After the Dream

by Stan Mason

  She hesitated for a moment and then opened the door widely to let the man enter, leading him into the lounge. ‘Pour yourself a drink if you must,’ she invited negatively.

  He placed the bouquet of flowers on the coffee-table before moving behind the cocktail cabinet to stare at the bottles. ‘Do you want one?’

  ‘It’s a little early for me but I will have a martini.’ She watched the man like a cat ready to pounce on a bird.

  He poured out two drinks handing one to her before sitting down. ‘Lechaim!’ he toasted cheerfully, holding up his glass towards her. ‘It’s all right,’ he explained, ‘I’m Jewish and that’s a Jewish toast.’

  ‘What did you want to talk to me about, Mr. Greenfield?’ Her voice was cold and sharp.

  ‘I spoke to Charles and he told me that you’d separated,’ he said slowly, moving into dangerous territory. ‘Allow me to express my regrets. It must have hit you badly.’ He was pretending to be suave but it wasn’t working for him.

  ‘Why do you say that?’ she demanded waiting to hear the reason for his presence at her home.

  He seemed somewhat embarrassed by her question. ‘Well...two people who’ve been married for a long time with two grown up children. Separation is a big step from a marriage..’

  ‘That’s just the point,’ she countered curtly. ‘With separation there is no marriage!’

  He sipped his drink slowly. ‘Indeed, Diana. I hope you don’t mind me calling your by your first name.’

  She began to tire of the game and demanded an explanation. ‘Why are you here? What’s so important that you want to discuss?’

  He hesitated for a few moments to get his mind into gear and took a large sip of his drink for Dutch courage. ‘I hope you don’t think I’m too precocious,’ he began nervously, his flabby lips moving up and down, ‘but at your parties here I became besotted by you. I couldn’t help but see you in an amorous light.’

  She was stunned by his overture. ‘Would you kindly clarify that remark please,’ she insisted.

  He inhaled deeply before replying. ‘You’re a very beautiful lady,’

  he told her awkwardly knowing that his delivery was all wrong. ‘You look so young and attractive. I have to admit I couldn’t take my eyes off you and I went home dreaming about you. I’ve come here today, knowing that you’ve separated from your husband, to see whether you’ll allow me to take up the reins.’

  ‘Take up the reins!’ she repeated in astonishment. She was shocked by his unsolicited advances and stared at him angrily. ‘You’re a middle-aged man, Mr Greenfield. I’m sure that you’re married and have children. To be crude, you have your own wife to make love to.’

  ‘Love!’ he echoed. ‘There’s an old saying that Jewish foreplay is twenty minutes of begging. My wife doesn’t understand me. We haven’t made love with each other for years. She’s not the one I desire.’

  Diana was affronted by the proposition and she stood up indignantly.’ Get out!’ she shouted. ‘Get out of this house right away, you horrible man! You think you can have an affair with me? When hell freezes over! Get that into your mind!’

  ‘Is it because I’m Jewish?’ he asked lamely.

  ‘It has nothing to do with religion!’ she snapped harshly.

  ‘But every woman has needs. Sexual needs. ‘Just because you lost your memory doesn’t mean you’ve become a vegetable. You need love in your life and I’m the one willing to give it to you.’

  Diana started to lose her temper at his prevarication. ‘I said get out! Don’t you understand English?’ she shouted vehemently.

  Greenfield placed his wine glass on the coffee-table and moved towards the door. ‘Does this mean you’re not interested?’ he continued with sincerity. ‘Only some women say no when they mean yes. It’s a common feature between men and women.’

  ‘Out....you horrible little weasel!’ There was no mercy in her tone of voice. She picked up the bouquet of flowers and followed him to the front door. She opened it and thrust the flowers into his hands. He placed one hand into his pocket and produced a calling card. ‘If you happen to change your mind...’

  The expression on her face emulated that of Medusa in Greek mythology and he scurried out of the house quickly without looking back leaving the flowers in the hallway. If there was one thing she disliked it was Greeks bearing gifts.

