William felt a little refreshed and turned to the side to get out of bed. «Let me help you.» Dr. Narayan made sure he did not make any sudden movements and accidentally pull the tubes out. «We'll soon be giving you something to eat, but don't expect fried chicken!», she joked. William didn't laugh.
«I heard you scream earlier. I had other things on my mind at the moment and I didn't bother. Then I thought maybe there was some problem with the therapy.»
«In fact we had a small technical issue, nothing serious anyway, don't worry. It did not affect the success of the treatment. Now forget about it and enjoy the breeze, instead. It will only do you good. In a few weeks we'll be in the middle of autumn and it will no longer be possible to keep the windows open.»
Jalaja Narayan walked the patient to the window at a snail's pace. After a week in bed it was necessary to move with extreme caution. The doctor tried, with little success, to be witty again and invited William to admire the environment surrounding the hospital. «Look, Mr. Deveux, what a beautiful view. It won't be the Kastar river, but better than the white walls of this room, right? In front of us there's a pub, and a nice shoe store a little further. Not bad, uh?» William finally appreciated the effort the doctor made to cheer him up and make him feel at ease and rewarded her with a crooked smile.
«Doctor, could you please leave me alone again, at least for a few minutes? I would like to reflect in silence. Who knows, maybe my memory will come back.»
«Okay, but...»
Jalaja Narayan stared at the window for a few moments.
«Don't worry, I'm not going to jump out the window.»
«All right, William. If you want me, press the red button. I'll drop in later for routine checking and bring you updates. Someone will bring you some soup, eat it slowly okay? Oh, when you want to go back to bed please call the nurse, don't do it yourself. You're still full of tubes.»
Dr. Narayan joked one last time before taking her leave. William thought she had a beautiful smile and perfect teeth. She knew how to deal with patients, much more than her bearded colleague.
William put his elbows on the windowsill and leaned over a little to look beyond the nearest buildings. The hospital was located in a more peripheral area, there was a lot of uncultivated grass and abandoned plots of land. The sky was cloudy but from a crack a thin beam of light was jostling to impose itself. William followed the doctor's advice: he closed his eyes and deeply breathed in the light breeze. A rhythmic tune coming from the nearby pub made him want to rock his head to the beat of the music. Evidently the bar worked non-stop if, at that time, it still had the lights and the sound system on. The fuchsia light sign was super bright, who knows how much energy it consumed. “Melinda's Pub”. He had never been there, neither in real life nor in the dreamed one. Something in that song led William to neglect the rest of the panorama for a few moments. The simple refrain of the song constantly repeated the words 'love me, love me close, Melinda'. The more he listened to it, the more familiar it sounded. Maybe when he was hospitalized they were playing that song and it got stuck in his head? Maybe his mind made an anagram using the letters of the sign and the words of the song to create the name “Lucinda”? He bit his lower lip. The explanations could be multiple, too many for him to continue struggling. He then patted the windowsill and headed back to bed. No nurse, he would do it himself.
Now that things were getting better he had to save his energy to face his new life. In his vision he had been a computer expert, an unlikely secret agent, a husband and a father. After waking up he found himself single and with a job as a watchman. But what would stop him from becoming a programmer and starting a family? Now he could become anyone he wanted. Now he had all the time in the world.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The Van Eycken family's limousine made a sudden brake and scared some passersby, who feared an attack. Protest movements had begun to spread in East Eden for several months. Initially peaceful, they became more and more violent and intransigent. In short, the danger of terrorist attacks was clear and present and people tried to remain alert, without sacrificing their serenity. Even the sound of brakes, a car tyre screeching or any other sound louder than usual was reason enough to trigger, in many citizens, the instinct of survival and make them run and hide.
Carla Van Eycken acted on impulse. She had proposed herself to change her life and do everything her instinct told her. And her instinct, on that warm October morning, whispered to her that she should order Stuart Jamison to push the brake pedal hard and pull over the luxurious car near the boutique where her almost friend Brittany Feldman worked. Brittany, alerted by the annoying sound and the commotion in the street, walked up to the window to take a look and, noticing the arrival of her most loyal customer, went out to joyfully meet her.
«Carla, long time no see! You changed your hairstyle, you look great!»
If what she usually wore could be defined as a hairstyle, yes, Carla Van Eycken definitely changed it. From long and frayed, quite brittle and of an unnatural red color, to carré and black, it was a challenging step. Carla was aware of it, as well as she was aware that her Brittany meant to say 'finally you fixed that crap you wore', but, as a consummate saleswoman, she considered expressing in more politically correct terms.
«A brand new haircut will surely give you a boost!», the manager of the atelier “Morini's” insisted. Carla overlooked the compliments and, when Brittany invited her to enter the shop, she hesitated, making it clear that she just popped over for a quick hello. Indeed, it was not at all on her schedule, but, as she was passing by the store, she thought it would be rude not to stop and greet her.
«Oh, and look at how this young lady grew up! Will you give me a kiss, honey?»
Brittany Feldman bent over and offered her cheek, but the little girl, with an unmistakable little head gesture, told her she would not be giving kisses that day. The child then noticed a little dog on a leash and ran to play with it.
«Rosie, come here! I'm sorry, Brittany. She's more restless than usual», Carla apologized. She went to pick her up and brought her back to the starting point, holding her by the hand. «Roselyn, I've told you so many times you don't have to run away, do you understand?»
«Do you want orange juice, honey?», Brittany suggested, to cheer everyone up.
«Thank you Brittany, but better not. Each time she eats or drinks something before lunch, she loses her appetite», the attentive mother explained. «You know, all those days when she didn't see me and couldn't play with me, they made her a little nervous.»
«Yes, you mentioned it last time... how are you now?», the atelier manager asked her, trying not to be intrusive.
