Chapter 8

As planned, Annie went home the next morning. Dave was there to pick her up, as he’d promised, but Annie was a little disappointed that Matt wasn’t there too. She felt more nervous then ever as a nurse pushed her out to the car park in a wheelchair with Dave walking beside her, carrying her bag. Just not being able to recognise her husband’s car terrified her.

Dave drove slowly, as if he wanted to give Annie time to adjust and maybe he even thought the journey might help her remember something. But Annie just wanted to get it over with, although she didn’t tell Dave that. She knew he was only trying to help her.

When Dave stopped, Annie looked at the house they were in front of. She had half expected to feel something, a sense that this was her home, of familiarity. But she felt nothing. To her, the house she had live in for the last three years was exactly the same as the one next to it, in fact, it was exactly thesame as the whole block. But she made an effort to smile, for Dave’s sake.

Annie didn’t feel any different once they were inside the house. She just felt like a visitor, or even an intruder. She looked around as sublty as she could. But obviously not subtly enough, because Dave noticed and offered her a tour. He was smiling and seemed relieved to have her back, but annie couldn’t avoid feeling guilty for needing a tour of her own home.

"This is the living room," Dave said, showing her into the green and cream room on the left. Annie looked around carefully, paying especial attention to mthe framed photographs on top of the cupboards and bookshelves. She saw from the magazines spread out on the coffee table (she wondered if Dave had arranged them like that deliberately to try and help her remember) that Dave liked soccer and baseball.

"Do you play?" she asked, pointing at the magazines.

"A little, just with friends, you know. I’ve no plans to go proffessional just yet," Dave joked.

Annie heard his reply, but didn’t answer. Her gaze had fixed on the couch. She had a feeling that something important had happened on that couch, but she didn’t know exactly what it was, she felt as though her mind was a huge storm, with memories at the centre waiting to get out, but a whole load of other, useless stuff was swirling around them. Annie felt like she was getting closer to the core, a little at a time, but that also meant that the other stuff was stronger and it all seemed even more confusing than before.

"In here’s the kitchen," Dave said, gently pushing her through to the next room, breaking her train of thought, the kitchen was light and modern and impersonal. "That door leads to the back yard," he said, gesturing to the door opposite the one they had come in through.

"Dave, I’m sorry. I’m really tired. I think maybe it’s the stress of leaving the hospital and coming to a whole knew place," Annie said. She saw how her words hurt him, he so badly wan’ted her to remember. "If I can just go to the bathroom, then go to bed and sleep for a few hours, you can show me everything else when I wake up. It’ll make more of an impression then anyway."

"Okay," Dave said agreeably. "I s’pose you’re more likely to remember things when you’re less tired anyway." Annie was a little bit surprised at his reasoning but didn’t show it. She didn’t want to fight with Dave, at least not then. She just wanted to go to sleep. There was an awkward pause.

"Where’s the bathroom?" Annie asked eventually, reminding Dave of her amnesia.

"I’m sorry. I’ll show you," Dave said. He led Annie back through the livingroom to the hallway and up the stairs. "The bathrooms there, on the left. The bedroom’s on the right. You’re clothes are in the wardrobe and your night things and underwear are in the left hand set of drawers. There’s towels in the bathroom. Okay?" Dave sounded as if he was giving instructions to a guest, not his wife.

"Thanks," Annie said gratefully. Dave smiled and ruffled her hair, then went back downstairs.

Annie went into the bathroom. While she was washing her hands, she happened to glance up and saw her own reflection in the mirror. She stared at it for a few minutes. She couldn’t remember ever seeing her own face.

Annie looked at the shoulder length red hair, now messy and greasy, but with a little imagination, she could tell it had once been beautiful. She saw the big, baby blue eyes with their long lashes and thin, arching eyebrows as if for the first time. Her own high cheekbones and dimples were unfamiliar to her. She focused on her nose and suddenly remembered Matt once saying it was as cute as a button.

"Cute as a button," Annie whispered to herself, pleased to have remembered another small piece of the puzzle that was her life. She shook her head slightly to clear it, then dried her hands and went into the bedroom.

