Elisa led Hamish forward, and in that moment, a fleeting image flashed through her mind.
In the heavy rain, someone knelt on the ground. Who was it kneeling…?
“Elisa, what are you thinking?” Hamish, observing Elisa’s dazed state, was somewhat taken aback. He tightened his grip on Elisa’s shoulders, attempting to shake her back to reality, fearing she might end up in a state of bewildered distress, much like in the hospital.
Elisa snapped back to reality, instinctively breaking free from Hamish’s grasp, taking a step back. Her movement was deeply hurtful, coupled with her uneven breath and a terribly pallid complexion as she gazed up at him with an expression filled with what seemed like fear.
“Elisa… What’s wrong with you?” Hamish was at a loss, thrown off by Elisa’s fearful countenance.
“It’s nothing.” Elisa shook her head, then, pressing her temple, she said, “Just now, some images flashed in my mind, like slides in a projector.”
At this, Hamish became instantly tense. “Are you remembering something?”
Elisa shook her head. “No, the images are vague. I just vaguely recall someone kneeling in the pouring rain… Is that my memory? Who is the person kneeling in the rain?” Elisa looked at Hamish with confusion, her eyes searching his dark ones, hoping to find some answers.
Hamish, staring into her luminous eyes, hesitated to meet her gaze directly, knowing full well that he could not evade this moment.
Elisa, with difficulty, asked again, “Was that person kneeling in the rain me?”
“No!” Finally, Hamish regained his composure in a moment. His palms were sweaty, and a thin layer of perspiration formed on his back, as if the wounds had suddenly begun to ache again.
“That wasn’t you. It seems familiar, perhaps from a movie you’ve seen before, or an image that has lingered in your mind,” Hamish forced himself to stabilize his emotions, but his heart remained tightly clenched.
It turned out that he, too, could panic, solely because Elisa had remembered something.
Now, Hamish dared not kneel. He hastily picked up the remote control from the ground, but his confusion led to a fumbling mess, causing the fruit bowl filled with sunflower seeds on the table to overturn. The seeds scattered all over, stark against the dark carpet. Hamish, trying to tidy up, found his hands shaking more and more, fearing that any stimulus might trigger Elisa to remember everything.
Frowning, Elisa watched Hamish’s actions. She had been restraining herself from dwelling on these thoughts, but the more she tried to control herself, the more she couldn’t help it.
“I was just asking casually, why do you seem so flustered?” Hamish didn’t know how to explain, so he nervously chuckled and concocted a half-hearted lie, “My knees are sore from kneeling too long.”
Elisa instantly shifted her gaze, pulling Hamish up. “Stop picking those up. We’ll have Mrs. Protich clean it up later. Lift your trouser leg, let me see the wound.”
The injury on Hamish’s leg was only minor, and since the skin hadn’t broken and there was no bleeding, there was no risk of infection.
Elisa rolled up his trouser leg and saw a clear imprint of the remote control’s buttons on his knee.
“Does it hurt a lot? Do you need to call a doctor?” Elisa crouched down, her brow slightly furrowed, her eyes and tone filled with concern.
Long ago, Elisa had cared for him in the same way, with her heart full of him. Yet, he had lost that Elisa. And now, having found her again, he was always in a state of anxiety and uncertainty.
Suddenly, Hamish cupped Elisa’s face and kissed her somewhat roughly. No one knew of his panic. During these one or two months of her amnesia, Hamish had come to realize even more profoundly that he couldn’t be without Elisa.
For him, Elisa was like air. He had once overlooked her existence, only to realize belatedly, after losing her, that her absence made him suffocate.