by A. E. Radley
Victoria shook her head. “No, Holly would never have spoken to me like that.”
Charlotte nodded. “Interesting. We’ve never experienced an outburst like that from Holly. As we have no benchmark, it is difficult for us to tell if her behaviour is normal, stress-related, or from damage to her frontal lobe.”
Victoria considered the statement for a moment. Holly would never have dared to have spoken like that to her face. But behind her back, Victoria wouldn’t have blamed her one bit.
“I hope it is simply stress,” Victoria noted.
“Agreed. As I say, we have never seen that kind of outburst before, so it is most likely that it was stress. But if it was something more, I’m sure her American doctors will pick up on it.”
“They will,” Victoria agreed. She’d called her contacts and found the best doctors in New York. They were standing by and ready to receive Holly’s medical reports.
Holly walked into reception in a pair of skinny black jeans with a casual white t-shirt and a fashionably ripped pale blue sweater over the top. She held her newly acquired, and apparently sparsely filled, holdall loosely by her side.
She looked nervous, wide eyes flitting around the reception area like a child on her first day of school.
A nurse walked into reception and swept her into a hug. Before long there were more nurses pouring into the small reception area to wish her farewell. Small gifts and cards were handed over. Holly had tears in her eyes, and she hugged them all goodbye.
One of the nurses took the holdall from her and placed the presents and envelopes inside. Holly made her way to Charlotte, who also pulled her into an embrace.
“Holly, it has been a real pleasure getting to know you,” Charlotte said. “You must take good care of yourself. I want you to stay in touch and tell me everything about New York, oui?”
The pair parted but held hands.
“Oui, I will write to you as soon as I can,” Holly promised.
A nurse held out Holly’s holdall for her. She took it, offering a huge smile of gratitude as she did.
“We need to go,” Victoria prompted. She wanted to get away from the claustrophobic overflow of emotions.
Holly nodded. She turned around, waved, and said a final farewell. Victoria was already retreating down the steps and towards the waiting limousine, knowing that Holly would follow her.
Things were returning to normal.
14
Victoria folded her arms and stepped between Holly and Gareth, glaring at Gareth as she did so.
"You're scaring her half to death," the formidable woman complained.
“I’m okay,” Holly mumbled, trying to get Victoria’s attention.
Gareth, Victoria’s English lawyer, held up his hands to calm her. He looked around Victoria to meet Holly’s eyes.
“Sorry, Miss Carter. I don’t mean to frighten you, but I do need to prepare you for the questions the judge is going to ask.”
Holly nodded. “It’s okay. I understand.”
Victoria stepped back again. Holly had been surprised at how quickly she had leapt to her defence. Gareth had been explaining the process, and Holly could feel the stress building within her. It had clearly manifested itself on her face, and Victoria had seen and taken action. It was a nice feeling to have someone so powerful on her side.
They were in the opulent waiting room of the courthouse. The marble floor and high ceilings caused their words to echo softly around the empty room. Oil paintings hung on the walls, and busts of important looking men looked at her with stony scowls.
Gareth looked at Victoria. “Remember that you need to remain absolutely silent until spoken to when we get in there.”
Victoria’s glare could have melted steel. Holly was relieved that she wasn’t on the receiving end of it.
Gareth didn’t seem fazed. “I’ve done some research on the judge, and he is extremely strict. He won’t like an American woman coming in and telling him how to run his courtroom. The quickest and most efficient way of getting out of here is speaking when spoken to, saying as little as possible, and most of all, sticking to the script.”
Victoria maintained her fiery stare for a few moments more. Finally, she rolled her eyes and, with a slight nod of her head, agreed.
Gareth turned back to Holly. His face softened. “Are you ready to continue the questions? I’d like for you to be as prepared as possible.”
“Absolutely, fire away,” Holly said.
She was keen to hear what Gareth had to say. The whole court process was terrifying to her. The very idea that someone who had never met her would be making a decision about her well-being was baffling. The fear that he would disagree with what Victoria had in mind was causing Holly’s heart to beat like a drum.
Gareth gestured towards one of the wooden benches against the wall, and Holly followed him. Victoria remained standing, glancing up at the golden clock high on the wall.
In the short amount of time she’d known Victoria, Holly had discovered that time was a very important concept for her. Victoria hated the idea of being late, and her own clock seemed to run a few minutes ahead of everyone else’s. A ten o’clock meeting should start at nine fifty-five. Holly made a mental note of the fact.
“Okay,” Gareth began.
She pulled her attention away from Victoria and towards Gareth. She tried to fully focus on him, despite her nerves.
“Let’s go through the process one last time,” he suggested.
Holly nodded and took a deep breath. She needed to focus. Today could be the first day of the rest of her life.
15
Exactly one hour later, Holly walked down the steps of the courthouse clutching a piece of paper and smiling more than she could ever remember.
Gareth was right beside her. Holly indicated the signed and stamped power of attorney and then pointed to Victoria.
“Does this mean she owns me now?” she joked.
