Me After Meeting You

Several of the nurses holding Elly down released their hands. At this point, Elly was slowly calming down.

“Dr. Camille ….”

Amber waved her hands in dismissal. “I know how hard you all have been working these past few days, but you should all be familiar with the reason why I don’t want to use tranquilizers. They can certainly make her calm down faster, but what about afterwards? Have you realized yet that every time you forcibly inject drugs into her body, she resists it more and more the next? Whether this is making her better or making her worse, others might not know, but shouldn’t you all?”

“But we don’t have a choice either. She isn’t the only patient that’s staying here. Once she starts making a disturbance, all the other patients will, too.” Upon seeing Amber’s expression relaxing, the speaking nurse used her eyes to direct the others to leave, before she lowered her voice and said to Amber, “Dr. Camille, the other doctors said that your accepting of this patient would be a lot of work for no reward because even if you cure her, even if she becomes rational again, she would realize that she was the one who killed her grandmother, with whom she was living with … do you think that, with her mental condition, she could ever recover?”

“Then what should we do?” Amber looked at her. “Should we let her live in her delusions, going about life like this?”

Smiling, she continued. “Ms. Kelly, I’m a doctor. The first day I put on this white coat, my professor told me that this attire represents eight words, a worker for health, a caretaker of life.

Before I met her, perhaps I could have pretended to not know. But after having met her, having her becoming my patient, I must do my very best to help her. At the very least, I want to wake her up, so that she can make that decision for herself.”

After everyone left, Amber stood alone in front of Elly’s bed for a long time. Such a small, frail child, lying there without sound or breath, pitiful and lonely.

She bent down in front of Elly, waving her hand lightly. “Elly, do you want to get better?”

But Elly didn’t reply. She had fallen asleep, but wasn’t sleeping well. Amber didn’t know what Elly was experiencing in her dreams, but tears were streaming down her face.

She wiped the tears from Elly’s face time and time again, sitting in front of her bed for half the night. When it was close to midnight, Elly woke up briefly. At that time, the room was dim and the only light source was the soft starlight shining in from a window.

Elly touched Amber’s hand. “Are you a ghost?”

This was perhaps the time of day at which she was most normal. Without hysteria infecting it, her tender voice carried with it a confused innocence, characteristic of girls her age.

“Yes.”

“How did you die?”

“Someone chopped off my head.”

Elly then brightened up, clambered to her side and whispered into her ear, “Someone also chopped off my head. It’s not so bad.” She started giggling and then suddenly stared at Amber’s back, somewhat frightened. “There are so many ghosts, so many. Sst, don’t startle them.”

She pulled her blankets back and lay back down, covering herself tightly. It was the same position that Amber had seen her in earlier that morning, when she had been sleeping like a corpse

***

When Amber walked out of Elly’s ward, it was already bright outside and the comforting sunlight of deep autumn was shining in from the depths of the corridors. But it only illuminated a white wall.

Instead of heading home, she went straight to the classroom. Originally, she had decided to work for a while, but she had been told that the head of her department had sent word that she was to rest for a while.

Amber immediately felt like she had taken two arrows to the knee, her face so hot that one could fry eggs on it. All these years, she’d been a diligent worker. Perhaps she wasn’t the best performer in the department, but she had certainly never encountered as unusual a request for leave as this.

The person who informed her looked at her expression and comforted her. “Don’t worry about it, a break’s a break. If I were you, I’d take a long vacation and just forget about work.”

Amber tried to stem the rumors. “I really don’t have a filthy rich boyfriend. Booking my appointment slots was all someone else’s nasty prank.”

Her colleague merely dismissively replied. “Yes, yes, I know. A prank.” She raised her head toward the ceiling and sighed. “I also want a prank like this. Please, give me one!”

“….”

Amber no longer said a word. She couldn’t help but have to accept orders from his superiors, even though it was an order to take leave which was so rare that he almost never carried it out. With a heavy heart, Amber turned around and walked away from the hospital.

***

With nothing to do, Amber could only return home. She slept the whole morning, and then called Ruby in the afternoon. “Do you have time? If you do, drive me somewhere.”

Since she was free, she had decided to explore Elly’s neighborhood before her father returned,

But Ruby rejected her. “I’m busy! Find a boyfriend to play with, only a boyfriend will be at your beck and call.”

And then Amber suddenly thought of her brand new boyfriend Ian. She cradled her phone and considered her options for a moment before she took the contract out of her bag and called him. “Mr. Axton, can I ask you a question?”

She didn’t know if Ian was busy, but it took him a while before he coolly responded, “What is it?”

“As my boyfriend, will you perform some tasks for me?”

“What?”

“For example, driving me around and all that.”

Ian thought for a moment before replying, “Where are you?”

Amber reported her address.

“Okay, I’ll send a chauffeur to fetch you.”

“A chauffeur? You aren’t coming yourself?”

“Why should I go?” Ian’s voice was filled with confusion. “I have money, enough to hire a dedicated chauffeur. Why should I go through the bother of driving myself?”

Amber laughed. “Then, can I travel via plane?”

“Yes, of course.” Ian’s replied without hesitation. “Just let me know where the nearest airport landing bay is.”Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

After taking an arrow to the knee, she then hit her foot with a stone she had picked up herself. This time, she even had to patiently persuade Ian to dismiss the idea of picking her up in a helicopter!

Only now did Amber finally realize that Ian was really that rich and that he couldn’t take a joke!

Amber almost wanted to cry. “No, no, I’m really kidding. Don’t take it seriously. Really, I don’t need a helicopter, I’m sure of that!”