Chapter 7

Read from the start here: Chapter One

Inside the confines of the tiny room she was sat in, the unnamed woman felt very fearful. Apparently, the reason she was being held here was to make her feel completely at ease, but it was failing as all she really wanted right now was to get away from there. She had no idea where she would go, but she believed anywhere would be better than this place. The bright, white walls and the cream coloured bed and chair were making her nauseous. She hoped the mysterious man would return to her soon.

The unnamed woman couldn’t be sure if she’d ever experienced a place like this before, but feeling isolated and scared would surely remain a part of her memories, wouldn’t they? She doubted she would ever forget being here right now, unless she chose to block it out. Could she do that? The unnamed woman didn’t know.

Several minutes passed by, and she didn’t move at all during this time. There was a window nearby, but she couldn’t see out of it. There was a piece of material covering it and she didn’t think she could figure out how to move it out of the way. Besides, she didn’t really want to see out at the moment in case it frightened her more. What if she was trapped on an island in the middle of a vast ocean? She would rather assume everything was fine outside of this room and aim to find out by escaping rather than let her spirit get crushed before she even attempted it. The mysterious man would return soon, she was sure of it.

Another minute or two passed her by. As she felt herself drifting off into slumber, she wondered whether she had been forgotten about. How long had it been since she was last spoken to? Maybe she should just give in and fall asleep, even though the mysterious man had told her not to. She couldn’t really fight it any longer, so she closed her eyes...

“Wake up!” The male voice shouted, though in a worried tone rather than a demanding one. The unnamed woman opened her eyes and was now staring into the pupils of a rather older gentleman, who had his fingers on either side of her head. “I told you not to go to sleep, not until we’re sure you’re all right.”

It was indeed the mysterious man she was now looking at, though he had changed slightly. Before, he had been wearing normal clothes, a shirt and trousers, but now he was dressed in a clean white coat. What was the reason for that?

“How do you feel?” He asked, while inspecting her head closely.

“I feel fine.” She fibbed. She felt fine physically, but emotionally her head was all jumbled up and she didn’t know how to explain it, so she didn’t.

“Does any of this hurt?” He continued to enquire, while using his fingers to put pressure on certain parts of her head. “You fell down pretty hard.”

“No.” She didn’t really feel comfortable at all with all this questioning, but assumed there was no other sensible way to react other than to answer him. Maybe if she told him the right answers, he would let her go.

“Well, from what I can tell you seem pretty much good to go.” The mysterious man took a step back and looked over her. He seemed as if he was trying to avoid eye contact with her, or maybe she was just imagining it.

“I can leave?”

“I’m afraid I can’t let you go yet, but soon. I’ve spoken to your emergency contact and he should be here with you any minute now. Seeing as you don’t have any visible injuries, I think we’d be all right in letting you go home tonight. No reason to keep you here any longer than we have to.”

Emergency contact? There was a more pressing question on her mind at the moment, and as the mysterious man seemed keen on letting her go, maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea to ask him.

“Umm...” She began, before pausing to wonder about how to phrase the question. “Can you tell me something?”

“I’ll try my best, go ahead.”

“Who am I?”

The mysterious man seemed to expect the question. He reached into his pocket without even raising an eyebrow, and pulled out a tiny, folded piece of leather and handed it to her.

“We found this card holder on you after the incident as you couldn’t tell us your own name. It contains your ID.”

As she took the wallet, all other thoughts were cleared from her mind. Whatever she was about to look at was going to reveal a lot about her; who she was, where she came from, the places she frequented. It occurred to the unnamed woman that she might not like what she saw, and what then? She deduced that while it may not be too late to change all those things she would find out, her true self had clearly already chosen a path and she would be likely to return to it. It was natural, and this scared her.

“Aren’t you curious to find out?” The doctor asked, with a fleck of impatience hidden in the tone.

“I’d like some privacy please.” She responded, retaliating with a defensive attitude.

“Very well. I’ll be waiting just outside.” And with that, the doctor left.

All alone now, she wondered why she had asked him to go as she didn’t really feel like he was imposing. She ran her fingers over the leather, appreciating how cool it was and how smooth it felt. Before opening it, she tried to remember her name without help. As she ran through every letter of the alphabet, she tried to recall anything she’d ever done or said or heard, but it was useless. Each time she felt like she recognised something, it turned out to be something extremely general or something she had experienced since the incident.

“What the hell.” She said, before finally flipping open the card holder and reading aloud the name on the first card. “Freid, Pandara.”

