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Leon tries to open his eyes. He tries. Hot white burns behind his lids, and a sharp pain stabs through the front of his brain. It is so bright. How is it so bright when his eyes are closed?
“Leon?”
Raihan’s here! He opens his mouth to respond, but can only grunt.
“I’m going to get the doctor.”
Leon blindly reaches out, his fingers finding purchase on the fabric of Raihan’s hoodie, and he pulls, wrapping his fingers around the other man’s wrist.
Don’t leave me, he tries to say.
Raihan twists his wrist until their hands are linked together.
“I’ll only be gone a sec. I promise.”
It hurts. I’m scared. The words cry out in his head, but die on his tongue.
Then the hand holding his is gone and Leon wildly grasps at the air in front of him. He has never felt so alone.
Frantic voices are moving towards him now. He hears Raihan and sighs in relief. He didn’t leave him.
A second voice he doesn’t recognize moves closer.
“Chairman, I’m Dr. Clover. How are you feeling?”
It hurts so bad. Please make it stop. The only sound Leon hears come out of his mouth is a pained groan.
“Are you in pain?” Leon feels a hand slip into his, but it’s not Raihan’s. He knows how his hand feels.
“Squeeze my hand if you understand.”
So much pain. Leon squeezes.
“Good, good.” The doctor sighs, and he sounds relieved.
“I’m going to give you something for the pain.”
Yes, please, oh please! Leon squeezes his hand again, and again, as the white grows indescribably brighter behind his eyes.
The hand holding his is gone, but another takes its place. Raihan’s hand. It is warm, strong, and calloused from working with dragons.
It was about two minutes, but it felt like a lifetime, before Leon felt the pain ebb to a dull pulse. He sighs in relief.
“What’s wrong with him, doctor?”
“I don’t know. The last brain scan we did looked normal. He shouldn’t have woken up in pain, but he seemed to understand me, so that’s good. The sedative I gave him should be kicking in soon. We’ll run him down for another MRI then.”
“I’ll call his mum. I’m glad she wasn’t here to see this.”
Why am I here? What happened? The words still won’t come.
Suddenly, his body goes stiff, and his limbs seize, contorting him in an ungodly way. His elbows are trying to bend backwards as his back lifts off the bed, all of the vertebrae in his spine feeling like they have just split apart.
Raihan cries out, and Leon can feel himself crushing the hand that is still holding his own.
I’m sorry. I can’t stop.
“I need a crash cart!” he hears a voice yell.
Then the blinding white behind Leon’s eyes explodes like a supernova, before it all blessedly fades to black.
Leon hears hushed voices. The pain is gone, but he feels groggy, like he’s trying to swim up out of a vat of honey. He can make out Raihan’s and his mum’s voices, and a third. Must be Dr. Clover. He remembers that. He slowly opens his eyes, as awareness floods him.
He sees wires attached to his body, and he can hear the steady blips of a monitor. His eyes finally focus enough, and he sees them. Raihan, his mum, and the man he assumes is Dr. Clover, all standing in a small huddle a few feet from his bed.
“Hey,” and the sound of his voice shocks him. It’s gritty and rough. Like it hasn’t been used in a while.
“Oh, my baby boy,” his mum exclaims, rushing over to his side. “Welcome back, my lion.”
“Where have I been?” It feels like a ridiculous question, but he has no idea what is happening. He knows he’s in a hospital, but why is he here? He watches as Raihan steps up behind his mum.
“You don’t remember, mate?”
“Mate?”
“Uh, we’re the best of friends, yeah? And the greatest of rivals!” Raihan says as he puts his hands behind his head and flashes a smile, his canine’s on full display.
“Friends?” What is he talking about? Leon watches as Raihan’s smile falters.
“Shit, doc. I thought you said his brain was okay,” Raihan says, looking over at Dr. Clover.
“He’s probably confused, Raihan. He just woke up,” his mum says, while stroking his face gently. He sees the concerned look on her face though.
