After two days, Sidra was back at the clinic again with her mother for an appointment to check up on the progress. The little girl went to Michael with her teddy bear.
"Do you still have amnesia?" she asked.
Michael smiled at the way she had mispronounced the word. She was cute and he liked the attention she was giving him. Elena was checking up on Laila in the same room and they both watched the scene unfold with a smile.
"Yes, I still don't remember anything," replied Michael. "But hey, I'm sure we'll figure something out."
"Well, I saw this cartoon the other day where they hit the person with amnemesia on the head and he would remember everything," said Sidra seriously and turning to Elena. "Have you tried that out Elena?"
Laila was trying her best not to laugh while Elena replied gently. "No, dear, we haven't tried that. Doing that would hurt Michael even more. We need to use a gentler method."
Sidra continued to probe Michael with questions and eventually, started to play all sorts of games with him. She also started to tell him about everything that had happened in school and Michael listened to her intently. Elena was surprised to see how genuinely Michael treated her. She hadn't seen a lot of patients here at the clinic treat children like that with most of them being very grumpy.
She had heard someone say that you should always judge a person by the way they treat children.
Maybe helping him out hadn't been such a risky thing after all, she thought with a smile.
**
March 16, 2032
A few more days passed in which Cole and Dave both got discharged from the cabin. They both bade Michael farewell and wished him luck for the future. Michael too had healed in that period and stood in front of Elena thanking her.
"You've looked after me. You've given me shelter, food, medicine and clothes," said Michael looking down at the clothes he was wearing. "These are really comfortable by the way. Who do these belong to?"
"To my dad."
"Oh," Michael blurted realizing how stupid he was for not realizing that it was obvious.
Elena noticed his reaction. "So, you know about my dad?"
"Yes, the guys told me," he said sheepishly.
"It's alright. It's not like he would ever mind you having his clothes," said Elena. She then quickly changed the subject. "So, what now?"
"Is there any way I can repay you?"
"I already told you, Michael. You don't have to worry about it. You can repay me when you are able to do so."
"What if I help you around here?" he asked. "You seem so stressed out with all this work. I could help you out you know. I've got nowhere else to go anyways. I know nothing about what's going on out there with all this respawners and stuff. You've showed me kindness and it's the very least I could do."
Elena thought about it. She already had the two nurses, Diamond and Amanda, at the clinic so she did not see any reason to keep him here. She did not get along with them either and tended to keep her distance from them. She felt that anyone who got close to her would die. Her mother, her father, his assistant. Even the closest of her friends from school who had survived the initial carnage of the respawner. They all died because of you. Mom died because she saved your life. After that, all you've done is brought death to everyone close to you. Her only surviving relative was her uncle, Joey, but he was usually away and so, according to her, had not suffered from the curse that she afflicted to everyone close to her.
Maybe she could get him a job somewhere nearby. Yes, that would be perfect. "No," she said bluntly. "You can't help me around here. You don't know anything about running the clinic. You need to make an own living for yourself. I'll help you get some work in the city, perhaps in the mines or the farms."
Michael nodded. She's right, I would just be another nuisance for her. I have to face the world out there. He had noticed that she wasn't the talkative type and mostly kept to her work.
In the next few days, Elena led him to the customs office where, surprisingly, he wasn't registered which meant he had not lived in the Peak City before he lost his memory.
That is very odd, thought Elena. Is he an escaped Jew?But if he had been a Jew then he would've appeared in their records. Maybe a trader? But even traders have temporary passes. He could just be someone trying to get in from the desert towns but had failed to do so. Elena still could not understand how he had lost his memory.