  She returned to the lounge and picked up the two glasses. What an outrage! The colleague of her husband having the nerve to try to proposition her when he discovered that she had separated from her husband. She was extremely indignant although she should have been flattered. What did he think she was... a courtesan playing the field? Well she soon sent him packing! For certain she had not time in her life for men at present... certainly not one with a wife and family at home. Her only aim was to recover her memory. That was the priority. Nothing else mattered!

  * * *

  Six months soon passed by and Diana made arrangements to visit Dr. Mahmoud in Morocco. The time had passed very quickly and she clench her diary in which she had recorded every detail of the side-effects she had suffered over the past half year. He was sitting at his desk as she waltzed into his office and sat in the chair opposite him confidently. He looked up from the notes he had been reading and a slight smile touched his lips as he recognised her.

  ‘Mrs. Templeton! How is my experimental patient?’ he asked with a twinkle in his eye for in his opinion she looked exceedingly well.

  ‘I’m fine, thank you,’ she returned brightly, passing her diary over the desk.

  He stared at it, picking it up, and turned the cover to read the first page. ‘Very interesting,’ he muttered as his eyes gazed at the text. ‘So that’s what’s been happening to you.’ He paused to look up at her. ‘I presume you’ve been taking the tablets every day as I prescribed.’

  ‘Of course. I never miss a day. But the side-effects still continue. You told me they would go away but they haven’t...not completely.’

  ‘It’s all very experimental,’ he explained easily. ‘We’re reaching the boundaries of science and overtaking it. No one knows what reactions will occur. That’s probably the most exciting thing about it.’ We extend the boundaries and go on from there.’

  ‘It’s not so exciting when you’re the one who has to suffer the side-effects.’ she complained as she thought of some of the episodes that had frightened her.

  ‘When you know they going to happen you should be prepared for them,’ came the response.

  Her mind went back to the night when she had become a very old woman and a chill ran down her spine at the thought of it.

  ‘Unfortunately there are some that we cannot be prepared for,’ she volleyed fiercely. ‘I think you’ll find one of them on page eight in the diary.’ There was silence for a few moments and then she ventured a question which had been on her mind for some time. ‘How would I cope if anything happened to you?’ Her heart beat a little faster at the fearful idea. ‘I would run out of tablets and no one would be able to provide them for me.’

  His face broke into a broad grin. ‘My dear Mrs. Templeton,’ he laughed. ‘I take ferradil-x tablets every day as well. You don’t think I’d let you gain all the benefits of this experiment and not get anything out of it myself. As you go forward into immortality, I shall do the same. You never need to concern yourself about the supply of tablets.’

  Immortality! She might be able to cope with the knowledge that her features might not age and that she might live to the grand old age of two hundred but now the doctor was talking of immortality.....living for ever! Surely the scientist had to be somewhat over-ambitious in his research. It was an accepted fact that everyone who lived had to die at some time. The idea of continuing life for ever was very daunting....much more than any human-being could handle.

  ‘You talk of immortality,’ she forward
ed casually. ‘You can’t be serious.’

  ‘Maybe and maybe not,‘ he retorted. ‘Experiments take time and science progresses in small stages with regard to the human body. In time, it may be possible. We shall be like machines. with organ transplants produced by other methods, which will be used when different parts of our bodies malfunction. As for us, at the present, we simply have to wait until it happens.’ He turned over the pages of her diary and read some more. ‘Tell me about the time you suffered when you body grew old.’

  She explained the pain and anguish she had suffered that night to tell him of her mistake by taking three ferradil-x tablets instead of two.

  ‘Is your memory improving?’ he asked.

  ‘Not very much,’ she replied bluntly with sadness in her voice. ‘Sometimes I have visions related to the past but they’re fragmented. I can’t seem to marry them up with anything.

  He shrugged his shoulders with a slight smile touching his lips and he pulled on his goatee beard. ‘We can’t expect miracles in everything we do,’ he rambled on. ‘Only occasionally.’

  Diana left the office with a two large boxes of tablets feeling highly delighted that the scientist was using ferradil-x himself. It gave her far more confidence to continue with the experiment. There were two of them now involved in the research. However, a visit to Dr. Mahmoud was not the only reason she had flown to Agadir. She was determined to see Ahmed in order to keep in touch with him. There was no obvious reason or intent for the action simply an instinct to see him again now that she was in the country. She took a taxi to his office and found him poring over some legal documents.

