Chapter 7 Unable to remember

• “That is a sick haircut man, where did you get it?” Steve asked with his fake British accent which Aria found annoying by the way.
• Steve was Jimmy’s best friend and he had come around after hearing the news about the accident. It was still 10am and honestly, he would have been here as early as yesterday if he was in town.
• “Um… I don’t remember,” Jimmy replied with furrowed eyebrows. “You said you are who again?” he asked immediately.
• Rebecca almost choked on her laughter and they all stared at her in disappointment, she didn’t give a damn about what they thought of her, none of that did matter anyway, she was enjoying this.
• Steve turned back to Jimmy with an empathetic look on his face. “Oh man, this is so messed up. I never thought a day would come when you wouldn’t recognize me. I am Steve, your best friend, your buddy. I am sure you will laugh your ass out when this is all over and you learn that you actually forgot who I was.” Steve said and laughed.
• Jimmy also laughed nervously, the whole thing just felt weird. Even though there were pictures of the two of them together, so many of them, he didn’t think he had seen this young man in his life before.
• Aria just sat silently at one of the couches watching the whole scene play out, if there was another thing she didn’t regret loving right now, it was the fact that Jimmy didn’t recognize Steve or even look comfortable around him. Aria always believed that Steve was a bad influence on him, he wasn’t this much of a bad boy till he met Steve. She believed that Steve corrupted him, not like he was completely innocent from the start, but his friendship with Steve was what highlighted his bad side to its peak.
• “Forget about that, man. I hope you have not forgotten what a soccer game is because we are going to play right away, I will call the boys to meet us there, perhaps you would recognize some of them,” Steve suggested.
• Jimmy furrowed his brows. “Um, first of all… it is called football, and secondly… I might have lost my memory but I know for sure that I hate football, and you would have known that if we were as close as you say.” He uttered.
• Everyone in the room froze the moment he said those words and all eyes turned to him. Even Rebecca was puzzled; why on earth would he say he hates soccer? It is his favorite sport.
• “What do you mean, man? That is a joke right?” Steve asked and chuckled, punching Jimmy softly on the shoulders.
• Triple J was about to respond when their attention was caught by footsteps. They turned to the entrance of the sitting room and it was the doctor approaching. Aria rushed to him immediately and carried his bag, she was beginning to think that the man wouldn’t come around as promised.
• It was the Queen Empire’s contract doctor, he was in charge of their health care for the past three years now. A professional in his field of study, he not only had a hospital but was an international doctor as he worked in different hospitals all over the world.
• “Welcome sir, how was your trip down here?” Aria asked with concern.
• “Very good my dear, how is Mr. Queen doing today?” he asked as he approached Jimmy.
• Aria didn’t know which of the Mr. Queens he was referring to but she just answered in the positive. Jimmy’s father had left for the office and his mother went to pray for her child, she was a very religious woman, it is unfortunate how her children didn’t take after her.
• Rebecca, who was sipping from a juice cup the whole time, didn’t even care about what was going on in the room. She just crossed her legs on the sofa and entertained herself with the scene. For some reason, she enjoyed watching Triple J in this condition.
• The doctor went to Jimmy and conducted a few tests on him, he then asked him some questions to further test his mind. He asked him easy mathematical questions to which Jimmy answered correctly.
• After that, the doctor turned to Aria. “He looks fine to me, just needs more rest and time to think. Like the other doctor said, it is a temporary memory loss, I am pretty sure everything will get back to default settings soon so there is no need to panic. It might take a month or more but he will remember.” He announced’
• Aria sighed in relief of the reassurance, she thought of informing the doctor about the allergy case but since he said everything was fine with Jimmy, she decided to forfeit the conversation.
• “Alright Doctor, thank you so much for coming, I will inform Mr. Queens when he returns.” She replied.
• “Of course, I am just doing my job. Call me if there are any new developments and I will come check him out,” he added.
• “Oh, one more thing before you go, Doc. Please tell me, why does my horrible brother here remember things like food and languages and how to sleep but he doesn’t remember people and past activities with them? I mean, isn’t that hilarious?” she asked sarcastically and laughed hysterically.
• The doctor sighed and smiled, he knew he didn’t have to answer. “Okay, listen sweetheart… There are two different types of memory according to studies, the declarative and the procedural memory. Now within the declarative memory, there are two sub categories namely, the semantic and the episodic. Semantic memory consists of facts that are not dependent on context; for example, one plus one is equal to two. An episodic memory on the other hand deals with information related to a certain context like place or time. Not to go into details, these systems are different from each other and so when someone has amnesia from let’s say a head trauma, they will generally lose only one of the types of memory; the episodic memory in this case. So in summary, if only one of the memories is damaged, it is possible for someone to not know their name but to remember how to talk and even know the capital of California. Does that answer your question?”
• Rebecca sat there with dropped jaws, at that moment she wished she had not asked. Because now she was more confused than ever. The doctor bade them goodbye and headed for the door, Aria followed him out to the door.
• “Well, you heard the Doctor, brother. You are broken,” Rebecca laughed as she stood up to leave.
• Aria must have caught that as she walked in, she went to Jimmy and smiled at him. “Don’t listen to her,” she said.
• “Why does she hate me so much?” Jimmy asked as he watched Rebecca leave the room. He had noticed her behavior towards him but he just couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t be nice to him.
• Aria sighed and stared towards the direction Rebecca had gone, and then she turned back to Jimmy. “Well, you two certainly have your issues.” She replied.
• “We do? Am I at fault?” he asked with raised brows, just to be sure.
• Aria smiled. “Yeah, old you wasn’t exactly the best guy to hang around with, you did something pretty bad to her, she hasn’t forgiven you since then, but she will someday.”
• There was silence between them for a while and then he looked into her eyes. “I hurt you too, didn’t I?” he asked affectionately.
• She was surprised to see him show emotions like that, another wonder of the world. “It is in the past now,” she replied. “Where is your friend?” she asked immediately as she realized that Steve was no longer in the sitting room. Where had he gone off to?
• To be continued!!