I couldn’t lose this safety, and that meant I had to make sure Auggie never learned about the truth I’d just remembered.
CHAPTER 18
Auggie
After the nightMia had a nightmare and then stayed up watching television with me, something changed. Until then, he’d been committed to the idea of recovering his lost past, but then practically overnight, he seemed to lose interest. Whenever I tried to ask him about any of the few past memories he could still recall, his answers were short and vague, followed by a quick change of topic.
I could tell he was avoiding talking about his memories, though I wasn’t sure why. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to pursue the issue, as I had an even greater calamity to overcome.
Melody.
I’d hoped to keep her away from my new houseguest until he was healed a little more and settled into his life outside the hospital. However, I’d greatly underestimated the tenacity of a five-year-old. Since she’d been there when Mia woke up, she was also invested in the man and pleaded with both her mother and me to see him. Enduring her puppy dog eyes over a video-call wasbad enough. I didn’t know how her mother could bear to say no in person.
So, I wasn’t that surprised when I received an exasperated call from Chantal.
“You’ve got to let Melody come over to your place. She is insisting on visiting your new guest.”
My apartment wasn’t that big, and sound easily carried. The only place I could think of where this conversation wouldn’t be overheard was the small balcony off the master bedroom. Keeping my phone pressed against my chest just to make sure Mia wouldn’t hear anything else Chantal said, I stepped out into the morning air and closed the sliding glass door behind me.
“He isn’t a zoo exhibit for her to come look at,” I said, once I was certain that was I alone.
Across the phone, I heard Chantal click her tongue in annoyance. “I know that. But she was there when he woke up. She seems to think that makes him ‘hers’ in a sense, and she absolutely won’t calm down until she gets to see him.”
“This isn’t like bringing home a stray puppy,” I whispered, despite knowing no one else could hear me. “He’s a grown adult. She can’t just… make him her pet.”
“I know,” Chantal agreed again, while down below my balcony a car horns beeped in rush hour traffic. “But I’m not sure she fully comprehends that this is an actual person we’re talking about. She mostly only saw him when he was unconscious and barely saw him when he was awake. In her perspective, he must be like a doll that came to life. What child wouldn’t want to play with that? Hopefully, if she can interact with him a bit, she’ll understand that this is a person and not a toy.”
It sounded like Chantal had already given this a lot of thought and come to a decision on her own. I still wasn’t sure that it was the right choice of action, but I also knew that once Chantal had made up her mind there would be no changing it.
Melody got her stubbornness from her mother, after all.
So, I agreed to let Melody come over, but on one condition. I needed to get Mia’s permission first. I didn’t want to suddenly spring an eager child on him, but I had no idea how to go about bringing it up.
How does one ask for permission to show a person off to their child and not make it sound like a demeaning circus act?
With no better options, I brought the topic up at dinner that night.
I wasn’t the best cook in the world, but my food was passable. At least it had always been enough to keep me fed, and I’d never heard anyone complain on the rare occasion I cooked for someone else. Even Melody ate what I served without too much fuss.
With Mia, I could never tell if he liked the meals I made or not. He never had a bad word to say about the food, but he pushed it around his plate as much as he ate it. The only reason I was sure he ate anything at all was the fact that his weight stayed the same, so something must be getting into his system. Still, he was far too skinny for comfort, and his freshly healed wounds probably needed more nutrients than usual. I wished I had a better understanding of what he liked so I could provide him with a more tempting meal, but I could only tackle one hurdle at a time.
First, I needed to tackle the Melody issue.
“Um, do you remember my daughter who was with me when you first woke up?”
Mia looked up from his barely eaten meal to stare at me with a startled expression. He always had a wide-eyed look on his face, like he was trying to swallow all the details of the world around him into the depths of his pupils and store it all away for later. By now, there must have been a whole library’s worth of mundane information tucked away inside his skull.
“You’re daughter,” he said, giving a vague nod. “I remember her. That’s the girl whose room I’m staying in.”
“That’s right. She’s been staying with her mother while you get settled in, but I was wondering if it would be okay for her to visit?”
Rather than answer right away, Mia glanced over his shoulder toward the door to the guest room. His gaze was still wide, but now there were clearly thoughts spinning behind his eyes that I couldn’t begin to fathom.
“If you need the room back, I can leave. Your daughter shouldn’t be kicked out of her home.”
Leaning over that table, I nearly knocked over a pitcher of juice in my rush to grab Mia’s hand.
“No, it’s not like that. Melody lives with her mother most of the time. I was stationed overseas for years, and I’ve only recently been able to start taking custody of her again. I’m just asking because I want to make sure you’re up to having guests before I subject you to an energetic five-year-old. She’s well behaved, but she can still be a handful.”