  ‘You may not wish to see me again but I’ve come anyway,’ she began as he looked up to see her.

  He rose to his feet with a surprised expression on his face and thrust out his hand. ‘Mrs. Templeton.....Diana!’ he gasped joyfully, shaking her hand vigorously. ‘I’m so pleased to see you!’ He raced around the desk to bring forward a chair so that she could sit down. He returned to his seat to face her. ‘How marvellous! I must say you’re looking much better.’

  ‘I hope I’m not interfering with your work,’ she said frowning slightly.

  ‘Not al all.....not at all!’ he beamed. ‘It’s all rather boring stuff anyway. Tell me what happened to you in the last six months. Has your memory returned?’

  ‘Not really,’ she confessed. ‘I’ve separated from my husband and I’m leading the life of a lady.’ She felt like biting her tongue for having blurted out the information. He didn’t need to know. There was a brief silence before she continued. ‘How’s your family?’ She recalled the hovel in which she had lived in briefly and momentarily shuddered.

  ‘As families are,’ he retorted staring at her seriously. ‘So you’ve left your husband. I have to say he showed very little interest in your at your time of need. Tell me...do you still dream about me?’

  She burst into laughter delighted that she had come to see him. ‘Don’t get above yourself,’ she guffawed. ‘I haven’t had a dream in months.’

  There was an awkward silence for a few moments and then he posed a direct question. ‘Why have you really come to see me? I mean we don’t really know each other.’

  She seemed put out by his directness and sought to find an answer. ‘I came to Agadir to see Dr. Mahmoud so I thought I’d visit you as well.’

  ‘Is this fate.....or destiny....or something else?’ he asked casually. She failed to reply so he rose and went towards the door. ‘I’ll fetch you some coffee. I’ll back in two shakes of a lamb’s tail.’ He left the room and she stared at the law books on the shelves and the files stacked up on the floor.

  ‘Espresso if you have it,’ she shouted. ‘Not that awful black stuff in those tiny little cups!’

  His laughter could be heard from the other room and Diana searched in her mind for the reason why she had come to see him. When she had set out from England, the only thing in her mind was the appointment with Dr. Mahmoud. Suddenly she found herself sitting in Ahmed’s office. There was no logic in her being drawn to him.

  He returned shortly with two cups of coffee and handed one to her.

  ‘So you don’t dream about me any more,’ he said with an amused tone in his voice. ‘I’m sorry to hear that.....not that it affects me at all.’ He sat down behind the desk to face her.

  ‘Truth is I don’t dream at all,’ she admitted candidly. ‘I’m sure I used to enjoy it.’

  ‘What did Dr. Mahmoud have to say to you?’

  ‘He was quite satisfied with my progress.’

  ’But your memory is still not good. I don’t need to have the gift of Mohammed to realise that you are still suffering.’

  ‘You’re very perceptive,’ she retorted with surprise.

  ‘I’m not only a lawyer,’ he boasted easily. ‘I have other talents. When are you going back to England?’

  ‘Maybe tonight. It all depends.’ She sipped her coffee and found it to be reasonable.

  ‘Depends on what?’

  ‘Whether I decide to stay on or not,’ she replied, placing the cup down on the desk.

  He drummed his fingers on the desk not knowing how to continue the conversation. ‘Does your decision have anything to do with me?’

  She burst out laughing again. ‘I don’t think so, Ahmed,’ she returned curtly. ‘It all depends on whether I can get a flight. My visit here was just to see you.....an old friend.’

  He seemed to relax with relief at her response having been concerned that she wanted more of him than he wished to give. In his opinion, she was a very lovely lady, now separated from her husband but she was so much older than him. Added to that she was British and knew nothing about the Arab culture.

  ‘I don’t think you really know why you’ve come here,’ he ventured bluntly, not caring whether he offended her.

