Chapter 3
DECISIONS
While I was in the kitchen making a cup of tea, a knock on the door saw Lynn going to see who it was. After a short period of silence I called out to her, asking who it was. A few more seconds passed and then she called back that it was the Salvation Army. Fine I thought they are undertaking their usual door knock appeal, so I told her there was some money on the coffee table. As I picked up the cups and walked out of the kitchen, I was surprised to find the Salvation Army officer was in fact in the lounge. However, it was the young girl standing next to him that made me jump, and I dropped both cups on to the carpet. She was dirty and bedraggled, in cloths that had long seen their best days. Not only that they did not even fit her half starved body.
Looking at her face, there was no doubt in my mind that it was Anne, and a quick glance towards Lynn told me that she agreed. I did not know what to do next, would it be right to give her a hug and maybe a kiss. After all, she might not want me to. As For Lynn, I did not think that it would be the right thing to do in front of her. Knowing her like I did, it was a good bet that she would not complain, as she was a very tolerant person.
Everybody was lost for words for a few moments until the Officer identified himself as Ron and proceeded to tell me that she had turned up at one of their hostels in a neighbouring town. A quick thinking Canteen worker had spotted her from one of my old posters. I found myself looking at Anne who was not acknowledging me. It was clear that she did not recognise me.
I sat everybody down so that we could talk more freely and Lynn went into the kitchen to make us all a fresh cup of tea, after clearing up the mess I had made. Anne was quiet the whole time although by now her attention had settled on me. So I asked her what her name was. The officer broke back into the conversation, explaining that she had lost her memory and did not even know who she was. He had brought her round in an effort that she might just remember something if she saw me, or something that might be familiar to her. He continued by asking if I believed that she was the person I had been looking for. Well yes, I stuttered it is definitely Anne. After all I had lived with her for so long there was no way that I did not recognise her.
I noticed a small tear appear, and start to roll down her face, so I got up and then sat down beside of her and offered her a tissue. That was the first time she smiled and it convinced me that it definitely was Anne. I turned to the officer asking him what happens next, I mean what do we do, the whole situation leaving me lost for words.
Well we were hoping that you might be able to help in trying to restore her memory. We felt that the more she sees people and places that played a major part in her life, the better chance she would have of something coming back to her.
I looked at Lynn not knowing what to say next, after all I had her to think about as well. Lynn broke the ice and told the officer that they would let her stay with them for a few days, but adding that they would like him to come round each day in case there were problems.
I was in a trance, not knowing what to say or do next. With the officer gone, Lynn took full control of the situation ordering me to run a bath for Anne, and that she was going to clean her up. She continued issuing the orders by telling me to make up the spare bed.
Lynn took Anne into the bathroom and showed her where everything was and that she could help herself to whatever she wanted. If she wanted to pamper her body with the delights of something she had obviously lacked for a while, then she could go ahead. Anne asked her to stay telling her that she felt safer that way, and so a bond started to develop between them. In fact, they were the first words that Anne had spoken since she arrived.
When they both finally reappeared from the bathroom Anne was looking quite sweet and innocent and definitely smelling a lot better than when she first arrived. It did not take me long to realise that it was the Musk scent that I had given Lynn for her birthday that was circulating around the room.
As we sat opposite each other questions start to fly across the room, but most of them could not be answered, as Anne had no recollection of anything. It did not take me long to work out that I was going to get myself into a lot of trouble if I did not watch out. This whole affair might leave me with egg on my face and with me ending up with neither of them. It was definitely going to end with me having to make some sort of decision, one way or another. Oh god I thought why me, but what choice did I have after all I had loved both of them. So much so, that at times it would have been easy for me to think that they were the very same person.
Lynn settled Anne down for the night in the spare room, and gave me her blessing to stay in the lounge and spend the night on the settee alone. To me it was the only thing I could do in order not to offend anybody, and thankfully, Lynn did not object. It felt so strange after all, here I was with the only two women I have ever loved, they were in the same house with me, and here I was sleeping on the settee all alone.
Halfway through the night I was awakened by Anne who was shaking me. It gave me quite a shock. She was the last person I had expected to come down stairs. If anything, I had expected Lynn to come down and crawl in beside me. Anne wanted to know if she really was the girl, who had lived with him, as she was desperate to find out whom she was and if she had any family. I did my best to answer what questions I could informing her that her parents had passed away in a car accident. All the time worrying and expecting Lynn to walk in on us, and that was the last thing I needed right now. After a time, I managed to talk her into returning to her bed. Which was a good job because unbeknown to me Lynn had heard us and was listening. With what she had heard, she was more than pleased that I had not taken advantage of the situation. Lynn returned to her bed happy in the thought that she could continue to trust me, even with another woman in the house.
We decided to take Anne around the town with us, in an effort that something just might jog her memory. Unfortunately for us the idea did not work, Anne did not react to any place we showed her. Not even the sight of her parent's grave that had pictures of them on the stone marker.
Although I must confess, I did enjoy the attention of two women as I had one on each arm. In just a short time, Anne started to emerge from her shell as she constantly asked us both many questions. We did our best to answer them as honestly as possible, but inside I dreaded the time when she might ask me an embarrassing one. I had to hope that she did not fall in love with me for the second time. I am assuming she might remember that she was in love with me when she disappeared.
Many people in the town had heard of our plight so it did not take long for the stories to start circulating about us. Some of which were not of a nice nature, but we weathered all that was thrown at us. I guess the sight of us three all arm in arm walking around the town made it look like we were having a good time. However, we were three very mixed up people, all wanting to know the answers too many questions.
Slowly Anne returned into the person that I had once known, and looked very pretty in the clothes that Lynn had given her. There would not have been a male in the town that would not have turned around to have a second look at her. It had also occurred to me that Lynn had also noticed the same signs as me. I hoped that she did not read too much into those signs in the hope that they did not come between us. After all, she had been so good in the way that she had accepted Anne into our house. She had nursed and washed her. She had given Anne her own clothes to wear, and watched as I became tormented in wondering what to do with the situation. In all the time that she had been with us, I had slept alone every single night on the settee.
After a month and when Anne was enjoying better health. We all sat down at the table to try to work out our futures if indeed we had one. Anne had not regained her memory and because of that, she had become quite withdrawn, so again it was left to Lynn and me to do most of the talking. Unfortunately it did not matter what we thought, it was what Anne wanted that we had to sort out. Ron the Salvation Army officer who we had asked around to help sort out what shoul
d be done joined us. It became very complex, we all felt that she was a little unstable, and that left to her own devices we did not know what she might do. Therefore, it became a unanimous decision that we let her stay with us for another couple of weeks.
It was after this meeting that a strange event happened to us, while out on a shopping trip. As we entered the shopping mall, it suddenly occurred to me that we were approaching the supermarket where Anne had disappeared. For some reason I had never taken her back to visit the shop. Maybe I did not want to remember all of the hurt that the place reminded me of. On the other hand, maybe I did not want to return in case something more dreadful might happen to us. Whatever it was, I was determined to carry this through and go to the shop.
I grabbed the trolley and we started to walk around the aisles grabbing what few items we might want for the weekend. As I walked over to a different area of the shop to pick up some bacon, the girls carried on with the trolley. Upon my return, I found Lynn on her own looking at the breakfast cereals and wondering which brand to choose. Upon asking where Anne was, she told me that she had gone to get a jar of marmalade.
I did not wait for her