FicWad

The dark blue curtain that covered the window held a shield against the sunlight, only some light escaped from the edge of the curtains but still the small room was dark as I have remembered from the night before when I fell asleep. Pulling the curtain aside which let the sunlight flow into the room and sent daggers into my eyes, I squinted to see the lovely spring morning. I didn’t understand why my mother didn’t let me go outside just for five minutes so I can breathe in the fresh air and lay among the long uncut grass which were decorated by all kinds of flowers and fall asleep in the sun. Was it a crime?
I threw the blanket off of me and analysed my legs, they were long, lean and slightly tanned. They looked like it belonged to an adult. I bit my lip, it didn’t seem right. I suddenly shook my head fiercely, I’m not nineteen goddamn it, I am twenty nine years old. I sighed and ran my hand through my tangled chestnut coloured hair. This passed two weeks have been so eventful, way too eventful for the ordinary. I woke up in the hospital down town and was so frightened of my surroundings, I had no idea what was going on or what have had happened to me. I didn’t feel any different while I was asleep; it felt as if it was a night just like every night. It was all so wrong, just so frightening. The first I saw was my mother who stood up eagerly to see if I was okay, the only difference with her was that she looked way older than I have remembered. That was when I started screaming…
After the doctors and nurses calmed me down, I was informed that I was held hostage at a local bank a few days ago and that I must have gotten hit on the head by one of the robbers. It was still all too horrific to me; it still didn’t explain why everyone looked so different. ‘Amnesia’, the doctor told me. ‘You’re suffering from amnesia, but thankfully you can recognize everyone in this room so it might not be that bad. We just need to run some tests.’
My memory has been erased from the age of nineteen till now, twenty nine. Ten years of memory lost. The doctor said it might come back to me, all those memories… bit by bit but it might take quite hardship for everyone to tell me about things they know that happened in the last ten years. That is what has been happening for the last two weeks, my family and relatives pitching in to help me remember what have happened in the last decade. I remembered the other day my mum hugged me simultaneously and looked me in the eyes with a big smile on her face and said, ‘This amnesia has caused your personality to change drastically, I think it’s for the best.’ Believe me I don’t know what she was on about, but I have a feeling that I wasn’t a good person before all my memory was lost.
“Josephine, you’re up pretty late today,” my mother walked into my room gracefully.
“Is that why the sun is up so bright?” I asked and looked out the window again. “Can I go outside?”
She looked uncertain and pressed her lips together.
“Mum, I’m almost thirty. I think I can look after myself,” I stood up.
She sighed, “Okay, I guess so.”
“Good, I can get use to nature this way before I go out tomorrow to see my work colleagues.”
“What?” her eyes widened.
“Mum, I have a life as my uncle has told me. I need to get back on my feet and keep working.”
“But Josephine, you just only recovered and you have memory loss. That’s too dangerous to put yourself out in the world again!”
I smiled, as I have remembered my mother was still the same protective woman she is. “Remember how we were talking about our trip to Greece? Remember how Aunt Gayle was telling me about how I was so stubborn and decided to go in the streets of Greece myself? I finished the story off for her because I remembered that! Now I’m sure I’ll remember how to be an editor of a magazine.”
“Even though you’re not the same as you were, your stubbornness is still the same,” she huffed and went to the kitchen.
I didn’t care if my mother didn’t understand me, I was too bored of listening to everyone telling me about what I did and didn’t do with my life for the last decade. Like people say, the past is in the past. I was determined to make a future and I didn’t need to wait for all my memories to come flowing back, if they were ever going to be.

That night I sat in between my mother and father who just came home from work. We were watching the news and a bulletin said that love was in the air because there were so many couples around. I turned to my mum who knew I was looking at her but avoided me.
“Mum, of all the things that people have told me, they only told me about what I did with life. They never told me who I loved, did I love anyone? Or was a just some loner?” I tilted my head to a side and waited for her to answer.
My mother glanced at my father before looking at me. “You didn’t love anyone Josephine, but don’t worry the person that you’re destined to be with will come to your doorstep.”
I rolled my eyes, so I was a loner. No wonder my mother said that I’ve changed. I must have been a horrible person that no one ever loved me.

“See, I knew all this editorial business you’d know off by heart as if you were born to do it,” my work colleague Sandra told me the next day.
We were located at a popular café where it was busy but not crowded. They made great coffee and cake. I tried to dress up as professionally as I can but when I saw my work colleagues Sandra and Quinn, I knew I didn’t need to. I tried to act normal and I realized I didn’t have to try at all, I felt comfortable.
“If you want, you can get back to work this coming Monday.” Quinn suggested. “See how it goes, if it’s all too much maybe you can take a few weeks off again.”
“I hope I don’t need to, I’m really tired of just staying home,” I chuckled.

The next few weeks, I got my life back on track. I moved back to my own apartment which I was surprised that I could even afford it because it looked so luxurious and very spacious. I was proud of myself for making a good career out of myself. Over in the few weeks I updated almost everything in my apartment, from my clothes to my furniture. Like my mother said, I was a changed person for the best and I wanted everyone that came into my apartment to know that. The new Josephine has arrived.



I've written this story on paper half way so far, but let me know what you think. So that way, I know I'm not wasting my time.