  She paused to think for a short while. ‘Do you know, you’re absolutely right. I don’t know. I mean there’s no intent in my mind with anything regarding you. I don’t wish to be crass but all I can say is that you’re a very pleasant man with whom I’m not in love. I don’t think you’ve anything to offer me. In fact I’d say it wouldn’t matter if we never saw each other again.’

  They stared at each other with strange expressions on their faces and Diana wondered why she had made such a critical comment.

  ‘Yet you’re sitting here in my office,’ he rationalised clenching his hands in front of him. ‘Age is not always important between a man and a woman,’ he went on calmly. ‘But think on this.....when I am your age, you’ll be over sixty years old. It’s all very well to dream about me but in real life there’s a wide chasm between us.’

  She felt embarrassed at his gently tirade and stood up to leave.

  ‘I knew I was wrong to come,‘ she declared sadly, ‘but you’re one of the few people I’ve got to know since the attack. ; You don’t realise how much that means to me.’

  He shrugged his shoulders intending to apologise for his remarks but he was too late because she left the office leaving him to feel guilty.

  ‘Of course,’ he thought to himself. ‘She has amnesia and I’m one of the few people she considers to be her friend in Agadir.’ Nonetheless, he knew in his heart that, as far as anything else was concerned, the bridge between them on a number of points was too far to span. She was Christian; he was a Moslem. She was forty-three; he was so much younger. She lived in England; he was in Morocco. The bridge was much too far to span!

  * * *

  After she returned to England, Diana felt listless. The main thing she wanted when separating from her husband was freedom. But now it had been attained, it was a total bore. In truth, she had so much time on her hands life had become extremely dull. She was on her own for most of the time as she failed to recognise anyone in particular as her friend. Ultimately, she began to rue the lif
e that she was leading. Then, one day, she rose earl as a new idea came into her mind. The house boasted a large loft that she and her husband had once considered turning into two bedrooms. However when that prospect died a death, they began to store lots of bric-a-brac and family treasures up there. Throughout the years, they had placed many items there which had grown to a considerable amount. If she sorted through the items, she might find something that would trigger thoughts of the past in her mind and help to dispel the amnesia. She went to the upper hallway and pulled down the metal ladder, climbing the steps steadily to enter the loft. There were numerous wooden chests and some cardboard boxes. She looked into one of the boxes to find toys and dolls once so beloved by Robbie and Karen. She stared at some of the other objects.....the pushchair for Karen as a young child, the football kicked by Robbie, the long cane which her husband once used, the broad-rimmed hat she had worn once on a holiday abroad. She stared at a large blond-haired teddy bear momentarily recalled that her son used to go to bed holding it. Her heart began to beat faster as she realised that there was light at the end of the tunnel. She was able to remember some odd items. Her search continued and, in another box, she discovered an enormous large magnet. Her husband had once run all over the house waving it at items, attracting all kinds of metal objects to its magnetic tips, laughing loudly as he did so. She remembered having called him a fool but it was one of those magic moments that creates fun within a marriage for, as soon as he stopped playing with the magnet, they hugged each other fiercely. Then they kissed and went up to the bedroom together to make passionate love. That was the day Robbie was conceived. Yes...some of it was starting to come back to her now although there were good days and bad days. She rummaged through a chest to find the beautiful dress she had worn at her wedding. The stain looked rather faded now, having turned slightly yellow from the original shining white, and then she came across a colourful fan she had purchased when they visited Brighton. It had been the centrepiece of the shop window and it had taken her fancy. Her husband paid a pretty price for her to own it. Those were the days when they were young and in love! She found a pair of red shoes she had worn at a friend’s party. My goodness, she thought, that was twenty-five years ago! She sat on the edge of a chest looking at them lovingly. She was so beautiful that night; everybody had told her so. But it was the red shoes which had made her look so wonderful. Then she found the dress she had worn on the same evening. It was red to match the shoes and quite low-cut. She had met her husband there that evening and they immediately fell in love. He was very handsome, dressed in a tuxedo with a large black bow tie. He showed her so much love and tenderness, paying attention to her the whole evening and for years afterwards. How time and situations changed people as they continued with their lives! Yes...it had started to come back to her although the visions catered for only a small window of the past.