Prompt: “Remember, you have to remember.”
Jurr didn’t know where she was. At first, she had been annoyed, when she realized she had no memory of the dark hallway she was standing in or how she had gotten there. The floor was cold under her bare feet and the odd nightgown she was in was thin and did little to protect her from the chill in the air.
Now she was starting to get nervous and tired. She wanted to sleep but didn’t know where she would be safe.
She leaned back against the wall and tried to think but the more she focused on remembering the more her head hurt. Ignoring the pain, because she had no choice, she growled. “Remember Jurr, you have to remember.”
Saying her name made her laugh, despite her annoyance. Here she was chiding herself for not remembering where she was, or where she should be, when she only knew her name because it was on the band around her left wrist. She wasn’t sure what was wrong with her, but something had to be. Surely it wasn’t normal to recall…nothing, right?
Just as she was debating between curing up on the floor to get some rest or continuing her fruitless search the wall behind her shifted and she fell to the ground in a heap.
“Jurr? What are you doing?”
Groaning at the fresh pain in her head from hitting the floor, Jurr looked up to see a teenage boy looking down at her with a frown. She had to turn her head to see the room she had fallen into and she assumed it was his bedroom. Jurr looked back up at him and scowled. “Who are you?”
The boy sighed and held a hand out to her. Jurr eyed his hand suspiciously for a moment before taking it and letting him help pull her to her feet. Once she was standing he stepped away and turned up the light. “I’m your friend Trev,” he said before moving back to stand in front of her. He looked her over and frowned again, “did they discharge you from the medical wing?”
Jurr folded her arms across her chest, “I don’t know.” As the pain in her head grew, she winced and pressed her hand against her temple. “I just want to sleep,” she admitted, “and my head hurts.”
Trev’s expression softened, “you had surgery a few days ago Jurr, you should be in bed.”
Her single eye was fixed on the ground and Jurr shuffled her feet a little before she spoke quietly, “I don’t know where my bed is.”
“That’s okay,” he assured her, slipping his feet into his shoes, “I can show you where it is.” Trev was relieved that Jurr didn’t kick up a fuss about following him. She tended to when she had completely forgotten him. She had to be very tired to just nod and follow him out of his room.
This was the first time he had seen her in almost a week, the doctors tended to restrict her to the medical wing and her room when they had plans to work on her implants. He never knew what their plans were for her and no one answered when he asked. Even Jurr didn’t know what they were doing half of the time.
He had asked Master Vukosh about it and while he understood their reasoning, Trev didn’t feel that her being a warden of the facility was a good enough reason for them to be so secretive about what they did to her.
Whatever they did this time, it was big. Half of her face was covered in bandages and it even looked like they had shaved part of her hair. The implants peeking out from the gauze looked new and Trev forced himself not to wince in sympathy. He knew firsthand how much facial implants hurt when the skin was healing around them.
Trev didn’t know if she was supposed to be in the medical wing or not, so he led his friend back to her room. He figured the most important thing now was to get her somewhere she could rest and then track down one of the nurses to let them know she had been wandering. When they reached her room and he opened the door Jurr hesitated in the doorway.
She leaned forward and glanced around the room skeptically. “Are you sure this is my room?”
Leaning around her to look himself, Trev nodded. “Yeah, look that’s your datapad on the nightstand and look at the posters on the walls.” Where most girls her age might have had posters of their favorite celebrities, Jurr’s walls were covered in reminders. Several told her what her name was, others explained where she was and why. An electronic board across from her bed was updated with any appointments or scheduled events she needed to be aware of. Her memory tended to fade while she slept and most mornings she didn’t know who she was, so she needed the reminders.
Jurr frowned, “something really is wrong with me, isn’t it?”
Laying a hand on her shoulder, Trev guided her into the room. “You were hurt Jurr, that’s all.”
She scoffed, “sure, I buy that.” Trev wasn’t sure how to respond to that, it always made him uncomfortable when Jurr talked about how “broken” she felt but he was saved from having to when she spotted the bed. She wasted no time getting into bed and even sighed happily when she was settled under the covers.
Satisfied she was safe in her bed, Trev turned to leave.
“Wait!” Jurr cried out, sitting up and fixing him with a wide-eyed gaze. “You’re leaving?”
He nodded, “I was going back to my room.”
“Please stay,” she asked, looking down at her hands in her lap, “at least until I fall asleep? I don’t want to be alone anymore.”
“You’re not alone,” he said, moving across the room to sit on the edge of her bed. “I’ll stay.”S
miling gratefully, Jurr settled back against her pillow. She took his hand in hers and squeezed it. “Thank you.”Trev squeezed her hand back and leaned against the wall to wait for her to fall asleep. Most of the time Jurr seemed not to mind her lot in life, or not really understand just how bad her situation was but this reminded him of what she had said to him the day she was trying to choose a name.
“I will never really know anyone, not even myself.”
He understood why that thought scared her so much, the idea of never knowing anyone? Of not being sure who he was as a person was enough to make Trev shiver. It wasn’t something he would have ever imagined truly possible until meeting Jurr. She was so lost some days that she didn’t even know what kind of food she liked to eat. Jurr hid it well, but Trev knew everyday was a struggle for the girl.
If only there was some way he could help. He tried his best, being patient when he reintroduced himself over and over, seeking her out when she didn’t find her way to him so she wasn’t on her own, subtly reminding her about things they had done or things she liked but it wasn’t enough.
Not when he knew that someday he wouldn’t be around anymore. Then, as much as he hated the idea of it, she would be alone again. He knew from some of the other long term patients he had spoken to that Jurr had been on Rhinnal for almost a year before he had arrived and that before him she had never shown any interest in anyone for more than a passing fancy until her memory reset. Even one of her nurses had commented on how remarkable it was that Jurr spent time with him willingly when she had gone out of her way to avoid and ignore almost everyone else around her.
Somehow there was a spark of connection between them, even if Jurr wasn’t consciously aware of it and that thought gave Trev an idea. Master Vukosh had taught him about Force bonds and how they could be used to comfort and communicate with another person. If he could create a bond with Jurr, give her something she could feel in her mind to let her know she wasn’t alone and help her recognize and trust him it would go a long way toward giving her some semblance of a normal life.
A plan forming in his mind, Trev smiled down at Jurr while she slept. He had a pretty good feeling this was going to work.
Inktober day 7-- our hero hanging out with his old crowd. HEY UH. Tomorrow (Sunday Oct 8th) I'm trying to do a 12 hour comic about Clash so wish me luck because I might die x.....x