Leon looks over to Dr. Clover for answers, pleading with his eyes. The doctor moves to stand on the other side of his bed.
“Do you remember the accident?” the doctor asks.
“Accident?” He looks over his mother at Raihan. Leon is starting to feel stupid answering everything with questions.
“Battle Tower, Lee. You were there doing some training when a part of the ceiling came down on you. Charizard busted through the window and dove straight down to the first floor to get help,” he tells him. “Shoddy Rose construction,” he adds under his breath.
Leon doesn’t remember any of this, and as he tries to recall, he starts to realize he can’t remember a lot of things.
“It is understandable that you may not remember. It was a traumatic event, and it is quite possible that you didn’t even see it coming,” the doctor offers helpfully.
That is a very reasonable explanation, but that doesn’t explain why Leon can’t remember anything from before five years ago, as hard as he’s trying.
The distress he was feeling must have been clear on his face, because his mum pats his hand, and looks over at the two men.
“Maybe he needs to get some rest.”
He has a strange feeling he’s been asleep for awhile, but he is still so tired. Maybe he’ll remember tomorrow.
The next time Leon wakes up, he is more alert. The memories of the past two days fade into what feels like a fever dream. He isn’t even sure if they happened at all.
Raihan is sitting in the chair next to his bed. His body is precariously slouched, his butt just on the edge of the seat. His legs are stretched out, crossed at the ankle, and his arms are crossed at his chest. His chin is resting on his chest, and Leon marvels at how Raihan has always been able to get his tall, gangly limbs comfortable enough to fall asleep in the most uncomfortable of spaces. It was a gift that Leon had always been incredibly jealous of.
As much as he wants to talk to Raihan, Leon is quite content to just look at him for the moment. Even in his awkward position, and his face all scrunched up in sleep, he is still the most beautiful man Leon has ever seen.
“Bubblegum!” and Raihan’s body gives a solid little jerk, as his eyes fly open. He stills for a moment, before scooching back in the chair and stretches his arms and legs. It seems to take a moment, as his eyes flicker around him before settling on Leon.
“Dreaming about bubblegum?”
“Oh, Lee. Hey, hey,” and he straightens up, looking slightly apprehensive.
“Hey hey, yourself,” Leon shoots back. The familiarity of their customary greeting seems to relax Raihan, and he returns an easy smile. This was just like how they used to greet each other before they...
“You, um, feeling better today?” Raihan interrupts his thoughts.
“So, it wasn’t a dream.”
“Sorry?”
“The last couple of days?” The pain, the confusion, all of it, he thinks, but doesn’t say.
“You must have been really out of it. You gave us all a scare. You aren’t in any pain are you?”
“No. I feel…” and he takes stock of his body, wiggling fingers and toes, “fine actually.”
The blinding smile he gets at that melts him. Raihan quickly sobers and leans forward in his seat.
“You scared the shit out of us. Even the doc. He turned pale as all hell.”
“I remember, vaguely. I saw…” Leon pauses, not even sure himself. “It was like looking straight into the sun. It was so bright, and it burned. It hurt so much.”
“We could tell. I felt so fucking helpless, mate.”
Leon cocked his head because he remembered Raihan calling him mate yesterday. Was it yesterday? He hasn’t called him that in a long time.
“The doc ran more tests on your head. They said something about possible brain damage from prolonged bleeding on your brain that maybe the first scans missed. But they found nothing. You are a medical mystery, Lee.”
“So, what happened? You said I got knocked out by a part of the building falling on me, but what happened after? I get the feeling I’ve been here for a while.”
“Yeah, almost two weeks. You got hit in the head so hard, and you were having these, like, seizures? So they induced a coma to stabilize you. They brought you out from under that after two days, but you wouldn’t wake up. Your mum has been sick with worry.”
“Just my mum?” Leon teased.
