is our currency, – Doctor Emmett explained.
A memory of the prices in the city flashed in Nia's mind. "50 TM… 100 TM…", she thought. Now she knew that it was currency. And fifty million Times was a huge amount.
– I… I don't know if I can pay, – Nia said anxiously.
Are they keeping me here for money? What will happen if I can't pay? Nia thought fearfully.
Doctor Emmett sighed.
– Since your case is unique, the hospital is covering all the costs. For now.
Nia felt relieved. At least some good news. For now… Does that mean I'll still have to pay later?
– Can I move around the hospital? I need to stretch my legs a bit, – she asked, hoping to see something new.
Doctor Emmett frowned.
– It's dangerous, Nia. We don't know how your condition will progress. What if you forget where you came from and get lost? There are a lot of corridors here.
Nia tried to object, but Doctor Emmett interrupted her:
– Okay, I understand. You need some light and space. I can arrange for you to be moved to a room with a window. That's the best I can do for you now.
Nia agreed. A room with a window was at least some progress. Maybe she would see something useful from the window? Or just be able to distract herself a little from these gray walls and intrusive questions. But it was better than nothing.
Nia was moved to the new room in the evening. As before, she was given an injection, and she hardly remembered being carried on a gurney. She woke up in the new ward. It was dark, and the lights of the futuristic city were visible outside the window. Flying cars darted around, creating a bizarre pattern of light.
Nia lay in bed for a while, trying to recover from the injection. Then she got up and went to the window. The landscape was mesmerizing. Tall, curved buildings, shimmering with all the colors of the rainbow, neon signs, advertising billboards floating in the air. But something was wrong.
Nia looked more closely. Evening seemed to have frozen in time. There was no sunrise, no sunset. The same twilight light all the time. She remembered that when she woke up in the alley, she hadn't seen the sun either. Was it always night in this world? Or were they keeping her in a place where there was no change of day and night? What were they hiding?
Anxiety grew, but Nia had many other reasons to worry. Doctor Emmett came to visit her periodically, and they had long, heartfelt conversations. As a result of these conversations, Nia realized that the doctors had already carried out all possible procedures and were not going to harm her. They just wanted to observe her condition. But why me? What's so special about me?
Doctor Emmett told her that he was a newcomer to this hospital, and she was his first patient. This seemed strange to Nia. Starting a medical practice at fifty was a little unusual. But the main thing was that she had at least one person she could trust in this chaos. Although… can I trust him?
Doctor Emmett began to visit Nia more often, and she looked forward to the time when he would come. The doctor decided to find out exactly what Nia could do by offering her different games and activities. He hoped to awaken muscle memory in her.
First, he ordered them to give him a ball, and they tried to play the games he knew. She didn't remember a single one and didn't know how to play. Then he tried to get her to cut and peel vegetables, but it turned out that she didn't know how to do that either.
– Maybe you can draw? – Doctor Emmett asked, taking a canvas, paints, and brushes from the closet.
Nia tried, but she only managed to make some meaningless strokes. She threw the brush on the table.
– I can't do anything! – she said.
– What about sculpting? – Doctor Emmett suggested, bringing a piece of clay.
Nia tried to sculpt something, but only a shapeless mass came out. She squeezed the clay in her hand, feeling it spread between her fingers: I am no one. An empty space.
– Okay, let's try something more complicated, – Doctor Emmett said, taking an old, broken clock from the drawer. – Try to disassemble it and put it back together.
Nia fiddled with the small parts for a long time, but could not understand how they worked. She leaned back in the chair, feeling despair engulf her: I can't even fix a broken clock!
Doctor Emmett was upset.
– What can you do then? – he muttered, looking at Nia with disappointment.
– I don't know, – Nia replied, feeling completely useless. Her eyes filled with tears.
Doctor Emmett pondered for a moment, and then his face brightened.
– Wait a minute! I have another idea!
He ordered them to bring him all the musical instruments that could be found in the city: a guitar, a violin, a flute, a drum. Nia tried to play each of them, but nothing worked. The strings did not obey her fingers, only whistling sounds came out of the flute, and the drum responded with a dull, arrhythmic thud. She threw the drumsticks away, feeling tears streaming down her cheeks again:
– I can't even make a normal sound!
Doctor Emmett sighed and put the instruments aside.
– Okay, Nia, let's not rush. Everything has its time. Maybe your memories will return on their own.
After that, Doctor Emmett stopped offering Nia any activities. He just came to her room, asked about her well-being. Nia felt that he was not losing hope, but also did not know what to do next. He just feels sorry for me, Nia stated.
The days dragged on, one after another, as alike as two drops of water. Nia looked out the window, trying to remember at least something from her past life. But it was all in vain. Her brain remained clear and imperturbable. I am a blank slate. But who will draw my life on it? The girl pondered.
Sometimes Nia began to think that she had simply gone crazy. That all this was just a figment of her sick imagination. But then she looked at Doctor Emmett, at his kind eyes and sincere concern, and realized that this was not so. She really had lost her memory. And she needed to somehow live on. Or at least survive.
On one of the doctor's visits, Nia, gathering her courage, asked:
– Doctor Emmett, why is there no sun here? When will dawn come?
Doctor Emmett raised his eyebrows in surprise.
– Dawn? – he asked again, as if he had heard something long forgotten. – I don't even remember dawn ever being… I think my grandmother or great-grandmother told me about the sun, but I can't remember exactly.
– What kind of lighting is this? Where does the light come from? – Nia continued to inquire.
– These are generators, – Doctor Emmett explained. – They supply the earth with energy.
– But how is that? Why doesn't the sun appear for so long? What happened? – Nia didn't give up.
Doctor Emmett sighed.
– There are legends that once the day began to shorten, and the sun appeared for less and less time. And then it didn't rise at all. We call this the Day of the Great Darkness. No one knows when the sun will rise again.
– But why did this happen? – Nia asked. – Doesn't the earth rotate in orbit? And if the sun disappeared, the earth would begin to cool down, wouldn't it?
Doctor Emmett could not answer this question.
– Hmm… You know, I never thought about it. I don't have the necessary knowledge in the field of astronomy. But I will definitely check with my colleagues and tell you next time. I myself have never been interested in this topic.
Nia felt disappointed. Doctor Emmett seemed so smart and knowledgeable, but even he couldn't