Fragment 44
Back again, after a longer than anticipated delay. I can't believe it's been more than a month since the last fragment. As it's been a while, here's a refresher. Mr. L has experienced a major breakthrough in his rehabilitation; he has begun to remember parts of his former life as Luigi. This meant he achieved one of his three goals - continuity. However, the breakthrough also brought about a seizure, and so Nastasia has agreed to Dr. Toadley's suggestion of a little 'medical intervention' to help Mr. L/Luigi through what could be a difficult time ahead, and the last fragment closed with Nastasia proposing this to Mr. L.
The thought of 'medical intervention' at the hands of Dr. Mushroom-Head made me cringe. I looked from the purple-robed medic to the elderly Toadsworth, with his long white moustache. Just seeing them standing together conjured a hazy recollection of lying on a bed in a hospital room, feeling so sick and sleepy I'd been barely able to lift my head. Yet I remembered flinging that same bed across the room and those walls bleeding... Did they mean to do this to me again?
I tried to explain my worries, but the best I could do with Luigi's English was alternate the words "crazy" and "sleepy" with the phrase "last time". The doctor seemed to understand, though.
"Will it be like last time?" he said. "It will not. For then, we didn't understand what was happening to you, and so had no choice but to keep you sedated." He raised his hands and continued, "You have a lifetime of memories to recover, and many will conflict with what you already know. We've already seen what that conflict can do to you, and I can help you avoid it. I can give you something that will relax you, but still allow you to keep a clear head. But will I force you? I will not."
I didn't know whether I could trust him. I turned to Nastasia, who raised her eyebrows. "If you're gonna keep passing out each time you remember something new, it could be a long process," she said.
I looked at Toadsworth. Although I hardly knew him, he gave off an aura of reason, somehow. Knowing that during my former life as Luigi, he'd once offered me some kind of sanctuary from Mario's infuriating over-protectiveness, made me feel as though he understood me in some way. But he wouldn't say anything, and just waited for my decision.
Medical intervention came in the form of an injection. I sat at the table, holding my breath while Dr. Mushroom-Head administered it. The sting in my arm triggered a distant recollection of sitting in a nurse's office with Mama, watching Mario roll up his sleeve. I must have been just a small child, because Mario was much bigger than me, but he himself was only a boy. I remember when the needle went in; he turned sort of grey and fainted. I could remember feeling scared, watching Mama and the nurse bending over him.
"Sorry, did that hurt?"
A calming sensation spread through me as I fixed my eyes on Dr. Mushroom-Head. I felt light, but not light-headed, and for some reason I didn't see the point of his question. "But... it is Mario, who is not okay with needles," I said. I couldn't be bothered with correcting my mistakes.
To my surprise, he laughed. "Mario can defeat King Bowser and an army of Koopas single-handed, but the sight of this," he waved the needle in front of his face, "will have him running from my clinic."
Single-handed. That feeling of resentment nagged at me again. How many times had I been at Mario's side, throwing my fireballs at the enemy? How many times had I knocked Hammer Bros off their feet just as they'd taken aim at Mario with their axes? "Not always single-handed," I heard myself say. I had the feeling I'd saved Mario more times than he or anyone else knew.
"What are you remembering?" said Toadsworth.
It wasn't anything specific - everything seemed to merge into one vague recollection. "Fighting Bowser's army," I said, with a shrug. "Many times, I think."
"We'll take it in turns to stay with you," said Nastasia. "From now on, you will need someone with you all the time."
"Not Mario," I said.
She gave me a quizzical look. "Do you still feel the urge to kill him?"
The question shouldn't have surprised me, but I found it difficult to answer. It was true that when I'd woken and found Mario there in the room with me, I had to fight my instinct to attack him. But by the time he'd left the room, it was irritation I had felt, more than a desire to kill. "I do not like him," I said. "But I do not want to kill him."
Nastasia and the Toad Doctor stayed for a while, and then left Toadsworth alone with me. The injection had made me feel cold, and I decided to get dressed properly while Toadsworth built up the fire in the fireplace. I found an old, dark blue shirt in the cupboard and pulled it on. Toadsworth commented on how long it had been since he'd seen me wear it, although I couldn't even recall having owned it. He ordered a pot of tea, and we sat in the armchairs either side of the fire. He told me that Professor Gadd would be coming in a couple of hours, and after him, Dr. Toadley.