“Of course I was fucking worried,” Raihan growled and Leon felt bad. He realized too late that his flippant comment was insensitive. He’d be pissed off, too, if their roles were reversed.
“Sorry, Rai,” he whispered, hanging his head.
“Ugh, stop with the puppy dog eyes. I guess you’re allowed to be cheeky about your own coma.”
“So, my mum, Hop, they are both good?”
“Yeah. Your mum and I took turns here. She should be here any minute, in fact. She’ll be a blubbering mess to see you alert and shit. Hop has been here on weekends, and has come in between then when he can. He wanted to take shifts with us, but your mum squashed that idea right quick. You know he’s ass deep on his final research project.”
“Wait, final project?” Hop finished that three years ago. Raihan must have meant the new project that Sonia and Hop are working on. “Don’t you mean the...”
“Leon!” Leon’s mum’s voice cuts through and Raihan gets up out of the chair and moves so that she could be closer.
“Hi mum.”
“You are looking so much better today. Are you feeling good? Any pain? Do you need the doctor?”
“No mum,” and Leon can’t help but let out a slight laugh at his mums, well, mothering. “I feel much better.”
“And we’re glad for it, mate,” Raihan added.
“Rai, why do you keep calling me…”
“Chairman, how are we feeling today?” It seems like he isn’t allowed to finish a sentence today, he thinks ruefully.
Dr. Clover walks to the other side of the bed, and pulls a pen light from his pocket.
“Let me take a look. Follow my finger with your eyes.” After a few ups and downs and side to sides, the doctor pulls on Leon’s eyelids lightly, flashing his light, and for a moment, the white light makes Leon panic. His fingers clenched into the bedding, and he would have lost it had he still not been able to see his mum from the corner of his eye.
When he finished with his exam, the doctor pockets his pen light and grabs a rolling stool from the other side of the room, and sits down, rolling over to his side.
“Any pain today, chairman?”
“Um, you can just call me Leon. I haven’t been the chairman for a long time,” Leon laughs.
The silence that followed was deafening. Leon looks around and finds everyone’s eyes on him. Raihan is staring wide-eyed, his mum looks like she’s ready to cry, and the doctor makes a weird sound in his throat.
“Why do you say that, Leon?” the doctor asks.
“Because I retired from that job almost four years ago.”
“Mate, you sure you’re alright?”
“Stop calling me that!” His voice is rising and he can’t help it.
“And if you both are here, who’s watching Zara?” Leon continues, looking angrily between his mum and Raihan.
“Who’s Zara, sweetie?” He could tell his mum was trying really hard to hold it together, but her voice shook when she spoke.
“Who is…? Rai, where is Zara?”
“Lee, really, I don’t…”
“Where is Zara? Where is our daughter?”
“Wha…?” Raihan stumbles back until his back hits the wall.
Everything stopped then and it felt like time froze.
“Where the fuck is my daughter?” Leon finally screams. “Where is she!? I want my daughter. Where…”
Before he could utter another word, the white was back, only his eyes were open this time. He sees no difference when he closes them.
He can do nothing but scream, a guttural, primal sound, torn straight from his soul. He’s scared, and angry. The pain is agonizing, like molten lava being shot through his eyes.
He can feel hands trying to hold him down, and he realizes his limbs are thrashing. He just hit the doctor.
“Someone get me 5mg of haloperidol, now!” the doctor hollars out, and Leon can hear a cacophony of people moving around him. The white has become unbearable.
His mum is crying.
His mum is sitting next to his bed. It’s been three days since his episode , as the doctor called it. More tests, more brain scans... everything comes back normal. Raihan hasn't returned since.
“How was the therapist? Was she nice?” His poor mum looks like she’s aged years in the past few days.
“She was.”
“And how…” Leon waves a hand to stop her.
“I understand that what I’m remembering didn’t happen.”
