Date: 18-09-2015
Time: 18:05PM
Location: El Deols, Anthanna
“Hello…” Sheila sang in a pleasant tone as she
walked into the house.
Henry welcomed her with a smile. He was
sitting in the living room, holding a health book
in his hand. The book was closed and a finger
was at the middle, helping him keep the page he
stopped reading at. His attention had been
turned to the television set previously before
Sheila walked in.
She had two bags with her. Lesedi was following
behind her with three extra ones. It was
obvious she had gone shopping on her way
from work.
“You can take those ones to the store,” Sheila
said to Lesedi who nodded and continued
walking.
“Welcome Sheila,” Henry greeted her, still
carrying a smile on his face.
She smiled back at him as she settled on the
sofa beside him. She stared at his face silently
for a while and he also stared back, taking his
eyes off the TV completely.
“Why are you staring like that?” he asked,
already feeling weird about it.
“Well,’ she chuckled and looked away. “You’re
looking so different tonight.”
“How do I look?” he asked, interested in
hearing her answer. She stared at him intently
for seconds without speaking, she seemed not
to be able to point out specifically why he
looked different. “Well, I just had my haircut
today.” He gave her a clue.
“I see,” she took another look at him. “You look
very handsome in the new haircut.”
His smile broadened, “Thank you.”
“So, I got you some things on my way back,” she
said, handing him one of the bags. “I don’t know
if you’d like them.”
“Thank you,” he collected the bag and looked
into it.
“Why don’t you try them on now, especially the
shoe?” she requested.
“Okay,” he dropped the bag and took out the
carton of sport shoes in it. He raised one of the
pair up first and then placed it on the ground to
see if his leg would fit in. “I really love this,” he
said as he unlaced it.
She watched him put on the pair and get up on
his feet.
“They’re my size, how did you know my size
without asking me?” he questioned playfully as
he bounced on his feet with the shoe.
“Come on, you’ve been here for weeks. I
definitely know the sizes of your shoes, your
shirts and even trousers now.”
“Hmm…. Thank you, they’re so nice.” he said
and sat back, taking off the sport shoes gently.
“You’re welcome,’ she said and rested her back
in the chair. “Uhm…” she leaned forward again
and looked at his face with a smile. She looked
like she wanted to make a request but wasn’t
sure if he would grant it. “I tried to come up
with a workout program for myself sometime
ago and for some months, I followed a workout
routine. However, I stopped January this year. I
would like to continue by starting tomorrow. I
don’t know if you’d like to join me.”
“Oh! Certainly, I would like to work out with
you, I’ve been doing some push-ups and other
exercises on my own but I’d…”
“Huh?” She interrupted him. Her face got
covered with a worried look as she squinted at
his face. “How long have you been exercising
without letting me know?”
His eyebrows gathered and his shoulders
dropped weakly as he wondered the reason for
her reaction. “Just few days ago.”
“Are you sure it’s really few days ago and not up
to a week yet?”
“Yes, not up to six days. I only started after the
doctor confirmed that most of the wounds were
healed already.”
She let out a sigh of relief.
Henry smiled. He could see that she worried
about him so much like he was a kid.
“So i was saying, I’d like to go out and do some
more, probably some dumbbell exercises,” he
added.
“Dumbbell exercises?” She widened her eyes at
him in shock. She let out a loud laugh. “I’m sure
you’re going to ask for heavy barbells soon.”
“No, just…”
“I’m not going to let you have that,” she said,
shaking her head in total disagreement. “You
are still recovering from a lot of wounds. You
have to recover fully before you think of
building more muscles.”
He sighed. He wasn’t going to argue with her,
the look on her face made it obvious she wasn’t
going to agree with his reasons.
“Come to think of it, you have enough muscles
already.” she said, punching him hard on the
shoulder. “Ouch!” she yelled, shaking her hand
vigorously as she felt some pain on her
knuckles.
“Haha! Sorry about that,” he laughed at her.
She gave him a childish look and then sat back
on the sofa. “So we would continue with my
workout routine tomorrow, we’ll take a jog for
a few kilometres tomorrow morning to the
public gym. There we would do some more
exercises suitable for both of us, No dumbbell
or barbells yet,” she said, stressing her tone in
the last statement to emphasize her point.
“It’s okay Sheila,” Henry agreed.
“Good,” she picked up the other bag from the
ground and was about to get up.
“I have something else to talk about Sheila,”
Henry stopped her.
She sat back and looked at his face. He was
carrying a serious look and his tone also
sounded serious.
“Please go ahead.”
“Sheila,” he began in low tones. “I must say
once again that I am grateful to you for being so
kind and patient with me.” he took a brief
pause and sniffed. “You helped me and saved
me from death and you don’t seem tired of
having me around you since then.” he paused
again and looked at her face. Her eyebrows
were gathered together as she listened to him
with utmost seriousness.