“Yes,” Gareth confirmed with a grin. “Until such time that she exchanges you for livestock.”
Holly giggled.
Victoria sniffed. “You two are utterly ridiculous.” She brushed past them and continued down the steps towards the waiting limousine.
Holly knew she didn’t mean it. She’d looked at Victoria when the judge had approved the power of attorney and noticed the stern woman smiling. Of course, the smile quickly vanished, and a knowing nod of the head replaced it when she realised Holly was looking at her.
Gareth softly put his hand on her shoulder. She turned to look at him, and he handed her his business card.
“Call me if you need anything, like if you need the power of attorney dissolved. I’ll get it arranged for you,” he said, a tip of the head towards Victoria as he spoke.
Holly took the card. “I think I’ll be fine,” she said. “I think her bark is a lot worse than her bite.”
He grinned. “I think so, too. But, just in case, eh?”
She pocketed the business card. “Thank you, I really appreciate all you’ve done.”
“We’re not done yet,” he said. “Next stop, the embassy. We need to get you that passport or you’ll miss your flight.”
Victoria was already in the car, probably sighing and periodically glaring at her watch in annoyance. Gareth was the next in and Holly quickly followed him. The driver closed the door behind her.
She’d been so nervous on the way to the courthouse that she’d hardly noticed the journey. Now she felt like she was in safe hands. The judge had granted her power of attorney and that effectively released her into Victoria’s care. And Victoria didn’t seem like the kind of woman who didn’t get exactly what she wanted when she wanted it. They were due to fly to New York in under five hours, and Holly was certain that would be the case.
She was aware that Gareth and Victoria were talking, but Holly tuned them out. She looked out of the window at the imposing courthouse and wondered if she’d ever see Paris again. Paris had been her home for the past year, or for a
s long as she could remember, but it had never felt truly like home. Knowing that she was American made her ache to be there, even if she had no recollection of what it was like.
Part of her treatment had been to watch American television shows and movies to see if she recognised anything. She didn’t, but it did build an overwhelming desire to see the country that she called home.
Now she was on her way. The butterflies fluttered in her stomach, and she closed her eyes momentarily. She was on her way to discovering the truth about herself and her life.
16
The airport was enormous and filled with people rushing around. Holly struggled with the noise and the pace of activity. It was quite different from her quiet hospital. She wondered how she would cope with the busy streets of New York if she was already halfway to a panic attack in the airport.
Luckily, she had Victoria. And with Victoria came first-class everything, including a private lounge within which to eat a meal before the flight.
The moment they stepped through the doors and breezed past reception, she let out a sigh of relief. A waiter almost fell over himself to seat them at the best table in the lounge. Holly was starting to understand just how big of a deal Victoria was.
They had both ordered, and Victoria had quickly started to work. She placed an iPad Mini on a stand on the table and scrolled through her emails. At the same time, she spoke to various people on her phone. Before the food arrived, Holly had heard Victoria speaking in at least three different languages.
She wondered if she herself had known any languages. She spent a lot of time wondering about her previous self. There was so little else to occupy her in the hospital. All her treatments revolved around trying to help her to remember her past life, so it was impossible to escape the enormous question mark that had been her life prior to the accident.
The accident had hit the reset button on her brain. And in some ways, she was about to do the same again. She was about to leave everything and everyone she knew. She was now in the care of some almighty fashion guru who wore specific travelling outfits. She was about to fly for nine hours to her home country, which she had no memory of.
“Aren’t you hungry?” Victoria questioned, her eyes transfixed on Holly’s mainly uneaten meal. “Or is something wrong with your food? Would you like something else?”
Victoria was already turning around to seek out the waiter.
“No, no,” Holly yelped to reclaim her attention. “It’s wonderful, I’m just not very hungry. I’m a bit nervous.”
“About the flight? You’ll be fine. You get used to it soon enough.” Victoria waved her hand dismissively and returned her attention to her iPad.
“I don’t think it’s the flight I’m nervous about,” Holly admitted. “More… everything.”
Victoria looked at her over the rim of her glasses. She scrutinised Holly for a few moments.
“You should try to take your mind off things,” she said.
“Easier said than done,” Holly replied.
Holly lifted her fork and started to pick at her food, hoping it may soothe her queasy stomach.
“Why don’t you read? I noticed that your bag contains practically nothing but books.”
Holly chuckled. “Yeah, they’re all my worldly possessions. When I first started to recover, I couldn’t read very well, so I practiced a lot and found out that I really enjoy it. But there weren’t very many English books around, so the ones I have are old and donated by the staff at the hospital. I’ve probably read each one thirty times or more. Some aren’t even stories.”
She reached down to the bag and unzipped it. She pulled the first dilapidated book out and placed it on the table. “This one is about clouds, mainly. Sometimes it goes into the possible theory of a god sitting on a cloud. But mainly, it’s clouds all the way.”
She reached into the bag, pulled out another book, and put it on the table.