It was decorated in blue and white, with a thick luxurious blue carpet with a circular white rug covering the main floor space. But of course, the thing that drew Annie’s attention was the double bed in the centre of the room.

Of course, she had known Dave was her husband and she had known that married couples slept together. Commen sense told her she and Dave were still married, but now that she was actually in their bedroom (albeit alone) it really hit her. No matter that she couldn’t remember him, she and Dave were going to have to share this bed. And what if he didn’t understand that things were different for her now? What if he expected her to sleep with him as if nothing had happened? The thought terrified her.

But she realised she wouldn’t have to deal with that just yet, since Dave would have only got up a few hours ago and almost certainly didn’t want to go back to bed right then.

Relieved, Annie found a nightie and changed into it. She left her clothes in a tidy heap on the floor, since she didn’t know where the laundry basket was. Annie crawled into the bed and sank into the pillows. This bed was so much more comfortable than the one she’d had at the hospital. Annie fell asleep quickly and easilt and she slept peacefully.

She didn’t wake up until almost four o’clock, and when she went back downstairs to apologise for sleeping so long, Dave wasn’t there. He had left her a note saying he had gone to get some food and would be back around four thirty.

Annie went into the kitchen and stood looking around, unsure. She wasn’t sure how Dave would feel about her eating his food without asking, but she was his wife, and she was starving, so she figured it was okay. But the biggest problem, apart from not knowing where anything was, was that she didn’t even know what food she liked. She couldn’t remember ever chosing her own food.

Luckily, while she was still standing there uncertainly, Dave came back. He was carrying several shopping bags, bulging with packets and tins. Annie rushed to help him unpack the food.

"hi! Have you been up long?" Dave asked. Annie shook her head. "Sorry about leaving you, but I really needed to get some food in. I know I should have gone yesterday, but I was working, and then I just forgot, I guess. Sorry."

"No promblem," Annie assured him.

"So what d’you fancy?" Dave asked. Annie looked at the floor, embarrased, and shrugged. "Whats the matter?" Dave asked, concerned.

"I don’t know what I want to eat. I don’t remember what my favourite food is, or if I’m allergic to something. I don’t know anymore!" Annie almost shouted, her voice full of emotion.

"Okay, well, how ‘bout I fix you a lasange? You always used to like my lasange," Dave offered.

"Please don’t go to any trouble," Annie said politely.

"no trouble. I quite fancy lasange myself as it happenes," Dave said amiably.

The lasange would take a couple fo hours to make, so Dave gave Annie some crackers. Annie perched on the kitchen table and chatted to Dave as he cooked. At six o’clock, she set the table and didn’t notice until after she’d done it, that she’d set it correctly without asking Dave, or even trying to remember herself. She’d just done it without thinking about it. Dave didn’t notice however, and Annie felt stupid boasting about something like that, so they sat down to eat without comment.

Dinner was nice and Annie enjoyed the casual chatter, even though Dave did most of the talking, annie didn’t mind listening, she didn’t really have anything to talk about anyway.

After dinner, Dave watched TV for a few hours, leaving Annie to entertain herself, she picked a book at random off the bookcase in the bedroom and went out into the back yard to read in the Summer evening sun.

Half and hour later, Annie realised that she didn’t like the Danielle Steel novel she had plucked from the shelf. She wondered how she could have ever read and enjoyed these stupid books. But she didn’t want to go back and get another in case Dave thought she was stupid for not knowing what to read.

Besides, she liked it out here. The air was cool and smelled fresh. It was very different from the disinfectant smell of the hospital, although she hadn’t really noticed that until after she’d left and it wasn;t there anymore.

She remembered that she had been uncertain about leaving the hospital. Afraid of what she would have to face at home with Dave. But she had been pleasantly surprisedat how nice and kind he had been, almost like Matt had been the whole time. But Annie couldn’t help wondering if Dave’s sympathetyic attitude would last. He seemed to expect that it wouldn’t be more than a few weeks before she remembered everything, but Annie knew it could take months or even years, if she ever remembered everythign at all. She couldn’t help worrying that Dave’s attitude would change when he realised that.