Son of the Sea

Chapter 6

I sat in the doctors office and stared at the various charts he had on his walls. My mother sat beside me. The doctor walked into the room after a few minutes and sat down in his chair. On his front pocket was an identification card. I look closer and read his name aloud.

“Alexahadeo Vladimirine,” the name rolled off my tongue oddly.

The doctor snapped his head up from the files he was reading immediately.

“You are the first teenager to ever pronounce my name properly,” he said closing the files, “but Doctor Vlad is ok.” Ok, then.

He was the doctor mom’s new husband had called the family doctor. He was wearing the white coat that doctors wore. He wore huge circular glasses perched on his long straight nose, he had shaggy brown hair. Beneath his spectacles were brown eyes which stared at me. I blankly returned the gesture, I was told once that I had a iron stare and could scare any bully off just by staring at them. His eyes met mine and he immediately bowed his head. I guess my dad was right.

From beside me my mother watched us confused but I didn’t care.

“My apologies, so what is the reason for this visit?” he asks looking at my mother now.

“I found my son this morning submerged in water,” she started glancing at me with a nervous look on her face, “I think he tried to commit suicide.” I wonder why.

The doctor hummed then wrote something in a notebook on his desk.

Suicide, huh, interesting.

“Ok so does your son has any history of substance a***e,” the doctor asked my mother avoiding my curious glances. Yes, what’s that.

Substance a***e, now that sounded familiar but I couldn’t remember. Couldn’t lie though last night was really weird. Why didn’t I drown? And that dream. Was the weird girl right?

“Not that I know of,” my mother answered. What does that mean? Why would she believe that I would ever try to hurt myself? I mean I have never tried before, what changed, who changed.

The doctor hummed again and jotted something down in his notebook. He was starting to annoy me because I wasn’t understanding a thing he was saying.

“Any lost in the family,” the doctor asked still writing. All the right questions. It was either this guy was fake or something was wrong.

“Yes, his father and he was also missing for 5 years and he has amnesia but the doctor at the hospital, Mr. Singh said he was ok and that he didn’t have PTSD so why did he try………,” my mom stopped talking and a lone tear run down her cheek. Wiping away the tear I smiled at her trying to lift the mood again. *Don’t touch her. *She smiled back and nodded telling me she was alright. Pain ran through my head like electricity and I squeezed my eyes shut then slowly open them. The two adults in the room obvious to my brief moment of agony.

The doctor hummed and wrote in his notebook again.

“What are you writing in that book,” I asked staring at him calmly but on the inside I really wanted to snap at him. He froze then chuckled nervously closing the book and putting it on the table.

Growing up I was a quiet and patient child but everyone had their limits but when I got pushed to my limit I would always snap at the wrong persons. It happened once when I was bullied by an older kid in elementary school and snapped at my teacher. When I was 7 years old my mom told me that I was bipolar, at first I didn’t know what it meant but she explained it to me. My dad helped me to channel it into different things like karate, music and playing sports. That was my life like before the accident, before amnesia. Not exactly picture perfect but it was enough. Now I was forced to move on with no time to properly grew into anything. It’s like 5 years, 7 months and 16 days had passed and everyone grew up but here I was still a 10 year old kid. Oddly accurate, right.

“Oh nothing, just some side notes,” he said.

“Never mind that now, amnesia you say,” he started shuffling uncomfortably under my stare. A smile crept onto my face. The doctor swallowed nervously as he sees it. I was making a grown man nervous a man who could probably kill me with a syringe. This was interesting. WOW. It was also weird, was my stare that intense or was it just something else.

“Has he been experiencing any flashes or dreams, nightmares even,” he asked my mother. She glanced at me.

“Yes and could you stop humming it’s really annoying and your making my mom nervous,” I answer bluntly. That was also one of effects of being bipolar, one minute your smiling, the next your anger and then you start spilling the truth not caring about people’s feelings. But this guy deserved it, every time he hummed my mother held her breathe and griped the chair tightly as if she was expecting the worst. She’s great actor isn’t she and I’m a bad son.

“Oh I’m sorry, it’s an old habit,” he said as my mother said my name warningly staring at me with a disappointed look on her face. As if she’s not happy I defended her.

“Having dreams and maybe nightmares or flashes are good signs, it means your remembering,” he said. So what he was saying was that the 5 years of my life that I don’t remember anything about I was under the sea hanging out with mermaids who died and I found them floating around and I possibly had a tail and nightmares are good. Ok, I need to get out of here, this guy is definitely fake.

I hummed and then laughed.

My mom and the doctor stared at me worried.

“No,” I said shaking my head they were just dreams, not memories and this doctor was a liar. “Your crazy and delusion cause mermaids aren’t real,” I yell, pushing my chair back angrily and storm out of the building.

As I step out of the building and I breathe a sigh of relief. What was wrong with me? Why was I acting so….so….. I groan in frustration walking over to a park that was in front of the building, that the doctor’s office was located.

The park was happy and full of life, after all it was only 1 o’clock on a Saturday. Children were running around and playing with there friends. Their parents watching them protectively from a distance smiling and laughing at their children. A couple with a little boy caught my eye. The toddler was playing with a puppy just a little smaller than he was. I watched as the couple smiled at their son and then at each other. They slowly started leaning in when their son rushed forward hugging them both tightly.

Now that I really thought about it. I never had that, I mean yes my father and mother would take me to the park but their love was always directed at me not at each other but at me. I mean don’t get me wrong I loved the love but it was pressuring. And on top of that I didn’t have any friends whom I could talk to or just have a distraction from what was happening at home when my parents thought I was asleep. To the world they were the happiest couple in the world but behind closed doors they were hunger tigers fighting over the last scrap of meat on Earth. I guess I always new but I hid it from myself. Afraid.

“Ice cream,” a voice said from beside me bringing out of my thoughts. My mom had two ice creams in her hands. She handed one to me.

Hazelnuts.

Is she trying to kill me? She knows I’m allergic to hazelnut or does she. I take it from her with a straight face. Did she get amnesia too? This was general knowledge to the few people in my life. You just don’t forget…….you just don’t forget something this important about your son, your flesh and blood. No, something’s wrong.

We both stood staring at the various groups of families and people around us. I could tell by the look on her face that she was thinking, about what though. I wish I could read minds instead of breathe under water. A few minutes passed.

“Did you love him,” I suddenly ask staring at nothing but air. My heart quickened fearing her reply. Everything depends on her answer.

“Yes,” she said with a sad expression on her face. Wrong answer but I needed solid proof. I sighed and nodded to myself.

“Let’s go home then I think your husband is getting worried,” I said smiling at her. This hurts, not being able to trust the only person left in your life.

Mom smiled and chuckled. “Lets go then.”