Toadsworth chatted away to me, but I wasn't really listening. I was looking forward to the professor's visit. Of all of the people I'd met here, Gadd was the only one who's company made me forget about this torturous turmoil, with his stories of ghost catching, and the progress he was making with the design of his next Poltergust machine, the 5000 model. I knew the professor was staying here at the castle; he'd told me that he'd set up a temporary laboratory quite close to the dungeon room where I'd been kept paralysed. I'd hoped for the opportunity to see the lab, but I guessed the chances of that were low.
When we heard someone at the door, Toadsworth looked in surprise at his pocket-watch. "Goodness, he's very early. I must say, Elvin is as keen to see you as you are to see him," he said with a chuckle. He cleared his throat and called for the professor to come in. But when the door opened, Toadsworth let out a cry, and even I was surprised. It wasn't Professor Gadd. It was none other than Princess Peach.
It might have been the effect of the calming drugs in me, but the sight of this elderly Toad leaping out of his chair and standing in front of the princess with his little arms outstretched like he was physically trying to protect her from me just looked too amusing. I covered my smile with one hand as he pleaded with her to leave, then threatened to fetch Nastasia, and finally trembled with frustration when he realised the helpless situation he was in.
Princess Peach looked at me in the same sort of way Nastasia did, like she was pondering, analysing. Something stirred in the back of my mind about being supposed to stand up in the presence of royalty, but I thought that if I even moved from my armchair, Toadsworth's heart might give out through fright. The best I could do was wait for the Princess to speak first.
She strode over to the cabinet by the four poster bed, and picked up my mirror and my photograph, two of the three gifts Nastasia had given me during my time in the dungeon room.
"Nastasia has informed me that you no longer feel compelled to carry out your instructions to assassinate Mario," she said. "I trust that extends to me, too." For all the pink fluff and frills, Princess Peach seemed as cold and collected as she'd been when she faced my Brobot machines in Count Bleck's dimension.
Toadsworth recovered himself, and tapped his walking stick on the ground. "Your Highness, I hardly think this is wise..."
She ignored him and kept watching me from across the room. "Can I trust you?"
What else could I say? I told her, 'yes'.
"Good," she replied, moving back towards us. "Toadsworth, you can leave us, now."
I felt alarmed. If Toadsworth left, he would go right on and fetch Nastasia and Mario; I could see it in his eyes. "No," I said quickly. "Please, let him stay."
Peach gave me a long look. To my relief, she told Toadsworth to sit down, while she pulled a chair from the round table for herself, and placed it far away enough from me to feel safe, just as Mario had done.
"I'll be brief," she said. "I've known you as a friend for a long time, but you have only known me as an enemy. The reason you haven't seen me until now, is because as a ruler with no heir, it has been too great a risk for my kingdom."
I watched her clutch the mirror and the photograph, faces together, in her gloved hands.
"Nastasia has kept me up to date with every detail of your progress from the beginning. We're all here to help you put your memories into context as they return to you. But Toadsworth, Dr. Toadley, Professor Gadd and I have known you for no more than one quarter of your life. There is only one person who can truly help you reclaim your memory and your identity, and that is Mario." As she said it, she held out the photograph and the mirror to me, the gifts that symbolised both.
Thinking she was handing them to me, I moved forward to take them, but she pulled them out of my reach. "Only Mario," she said, a tone of warning in her voice, "nobody else."
The thought of spending any more time with Mario repulsed me. I felt angry, not because she was giving me orders, but because of the undeniable logic she presented me with.
Princess Peach stood up. "As unpleasant as it sounds to you, I'd suggest you think hard about it. I'm sure you don't want to remain incarcerated in this room, bound by Nastasia's spell any longer than you need to be." She gave the mirror and the photograph to Toadsworth, but not before gazing at the picture with interest. "I didn't know you when this image was created," she said with a slight glint in her eye, "but Mario is right - you do look better without the moustache."
As she turned and left the room, I resolved to grow it back, there and then.
