happened."
Romero's clutch around the young man's bicep loosens, leaving Dylan's arm finally able to break free. Emma is quick to drop her arm from her boyfriend's back. With a little effort, she lifts his limp arm and wraps it around her shoulder. Emma sighs in relief when she feels him gently press her into his side.
Emma could feel Dylan's chest heaving with labored breath and when she presses her left ear near his chest she can feel the erratic beat of his heart. "Please Dylan, just relax," she whispers as the Sheriff looks on, willing himself to calm down as well.
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After a solid 15 minutes of quiet time, both men have significantly lowered their level of rage. The two highly irritated men along with Emma had been reluctantly led to a closed consultation room nearby, by one of the nurses in the waiting area after they caused a rather embarrassing commotion in the waiting area.
Emma is the first to break the silence in the tense room as she leans back in her chair. She glances up at the Sheriff standing against the wall on one side of the room and then at her boyfriend on the other side, both with their arms crossed and eyes narrowed at each other. Seeing the behavior of the men for the last 20 minutes is causing her to steadily lose her patience with both of them and she still doesn't even know what is going on. "Alright, is someone going to tell me what is happening? Or are you two going to continue to be big babies about all of this."
Dylan is the first to uncross his arms and step toward the table in the middle of the room. Casually he pulls out the chair on Emma's left side and sits down with an annoyed expression written on his face. "You didn't have to pull me out like that," he glares in the direction of the Sheriff who remains leaning against the wall.
Romero scowls at the younger man while tensing his jaw. "Well, you should've come peacefully."
Before her boyfriend can respond with most likely some sort of sassy comeback, Emma softly touches his outstretched arm which he's rested on the table top near her. "Think carefully about your next words Dylan because if there is any more of this bickering you two can fend for yourselves in here and nothing will get resolved." She then looks up to catch a glimpse of the Sheriff who hasn't moved a muscle from his original stance. "This isn't about you two. Don't you see that? Get over yourselves and talk about what is happening with Norma so you can help her. And while you're at it, let me know what is going on with her because all of this time has passed and I still don't know."
"Fine," Dylan grumbles under his breath with a roll of his eyes and then directs his defiant gaze toward the older man. "You should've told me about her."
The Sheriff uncrosses his arms, takes a deep breath and steps away from the wall with a huff. Gradually, he saunters over to the table in the middle of the room and grips the back of the chair placed directly across from the young man with both of his hands, towering over the tabletop. "I needed to speak with the doctor first," he states sternly.
Emma interjects while sharing looks between the two men, still looking for answers. "Okay, seriously what has happened to Norma?"
There is a rather long pause before Dylan finally speaks to break the deafening silence. Moving his chair, he turns to face her and removes his stretched arm from the tabletop to grab for her hand. "My mom has suffered some sort of memory loss Emma."
"How bad is it?" She asks in a whisper as she meets Dylan's eyes and instantly takes his offered hand in hers, forgetting all of the bitterness and tension which has covered the small room since entering it.
Romero clears his throat to regain the couple's attention. "She believes Dylan is her toddler son right now. She also thinks she's married to John."
Emma shares an unsettling look with her boyfriend, "John?"
Dylan nods, wondering why Emma doesn't recognize the name. He stares at her for a second, but then realizes he's never mentioned the man he knew as his dad for years prior to learning the truth. "Oh, right. Sorry, I never told you about him. Well, John Massett was my dad, I mean IS my dad. He's not dead or anything, I don't think? I mean - " He rambles embarrassingly up until he feels a tiny kick underneath the table from Emma, signaling him to stop talking. "Well, you know what I mean." He finally whispers while sinking in his chair slightly and slouching his shoulders in a bit of shame for almost giving away his family secret.
Unable to restrain himself, the Sheriff curls the corner of his lips into a slight smirk at the sight of the young man's uneasiness. However, the tiny grin soon disappears and is immediately replaced with his typical stoic expression as he draws his focus back to his wife's serious health complication. "Anyway," he sighs with a raised brow. "Basically, Norma has no recollection of the past 20 years." He explains sadly, once again having to affirm his wife no longer remembers him.
Emma's eyes open wide and her jaw slacks, "Oh God, I'm so sorry." Squeezing her boyfriend's hand a little tighter in her small grasp, she can't stop a lone tear from falling down her cheek. "I don't understand." She squints trying to figure out why the Sheriff would be so upset with the young man since he had no idea of his mother's ailment before entering her room. Glancing upwards Emma focuses on the older man for answers. "Why are you so angry with Dylan? I was there in the waiting room with him, he didn't know about any of this. He just saw you hurry out of the room and down the hall, clearly avoiding us. Even I was confused."
