Chapter Six #2
The doctor finished her spiel, Autumn already forgetting most of it and started toward the door.
“Can I stay with her?” Felix asked, his voice steady.
His eyes flicked to Autumn and his brow furrowed.
“I mean, if it’s okay with you, I’d like to stay.
At the very least until your parents can get here. ”
The mention of her parents had Autumn sending that imaginary intern back down to her brain’s cellar to find their faces.
She recalled more with them than she did with Felix, but it was still fuzzy, the knowledge more about their personality traits than it was their appearance.
Autumn recalled them being happy people, but that might have been wishful thinking.
They really only existed mostly as amorphous blobs with yellowish hair to her.
When they arrived, she hoped she would get more from them than that.
Looking at Felix, she nodded slowly, careful not to damage her already addled brain. “Maybe if you’re here it will help jog my memory more.” At the very least, her hospital stay would be much less scary with someone there with her who wasn’t paid to be.
Autumn’s agreement seemed to calm him slightly. “Thank you,” he told her, sounding sincere. He smiled and rose from his chair, looking slightly taller now that his shoulders were no longer slumped in defeat. “I’m going to just pop out and tell my family what’s going on.”
“Okay,” she told him.
Autumn had no idea who Felix’s family was, but the fact that he’d brought them to see her as well made her feel comforted.
She may not remember any of them, but it seemed she had a good amount of people out there to support her.
Laying back, she stared at the ceiling tiles, hoping that her memory returned soon, wondering what her life would look like until that happened.
****
F our days later, Autumn still had no more recollection of her past than she did that first night in the hospital, but what she did have were new moments to replace what was currently lost. Her parents had called her and expressed their gratitude that she was alive, worry over her memory, and disappointment that they hadn’t been able to get a flight right away and were making the journey via car.
Autumn had felt a little twinge of disappointment as well, but it was easily extinguished by the presence of Felix.
Watching him fold his long, lanky body onto the fold out sofa in order to stay overnight with her had been entertaining, and while she felt a bit sorry that he was likely very uncomfortable, she was too selfish to tell him to join his family in the hotel across the street.
Autumn liked having someone there with her, and if the looks of affection Felix shot her way every now and then were any indication, he didn’t mind the discomfort all that much.
Most of their time in the hospital had been spent with her getting to know a little about Felix and herself while playing card games, trading jokes over the quality of the hospital food, particularly the chocolate pudding, and watching a television show she didn’t recall but Felix informed her was one of her favorites.
Autumn was skeptical about the dating show at first, but after watching a few episodes of The Bachelorette , she was hooked.
Seeing a large group of men compete for the attention of one woman by employing some of the most ridiculous male posturing that could possibly exist had been a lot of fun, but it was Felix’s running commentary that had truly made it entertaining television.
He even had a dead-on impression of a man he referred to as “frat guy” that had her laughing until she thought she might cry.
It was weird, having such a great time with someone you barely knew, but Autumn had tried trusting her gut a little more and it was telling her that Felix was a safe person.
Other people Autumn seemed to feel at ease with were members of his family.
Felix’s parents stopped by and reintroduced themselves to her even though she’d apparently known them most of her life, never once making her feel guilty for not remembering them.
The older couple was as warm and kind as their son had been since the moment he stepped into her room.
Autumn also met his older brother Travis who spoke very little.
He was a bit intimidating looking, but from the protective way he seemed to look at his brother, she could tell he was a good man.
Apparently, more of Felix’s family wanted to come visit, but he had told them to hold off, not wanting to overwhelm her, something Autumn appreciated immensely.
She did recall that she was an only child and couldn’t imagine meeting Felix’s other three brothers, two of whom had significant others as well.
She was happy to know so many people cared about her, but she also wasn’t sure she could take more looks of curiosity and concern, feeling too much like a museum exhibit at times.
Fortunately, her life would soon be getting back to normal, or whatever normal had looked like before her accident.
The doctor had discharged Autumn from the hospital, not with a clean bill of health, but with a recommendation to a doctor closer by in order to monitor her progress more closely.
Bi-weekly checkups did not sound like fun, but until her memory returned she guessed she would have to deal with it.
Autumn tried her hardest not to think about the other scenario the doctor had mentioned, the one where her memory never came back.
The doctor was a neurosurgeon but had very few answers to Autumn’s questions.
Hearing the phrase the brain is still such a mystery constantly over the last five days had gotten very old, and by the time she’d been wheeled down to where Travis waited to drive her and Felix home, Autumn was in a bit of a foul mood.
She had wondered if getting into a car would be difficult for her since she’d just been in an extraordinarily bad car accident, but since she had no memory of it, that hadn’t been the case.
The truck was large, sturdy looking, and she sat sandwiched between two giant men, so overall Autumn had felt as safe as she had in the hospital bed.
She still spent most of the drive stewing over her lack of memory, but when Felix suggested they stop to get some snacks for the road, she brightened at the prospect of getting something that hadn’t been prepped by the hospital staff for her optimal health and wellness.
The moment she stepped into the small convenience mart, her excitement over a potentially fun food disappointed quickly.
Autumn looked around the small store, completely unsure of where to start.
Finally she found her way into the candy aisle where she stood for a long stretch of time, staring at the wide selection and having no clue what she wanted.
When she asked Felix what her favorite treat was, he handed her a package of chocolate covered peanut butter discs.
The thought of having something that she loved was nice, but the reality had been severely disappointing.
She tried a few bites, but found the sticky sweet treat to be not to her liking in the least. Not having something fun to eat was a bummer, but her not liking her favorite candy anymore was devastating.
Playing it off as just not being hungry, Autumn had tucked the rest of her treat into the small bag of belongings that had been pulled from her car and spent the rest of the drive in contemplative silence.
A sign for Applewood passed by the passenger window, and while the name caused her brain to tingle slightly, it didn’t evolve beyond that as they passed through the small town.
The brick and mortar stores of the downtown area looked slightly familiar, but was that because she remembered them or because they could have belonged in any small town from a television show or movie she’d seen before?
It was unsettling, not knowing whether something was a part of you from experience or as something you may have absorbed offhandedly, and that was just the town.
When they pulled up to a dark gray farmhouse, Autumn was certain that she’d seen it before, been there before, but she couldn’t pull one concrete image of her in that place from the depths of her memory.
The window into her own mind was a foggy pane of glass, smudged and stained, and no matter how many times she tried to wipe the film away, it never became clean.
Felix helped her down from the tall truck, and after saying goodbye to Travis, he led her behind the house and into a large orchard.
The trees were barren but beautiful with small buds that waited patiently for that last bit of sunshine before they bloomed.
She ran her hand over the rough trunk of one of the trees, remembering Felix telling her that they lived on an apple farm during the hospital stay.
Autumn had hoped that touching a piece of the place would bring it all rushing back, but her mind was still frustratingly cloudy.
Turning to Felix, she smiled sadly. “I’m a little tired.
Do you think we can just go home now?” Autumn had resided almost entirely in a bed over the last five days, but for as rested as she should feel, she was suddenly drained of energy.
Her inability to recognize anything about her life was as exhausting as it was depressing.