None of it happened. He’s still the chairman. Hop hasn’t completed his final project to advance to being called a professor. Him and Raihan are just mates, and not married. They aren’t living a beautiful life, with their beautiful daughter.
None of it happened.
“What do you remember?”
“Apparently, nothing.”
“But you remember me?”
“Yes. I know you're my mum, but,” and he takes a deep breath, “I don’t remember things. Like, what did I get for my fifth birthday? How did we spend our holidays? I know that I was the champion, but I don’t remember my journey, or how I got there. I don’t remember holding Hop when he was a baby. I know I did these things, I know… I just can’t remember.”
“But you remember other things?”
“Apparently I remember five years of a life that I didn’t actually live.”
He can’t stop the tears as they roll down his cheeks.
“Do you, um, do you want to tell me about it?”
He looks at her, and she smiles warmly. Maybe it would help to talk to her about it. To tell her the details as if they really happened. Recounting them to the therapist was cold, clinical, and for every detail he gave her, she just reinforced that it didn’t happen.
“Oh, mum, can I?”
She nods, and so he does. He starts at the beginning. He tells her about coming home from a trip. He’s not even sure where he went, why he was on the trip, or what he did, only that he was gone for a couple of months. Raihan was waiting for him at the airport, and he was surprised to find him there. They took a taxi back to his place together, and Raihan helped him with his luggage. Then, Raihan shly asked him out on a date before he left to go home.
“I didn’t even unpack. He left, and my jet-lagged arse got on Charizard and we flew straight home. You made us tea while I excitedly babbled about the date. I had been in love with him for so long.”
His mum smiles at him then, because that is something she does know, though, he frowns, because he doesn’t remember falling in love with him.
“I mean, I know I always thought he was handsome. Who doesn’t? He can go from looking sweet, to a sultry model, to wickedly devilish in the blink of an eye. It’s what makes him so popular on social media. I don’t remember how or when I fell in love with him. I just know, you know?”
“I know how, sweetie. And I can fill you in on that later, if you like. I was your favorite ear to bend when you fell for him. Oh, and did you fall hard.” His mum giggles and he loves that sound.
She smiles at him and Leon feels better hearing that. Apparently his delusions are at least based on some fact. Calling them delusions though seems disrespectful. They feel so real. Like it all really happened. These memories didn’t happen, however, and he needs to come to terms with that.
“Well, you are a good ear. You always listen and you give the best advice.”
The date was strangely awkward at first. They had known each other for so long, but being out with the intention of it being romantic seemed to stress Raihan out a little. It was Leon who suggested a pre-date battle. One on one on the pitch at the park in Wyndon.
They had drawn a small crowd and people cheered as he released Aegislash and Raihan released Sandaconda. Leon remembers thinking that that was some shit luck as Aeglislash went down after a good fight.
The impromptu battle did the trick, putting them on familiar ground, and Raihan loosened up. They had dinner and shared a bottle of wine, and talked about everything except for their pokemon, or battles, or anything to do with the league. It seemed to be an unspoken agreement, since those were the very things they have talked about ad nauseum in the years they’ve known each other. This night they shared information that ranged from the trivial ( what’s your favorite color? ), to the more significant ( what kind of relationship do you hope this can grow into? ).
The night had ended with Raihan holding his hand as he walked Leon home, before giving him a kiss goodnight.
Leon continued to move further along the five years of memories with his mum. From when the two men made their relationship official and public, to their first fight (where Leon had once again ran home to his mum), to them moving in together.
And further still.
There was a wedding, Hop was his best man, and he told her how beautiful she looked dancing with him at the reception. He retired from being the chairman, and he recounted how her and Raihan had thrown him a surprise party, complete with black balloons, and old man gag gifts. He came to her when he and Raihan began looking into adoption, asking her if she thought he’d make a good father. Zara, which means radiance, was just five weeks old when she came home.
“You are… were? Well,” he sighs, “you are a proud and doting grandmother. Rai and I pouted for weeks when her first word was Nana.”
