Teaching Love - Chapter 1

The fate-deciding doors of the ICU were shut upon nobody’s hopes, as Grace was scurried away after a fatal car accident as a truck hit her car. She was picked up and taken to the hospital by the people nearby.

 There was tension. Bated breath. A set of six superior doctors, one- her own 62-year-old uncle- Benjamin, and four specialized nurses stood, tried. It was too late, they realized, as they stood in pale and despair as her EKG narrowed down to a line as straight as an arrow. As there was no one who came for her, Benjamin called for a coffin to her burial. The stretchers were bought. Miraculously, as they picked her up, the EKG elevated. She was back to life!

The doctors began the operation to treat her injuries. 13 hours later, she was kept to rest. The next day, she gained consciousness. She gradually lifted her frail, white, young body, still suffering of the wounds and ache. Benjamin was informed by the nurse in her room, and he came to see her.

 She slowly and feebly opened her eyes, fluttering; to see her Uncle Benji, another doctor and few nurses.

“Uncle Benji? Is it you?” she asked hesitantly.

“Yes, dear Grace. It’s me”. Said he, consolingly, but with an unclear state of mind, yet to digest the present moment.

“Grace? Who Grace?” Asked she. “Tell me, Uncle Benji, who Grace?”

“You are Grace, Grace Patrick”.

“Then who are all these people standing behind you? Who are they? Where am I?”

“Relax, you need some rest”, said he as he brushed his soft palm over her pale forehead and put her to sleep.

 She slept away, of medication, as old Benjamin walked out with the other doctor.

“Dr. Stevenson, she has lost her memory in this tragic accident”.

“Yes. She will be discharged in a week, why don’t you take her to your home where your and her family lives, it could revive her memory?” Dr. Stevenson replied.

“I can’t”, Benjamin answered, in a tone of strong desolation and distress.

“Why?”

“She was the younger one of the two siblings my brother and his wife gave birth to. All was good with my brother, his wife and their son Edward. Until, his wife gave birth to Grace. She always preferred and cherished Edward more because he was a boy, which also made Edward dislike Grace, yet, Grace was close to her father. He meant the world to her. Until one day, her father, my brother, died in a car accident. She was six. She was devastated at this. I too moved out of the house soon after. She had never recovered through the loss, yet she didn’t fall back, though the pain remained. She excelled in all aspects, unlike the reckless, spoilt and stubborn Edward.

  Their mother started to see this not far after, she wasn’t fond of her daughter but loved her son to death, and as she noticed Edward’s disappointment to Grace’s achievements, she decided to kick her out. At six, she was thrown out of her own house by her own mother, out into the streets.

 She was smart enough to find me, and she came to me. When I tried to take her back to her house, she told me all this and refused to go. For 20 years, I’ve raised her, with all I could. And a year back she moved out to live in her own house. I came for daily visits. We were everything to each other. That was why she remembered me even after the accident”.

Silence followed for long. He took a tissue from his side pocket and wiped his tears with it. Benjamin spoke again.

“I’m an old lad Stevenson, I can die any moment now. I have appointed a young man to help Grace, regain her memory and face the world again. If I die, promise me, you’ll help her to his safe hands”.

“I promise”, said he, as he walked out with truthful eyes, as the nurse called him.

Benjamin went home and lay, in the peace of the safety of Grace. Slept, forever in sanity.