All the Time in the World (English)

Chapter 17 - The Place Where They Care

"Hey, tall boy, still sick?"
The woman took a tray from the cart and she entered into Guy's room, smiling. The middle-aged woman, as short and tiny as a child, was always cheerful and she tried to convey her optimism to the patients when she gave them their meals.
Guy greeted her with a nod, stifling a cough.
"Yes, I'd say that you are still sick, but this morning you seem to be a little stronger."
Gisborne nodded.
"The nurse said that the fever broke."
"It's a good thing, isn't it? Do you feel like eating something today?"
"I think so."
"Good sign, you'll see that you will feel better soon. I bet you're bored to stay in bed all day."
"I slept a lot."
"I know. Last evening I came to bring you dinner, but you slept like an angel and I didn't have the heart to wake you up. Well, what's so funny now?"
"Nobody ever called me 'an angel' before. The opposite, if anything."
"They've never seen you sleeping, then. And anyway, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but you don't seem threatening even when you are awake, not with those blue eyes and when you look so lost. But tell me something, is it true what they say about you?"
"What?"
"That you think you are a medieval knight."
Guy looked at her, irritated.
"This is not the real question, you want to know if I'm crazy. If I were, would it be so fun? Is it so nice to make fun of people?"
The woman looked at him, unimpressed.
"My, you are susceptible, my boy. I don't want to make fun of you, it just seemed interesting to me."
"What do you mean?"
"It does not matter if it's true or not, you are free to believe what you prefer, but in any case you know many things about the life of a knight, and I like to learn new things. When I have time to chat with patients, I always enjoy asking what they do in life and listening to their stories. You have to admit that a story like yours doesn't happen every day."
"It's not funny. Sometimes I think that it would be really better to be crazy, because at least I would have the chance to improve, to remember a family or friends, and to find my place in this world... But if I'm not mad, then all the people I knew are dead, and I'm lost in an age I don't belong to..."
"Oh, it's really sad... I didn't think about how you might feel, I apologize. See, I like to talk to people for this reason too: to learn to see the world from another point of view. But now I'm sorry I have saddened you..."
"It doesn't matter. I know you didn't have bad intentions."
"I don't like the idea of making you suffer. See, I like to chat with people, but sometimes I talk too much. Listen, now I have to end my shift, but before I go home I'll come back to see you, and meanwhile I'll think about a way to make up for it."
Guy smiled at her.
"It doesn't matter, really."
"Oh! Finally!"
"What?"
"You smiled. And I wasn't wrong: you're so cute when you do it."
The woman giggled in seeing him blush and she went out of the room, as cheerful as she had come in.

Alicia smiled at Guy as she approached the bed.
"You look better today, do you feel better too?"
"Yes, apart from this cough."
"It will soon pass. Keep resting and taking your remedies and you'll heal quickly."
Guy shrugged.
"I don't have much else to do, don't you think?"
"Take your time to rest now. When you are well, you'll undergo a rather challenging time."
Gisborne looked at her.
"The tests you talked to me about? Those to decide my future?"
"Yes. I thought a lot about what you asked me the other day, when you told me that you wanted to do something useful, and maybe I found a good chance for you. There is a humanitarian association that operates in many nations, helping victims of wars, disabled people and people from disadvantaged groups of the population. One of their programs is to help these people to re-enter society and be self-sufficient. Often the people they help have the opportunity to find a job within the association itself."
"And do you think they could help me?"
"It's a possibility. If they will accept your case, they will help you to learn what you need to live in our time, and to find a job. If they deem you fit to work within their association, you would have the opportunity to help people and to make a difference in other people's lives. Isn't that what you wanted?"
"It can't be so easy."
"It isn't. They receive many requests for help and of course they can't satisfy them all. If social workers dealing with your case will approve my proposal, we will forward a request and the association will send a delegation to meet you and examine your situation."
Guy sighed.
"They will never choose me."
"Why shouldn't they? It's true that you don't know the modern world, but you're smart and you are committed to learn what you don't know. In just a little more than a month you made a big progress. But in any case we will think about it in a few days, for now you must think to get healthy."
"For that I have great programs: sleep, rest, eat something, stare at the wall and then sleep again, and finally look at the ceiling..."
Alicia chuckled.
"Now that you feel better, you are starting to get bored, aren't you?"
"I could read, but, with this flu, my eyes get teary and tired, and after a while I get an headache..."
"I imagined that. I've brought you a few things that could help you to kill time while staying in bed."
Guy stared at her, perplexed.
"To kill time?"
