Amnesiac swimmer

Chapter 21: James Miller

-Midnight Waltz-

01:43 ━━━━●───── 03:50

Silver hangs up and no one talks for a few minutes. My parents are behind me waiting for my verdict. I can't believe I forgot something about her again. After the hospital appointment, I swore to myself I wouldn't forget anything about her again.

"So where's 'Marie'?" Ask my mother.

" With Silver, he took her to his father's store. It's weird, I can't remember it."

"What a relief,"  sighs my father, "she didn't run away."

The pressure getting off their shoulders makes them fall on the couch. Strangely, I'm not as relieved as them. Sure, 'Marie' is safe: even better she's with Silver and his family but something isn't right. She might have not run away but she didn't come home either. It might be normal for some people but for her: it's strange. Was I supposed to go pick her up from the store? Did I forget about this and that's why Silver sounded so angry?

"James, calm down," says my mom." 'Marie' is safe, don't worry."

-"It's just ... I think I was supposed to pick her up from the store ... but then again: I must have forgotten. Oh god, she must be hurt."

"James it's 'Marie': she's going to be madder than hurt."

"No, dad, you don't get it. When I forgot her at the hospital she was mad and pissed, now she's hurt. Look she didn't come home."

"You said she's sleeping."

"It's 'Marie', she prefers her room and the pool at any other place on earth-"

A scream coming from upstairs interrupt me. It's Lindsey. Except the scream is different from the usual. I look at my parents running to the stairs and I decide to follow them. We reach Lindsey's room and my father practically broke the door while opening it.

My sister is sitting on the floor as if she fell because she got scared of something. She even looks scared. Her eyes won't look away from the wall behind me.

"Birdie, are you okay? What happened? Did you have a nightmare again?"

Lindsey is not able to answer. She's staring at the wall. I turn to see what scared her so much and now I'm the one to be scared. I take three steps back to see it entirely. Since when it is there? How did it get here? This is also 'Marie's' room; is it hers?

On the wall, where there is usually nothing, is now a liege board full of paper relied by colorful cords. Those papers are drawings, sentences, or long paragraphs.

"All this ...," I whisper.

" You know what this is?" Ask my dad.

"It's 'Marie' doing," I say speechless.

"What?"

"Dad, don't you recognize those places? I point to a drawing at the top. It's where we found her."

My eyes catch another one.

"This is the hospital and this is the airport."

"You right..."

"Then all this ..."

"It's her memory; what she remembers. Sentences, places, dates, events."

"But with all this, there are no names nor faces."

I'm too stunned to speak. Those drawings are so realistic. Did she draw them from memory or does she remember the name of the place and search on the internet? Where did she learn to draw like this? Why did she hide it from me?

I sit on the ground, next to Lindsey and watch the board. Our parents sit too and now we talk and point at the board like it's some kind of supernova.

"Oh I know this place!" Says my dad, excited. "Summer 2015."

We think, trying to find the name of the place.

"Paris plage," says, my mom. "Remember James? You were giving us a tantrum because you had to give back the ball to a kid."

"Mom wins," says dad.

They laugh but it sounds empty because we remember things at places where marie doesn't. My mom points to a new drawing.

"Look like a pool."

"Maybe she used to swim here. Is this her house?"

I point to a drawing with a big house of three floors and a big garden before.

"Wow, it's huge!"

"It doesn't look like a house," says Lindsey. "More like a public building."

"Oh, welcome back Lindsey. How do you feel?"

"Better, thank you, mom."

" 'Character: a man and a woman," read my father on a post-it before looking at an other one. "An old woman and youngs kids."

"We shouldn't look at this. When I talked to Marie about the room, she told me it was okay as long as I don't open these curtains. I don't think she wants us to see that."

"Then why did you open it and scream?"

Lindsey bites her lips, is she hiding a secret from us?

"Birdie, you can tell us everything you know?"

"It's just, Marie is the one who came to see me last night. I was acting like a little girl and asked for mom. She tough I wouldn't notice but she came back disguised as mom. And she read a book to me. What surprised me is that she acted like a mom: she comforted and advised me."

She takes a breath, gets up, and hides the board behind the curtains.

"I opened the curtains because my nightmare hide behind it and she told me to chase it to show it that I'm not scared. When I saw the board, the drawings, and the cord it just reminded me of ... you know .. all the affairs in the army."

My parents make weird faces and Lindsey notices it.

"Marie understood what was happening to me and she helped me. So I'm sorry but this is her secret and I'm gonna protect it."

We look at her. I didn't think they would build a friendship so quickly. Lindsey and 'Marie' aren't so different maybe that's what contributed to this protection. 'Marie' came to rescue Lindsey against what she knows the most and in return, my older sister is gonna protect her. I'm so stupid, I should've been able to see that. All of it.

I stand up and walk to my sister.

"Alright, tomorrow I'll talk to 'Marie' about this."

"James you'll have to make her tell you about this. I won't force her and no one will. She's part of this family now, she needs to know she can tell us everything."

"Of course, 'Marie' is like my little sister and I've been very irresponsible the past two weeks. Don't worry I'll fix this."

Lindsey passes her arm around me and hug me. Our parents join us. One person is missing from this family's hug but soon, it'll be fixed.