Traveler - The Price (Book 3)
Chapter 23

The last years were the most difficult, but the best of my life. I learned that nothing lasts forever, that love means to give everything, even when you don’t receive anything in return. I learned that it is better to fell in a world where it’s best to be cold. I found out that every Yin has its Yan, that everything happens for a purpose, and there is a balance that will always be as it is supposed to be: death and life, pain and joy, bitter and sweet. They were the years of the huge loss, but also of the greatest gaining, the years when I got a family from strangers when I lived again after a long time I had felt empty inside.

I found myself smiling in the prison cell in which I was sitting for almost seven hours. I heard a loud bang on the door, and it opened. A police officer was standing in the door with a mad face.

“How come that all the delinquents get back on the street?” he yells angrily.

I looked at him frowning. He didn’t understand that I could have put him down and get out of there in any second. But I didn’t want more trouble, so I didn’t do anything.

“Come on! What are you waiting for?”

“What’s happening?”

“The boy and the doctor decided not to press charges on you, that’s what happened!” he says irritated.

I started laughing. I was starving, and I couldn’t wait to eat something. I got out from that cell, and I saw Deby waiting for me in the hall.

“Are you here to press charges? I just got out!” I joked.

“I got you out! Now, come on! We have a lot to talk about” she says seriously.

When we arrived outside, I saw that she had come with Aaron’s car. Inside I found a bag with a hamburger and a bottle of soda.

“I thought you might be hungry” she explains.

“I can make a joke and say that you know me” I laughed. “Thanks.”

“I truly know you, Jo. When you pushed me into that wall, I remembered everything!”

A piece of bread got stuck in my throat.

“And you waited until now to tell me?”

“Well, yes. Because I feel like hell. The situation is not that good, Jo…”

“Yeah, I noticed that.”

“I can’t imagine how I got into a relationship with him in the first place, but when we arrive at the hospital I will end it!”

“No! Not now, when he’s in this condition! Speaking of this, what did the doctors say?”

“He will be all right, but he has a pretty severe injury to his head, and he also has two broken ribs because of the seatbelt. If he hadn’t had the seatbelt, he wouldn’t be alive now.”

“God! I don’t know who did this, but I will look for him! It’s clear that he did that on purpose! That person had planned it all!”

“Jo… I’m sorry. You have no idea how awful I feel for living with him under your roof… I can’t even look you in the eyes.”

“Hey, I know it’s a mess, but it wasn’t anyone’s fault. Everyone is going to remember, and it will be okay. At least I hope so. I’m glad that you remembered. It would have been a problem if you couldn’t remember because I reacted worse too, back to the hospital.”

“Will we be able to get through this?”

“As always.”

I grabbed Deby’s hand when we stopped in front of the hospital. The others were waiting inside. Deby had insisted on coming alone to get me out of there.

“Do you have any idea why no one had pressed charges?”

“I have talked to the doctor, and I explained to him that it was a misunderstanding. And that boy’s name is Andrew, and I apparently know him. I have talked to him too.”

“Thanks” I said.

We entered the hospital, where we met the others who were waiting for us nervous. Andy was still there and didn’t open the bar that day. Ivy and James were drinking some coffee.

“I think you can go and see him. He didn’t wake up when I got inside before I came to you.”

Andy was the only one who didn’t understand anything, and Ivy had no idea how he was going to react if she would tell him the truth. The problem was that she was still in love with him, and she didn’t know if he would feel the same if he remembered everything.

I entered quietly into Aaron’s ward. He was sleeping, so I sat on the edge of the bed, and I touched his hand. It was a strange feeling, after all that time, but it was the same feeling. Nothing had changed inside me. I hoped that neither inside him when he was going to remember all of it if that was possible.

I honestly believed that who was meant to be in my life would replace the way to me, no matter how far he wondered. Aaron opened his eyes.

“Am I in Heaven?” he grumbles.