“This one, well, this beauty is about train stations in Moscow. Which I’m afraid to say is actually quite interesting. The first time. But when you have little to do and you have read it several times—”
“Please get those off the table.” Victoria turned her nose up.
Holly put the books back in her bag. When she sat upright again, Victoria had pulled her iPad in front of her and was swiping away at the screen.
“What books do you like reading?” Victoria asked.
“Oh, I like everything,” Holly replied. “I think I like the classics the best. I have two books by Charles Dickens that I like a lot. I have a more modern book about some career woman’s romance, but that’s not really my sort of thing, I don’t think.”
Victoria nodded. “Crime? History? Humour? Science fiction?”
“Um. I guess?” Holly answered. “Not sure about crime, I haven’t really read any. History, yes. Did I mention the three whole chapters on the Moscow train stations during the forties? Humour, yes. I’m not sure about science fiction. Never read any.”
As Holly spoke, Victoria tapped away on her iPad. She sat up and nodded with satisfaction and handed the device to Holly.
Holly hesitantly took it and frowned.
“I’ve bought the current top one hundred books according to the New York Times. They are downloading. I’m sure you’ll find something that suits you there.”
Holly gasped and looked at the iPad as if it were made of gold. She knew that this was too much, especially on top of everything else that Victoria was giving her. She handed the device back to Victoria.
“That’s very generous, but I can’t take this. You need it to do your work.”
“Nonsense, I have my laptop. And I’ll probably rest on the journey anyway.” Victoria gestured for the waiter to take her plate.
Holly placed the device beside her own plate. “Then I’ll gratefully accept it. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Victoria took a sip of water.
Holly looked at the iPad with interest. “How do you use it?”
Victoria looked startled. “Oh, well, it’s rather easy. In fact, you taught me.”
Holly laughed. “Did I? Wow.”
“Yes, I was rather late on the party when it came to tablets and such. You installed all the applications and synched it with my laptop.” Victoria almost looked wistful as she recalled the memory.
As quickly as that look had come over her, it vanished again. She shook her head, removed the napkin from her lap, and placed it on the table. She shuffled her chair closer to Holly and looked at the iPad.
“As I said, it’s all rather simple…”
17
Victoria gestured for Holly to walk in front of her. She placed her hand gently on the girl’s back and guided her towards the airbridge.
She normally wouldn’t be considered a tactile person, but for some reason Holly was bringing out another side of her. At the embassy, she’d quickly stood between Holly and the buffoon with the camera. Her fingers deftly brushed through Holly’s short locks before her brain had engaged and she’d stepped back.
At the time, she had made the point that a passport photograph was something Holly would have to live with for a few years and pressed that it was important to look one’s best. But the truth was that she’d acted without thinking.
Just a short time before, she’d been sitting shoulder to shoulder with Holly as they looked at the iPad. Their hands touched occasionally as they skimmed over the iPad screen, pointing to icons and swiping. She’d never touched Holly before, but now it was becoming a habit.
A habit that she needed to break.
Holly stopped dead in the middle of the airbridge. Victoria nearly walked into her.
“No way,” Holly said firmly. She pointed towards the window. “No way can that thing fly. Look at it.”
Victoria looked through the window to the Boeing 757 that they were on their way to board.
“Don’t be absurd. Of course it can fly. If it couldn’t fly, then how did it get here?”
“Look at it, it must weigh a million tonnes,” Holly whispered through clenched teeth.
Victoria noted the other first-class passengers starting to walk around them.
“Why don’t you focus your attention on those colossal ten-million-dollar apiece engines that are designed to carry the enormously over-exaggerated weight of the aircraft?” Victoria replied.
Holly spun around and glared at Victoria. “You said I wasn’t afraid of flying!”
“You never told me that you were,” Victoria argued.
“Well, let me show you something.” Holly drew an imaginary ring around her face with her index finger. “This, this is me… afraid of flying.”
“Very mature.” Victoria sighed. She lowered her sunglasses from the top of her head, aware of the scene they were creating. “It’s not even that big. If we were flying from London, it would hold another three hundred passengers. It would have another floor.”
Holly looked incredulous. “So, we’re on a smaller plane and we’re travelling farther? Thank you for not helping.”
Victoria rolled her eyes in exasperation. She took a step forward and put her hand soothingly on Holly’s shoulder.
“I promise you that it is safe. Hundreds of thousands of these aircraft fly all across the world every year without incident. Yes, it’s noisy. And, yes, it’s daunting, but I swear to you that it is perfectly safe.”
Holly looked into her eyes, or at least at her own reflection in Victoria’s sunglasses.
“Take a deep breath in,” Victoria instructed slowly. “And then another one out.”
Holly did as she was instructed.
“Now, we’re going to get on the plane and we’re going to take our seats. I promise you that you will hate take-off. But once we are up in the air, you will wonder what all the fuss was about. You’ll look back at this and laugh.”
Holly slowly nodded. Victoria squeezed her shoulder and then let go. She gestured for Holly to walk in front of her.
