Teaching Love (Chapter 3)

A significantly handsome young man stood on the door. With fair smooth skin, slight freckles, and fluttering golden brown hair. He was warm but extremely conservative and mysterious, his eyes told. He had a swift radiant smile and his deftly insightful eyes had a profoundly attractive sparkle. So, striking was he that he could charm any young woman of wish. But Grace had lost emotions from her memory.

“Dr Stefan Walker”, said he; as he spiritedly introduced himself and shook hands with Dr Stevenson.

“You must be Dr Stevenson”, he said with confidence.

Dr Stevenson nodded in agreement.

“And you must be Grace then”, he asked, as he put his hand forward for a handshake.

But Grace took a step back. It was a sudden but wishful reflex of discomfort and fear. Perceptively, Stefan kept to himself and calmly said- “Nice to meet you both”.

He welcomingly invited both of them in for afternoon tea. As Grace and Dr Stevenson stepped in through the giant door, stood in front of them a big mansion like a bungalow, in brown and maroon; no less than a library. The walls were completely covered in books and its brisk cream pages, few opening and fluttering from the delicious spring breeze. They could get a whiff of a philosophical ink like aroma all around, as they sat down on the planked coffee table with convenience.

As they sipped the delicious hot tea, Stefan broke the ice. “So, Grace. Tell me more about yourself”.

She didn’t utter a word, just kept looking at his flower garden through the window, and back at Dr Stevenson. Yet Stefan, knowing she didn’t want to answer, kept secretly waiting to give her a chance at the moment of her comfort.

Stefan walked away with Dr Stevenson, after a while.

“Dr Stevenson, Grace holds on to her discomfort for a phase; I see that from my recent observation. She keeps all she knows, only to herself”.

“Yes. She is indeed a girl of few words”.

“Can you do me a favour? Please tell me what all Grace has revived of her memory by now”.

Dr Stevenson told him about the message that he narrated to Grace given by her uncle.

“That’s all that she knows Dr Walker”.

Stefan led him back to the hall.

“Grace?”

“Grace?”

Grace had disappeared! She wasn’t sitting at the coffee table!

Suddenly, both Dr Walker and Dr Stevenson heard a sweet pleasing chuckle.

They both turned around and there she was! She was out in the flower garden talking and chuckling amidst the hundreds of dandelions. The smile on her face was so pleasant and priceless, as her soft plump pink lips and rosy cheeks brushed against the delicate dandelions. Both of them went out in the flower garden and kept watching Grace from a distance, as the breeze too glanced at her golden hair.

“She looks so happy. Has she, by any chance, had a special liking for dandelions because most patients don’t revive such circumstances from the past?”

“Why is that you ask Dr Walker?”

“She remembered Dr Benjamin even after the accident. That is unlikely. Is it possible that she has a distinct connection behind the dandelions too”?

“I wouldn’t know Doctor”, said Dr Stevenson. “Why don’t we find out ourselves?” he continued.

They walked near her.

“Hello, Grace”. Said Stefan.

Grace didn’t reply. She just looked down and kept holding tightly, the dandelions in her hand.

“Grace?” This time Dr Stevenson tried.

She didn’t speak but she showed that she would agree to let him speak forward.

“You like dandelions?” He asked.

She nodded a yes as she rolled her fingers to the dandelions.

“Is it special?”

She nodded a yes again.

“Can you tell us why?”

“Daddy…Flower…Dandelions…”

She could just say that much, it troubled her to revive the memory, especially because her father had died and that had caused her a lot of grief in her past.

“They plucked a handful of dandelions for her, to get her fear away and walked away”.

“She spoke the most with the dandelions in her hand, that is her comfort”. Said Stefan.

“It is like support to her, mainly because her memories of dandelions remind her of her father”. He continued.

It struck six from Stefan’s pendulum. He called out to Grace from the window.

“Grace? Would you like to bid farewell to Dr Stevenson?”

She came running, with the dandelions tight in her hand still and begged him to take her with himself. Nevertheless, he calmed her down and reassured her that he would come to meet her very often, and left.