“You’re in the hospital” I said trying to keep my smile and the tears hidden inside. You’ve been in an accident.

“I remember.”

“I’m going to bring the doctor.”

“I remember you” he says.

I felt a lump in the throat. I sat on the bed again, and I was about to burst from smiling into tears. Or the other way around. However, I was the confused one.

“You remember?!”

“I remember I was in an accident, how you told me not to move… then I don’t know…”

My happiness was just for a moment, but I was glad that he was all right. He didn’t remember me as I wanted him to, and my hopes were decreasing drastically.

“I will tell you what happened, but now I have to go and get someone to see you.”

I came out with the tears in my throat, and I told the others to announce the doctor. Deby entered to see him, and Andy ran after the medical man. I got outside to take some air and to clear my mind.

I felt some warm hands around me. When I turned around, I realized it was James.

“He didn’t remember, did he?”

“No…”

We stayed there for a while, then James thought about saying something that he had forgot.

“You know, I forgot to tell you, but Ema had said something else to me that night.”

I looked at him confused.

“She told me that now when everything is back to normal, the aging process is back too.”

“I was expecting something far worse” I said smiling. “I’m not saying that I’m glad that I will be old and wrinkled like other people, but I’m happy I had a few more years. I knew this was going to happen when things get back on track.”

Then Deby came out, and she threw us an unusual look.

“Ivy is with him. The doctor says he is fine and in two days he can go home if he stays there under care. I think he will recover fast. I don’t believe that it will be a problem if we remember all he had been through. If only he remembered it too…” she grumbles

“This is good. Are you ok?”

“Yeah” she mumbles with half a mouth.

“Deby?”

James stepped away. He saw that she was avoiding to talk around him.

“I’m an idiot!” she says. “I don’t know how I feel anymore… I think that in all this time I was with Aaron I started feeling things. I have to break up with him! I don’t want to mess things up anymore.”

“Deby…”

“It is not fair. Not to you, to him or me! It’s a lie, an illusion, what we’re doing here. You two are made for each other. He will remember, and then the break up with me won’t bother him anymore. More, I had always wanted to have what you two had, but now I see that my wish come true means your pain. I can’t do this to you guys.”

Deby went back inside, and James approached me.

“You heard all of it, haven’t you?”

“Yeah. Sometimes I feel like she doesn’t see me.”

“You haven’t told her anything. What do you want from her? Do you want something from her? What do you feel? Answer to these questions before you say anything to her. Wouldn’t be easier if everyone would just say how they feel? That would save us a lot of trouble!”

“Like you told Aaron?”

He had a point. I wasn’t in the place to give advice. I entered and stepped into the hall, where Andy welcomed me with coffee.

“Ivy sent me to bring you this” he said.

I stared at him because I didn’t ask for coffee, but I thanked him, and I took it from his hand. When our fingers touched, he remained looking at me, and I realized that Ivy was trying to make him remember everything. I saw a spark in his eyes, like that time when I came back alive to them on that island. His reactions made me remember moments that were lost inside the deep of my soul.

“Oh, God!” he shouted and took me in his arms.

The coffee spilled on the floor, and everyone on the hallway was staring at us. But I couldn’t care less. Only Aaron was left, and something was telling me that it was all going to be all right. Then and there I felt happiness again. The weird part was that I felt that way in Andy’s arms, then I remembered that was where I had felt that way for the first time after a very long time.

Some people survive and don’t say anything about it, and others shout it out loud. The sure thing is that anyone faces hard times sooner or later, and each of us deals with them differently. I found myself in those words, and every time I saw someone doing something crazy, I was thinking about the reason behind the facts. Before I had met James, I was struggling alone with the energy inside me, but now I knew that there was someone who was feeling what I was feeling so I couldn’t hide my feelings anymore. The truth was that it was hard, even for me, to feel all those strong emotions, especially when everything was going crazy then back to normal again.