The Confession – Chapter 7 – Dreams

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This is the seventh part of a novella “The Confession”.

Read the rest of the novella here

[Chapter 1 – Memories]               

[Chapter 2 – Food]

[Chapter 3 – Books]

[Chapter 4 – Music]

[Chapter 5 – Travel]

[Chapter 6 – People]

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That night as David tried to sleep in the guest room of Ram’s house in West Mambalam, he was quite troubled. The fact that he could not remember wonderful people like Ram’s parents who were probably among the most loving people he had encountered in his short life so far, or the fact that he could not remember any of the incidents they talked about during lunch and throughout the afternoon when they were lazing around in front of the TV bothered him a lot.

Based on what the doctor had told him and Ram in the hospital, while he realized that as far as his recollection and memories were concerned, they could come back to him at any point in time, he still felt extremely frustrated that despite Ram’s best efforts he could not remember anything of the last three years or so. What was even more frustrating was the fact that he seemed to have crystal clear memories until the time just before he met Ram on his first day in office.

He cursed his ill luck for having forgotten these people, who after his parents had passed away a long time ago, seemed to be the only ones who really cared for him in this world. He could clearly remember being a loner and relatively depressed throughout his college life where although he had friends, he could not call any of them his true friends in every sense of the word. And here he was, with a complete family loving him more than he could ask for but fate was that he did not even remember having met them at all.

While he was lying down on his bed with the night lamp on wrestling with these thoughts, he heard the door of his room open. He looked up and saw Priya peeping into the room checking if he was asleep. When he sat up on the bed, she came into the room, and funnily enough, she quietly closed the door behind her.

She sat down next to him on the bed, and gently touched his cheek, and suddenly started sobbing. Surprised at her proximity to him and the fact that she started crying David was at a loss as to how to react. Keeping within his limits of propriety, he just put one hand on her left shoulder and squeezed it saying “Don’t worry Priya, everything will be all right.”

Looking at him through her tear filled eyes she said “You don’t remember anything do you David? You don’t remember me also.”

Even though he didn’t answer she continued “When I first heard about your accident and memory loss, I was more than sure that whatever you had forgotten, you surely would remember me. There was no way in the world that you could ever forget me. But then, when I saw your expression in the afternoon when you got out of the car and looked at me, I knew I was wrong. You forgot me, didn’t you? How could you!!!”

“Of all the people in the world, you forgot me also!” she said and abruptly got up and went out of the room sobbing.

Surprised and perplexed at her words when David finally lay down and dropped off to sleep due to his medication, he didn’t quite get a peaceful sleep as well.

It is said that dreams are a manifestation of our worst fears, our craziest passions, our wildest imaginations and our deepest thoughts. And all of this was proved tonight when David dreamt.

In his dream, he was running on a beach behind a girl who oddly enough resembled Priya. Occasionally she would turn back and beckon him with her arms to run towards her and just when he was about to touch her, she would start running away again.

Disturbed by this dream, David woke up with a start. As it is he was frustrated at his condition and this dream added to his woes even further. He had a drink of water and ended up sitting and reading one of the books that he had brought along with him.

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This post has been written for the Write Tribe Festival of Words 2 where today’s prompt had to be about dreams.

This is the seventh post in a novella “The Confession” that I am writing trying to correlate the same to the Write Tribe Festival of Words 2.

Read the rest of the novella here

[Chapter 1 – Memories]               

[Chapter 2 – Food]

[Chapter 3 – Books]

[Chapter 4 – Music]

[Chapter 5- Travel]

[Chapter 6 – People]

Please note that this is NOT the end of the novella, the concluding part will be posted over the next few days.