He also told her how Hop became a professor and how him and Sonia had travelled for research for almost a year. Then how they came back with their grand plans for Galar.
Exhausted and voice raw, Leon finished when he got to the end of what he remembered.
His mum sniffled.
“Are you alright?”
“Me?” and she gives him a watery laugh. “I can see why this is so distressing to you. Those are beautiful memories of the future.”
Iris was there the day her beloved lion was released from the hospital. While he may have been physically cleared, he was grieving. Grieving for a life he remembers, that he so desperately wants, yet a life that never happened. She had to sit idly by as he bore the loss alone. His infrequent smiles never reaching his eyes and his laughter, an absent visitor.
Over the next few weeks, she stayed with him as he had begun to suffer terrible headaches, only to come out of each one remembering more of his past, and less of his future. When the last of those beautiful memories were gone, his headaches left with them. He remembers being in the hospital, but he didn’t remember his episode, or telling her about his other memories. She watched him as he returned to his happy and enthusiastic self. Happier not knowing what he had so desperately coveted, but did not have.
Then one day he called her.
“Hi mum. I’m taking a leave of absence from work. Maybe a month or two. I need to get out of Galar.”
“Oh, really? Is work that bad right now?”
“No, not really. Same as it’s always been. I don’t know why, but I feel like I have to go, you know?”
Something pings in her head, and she recalls Leon telling her the first thing he ‘remembered’ a few months back. Coming home from a trip, but not knowing why he was on the trip.
“Well, that sounds splendid. You work too hard and I think a break away from everything is just what you need.”
“Thanks mum. That’s as good of a reason as any, right?” and he laughs. “I’m glad to hear you say that actually, because I was feeling a little mental. I have no idea what brought this on. It’s almost like a voice in the back of my head telling me to go. Maybe my brain still needs more healing time.”
Iris’ heart thudded hard at hearing that.
It is the day that Leon is returning from his trip. She feels silly, but she has two cups prepped next to the teapot, waiting. The kettle has just finished boiling. She laughs at herself as she goes to sit in the living room, staring at the front door. It was one little thing. A coincidence that he went on this trip. Her boy just desperately needed a break.
Then, her front door burst open.
“Mum!” Leon hollered for her. “Oh, you’re here. Sorry I yelled,” he said sheepishly, as he closed the door behind him. His hair was a mess, and his face pink. He flew all the way here on Charizard, she thought to herself.
“I flew straight here on Charizard,” he said. Then he started to jump up and down like a child itching to tell a secret.
“How about some tea, lion?”
She stood up, her heart pounding a mile a minute. Just a coincidence, she kept telling herself.
She walks into the kitchen and starts to prepare the tea, the water still hot. If Leon wasn’t so excited, he might have noticed that everything was ready and two cups were set out waiting. Iris is glad he doesn’t notice, because she didn’t have a fib prepared, and telling him the truth might get her committed.
“So,” Leon begins, a bright smile on his handsome face, “Raihan asked me out.”
Just a coincidence.
“That’s wonderful! If he hadn’t, I was going to tell you to just ask him out. You’ve been dancing around your feelings for him for too long.”
“I know mum.”
“When is this date happening?”
“This coming weekend. I’m excited… and nervous. I had no clue at all that he had any feelings besides friendship for me. I dropped some hints in the past, but I tried to not be so blatant that I would damage our friendship.”
“You are an excellent match. I can’t imagine this going any other way than good.”
“Don’t tell me you are already planning a wedding in your head, mum. Let’s get through the first date, alright?”
Just a coincidence. It’s her mantra.
“Oh, a wedding! Well, now you’ve planted the seed, Leon.”
She hears his wistful voice in her head from all those months ago in the hospital.
‘You looked beautiful dancing with me at the reception.’
He pulls her from her thoughts when he cracks a huge yawn. She remembered him telling her that he was jet-lagged and once his adrenaline crashed, he spent the night in his childhood bedroom.
