Splintered Memory (21 page)

Claire looked at Charlie expectantly
, but she laughed and said; “I was too scared to touch it. What if I touched it and I didn’t like the things or the person that I remembered? Maybe I was better off not knowing? I’d already walked away from my life and from my husband, did I really want to remember a past that I’d been told he was an integral part of? I decided that I didn’t and I walked away.”

“You walked away
?” Claire asked sounding shocked.

“Yeah
,” Charlie said. “Fear got the better of me. I’d grown used to not knowing, and so I decided that my not knowing was for the best. “

“What
?” Claire asked thinking that nothing about Charlie’s comment made sense.

“I know
,” Charlie said shaking her head. “It was stupid. Anyway at that moment your mum came outside and said that she’d heard a noise. I apologised for scaring her, and she said that I’d scared her far worse when she’d come into the garden to see me tumbling out of the tree and onto the ground. And that was it.”

“What was it
?” Claire asked sounding confused.

“The trigger, i
t was that memory. I remembered reaching for your ledge, and having a wave of guilt over having slept with Rich. I shut my eyes for a millisecond to shake away the thought, but as I did I lost my footing. I remembered you screaming from the window and scurrying down the tree, and I remembered seeing Matt’s face looking worried as I was lifted into the ambulance to be taken to hospital. I remembered him sitting with me, and you and your mum obviously, all night in the A&E holding my hand whilst he tried to call Rich and my dad. I also remembered hoping that Rich wouldn’t answer,” Charlie said guiltily.

“At least now I know why you fell out of the tree
,” Claire said with a little smirk.

Charlie
blushed and said; “after that memory, every memory started crashing down around me. My head was spinning and I started to feel sick, and I know that I screamed out to make it stop. It was just that the pressure of the memories trying to get my attention, and the feelings that accompanied each one was completely overwhelming. Your poor mum. I think I terrified her, and she sat there holding me like when I was eight and I was sick on your bedroom carpet.”

“She never said anything. Not even when I called her to tell her that you were coming to visit me
,” Claire said.

“I asked her not to. Once things had calmed down she went to get my dad, and I explained to them what had happened. I missed out most of the details, but I got the main point across which was that I’d gotten my memory back. My dad insisted that we drive straight to Birmingham to see my doctors, but I was scared. I was scared that it might just be temporary
, and I’d forget it all again. So I begged them not to tell anyone until after I’d been given the all clear, and they promised,” Charlie said.

“So you’ve already been to Birmingham? Matt must be ecstatic. I’m amazed that you’re not locked up in the bedroom having a majorly romantic catch up
,” Claire said.

“Yep we went to Birmingham
, and I got the all clear. The doctor’s don’t seem to have too much of an understanding regarding memory loss, amnesia, whatever! They just seemed pleased that it had all come back to me. They told me that I needn’t worry, and that it was highly unlikely that my memory recall was just temporary. I was relieved, and so was my dad. The first thing that he suggested that we do was to go to the house so that we could tell Matt,” Charlie said.

Claire smiled at her best friend and was pleased that everything had worked out for her, but when Charlie looked at her she got a sneaking suspicion that the story was far from over.

“I was terrified about going to the house. I wanted to see Matt. I wanted to see him so much that it made me shake nearly with excitement, but I was nervous as well you know. Even though I remembered our past together, I also hadn’t forgotten the six months after my accident. When I left Birmingham,” Charlie said; “our marriage was past breaking point.”

“Yeah
, but that was before. It’s surely got to be back to life as usual now though right? You and Matt are back to being the perfect couple?” Claire asked.

“No
,” Charlie said looking straight into Claire’s face; “he’s with someone else.”

“He’s what
?” Claire asked as though she’d simply misheard.

“I didn’t want to just let myself into the house. I thought it’d be rude
you know. So I convinced my dad that we should just wait in the car. My dad wasn’t overly keen on the idea, but he did agree to do it. I knew that Matt would use the back door as always if he was going to or coming from work, and he’d only use the front door if he was going out socially or for a run. So while we sat waiting outside the house in the car, I called the hospital to find out if he was working or on call. Unfortunately while I was on hold he came out of the house, and he looked... well its Matt so he looked amazing,” Charlie said sounding almost proud.

“I’m sure he did! He’s annoyingly gorgeous like that
,” Claire said rolling her eyes.

“I was about to get out of the car and so was my dad,
” Charlie said; “but then a woman stepped out behind him. She took his hand in hers, and he shut the front door. They walked down the path together. They were talking and laughing, and they looked happy. He looked happy, but it was only as they crossed over the road that I saw her face and recognised her.”

“Seriously, don’t say Emily
,” Claire said like it was all too predictable.

Charlie nodded and said; “my dad wanted to kill him. I had to beg him not to get out of the car, but he was so mad on the drive back to Cheddar that he didn’t speak to me.
He still wasn’t talking to me when we got home, so I went and spoke to your mum.”

Claire looked at her oddly.

“She was the nearest thing to you! I asked her where you were and what you were up to and she gave me your address. I think she put it down to my memory loss that I seemed to have forgotten your frequent visits, your break up with Nick, and your sudden move to London,” Charlie said with a slightly raised eyebrow.

“Shit, sorry Charlie
,” Claire said.

“It doesn’t matter
,” Charlie said smiling. “I’m hoping that you can make it up to me.”

“
I can,” Claire said; “and I will.”

“I need a place to stay
,” Charlie said. “I’ve lined up a few job interviews down here, and I was hoping that you might want a flatmate?”

