A Chinese Affair by Isabelle Li

Author:Isabelle Li [Li, Isabelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780994316769
Publisher: Margaret River Press
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Amnesia

Ben had started at eight in the morning and not taken a break. He finished typing the notes. The grandfather clock reminded him that he was twenty minutes behind schedule. He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hands, ran his fingers through his hair and tugged it a few times, gathering the final dregs of energy to face the last appointment of the day.

Across the corridor, a young woman was sitting on the sofa, looking out the window, a white blouse hugging her handsome frame, dark hair pouring over her shoulders, intertwined with a peacock green scarf.

Denise handed him the patient’s information sheet. ‘Miss Lindsey,’ Ben called. She rose, her skirt gliding over her boots. She was almost his height. They shook hands, her hand dry and firm. Close up in the afternoon light, her face struck Ben as so perfect that it was almost out of place.

‘Call me Ben. My surname is too hard for anyone.’ He used his standard opening line. ‘Sorry about the wait.’

She smiled, her long Eurasian eyes curled up at the outer corners, her white teeth sharp at the canines. ‘Call me Olivia.’

At the threshold to the consultation room, she hesitated. ‘This room looks familiar,’ she said while sitting down.

Ben scanned the room: off-white walls, grey blinds, a Chinese painting of angelfish, two abstract paintings of autumn and winter, the other two seasons in the waiting room. ‘In what way is it familiar?’

‘It reminds me of a similar room, except it was quiet, without the clock ticking.’

Ben reached up to the clock, opened the glass door and stopped the brass pendulum, freezing this moment in his life. ‘Doctor Schelom mentioned in his referral that you’ve been having issues with your memory.’

‘Memories elude me. Have you ever tried checking your own profile in the mirror? It’s there, but the moment you turn your head, it’s changed.’

‘Can you give me an example?’

‘When I came in, I remembered I was once in love with a neurologist. I arrived in London early in the morning. My luggage behind me bumped on the subterranean walkway. I rang him, surprised that we were in the same time zone, waiting for the day to start. A black man sat opposite me on the train. The whites of his eyes were red, and the tips of his fingernails had a tinge of yellow. In his lap was a pink plastic bag. He took off his cap to scratch his woolly hair.’ Her voice was plummy and mellow, its vibration permeating the space around them, making every object three-dimensional.

‘You seem to have remembered every detail.’

‘Until I sat down here, it had eluded me, obscured.’

‘Was the neurologist your doctor?’

‘Yes. He couldn’t love me because I was his patient. We couldn’t love each other.’ Olivia lowered her head like a swan, her eyes cast down.

Ben felt the hair on his arms standing on end, and a tingling sensation travelling down his spine. Is she looking into her mysterious past or ominous future? ‘When did

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