Chapter 6
Six months later, In a large Bungalow in Boston, America.
....
"Uhm...mm" a person whose face was covered up in oxygen mask and tubes were fixed all over her body groaned.
"Did her fingers move just now", "Wow it moved again", "Grandma, Doctor Steven. Her fingers moved just now", a young girl about four years of age in pink frolic yelled and ran out of the room. The young lady on the bed gradually opened her eyes and looked around her surroundings in confusion.
She tried to sit up on the bed but she couldn't feel any of her limbs, "what's going on, where am I", in the midst of her confusion a middle aged woman, a young lady and a little girl along with a man came into the room. The lady looked around the room carefully but she couldn't recognize any of the faces she was looking at .
She coughed dryly and the man understood she needed water.
He said in English to the young lady
"She needs water, give her some", the lady fetched water in a glass and carefully fed her.
"Can you see me", the man asked and the lady nodded
"How many fingers are these" the man asked stretching his right hand in front of her
"3" the lady replied in a weak voice.
"Do you remember anything",
"Yes", the lady replied again "then can you tell me your name", the man asked again and the woman said
"Chen Lihua",
"Good, then what's the last thing you remember",
"My accident, a car and truck collision", Chen Lihua replied and the man nodded again.
"Good", he said smiling and turned to the other people in the room,
"She is alright for now, feed her some warm soup it shouldn't be peperish or too hot, it will help with her throat",
"I will go bring the soup, come help me Yingbao", the middle aged lady said and left with the little girl
The man checked Chen Lihua's vitals for a while longer before leaving.
"Are you okay", the young lady said reminding Chen Lihua there was still someone in the room with her
"Yes", Chen Lihua replied weakly
"That's awesome, we had all thought you weren't going to wake up and we almost gave up hope. It's good you did", the woman said smiling happily
"What's your name, who are you", Chen Lihua asked looking at the strange face in front of her
"Oh my bad, I forgot to introduce myself", the last said and smacked her forehead
"My name is Xi Ming, the woman that just left is my mother and the little girl is my daughter Yingbao",
"I know you have a lot of questions and you will get the answer to everything but you need to be fine first", Xi Ming said and Chen Lihua nodded
"If she would be getting all her answers then there is no need for her to be in a hurry",
A while later the middle aged woman and the little girl came in
"Here my dear, drink up", the woman said feeding Lihua the soup carefully, there was an affectionate look in her eyes and Chen Lihua couldn't understand why the strange woman seemed to care so much about her.
"You have been through a lot Lihua yet you came out alive, I am sure both Yufan and Zhi are proud of you wherever they are just like I am", "You are a warrior", the middle aged woman said patting Chen Lihua's head
"Who are you aunt, and how did you know my parents", Chen Lihua asked her throat felt a lot better after drinking the soup.
"Aigoo, sweet child", "My name is Xi Mishi, I am your parents childhood best friend", the middle aged woman introduced and Chen Lihua smiled she had heard of Xi Mishi from her parents before but most times the two avoided talking about her, it was like it was some kind of a taboo in their family.
"Your parents probably didn't talk about me much right or maybe never at all", Xi Mishi said with a smile and Chen Lihua just nodded.
"Those two", Xi Mishi said shaking her head with a smile.
"Lihua do you remember you had a younger brother", the woman asked and Chen Lihua shook her head in denial
"I don't think so", Chen Lihua said and Xi Mishi smiled again
"Don't you think so or can't you remember", Xi Mishi said and Chen Lihua looked at her stunned only few people knew she didn't have her childhood memories, she looked awkwardly at the middle aged woman before confessing
"I had an accident when I was 16 and I lost all my memories of that time. The only things I can remember are things that happened after the accident",
"But I don't remember my parents ever telling me I had a younger brother and I never even met him, there was not even a picture of him in our house", Chen Lihua said feeling confused about the new revelation she always thought she was her parents only child.
"You had a younger brother Lihua, Chen Zixi. You were six years older than him but you loved him more than anything".
"Ever since you were a child you never trusted anyone without solid reason and you were cold on the exterior even to your parents but Zixi always had a way of melting you. The two of you were inseparable", Xi Mishi said giving Chen Lihua enough time to let the news sink in.
"Sister Lihua, stop", "I won't stop you have to catch me",
"My sister Lihua is the best, thank you", "Mom, dad see Sister Lihua bought me a toy car", "I love you Lihua",
"Hey you spoilt brat, how dare you call me by my name", "but you were the one that spoilt me are you regretting it, aaaaaaahhhh", "Hey Sister Lihua let's always be together forever", "Yes we will be together forever"
Chen Lihua heard two distinct voices in her head and it felt like distant memories, she could make out the voices but the image were blurry she couldn't see the people talking.
"My husband and I have been your parents friends for years and we would always have a picnic together every last weekend of the month, it was like a ritual and it continued even after we had our separate families", Xi Mishi started to narrate, she stood up to stand by the window like she was reliving those memories.
"On one of such weekends your parents, you and Chen Zixi, I, my husband and our daughter Ming all went for a trip in Boston America, we went on sightseeing and shopping on Saturday, and we were all having so much fun.
"We were on a a boat ride on Sunday when the boat capsized in the middle of the ocean. The first people to fall were my husband and Zixi since they were the ones rowing the boat", Xi Mishi remembered the awful incident that tore her and her friends apart and Chen Lihua felt her head spin, she was remembering bits after bits of the accident and the memories before it.
"We all fell in that water but the rescue team arrived in time to save the situation, you, your mother and father along with me and my daughter were saved but they couldn't find Zixi and my husband", Xi Mishi continued
"The five of us were rushed to the hospital and we all survived, everyone of us were heartbroken by the incident but the most distraughted was you, after you woke up you kept on asking for Zixi".
Everyone tried to calm you down and explain the situation the doctors and your parents but you refused to listen, we had to result to sedation to calm you down", Xi Mishi stopped to see Chen Lihua holding her head, she was definitely remembering everything
"But once you woke up from the sedation you ran straight to the ocean where the incident happened and tried to jump into the ocean to find Zixi yourself, you were saved at the nick of time and brought back by one of the rescue teams at the place".
"When it became so hard to calm you down and stop you from looking for Zixi, Yufan and Zhi took the hard step and erased all your childhood memories so you didn't remember anything about Zixi everyone said it was impossible to find them again, they erased everything that could remind you of Zixi from your home before taking you back to China. Ming and I stayed back here and after one month of search the rescue teams found my husband's body but Zixi remained missing".
"We took my husband's body back to China and buried him. Three years after the funeral in China, Ming and I moved to the United states permanently after she got a job offer here", Xi Mishi concluded looking at Chen Lihua's tear filled face.
"Your parents never mentioned anything about me or anyone related to that incident because the doctor warned them that it could trigger you to remember your wiped memories and that was the last thing they could afford".
"Aunt Mishi, I remember everything now", Chen Lihua yelled and Xi Mishi pulled her into her embrace, Chen Lihua kept on sobbing into the middle aged woman's chest. She didn't know if she should be happy her parents prevented her from this heartache by wiping her memories or angry that they didn't allow her to mourn her brother enough.