Me After Meeting You

“No, something really did come up.” Amber didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

“Why is it that I can’t seem to bring myself to believe you?”

Amber spread her hands in the air as she responded, “I don’t know what to say.”

Her mother refused to believe her, and demanded a video call. Amber could only accept, turn on the camera on her phone, and swivel it around to reveal the entire house. But her mother was still somewhat dissatisfied. “What if you hid him somewhere?”

Amber had no response to this, and simply pointed the phone at herself while she sat on the sofa and read.

After looking at her for a while, Amber’s mother anger dissipated as she continued to watch her merely sit there quietly. Her next words were spoken caringly. “Why do I feel like you’ve gotten even thinner? Have you been eating properly? I put so much food in the fridge for you. Did you remember to eat?”

“… Yes.”

But in her head, she mentally slapped herself in. My goodness, she had totally forgotten that there was food in the fridge. She had actually served Calvin a bowl of simple noodles that morning! Every time her mother came, she would stuff her daughter’s fridge full. It was mostly prepared meals that only required simple cooking processes, like rice balls, dumplings, and beef jerky.

Amber especially loved the beef jerky made of meat that her mother had specially procured from the country side; it was tasty and hunger relieving … but she had forgotten to eat any of it!

When Amber’s mother saw her behavior, she began to doubt her daughter’s words. “You finished it all?”

Amber was very worried that her mother would want her to open the freezer to verify it, but luckily, she didn’t because she quickly thought of something even more concerning. “All you’re doing is staying at home, reading? You call this busy?”

Amber had to choose her next few words carefully. “There’s an examination next month that’ll heavily impact my career and future. I’ve been really busy recently and haven’t had much time to study up on it. Also, I have to meet a patient’s family later, and at night, there’s a meeting at the hospital.”

To sum it up in one short sentence, she was extremely busy.

After hearing her excuses, her mother turned to her father. “In the past, I thought that being a doctor was a good profession-at the very least, you didn’t have to worry about losing your job. While it’s true that we don’t have to worry about that happening to Amber now, with her life being like this, I’m worried she won’t even have time to get married and have children. And what if she ends up living at home alone, even in old age?”

Of course, what she had said at the very end was aimed directly at Amber. But she merely continued to flip through her books dispassionately, ignoring what her mother had said.Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.

Her mother could only tug at Amber’s father and say, “Your daughter isn’t listening to me. You talk to her.”

Her father felt somewhat embarrassed because even though Amber was all grown up now, he hadn’t ever given her much advice, or even much scolding. Further more, given how sensible she was, he wasn’t too worried about her. Despite all that, he still had to carry out his wife’s order. In the end, he ambled to the screen, and softly urged Amber. “Darling, please listen to your mother’s words.”

Amber crisply replied, “Okay.”

And with that, her father felt like he had finished his task, so he turned around and said to his wife, “Look, I talked to her and she listened.”

Her mother stared at him, open mouthed, and couldn’t decide as she vacillated between haranguing her daughter and criticizing her husband’s shortcomings.

With her mother’s harsh scolding as background noise, Amber continued to calmly read her books. Because her parents didn’t drag her into their conversation, she quickly forgot about them. She became quite engrossed in her books, enjoying even the densest and most monotonous of medical tomes; luckily, this book wasn’t uninteresting at all.

It had been a gift from one of her classmates that had been specially bought overseas, an original English copy. The case studies with in were very enriching, and one of them even mentioned Cotard’s syndrome.

In this book, the patient was a middle aged woman. After going through a divorce, being fired from her job, and losing her child all in a row, she had developed that illness. Her doctor had attempted to use some antidepressants to treat her. Initially, the treatment had seemed to be working well, and the patient was able to leave the hospital. But not long after she went home, she committed suicide.

The conclusion of the case study was that the patient did not receive sufficient care and love from her family members and had consequently lost her motivation to live. The takeaway message was that patients suffering from mental illnesses require more care and depend on their family members more than patients with conventional illnesses.

After reading this passage, Ambers heart fell. She held her book, dazed, for quite a while, and was so entranced that she even forgot that she was still in a video call with her mother.

When the doorbell rang, she finally put down the book and realized that it had gotten quite late; the living room was draped in the setting dusk sun with only a sliver of light.

She rubbed her eyes, casually flicked the light on, and opened the door.

It was Calvin, but his whole body was steeped in the sour smell of alcohol, and he was haphazardly leaning back against her door frame. When he heard the door open, he turned around somewhat slowly.

“Amber.” He called out, his voice low and unfocused.

“Are you alright?”

He didn’t respond, only smiling at her briefly before his body stumbed and he landed in her lap.

“Ah-” Amber was flustered by his actions, and had to put in some serious effort to support and slowly drag him into the living room, eventually letting him fall a sleep on her sofa.

When she noticed his red face and high body temperature, Amber got up to pour a cup of water for him. However, he unexpectedly reached out with his hand and abruptly caused her to slip on top of his body.

“You-” But before she could finish speaking, she heard her mother’s voice from behind her. “You! Am … ber!”