“You look exhausted. I know you are probably yearning for your own bed at home, but it’s probably not safe to try to fly all the way back tonight. And it’s late for a taxi.”
“You reading my mind, mum? I was just going to ask if my old room is habitable right now.”
“You know, it is fortuitous that I just dusted and changed the bedding in there. So lucky you!”
Just a coincidence.
It was a stupid fight. That didn’t stop Iris from holding her son as he sobbed on her shoulder.
Two fiery and competitive men, rivals on the pitch, taking a disagreement and turning it into a war.
Leon hadn’t said anything other than they had a bad fight before he broke down in tears, but she knows. This is their first fight, which means Raihan got angry that Leon was late. Her son, with his head so often floating high up in the clouds, has a propensity for getting lost.
When it is something important, something that he shouldn’t be late to, he tries to take precautions. He maps his route, or takes a taxi. He leaves early, or makes sure he’s going with someone else. Tonight, he was late for a stay home date at Raihan’s.
Raihan was irritated, and Leon told him that he knows Leon gets lost. That he should just expect this to happen. Her son was so wrong in his approach, and his attitude made Raihan reply with a scathing, ‘that’s like telling me that I don’t matter. That you can’t even try for me!’
Iris remembers Leon laughing about it in the hospital, because it’s often easy to laugh at moments like this after they’ve happened, even though this was something that hadn’t actually happened.
But now it’s happening.
She knows they’ll be fine, and one day in the not too distant future, Leon will laugh about it again.
Once Leon has his tears under control, she tells him she’s going to put a kettle on, then he can tell her all about it. She pulls three cups from the cupboard, because Raihan will be here shortly. She will get to play referee.
She still tries to tell herself that it’s just a coincidence.
The wedding is being held on a perfect spring evening. Rookidees are chirping around them, harmonizing with the sounds of the creek running through Professor Magnolia’s property, as Raihan and Leon exchange their vows. They had decided to avoid the public spotlight, and didn’t announce their wedding plans. It was a small affair of only 34 people.
Iris sits up front along with Leon’s grandparents. Hop is, of course, Leon’s best man. Raihan’s parents and sister sit next to her, and while Iris had met his parents several times already, today was her first time meeting his sister, since she lives in Hoenn for work. On the other side of her sits Sonia and Professor Magnolia, who are absolutely family in all but name.
Besides a few other friends the two men have outside of the league that they invited, the gym leaders and Gloria are all in attendance (and their plus ones, if they had one), along with Raihan’s gym trainers.
Piers is Raihan’s best man, and Iris has to admit that that boy cleans up well. Iris is actually a big fan of Piers’ music, and will often blast her favorite songs when she’s working in her house when no one else is around. She brought his latest CD, carefully stashed in her clutch, for him to autograph. She knows she’ll be able to sneakily do it at some point tonight, because Leon told her that he had found the signed CD a year after the wedding and made her fess up.
Professor Magnolia had been gracious enough to allow them the use of her property, with its beautiful views. Chairs are set up along the shore, with the scenic lake as their backdrop for the sunset ceremony. A large, colorful tent of deep purples and blues sits behind them for the reception, lit up with twinkling lights strung around the inside of its walls. There will be a delicious buffet of spiced meats, savory veggies, saffron rice, flat bread, and a selection of fresh fruits. There are bottles of champagne already corked, waiting on the tables for the guests to drink. The photographer, who has an eye for the sublime Raihan had gushed, is capturing each moment.
The justice of the peace announces the newly married couple as the two men kiss and their friends and family cheer.
Later, Leon tells Iris she looks beautiful as she dances with him.
Everything Leon had told her in his hospital room all those years ago has so far come to pass. The trip, the first date, the first fight, moving in together, getting married, Leon retiring as chairman, and yes, even the surprise party with the black balloons and old retiree gag decorations her and Raihan put up.