Pandara was looking at her ID card, a standard method of identification, with their general information printed onto it. It turns out Pandara was twenty five years old, a fact that surprised her as she had not once considered finding out her age during this whole ordeal. If she had to start a new life, she decided her age wouldn’t render this such an issue.

The other cards in the wallet didn’t provide her with as much information as she’d hoped. She was a regular customer of some local coffee house, she attended a gym whose membership expired two years ago and she owned a library card but whether she had borrowed any books with it was a mystery to her. For all the fear she had initially felt about discovering herself, it seemed it was just wasted energy.

What now? She had just been given a glimpse into her old life and come away from it with nothing of use. The ID card that held so much potential for her had now become useless. She picked it up in her hand and was about to throw it away when she noticed something on the back that she hadn’t noticed yet. An address.

Now her life suddenly had a base location, a place she used to call home. Surely there would be something she could learn from inside it. She had to go there.

“Ms Freid,” It was the doctor, who had opened the door and stepped inside, without as much as a knock. He looked extremely pleased with himself, which irritated her. “Your visitor is here.”

Before she could find the time to say anything, the visitor had stepped inside the room behind the doctor and smiled at her. He was quite tall, fairly slim and had really dark brown hair which reached down to his shoulders. The extra stranger was spectacled, wearing a set of very round frames which made him appear a lot more intellectual, but whether that was true was yet to be seen. From first glance, the man seemed shy and unassuming and made no impression in her mind, though that was not surprising given her circumstances.

“Hey Pan.” The stranger called out to her, a quiet and nervous quality to his voice. “I’m here to pick you up and take you home.”

“Who are you?” She spoke emotionlessly.

“Well that’s a fair question given your circumstances, but, well, I’m your husband.”

Pandara gave the man another look, and began to wonder how she had fallen for such a person. She felt no attraction to him at all, and yet somehow he and her had been wed.

“My name’s Callum. Do you remember me even a little bit?”

“No.” She responded instantly. Callum seemed taken aback, and cleared his throat.

“Well that’s all right, I mean, you’ve been through a terrible situation.”

The doctor meanwhile was admiring the awkward conversation with a little grin on his face. Pandara noticed it and threw him an annoyed look but he didn’t even notice. He was too busy listening and staring at the floor.

“I don’t know who you are, and I’d feel uncomfortable going anywhere with you.”

It was during this moment that the doctor seemed to give himself permission to enter the conversation, as he stepped between the two of them and clasped his hands together.

“I’m afraid as the medical professional here, I would be against Ms Freid leaving this establishment alone due to fears over her wellbeing. If you cannot both work something out, I’m afraid you’ll have to spend the night here while we monitor you.”

Callum and Pandara looked at each other. In her mind, she wondered whether she could stay here a whole night. She had only minutes ago compared it to a prison and she was doubtful she could bear a whole night of staring at these blank walls, as she was sure it would drive her crazy. On the other hand, the man standing before her right now had a very off-putting quality about him and she would also worry for her safety if she had to go under his care. The choice had to be made, and made soon else the doctor would make her mind up for her.

“You are my husband, correct?” She asked Callum.

“Well, yes, of course.” His response was more nervous than before. “We’ve been married for three years now, four in May.”

“I think I can trust you enough to take me home for now.” Pandara lied. “Doctor, whoever you are, you can let me go now.”

“I’m Doctor Milne. Clayton Milne. And yes, you can both go, I’ll just need you to fill in some paperwork for me first Mr Freid. If you’d just like to wait here a few moments Ms, I mean Mrs Freid, I’ll be right back.”

Callum and Clayton left the room, leaving Pandara once again on her own. She felt a huge wave of relief at being allowed to get out of this room finally, but first there was something she wanted to do. Approaching the window, she took a hold of the blinds by either side and yanked it off the window frame.

The room instantly flooded with natural light as the glowing sun hung high over the horizon, not a cloud in sight. She was a few floors up and the view over the city was fantastic. Skyscrapers dominated the skyline in one direction while an enormous park blossomed in the other, covering a massive area in luscious green carpet. Her imagination took a hold of her, and she realised that even if she didn’t know who she was yet, she knew that her destiny would lead her to remain in this beautiful city until she figured it out. The top segment of the window had a lever attached to it, and Pandara reached up for it and pulled. The window opened, and she felt a gentle breeze flowing into the room, and for the first time that she could remember, she felt relaxed.

In her hand, the ID card still remained and she looked down at it. Her face on it looked so stressed, so bogged down, so sad.

“Whoever I was, I’m not going to be that person any more. You’re useless to me now.”

And with that, she threw the card out of the window, where it fell ever so gently onto the floor many metres below. For the first time, she felt free.

Next Chapter: CHAPTER EIGHT