«Better, much better. I feel reborn.»
«This is awesome! I'm so happy for you! Why don't we sometimes have lunch together? Come on, it's a long time since we've seen each other.»
«Sure, I'd really love to.»
«Great. And will you come too, Rosie? You still owe me a kiss.»
That time the baby nodded. Brittany talked again about how she had grown since last time, and Carla, as a joke, said she would be driving the car before long. They burst out laughing, but their idyll was soon interrupted by the lively overture of “The Marriage of Figaro”.
«Carla, your bag is ringing», Brittany said, still smiling. «Am I wrong or did you change the phone's ringtone as well?»
«Yeah, I turned my life around, as you can see», Carla agreed, rummaging in her leather bag. «No, I can't believe it, it's my bank. Great timing, right now that I'm here with you...»
«Don't worry, Carla, answer the call. Maybe it's important.»
«OK. Hello?»
«Hello, Mrs. Van Eycken? I'm Timothy Crawford of McConnell Credit Bank. Am I disturbing anything?»
«If I answered yes, would you end the call, Timothy? I was just kidding, go ahead.»
«Excuse me, Mrs. Van Eycken, I wanted to inform you that your credit card limit has been exceeded again. This is the third time i
n the last three months, ma'am. I kindly ask you to pay off part of the amount, so we can lower the limit back to its initial value.»
«All right, all right, all this fuss for a few credits. As soon as I have a minute, I'll make the payment.»
«So, can I hold you to that, Mrs. Van Eycken?»
«Yes, but Timmy... may I call you Timmy? Well Timmy, please don't use my husband's last name. I'm Carla Merritt, all right? Thank you and good bye.»
Carla Merritt-Van Eycken blushed and apologized to Brittany Feldman for the inappropriate act. Brittany politely skipped over financial matters and focused her attention on family affairs.
«How's it going between you and Rudolph?»
«Not well, Brittany. But now my life no longer revolves around Rudolph.» Carla tried to smile again. «I want to be happy, regardless of him.»
«I wish you wholeheartedly the best of luck», Brittany said, hugging her and trying to comfort her.
«Come on Rosie, we're leaving!», Carla cried to her little girl.
«Your usual route?», asked the curly-haired semi-friend. Carla thought for a moment, then turned to the limousine and signaled to Stuart Jamison she would continue on foot.
«No, I'm not resuming my usual tour. I want to start a new one.»
Many years earlier...
There were days when Angela Deveux felt almost good and she could have visitors, others in which she didn't want to see anyone and preferred to be alone. When things went better she tried to smile and minimize her annoyance by blaming weather, cold, humidity that affected her joints and made them ache. In her bad days, not even the vials of those powerful painkillers they administered to her in the hospital were enough to allow her to hide suffering and transmit optimism to her family. Most of the time she managed to allow herself a ten minutes' chat and did small talk, joking with others. Those were Dominic's favorite days, those in which he could have aimless conversations with his wife, discuss trivial matters as if they were sitting comfortably on the couch at home. Dominic feared the silent days, those in which Angela did not want to talk, those in which the spasms took her breath away. In those days he used to sit next to his wife, hold her hand and talked for both of them, in a low voice, almost whispering. He told her what she wanted to hear, that things were going well at home, that William was a good boy and he was dealing with that strange situation like a grown man. Angela then held his hand too and smiled to thank her husband for the efforts he was making. When the emotion was too strong and the lump in his throat no longer allowed him to go on chatting, Dominic went to retrieve little William and bring him back to his mother, distracting him from his main amusement: running around the corridors of St. Andrew's Hospital and touching everything. As soon as he saw his mom again, William pulled his little comb out of his pocket and asked her to comb him, as she usually did at home. Sometimes Angela couldn't do it and she met her husband's eyes to ask him to replace her. Then Dominic told William it was his dad who would comb his hair that day, he couldn't always let mom have all the fun! The child therefore sat on his father's legs and let him comb his hair. A few seconds later, he ruffled his hair and ordered his father to start again.
On one of those toughest days, when she could not find the strength to be cheerful, Angela gathered all her energy to have an extremely important discussion with her husband. Angela asked Dominic to remove all traces of her presence from their house, every photograph or jewel. Before her husband could even be surprised by that request, she went on, clarifying that she in no way wanted their child to grow up with the ghost of his mother on his shoulders, that the memory of her premature death hindered his growth as a man or held back his potential and ambitions. William would have to become everything he wanted and nothing would have to weigh him down. If ever William asked questions, Dominic would have to avoid answering, change the subject or, at the very least, try to cheer him up and tell him that his mother was watching over them from up above and there was nothing to be sorry about. «You two must erase me, Dom. You must promise me, otherwise I can't go away in peace. Do you promise me?» Dominic nodded in tears and laid his head on the bed next to his wife. When William appeared, hopping on one leg to show how good he was, his father straightened up immediately and wiped his face, struggling to laugh and look serene. He clapped his hands to show his son how he was proud of his acrobatic skills and urged him not to stop. His mother clapped too and told him he was very good, then asked him if he wanted to have his hair combed a little, like they usually did. William smiled broadly, took his little comb out of his pocket and raised it to the sky like a scepter. «Hooray for King William!», the parents both rejoiced, «Hooray for King William!» The morning sun flooded the room with light and it seemed that even the sky agreed with that coronation. Angela gritted her teeth and tried to enjoy those moments for as long as possible. She obtained guarantees from her husband and had no regrets. In order to make that day perfect, all that was left to do was to remove that bad taste of medicine from her mouth. She sat up in bed, then looked at her lively family and made them a nice proposal.
«Guys, you know what would be great now? A nice ice cream! How about? Yeah, a nice big chocolate ice cream is just what we need!»
The Ruling Impulses Page 39