Every once in a while, Iris would still try to convince herself that it could just be coincidence. Or maybe, those delusions masquerading as memories were locked in his subconscious, and were guiding his decisions along the way, creating a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy.
Any chance of holding on to a sliver of any of that kind of thinking shattered with Hop.
Hop aced his final project, and co-wrote a paper with Sonia on the dynamax phenomenon that was unique to their region. The paper caused a stir among the academics who study pokemon, and they travelled for nearly a year to other regions, both speaking on their findings, as well as studying the novel moves and evolutions in other regions. Just like Leon had told her.
Hop would call home with tales of Z-Moves and Mega Evolution, and Iris would smile and nod, though most of what he said went over her head. She is not a stupid woman, and she got the gist of it, but her brilliant son would delve into the science of it all. He forgets that not everyone has had the years of study he has.
When the two of them returned, it was with grand plans. She listened as Hop excitedly explained that they were going to raise the money to build a habitat. A place where they can not only rehabilitate injured pokemon, but breed those whose numbers were dwindling in the wild. A place where they could continue their research. A place exactly like Leon had told her about. He was their first donor.
There is no way it is all just a coincidence.
Memories of a future past is what she started calling them as each memory that Leon had shared had come to fruition.
Today, she sits by her phone waiting for the next memory.
Of everything Leon told her, this was the only memory that had a date and time. And she remembered it. Today is the day she becomes a grandmother.
In ten minutes, her phone will ring, and Leon will tell her to meet them at the agency in Wedgehurst to meet her granddaughter.
The two men have been actively trying to adopt for the past year. They had one close call and were devastated when the birth mother had changed her mind. Even though she knew that the boy the woman had wasn’t destined to be their child, it still hurt. It was especially rough to watch their hopes get crushed. She smiled warmly at them and told them to not lose faith. Their child was out there waiting for them.
In eight minutes, her phone will ring, and she will be told that their five week old little girl will be going home with them.
She never told Leon about his memories. At first it was still just too hard to fathom that it could all be real. Then, too much time had gone by, too many memories of the future already past. Would she believe someone if they told her they knew about events before they happened when they have already happened?
In six minutes, her phone will ring, and she will be told that it’s real this time, all of the papers already signed.
Raihan had come to her one day, early on in his relationship with Leon. Leon didn’t remember his episode. Didn’t remember that he had screamed at Raihan about their daughter. Leon didn’t remember that Raihan had basically abandoned him in the hospital after that. He felt like he needed to explain himself to her. The episode had scared him, and he didn’t know what to do. Guilt at not being there for his friend ate at him. Mostly he was confused. He was in love with Leon and was sure that maybe Leon knew, and these weird episodes he was having was because of that knowledge leaking through some unseen brain injury. It wasn’t until later, after Leon left for his trip, did Raihan realize that if Leon had known, it sure seemed as if he felt the same if his brain fabricated them as a family. Iris assured him she understood. It was a scary time for them all.
In four minutes, her phone will ring, and she will be told that they decided to name her Zara, which means radiance.
It was Raihan who suggested the name. It was a family name, and another reason he freaked out after Leon’s episode in the hospital. Iris had convinced him to keep that information just between the two of them. Maybe it was better that Leon doesn’t remember what happened. Besides, she assured him. It was obvious that Leon approved of the name already.
In two minutes Iris gets a new title added to mother, daughter, friend, and mentor.
This is the last concrete memory. After this Leon had told her how close her and Zara were. Iris is little Zara’s number one babysitter. She knows Zara’s first word will be Nana, and that fills her with pride and joy. Her son is used to being a champion, so he can let her have this win. He told her about Zara’s first birthday, and holidays spent with both of their families. He had been talking for hours at that point, and he had grown tired. The last memories were more like impressions because even he only remembered so far into the future.
Her phone rings.
“Hello, my lion.”
“Hi mum. How did you know it was me?”