Alicia put a paper bag on Guy's bed and she began to show him the items that were inside it.
"Colored pencils and a shetchbook if you want to draw."
"Why should I draw?"
"Because it can be pleasant and relaxing."
"But I can't draw."
"You don't have to be good, even making some scribble can be fun. Or you can just color this."
Alicia pulled a coloring book out of the bag and she opened it to show the drawings and the patterns that were printed inside it.
"See? Just fill the spaces with the colors you want."
"But I'll ruin it."
"It's its purpose. Then I brought you this: it's called jigsaw puzzles. Do you see these small tiles? They have a drawing printed on them and you have to recompose it by joining them together, like this."
"Why? What's the use of it?"
Alicia looked at him, amused.
"To spend some time. What did you do to have fun when you had nothing else to do?"
"I don't know. The sheriff didn't give me much free time."
"And I bet you didn't have to stay in bed when you had some."
"No." Guy seemed to remember something and smiled at her. "But on the ship for the Holy Land, the mercenaries played dice. A couple of times, when I wasn't feeling too seasick, I played a few games with them."
"There should also be dice in the bag, now that I think of it. Yes, here they are. You will need to teach me the rules of the games that you know."
Guy picked up the transparent plastic dice and he examined them, lifting them to look at their translucence, then he put them down on the bedside table, and he looked back at the doctor.
"What else is in that bag?"
Alicia smiled.
"Have fun finding it out, soon I'll have to start my shift, but first I wanted to show you something else."
She handed him a sketchbook and she invited him to browse it.
"They're drawings... Did you do them?"
"Yes, mainly portraits. Tell me if you recognize anyone."
"This is Dr. Robinson... the lady who brings the meals... this is the pretty nurse... she's called Jenny, isn't she?" Guy turned a page, and looked at Alicia, surprised. "This is me? Did you draw me too?"
"Yes, is it a problem for you?"
Guy shook his head.
"No, I just didn't think that anyone would ever think about making a portrait of me. Usually they portray important people."
"And do you think you aren't important?"
"No. I've never been."
"Well, you're wrong, dear. And don't let anyone convince you of the opposite. But go ahead, tell me if you also recognize anyone else."
"Jonathan Archer and Mr. Edwards. Is that one of those tests you talked to me about, Alicia? Do you want to see if I can recognize people?"
Guy raised his face to give an amused look at Alicia as he turned another page, but when he looked back at the sketchbook, he froze.
The doctor looked at him: Guy couldn't look away from that page. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, then he opened them again and looked back at the sketchbook, upset.
She also felt her heartbeats accelerating, but she struggled to talk to him using a detached and professional tone.
"Who are those people, Guy?"
Gisborne winced at the sound of her voice, and turned to look at her.
"How is it possible?! How did you do?! You can't have drawn this!"
"Why do you say that?"
"Because it's impossible! This is Robin and this is Allan! How could you have made their portraits if they have died eight centuries ago?! Or are these just common people and my mind has always deceived me? Am I really crazy, Alicia? But then how did I know about the dagger and the fake tooth on the sheriff's skull?!"
Alicia looked at him, upset and frightened, and she hurried to approach the bed and to put her hands on his shoulders, trying to calm him down.
"No, no, Guy, don't say that! You're not mad! It's my fault, just my fault, I should have prepared you before I showed you that drawing, but I had to be sure not to influence you. That's why I drew all the other portraits!"
"What do you mean? How do you know their faces?!"
"I dreamed of them! The other day, when I fell asleep in the lift, I dreamed of Robin Hood and Allan-a-Dale. I was in the forest and they stopped me, asking to give them a tenth of my money or they would have taken it all."
"Robin acted like this."
"I kept thinking of that strange dream and then I tried to draw their faces. Until a moment ago I thought that I had been affected by the stories you told me and that I had dreamed about Robin Hood for that reason. Really, Guy, I thought that you would look at this page only to tell me that you didn't know those people, and then I would know that it was just a meaningless dream. I swear to you, darling, I had no intention of upsetting you."
Alicia hugged him and for a while they stood still, holding each other tight without talking, trying to calm down.
"You'll get a fever too, if you stay so close to me," Guy said after a while.
"I had the flu vaccine shot, don't worry. With my work it's necessary."
"What's a vaccine?"
"A medicine that prevents getting certain illnesses. I'll explain it to you later. Are you quieter now?" Alicia parted slightly from him to look at his face and she stroked his hair with a reassuring gesture. "Are those really your friends?"
Guy nodded.
"How could I dream about them? How is it possible?"
"How can I be here? Perhaps we will never have an answer."
