Me After Meeting You

“Yes, you’re right.” Amber stopped arguing with him at this point. “It’s just that she’s a very pitiful child. She suffers from Cotard’s syndrome-oh, that’s walking corpse syndrome. The patients with this disease often experience very severe hallucinations, and sometimes they even believe that they themselves are dead, and that the only thing still existing in this world is their corpse. As a result of this illness, she accidentally killed her grandmother, the solerelative she was living with.

The police senther over to me. Earlier, she was showing signs of recovery, but she was suddenly provoked that day, which caused her to relapse once again. I’m trying my best to help cure her.’

“But even if I do cure her, she’ll still have a hard time living in the future because she has no family anymore. Her father was imprisoned a few days ago for a crime that he committed, and patients suffering from mental illness usually require the love of their family members even more so than usual patients.

Before her father was imprisoned, he told me that she had a mother who left with her older brother not long after she was born. Because she no longer has anyone to take care of her, I could only try to find her mother and brother on her father’s behalf. It’s been ten years or so since their separation, and I don’t know whether they would be willing to take her in and take care of her.”

Amber talked as she ate, her voice steady and slightly indifferent, as if she were just chatting about a random patient with him. In the beginning, Calvin didn’t pay much attention, and he only revealed a hint of surprise when she said ‘a mother who left with her older brother.’ When she finished telling Elly’s story, he raised his bowl and swallowed a couple mouthfuls of soup before asking, “Where’s she from?”

“XX Town.”

Calvin’s hands trembled slightly. He put down the bowl, his fingers still tightly clutching at its rim.

“She’s … still pretty young, isn’t she?”

“Fourteen, almost fifteen.”

“Is that so?” Calvin responded, seemingly thinking hard. He lowered his head and gulped down another mouthful of soup, not saying anything.

Amber didn’t say anything more either. The two of them, in a somewhat sombermood now, finished the remaining food on the table. When she was getting ready to clear the table, Calvin’s phone rang. She went inside the kitchen, and by the time she came out, Calvin was clutching his phone and sitting there silently at the dining table, his face pale.

Hearing her come out, he stood up. “Something came up, and I have to go.” His smile was very obviously forced. “Amber ….”

“Yes.”

“Thank you for breakfast.”

She smiled, knowing that what he wanted to say right now was not this. However, she didn’t press the matter. “Are you being this polite just so that you can get me to treat you to another two meals?”

When he heard this, he actually didn’t respond, instead turning around and leaving as his state of mind was slightly disturbed. Amber wanted to send him out, but he refused. “It’s cold outside, so don’t bother. I can find my way.” He pressed the button for the elevator and stood with his back facing her for quite a while before turning around at the last second as if he had just thought of something. “Did you end up setting up ameeting between you and the patient’s family member whom you contacted?”

“Yes.” She calmly looked at him.

“You ….” He looked at her, wanted to say something but hesitated. Only after quite a while did he ask, “Is she … easy to get along with?”

“I’m not sure. I’ll only know once I meet her.”

He forced a smile on to his face again. “Actually, I think that you don’t need to do something like this at all. Perhaps, there might be a reason why her mother walked out? Reaching out from the blue… I’m afraid that you’ll feel wronged.”

Amber smiled. “That’s fine. I’ll try my best regardless.”

He nodded and entered the elevator while Amber stood outside. As she looked at the elevator doors closing slowly, looked as he slowly disappeared from her sight, she couldn’t help but sigh deeply.

The world … was truly so small.

***

Amber picked up her phone and called the hospital, instructing them to inform her first if anyone tried to inquire about Elly’s condition, even if they were a member of her family.

She actually didn’t know if Calvin would go there straight away, but she knew that he would definitely go at some point.

Indeed, right when she was about to leave her house, she received a call from the head nurse, informing her that a man had come to visit Elly. Because it wasn’t visiting hours, she hadn’t let him in, but she did explain the patient’s condition to him in detail.

Amber asked, “Did he mention his name?”

“He said that his surname was Reyes. He seemed like a somewhat young and tall lad, quite handsome.”

The hospital also had security footage so that Amber could take a look for herself. Because of the disaster last time a ‘family member’ had visited Elly, the head nurse had been especially careful this time, and was able to send Amber a picture taken by the security camera.

The image wasn’t very clear, but it was good enough that Amber could easily recognize just who had visited Elly.

Even though the man in the image had covered his face the entire time, the body very clearly belonged to Calvin.

A refined and handsome look, but somewhat thin.

***

Amber waited for a long while at the place where Calvin’s mother had agreed to meet her. It was almost past lunch time when Calvin’s mother finally appeared.

She came alone and was dressed plainly today, wearing a long shirt, pants made of white down, and a green facemask. If not for the fact that her eyes were exposed as she entered the room, Amber would not have been able to recognize her.

Amber stood up, and Calvin’s mother walked straight up to her. She stood there for a while, looking at her, before taking off her face mask and sighing, “I didn’t think that it would really be you.”

Calvin’s mother clearly hadn’t managed to identify Amber’s voice over the phone, so when she said, “It would really be you,” it was clear that Calvin had informed her about it before hand.

Amber smiled and invited her to sit. “Would you like to eat something?”

“No.” She looked at Amber directly. “Did you already know that it was me?”Nôvel(D)rama.Org's content.

“No, but I identified your voice in the middle of our phone call.”

“Really?” Calvin’s mother was somewhat surprised, and she laughed at herself.