یک روز دوست‌داشتنی دیگه

CHAPTER ONE

Another lovely day

Suddenly he was awake. He could see the light through the curtains. Tina was still sleeping beside him. That was strange. They always woke up together. He looked at his watch. Six thirty. He tried to think. Yes, they always woke up at exactly eight o’clock. He couldn’t remember waking up before eight. not ever. Why not? Everybody in the city woke up at exactly eight o’clock. Every day.

He got out of bed quietly. Tina didn’t move. He walked to the window and opened the curtains. He looked out at the quiet city. Nothing was moving. Then he dressed quickly, and went to the chair and sat down. He had to think. He had to remember. He was still sitting there an hour and a half later when Tina opened her eyes.

‘Dan,’ she said, ‘Dan, what are you doing?’

‘I got up early,’ he said. Early. It sounded strange. But why did it sound strange?

‘Dan, is anything wrong?’

‘Wrong? No, nothing’s wrong. I just wanted to get up, that’s all.’

Tina dressed. She smiled brightly. ‘It’s time for breakfast,’ she said. ‘Come on, we mustn’t be late.’

‘Wh–?’ He was going to say, ‘Why not?’ But he didn’t. He stood up. ‘Y??s, yes, it’s time for breakfast. Look, you go down for breakfast. I’m not hungry today. I’ll see you later.’

Tina looked at him. ‘We have to go to breakfast. Are you feeling ill? I’ll call the doctor.’

The doctor. Yes, he had to go to breakfast. He didn’t want to see the doctor. Tina was standing by the door. She looked annoyed.

‘Tina,’ he said, ‘I didn’t eat anything yesterday, or the day before. And I feel different.’

Tina moved towards the phone. ‘Of course you feel different, Dan. You are ill. I’ll get the doctor.’

‘Don’t phone, Tina– please,’ he said. ‘I wanted to feel hungry. I haven’t felt hungry for – for a long time. I wanted to remember the feeling.’

She looked worried. ‘I don’t understand,’ she said. ‘Nobody wants to feel hungry.’

‘That’s it. Nobody wants to feel hungry. Nobody wants to feel unhappy, nobody wants to feel anything. Yesterday and the day before, I didn’t eat. Nobody noticed. I threw the food away– and now I’m beginning to remember things. I think there’s something in the food, a drug. Because of the drug we can’t remember things.’

Tina’s face was red. ‘You’re crazy,’ she said quietly.

‘Maybe,’ he said, ‘but why can’t we remember anything? What is this place?’

‘It’s – our home,’ she said slowly.

‘Our home? When did we come here?’

‘Er – I don’t know, Dan. Is it important?’

‘Where were we before we came here?’ He shook her arm angrily. ‘Why did we come here?’

“We– we. Oh, Dan, I can’t remember. Don’t worry about it. Look, don’t be silly. We’re going to be very busy today. First there’s the pottery class. You’ll be able to finish making that bowl. Then we’re going to go swimming, then lunch.

Then we can lie beside the swimming pool before tennis, then there’s dinner. Then we can watch the new videos in the video room, have a drink and go to bed. We’ll be exhausted!’

‘Exhausted? At eight o’clock?’

‘Well, yes. That’s bedtime. We need twelve hours sleep a night. Everybody says that.’

‘Tina, how long have we been here?’

‘I don’t know, Dan.’

‘We call this place “home”. Don’t you remember? We used to call it “a holiday”. We used to call this “our hotel room”. Now we call it “home”.’

‘I don’t remember that. That’s stupid.’

‘No, it isn’t, Tina. I remembered this morning, when I woke up early.’

‘Perhaps you didn’t wake up, Dan. Perhaps you had a dream. A strange dream, that’s all.’

‘But I did wake up, Tina. You saw me. I was sitting in that chair - with all my clothes on.’

‘I’m not sure. Were you? I can’t remember now.’ She smiled at him. ‘Come on, the sun’s shining. It’s another beautiful day. Let’s go and have breakfast.’

She opened the door. Dan looked at her for a moment. ‘You’ve forgotten our conversation, haven’t you’ he said. You’ve forgotten it already.’