"He knows exactly why I'm upset. Don't you Massett?" The Sheriff mocks with heavy sarcasm and a hint of resentment. As Dylan opens his mouth to respond, a quiet knock at the door interrupts him.
The door swings open to reveal Dr. Thompson with a clipboard in his hands, which prompts the couple to stand up abruptly and Romero to turn around in order to all focus their attention on the doctor's next words.
"I heard you had a little problem in the hallway," the doctor says with a light chuckle, then immediately uses a serious tone towards the group. "I trust everything is under control now? Yes?"
All three nod in a hesitant acknowledgement, even though a sense of tension remains lingering in the small conference room.
Dr. Thompson flashes a slight smile. "Well good, then let us move along then." Flipping through a couple of pages on his clipboard, he then looks up to meet Dylan's eyes. The volume of the doctor's voice remains steady, but his attitude becomes stern. "What you did in that room young man was obviously not the right thing to do."
Dylan shifts his vision elsewhere, knowing he's about to get a lecture and in front of his girlfriend no less. He's already preparing to receive another one after the doctor leaves the conference room. "Yeah, I get it. I shouldn't have yelled at her."
In hearing her boyfriend's response, Emma loosens her hand from his and lets it drop to her side. "Why would you yell at your mom? How could you do that Dylan? She's severely injured."
The young man can suddenly feel three pairs of eyes turn to him, their glare burning right through him. "None of you understand. You can't possibly know how our relationship used to be," he exchanges uncomfortable glances with each of the others in the room. "I thought she was up to her old tricks again," he pinches the bridge of his nose with the index finger and thumb of his right hand and then briefly squeezes his eyes shut as a sign of stress. "She's my mom and so I accepted her no matter what when I was young, but as I got older I saw everything clearly," he sighs. "What I did was completely wrong and I own up to that, but I guess sometimes the past sneaks in when you least expect it to. I didn't handle it right. That's why I tried to apologize in there before Mr. Sheriff over there had to assert his authority and drag me out." He shifts his feet a bit and hangs his head a bit lower. "I know she's changed," he mumbles and then makes eye contact with Romero. "Maybe you had something to do with that, I don't know. I'm not trying to justify yelling at my mom, but I didn't do it out of anger. It all just happened so fast and I am sorry."
A spell of stillness follows Dylan's lengthy explanation, until the doctor clears his throat and begins to speak. "Well, maybe it will help you to know that apparently Norma thought the world of you when you were little. Even in her hysterics after you left, she kept repeating how you saved her from herself. I'm not sure exactly what she meant by that, but anyway the genuine care she expressed today doesn't simply disappear."
Emma returns to Dylan's side, causing him automatically pull her closer. Even though Doctor Thompson's words bring him peace and a smile, the guilt over how he reacted to his mother's complication still haunts him.
"Alright, back to Norma. I'll get right to the point about her current condition. Due to the unfortunate argument, Norma did slip into panic mode. We had to sedate her and to be honest, I'm not exactly sure what will happen when she wakes up. There could be a few different outcomes with this. She could wake up in the same condition as she did previously where she believes she is married to her ex-husband and her son is a toddler. Or she could wake up remembering everything, which of course is the best case scenario. However, there is a third alternative which I hope doesn't happen."
All three loved ones straighten up and pay close attention to the doctor's next words, dreading what the other consequence could be. "What is the third possibility?" The Sheriff asks while nervously biting his bottom lip.
"Norma could wake up not knowing who she is at all. Unfortunately as I mentioned, I don't know what will happen. Typically, in handling someone with her kind of ailment we take a more gradual approach where the patient discovers memories on their own or with little subtle hints from loved ones. In this case, things didn't happen that way. It was more of a dramatic confrontation which has led to some trauma. I will of course keep you updated on her condition, but I think at this time it would be best if you all go home and get some rest. This has been quite an emotional day for everyone, so it would be a good idea to return here tomorrow when you all have cleared your heads a bit."
The doctor then leaves the room, shutting the door behind him in order to give the disjointed family some time to digest the news he provided them. After the doctor exits, the three of them exchange worried looks. Their minds are all distracted with the darkest thoughts about Norma and who she will be once she awakens from her deep slumber.
In the midst of her deep thoughts, Emma's fingers begin to tremble while wrapped in Dylan's hold as she suddenly remembers one very important and complicated piece of the puzzle.
"What about Norman?"
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Continue? Thoughts? Thank you for reading this chapter!