“Why are you talking about this Henry?” she
asked, wondering what he was driving at and
suspecting it would be something she would not
like.
“Sheila, you’ve done your best to help me regain
my memory. I know and I’ve seen all your
efforts in trying to help me find my roots but no
one seems to know me in the whole of
Anthanna. I probably do not have a family, or I
have one who do not want me anymore.” he
continued after readjusting his sitting position.
“Since we’ve not been able to identify who I
was in the past or find out if anyone has been
looking for me, I would suggest we stop
spending time and money on helping me regain
my memory.”
“Don’t talk like that Henry, I believe we just
need to try more. You’ll get back to yourself
soon again,” She tried to encourage.
Henry sighed and shook his head. “The doctor
explained that I was seriously injured by those
who dropped me at the Nura River. It was a
narrow escape from death and it led to
retrograde amnesia. I have taken my time to
read about retrograde amnesia online. With my
findings and the doctor’s report, I’m sure
there’s no way I’m going to recall those
memories any longer. It’s better we just stop
troubling ourselves and let me start a new life.”
Sheila closed her eyes and inhaled and exhaled
lightly. She opened her eyes and looked into his
eyes. She knew he was saying the truth but
could not openly agree with him. The doctor
had told her that there was a higher possibility
that he would never regain his memory again
and even Tom had told her several times to stop
wasting her time and efforts.
“So what do you plan? What kind of new life do
you want to start?” she asked.
“I think I should leave to somewhere very far
from El Deols, somewhere far from Nura.I can
learn a new craft and take a new job
afterwards.” he explained.
“Why do you want to leave to somewhere very
far?” she asked, not liking the idea even though
she knew deeply inside that it was the right
thing to do for his safety.
“Sheila, some people tried to kill me. I don’t
know them and I don’t know why, this makes
me afraid. These guys may still recognize me
and come back for me if they see me, the only
way I can forget about them is leaving here.” he
replied.
Sheila could see fear written all over his face
and it seemed funny to see a man well built like
him so frightened.
“Listen to me Henry, you are safe with me, you
are safe with us. My Dad has got great influence
in this country, especially in El Deols. No one can
touch you as long as you are with us.” she said,
trying to dissuade him from thinking of leaving.
“You may be right Sheila, but that would mean I
would have to live the rest of my life depending
on you and I haven’t even met your father yet. I
know you won’t like me to remain dependent on
you, I need to live a life where I would be free
to live without fears at all. I also need to stop
being a disturbance to you, very soon you would
get married to Tom and I don’t want you to
continue to be a burden to you.”
Sheila sighed. She wasn’t excited with the
thoughts of getting married to Tom. “I haven’t
told you that you are a burden, have I?”
“No, you have never told me that or even acted
in that way but I have to let you live your life,
soon you’d be married and start raising kids,
you can’t be worrying about me at the same
time.”
Sheila let out a breath and shook her head
briefly. She kept her eyes staring at his face for
a moment without saying anything.
“I’ll let you meet my father,” she finally broke
the silence. “Tomorrow, you’d meet with him.
We’d find time after the workout program to
go see him.”
She saw his facial expression change and
realized that he may have thoughts that she
wanted him to stay against his will. “I’m not
trying to stop you from leaving, no. You would
leave when it’s time,” she quickly added. “But I
believe you should understand that you cannot
go anywhere until you fully recover. Once you
recover fully, it’s settled.”
“Thanks Sheila,” he said gratefully.
She smiled faintly. “So have you thought of
where to move to?”
“I’m not sure yet, I just want to leave to
somewhere far from public eyes for a moment.
Once I work and I raise enough money, I would
move out of the country to another.”
Sheila made a chuckle, she stared at his face
with a ridiculous look. “I have enough money to
get you out of the country comfortably and start
a new life wherever you want to in the world
and you’re talking about raising enough money
first?”
“You’ve done so much for me already Sheila, I
don’t want to add my problems to yours
anymore.”
She shook her head. “I’m not going to let you
struggle to make money. When you’re fit, I’ll
pay for you to get to any country of your choice
and we would set up something for you to do
there. Have you thought of any job?”
Henry was silent for a while, then he let out an
amusing smile.
“i just keep getting these ridiculous ideas of
wanting to be in the army,” he said and
chuckled. “But I think I’m too old to join the
army now. So I already joined a developers
class online, I could improve up something in
that area later.”
“You know I own a developing firm as one of
my businesses, don’t you?”
“Yes, I actually got the inspiration from you.” he
added a smile. “I want to be like you, I like the
way you play around with codes when you work
at home.”
She smiled too. “I’m going to organize a
personal trainer for you.”
“Oh! Thank you.”
She responded with a smile. “I have to go in,”
she said as she reached for the handle of her
bag. “I’ll be back later.”
Her phone rang as she got up and she stopped
to take it out. Tom was the caller.
“Hey Love!” she said into the phone as she
walked away.
Henry watched her go, he could hear her
giggling on her way to the room.
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