“Of course you can stay
,” Claire said delightedly; “I’d love to have you as a flatmate. I’ve got so much to tell you, so much gossip, and it’ll be brilliant having my best friend living down here.”

Charlie smiled, her eyes lighting up as she did, and she said; “thanks Claire. Getting away and starting afresh
is exactly what I need, and yeah we’ve got lots to catch up on. The last time I saw you with my memory; you were cheating on Nick, you were miserable, you’d just had an abortion, and you wanted to move to London to be with some high flying investment banker.”

“Yep, that was pretty much the
state of play,” she said as Charlie nodded. “This sounds awful, but what happened to you kind of gave me the nudge I needed I think. I left my job, Bath, Nick, and I moved to London. Now you’re going to be living with me, you’re going to get to meet the high flying investment banker. Although you should probably know that he simply goes as Adam,” Claire said smiling and reaching out to grab Charlie’s hand. “I’m sorry that it was because of me that you were in the car that day.”

“Claire, don’t blame yourself. Guilt’s terrible for the complexion, and it really doesn’t suit you. Plus that’s
all in the past now, and you can make it up to me. You need to show me a new high flying lifestyle in London,” Charlie said smiling genuinely at Claire.

“That’s not going to be a problem, and
do you know what else?” She asked as Charlie shook her head looking momentarily confused. “We’re going to have to find you a new man,” she said winking at Charlie; “since it turns out that your husband is a complete shit bag that’s already replaced you.”

Charlie burst out laughing. She
then stood up and hugged Claire tightly and said; “god I’ve missed your brutal honesty, but you’d better get me to my new home because I’m drunk.”

***

It was nearly two in the morning, and Claire and Charlie had sat chatting for hours about everything. Claire had filled Charlie in on everything that had happened with her and Nick. She’d told her all about her new job, her new man, and her life in London.

They
’d talked for ages about how Charlie was going to be better off without Matt in her life, and how her decision to start afresh in London was absolutely the right one. They’d agreed that going back after everything that had happened was bound to have been a big mistake, and that most likely both she and Matt would have ended up being miserable.

After this they
’d talked in depth about Emily, and Claire – as Charlie’s dutiful best friend, had bad mouthed her in as many ways as was possible. Charlie though had merely nodded and agreed unconvincingly with everything that she’d said.

Claire couldn’t believe the levels of kindness
that Charlie had in her, and she hadn’t been able to help but roll her eyes at her. How was it possible she thought that Charlie couldn’t even bring herself to hate this woman, a woman who had stolen her husband?

Charlie had gone to bed
, in what was Claire’s spare room but would now be her room, at about one in the morning. Claire had also gone to bed at the same time, but she hadn’t been able to fall asleep and she’d lain wide awake. She just couldn’t believe that Matt had moved on. He’d been in love with her best friend for the majority of his life, and he’d even fallen out with his own best friend over her.

Matt and Charlie were the couple that sh
e’d always wanted to emulate, that all their friends had wanted to emulate, and they were the reason why she’d known that her relationship with Nick would never work. They were the benchmark for great love, and the way that they were around each other made everyone in their vicinity want what they had together.

It had taken her years not to be jealous of Charlie, but she’d known that it had always been a weird type of jealousy. She’d never been jealous of Charlie per se, and she’d never wanted Matt. Yet she had wanted what they had together. She’d wanted that type of relationship with someone. They were just so in tune and so in love, and at times watching them together really was like watching an old black and white romantic movie.

Their relationship had also always been hard on Claire because she and Matt had never gotten along. They hadn’t gelled initially at school, and Claire had often thought that if it hadn’t been for Charlie and Rich the two of them would never have spoken or become friends at all.

I
n the early days, Claire had resented Matt for taking Charlie away from her and for putting her on the side lines. Matt had, and still disliked her for lots of reasons. He blamed her for Charlie dating Rich and not him. He blamed her for Charlie breaking her leg in the tree outside her house, which she now knew was one hundred percent not her fault, and he blamed her for the few times that they had drunkenly gotten together at parties when Charlie and Rich had abandoned them.

As
she lay there awake thinking about Matt and Charlie’s relationship, she knew that she needed to get some answers. She picked up her phone and dialled a number that she knew off by heart.

“Hello?” A woman’s sleepy voice said on the other end of the line.

“Emily I take it?” Claire asked irritably.

“Yes
,” she said. She then heard Matt’s voice in the background ask; “is it the hospital?”

“Say it is
,” Claire said to her. To which she heard Emily say it was to Matt.

“It’s Claire,
” she said shortly; “Charlie’s best friend.”

“Okay,
” Emily’s voice said warily.

“We need to talk. Can you make some time to see me this week
?” Claire asked.

“Yes,
” Emily said timidly.

“Call me when Matt’s not around to arrange when and where we can meet. My number will be in his phone, which I’m sure that you can get access to. Okay?” Claire asked almost aggressively.

“Okay,” Emily said.

Claire hung up and
lay in bed seething. She wasn’t sure whether that call had been a good idea or not, but that little bitch couldn’t be allowed to think that she could ride off into the sunset with her best friend’s husband. If Claire had to be the villain in Emily’s story then so be it. She had nothing to lose, and she’d see to it that Charlie would never find out about her meddling.

She
hung up the phone and lay back down in bed.

“Everything okay
,” Matt said rolling towards her and propping his head up on his hand.

Emily looked into his
handsome face, and she smiled at him feeling momentarily guilty and said; “fine. It was just the hospital, but there’s no need for me to go in.”