Fan Fiction |
by Jenny Tran
********** Toronto **********
Kathy entered the double glass doors of the hospital as she rushed to the visitor’s desk “Melvin Lam’s room please?”
“Room 106 in the Intensive Care Unit.” The receptionist said as she gave her a sticker with the word ‘visitor’ on it.
Kathy smiled hastily as she paced down the corridors and followed the signs that read ICU. She came upon a waiting room with one telephone. The directions told her to phone in and let them know she was there. Her hands were shaky, she suddenly had cold feet. She didn’t know whether or not she should see Mel. She sat there and debated with herself when a soft voice broke into her thoughts “Are you waiting for someone Miss?”
Kathy turned and noticed it was a young nurse in a white uniform. She smiled with her head shaking “No…well…I guess I am. Melvin Lam.”
Caitlyn raised her eyebrows “Oh, are you a relative? It’s been days since anyone came to claim him.” She giggled “I was beginning to worry that he didn’t have any family. Not to mention the fact that he has amnesia.”
She winced at another wake up call “I heard…” Kathy said slowly.
The petite nurse suddenly felt sympathetic towards the girl. Whoever she was, she was obviously concerned with Mel. She smiled apologetically “I’m sorry for the bad news. But I believe he has a good chance of recovering. That is if more of his friends come to see him. Maybe it will trigger his memory? Who are you to him?”
Kathy smiled “I’m…”
“I’m so sorry.” Caitlyn broke into her sentence “Where are my manners, let me take you in to see him.” She waved for Kathy to get up and brought through the metal doors of the ICU department. “I’ve been assigned to Melvin and I’ll say, it was a hard three days. He was frantic when he woke up and his headaches were unbearable it seems.”
Kathy frowned “He has headaches?”
“Only when he forces himself to remember.” She smiled before opening the room door “Now be prepared because there’s a huge possibility that he won’t remember you.”
She nodded blankly as her thoughts raced through her head. Kathy wondered how she would react when Mel looked at her like a stranger. All those years were erased from his memories. The door opened and appeared Mel sitting calmly on his bed with a magazine in his hands. His left leg was wrapped up and his arm was cast with a sling around his neck. His hair was growing out. Kathy choked back the tears when he stared at her strangely. “Who’s this, Cait?”
Kathy covered her mouth as she turned away, a tear crept from her eyes. He already made a nick name for the nurse? Caitlyn patted her on the shoulder to urge her to talk. Kathy let her hand slip away as she smiled tearfully at Mel “I’m Kathy…”
“Kathy?” Mel wrinkled his brows as he stared at her with pure concentration. The name didn’t ring a bell but her face, something was familiar but he couldn’t put his finger on it.
Caitlyn turned to Kathy with widened eyes “Kathy? Would you happen to be Katie?”
Kathy frowned “No, I’m Kathy. Although Mel always called me Katie.”
The girl clapped her hands happily “He was calling your name the other night. I figured that was a girlfriend or something. And you just called him Mel…so he doesn’t go by Melvin?”
Kathy smiled calmly despite the situation she was in “No. That’s his nickname, no one calls him Melvin.”
Caitlyn nodded “I see. So who are you to him?”
She suddenly dodged her gazing eyes and turned away. Should she tell her the truth? But the truth was Kathy was no one to him. Just a good friend? Her mind searched for an answer but the best she could come up with was “I’m his…sister.”
“You’re lying.” Mel spoke up solemnly.
The girls turned to him strangely “You know?” Caitlyn asked.
He shook his head “I don’t know why I said that…” he frowned “We don’t look that much alike.”
Kathy looked away “We came from different mothers.”
“That would explain it wouldn’t it?” Caitlyn laughed humorously as she walked over to take Mel’s temperature. She pulled out a thermometer in her pocket and pointed it to Mel “You know the drill.”
He pouted “I hate this part.”
Kathy smiled at the scene before her. Caitlyn placing the device under Mel’s tongue and she took his pulse. He looked like a sick child who was bored out of his mind. But when Mel turned to her, Kathy’s face fell. He really didn’t remember her. Yet she knew by saying that he was her brother would not help his memory at all. “I’m gonna go now.” Kathy announced suddenly.
“Why?” Mel asked with the device still under his tongue.
Caitlyn turned to Kathy “You don’t want to say with your brother a little longer?”
She shook her head “He seems busy right now. I’ll come back later tonight.”
Mel smiled “Okay, see you later.”
Kathy had to smile to keep up with the act. When she stepped out of the room, her eyes began to well up with tears. She quickened her pace until she got out of the hospital and ran down the street, her vision was getting blurry. She suddenly stopped when she was tired of running. Kathy let her legs slump down to the ground as she began to sob in her own hands.
*************
That night Mel had a dream about the girl that claimed to be his sister. But the dream was strange, they were in a bar with a huge pool table. She dressed different from the girl he saw at the hospital. This girl was dressed more provocatively while he was smoking a cigarette. What woke him up was the part where he pulled her in and kissed her on the lips.
His eyes snapped open and his face was drenched in cold sweat. Caitlyn did her nightly watch when she heard a low cry. She entered Mel’s room and found him staring into space with a pale face “Mel, what’s the matter?”
He looked up with a horrified expression “I had the strangest dream.”
Caitlyn looked concern as she took a seat next to his bed “What kind of a dream?” she reached for his hand and noticed it was icy cold.
Mel shook his head “I can’t remember.”
She sighed “That’s going to happen a lot. Next time you have a dream, when you wake up call me and I will write it down so you don’t forget it.”
“Will that help?” he wondered.
She nodded “Because dreams are from your unconscious state. You dream because your memory serves it that way. Dreams tell your darkest secrets and not to mention it’s a way to preserve every photographic memory you have. Some can be real and some can be all made up. Having amnesia means that you have stored away those memories for a long term. When you dream, it brings out those memories.”
Mel chuckled “You’re not just a regular nurse huh? What? Did you take psychology?”
Caitlyn smiled shyly “Actually, I snuck in when Dr. Chu was teaching a class on Amnesia.”
“I see…so you tried to get a free lesson. Remind me to tell Dr. Chu the next time he comes in for a check up.” Mel teased.
Caitlyn pouted as she hit him squarely on the arm “Don’t you dare! I’ll get fired and then they’ll assign some fat and ugly nurse to you.”
Mel rolled his eyes upward “So why is that any different from you?” She threw him an evil glare as he laughed it off.