Alicia let him go and she stood up, with a trembling sigh.
"Now I really have to go. I'm sorry I have scared you like that."
Gisborne shook his head, as if to say he didn't care.
"Now you're the one who's scared, aren't you?"
"Yes. I wonder if they really were the ghosts of your friends, or if you and I shared a dream. In any case it's such a strange situation..."
"I have stopped being surprised of strange things." Guy looked at the drawing again, and he smiled. "But it's nice to know that I'm no longer the only one to know their faces. Can I keep it?"
"Of course you can. If you wish, I can draw more of them. Now rest, I'll come back later to see how you feel."
The woman bent to give him a quick kiss on his cheek and left the room.
She had hoped to solve a doubt and instead she came up with many more questions, but now she had to put aside those thoughts and to devote herself completely to her work.

Guy looked at the colorful tile and he rotated it to put it in its place in the puzzle, completing the figure of a horse. That activity was completely useless, but oddly satisfying, and, if nothing else, it could distract him for a few minutes from the thousands of questions caused by Alicia's dream. If she had seen them in a dream, did it mean that their souls really could communicate with him? So, was Meg's warning real too?
He occasionally took Alicia's sketchbook and opened it, to be sure he hadn't imagined everything.
He found himself wishing that Alicia could dream of Marian, so he could see her face again, drawn by the doctor. If instead of Robin and Allan, Alicia had portrayed her, Guy would have his heart broken again, but he would be willing to pay any price to see Marian at least once more.
"Is this the first time you make a puzzle, my boy?"
Guy looked up and smiled at the lady of the meals.
"Is it so evident?"
"It seems to me that you are doing pretty good, but usually people start from the edges. See? There are four pieces that you put at the corners, and then those with a straight side form the outer frame of the image."
"It's a good idea. Thank you."
"Do you know what? I've been spending a lot of time wondering what you might like. In the end I came to two conclusions: first, chocolate always improves the morale, so I brought you some, but don't eat it all at once, otherwise you'll be sick and then the doctors will berate me."
She put a bag of chocolates on the bedside table and Guy smiled at her.
"Thank you. You guessed right, chocolate is one of the things I like about this era. And what's the second conclusion?"
"I thought that maybe I'd better think of something that could be useful to you. I remembered that when he was little, my grandson kept asking questions continuously: he wanted to know how the cars worked, where electricity came from, how the moon was, and a host of other questions to find out all the things he didn't know. In the end, my husband bought him some books to answer some of his thousand questions. So at lunch break I went home and retrieved them from the attic to bring them to you. You aren't a child, but you could find them interesting."
Guy took one of the volumes and opened it to a random page: the pages were illustrated in bright colors and the explanations were short and written in a simple and effective language.
"I didn't offend you, did I?" The woman asked, seeing that he was looking at the books, silent and absorbed. Guy looked up at her.
"No. In fact, I am struck by how much you did for me. You thought about how to help me, and you are willing to give me those precious memories of your grandson..."
"Hey, blue eyes, stop it or you'll make me cry. My grandson grew up and he no longer cares for those books, while I keep all the memories in my heart. You need them more, they are yours now."
"You gave me a precious gift, thank you."
"You're welcome, my boy, get well and that will be the best thanks you can give to me. Well, now I have go, my husband prefers to dine early."
"Tomorrow I will tell you whatever you want about my life in Nottingham in the twelfth century."
"Won't you mind recalling the past?"
"Maybe it will hurt a while, but I'll be glad to talk to someone who really cares about it."
"See you tomorrow then."
The woman went out with her usual lively step and Guy smiled, moved to think that a person who didn't even know him had taken care of his situation so much that she wanted to give him a gift.
Probably she didn't even believe him, and she probably thought that she was dealing with a madman who thought to be a knight, but she still wanted to help him.
In his time, very few would be so kind to a crazy man: they would ill-treat him or send him away or, at best, they would make a fool of him to openly laugh of his madness. Perhaps only Robin could be capable of being so gentle, while in the 21st century they were all much more kind.
Maybe somebody laughed at him, thinking that his story was funny, but almost everyone was ready to take care of him and to help him.
Often he wondered if, having the chance to choose, he would go back to his time, and he hadn't been able to find an answer, but now he forced himself to be honest.
No, I wouldn't go back.
He could have done it for Marian or Robin, maybe for Allan, but they were all dead.
Archer, my brother, forgive me, our bond isn't strong enough. I wouldn't go back, not even for you. I prefer to be crazy in this compassionate world that I still don't understand completely, rather than go back to being hated by everyone in my time.