The airport was enormous and filled with people rushing around. Holly struggled with the noise and the pace of activity. It was quite different from her quiet hospital. She wondered how she would cope with the busy streets of New York if she was already halfway to a panic attack in the airport.
Luckily, she had Victoria. And with Victoria came first-class everything, including a private lounge within which to eat a meal before the flight.
The moment they stepped through the doors and breezed past reception, she let out a sigh of relief. A waiter almost fell over himself to seat them at the best table in the lounge. Holly was starting to understand just how big of a deal Victoria was.
They had both ordered, and Victoria had quickly started to work. She placed an iPad Mini on a stand on the table and scrolled through her emails. At the same time, she spoke to various people on her phone. Before the food arrived, Holly had heard Victoria speaking in at least three different languages.
She wondered if she herself had known any languages. She spent a lot of time wondering about her previous self. There was so little else to occupy her in the hospital. All her treatments revolved around trying to help her to remember her past life, so it was impossible to escape the enormous question mark that had been her life prior to the accident.
The accident had hit the reset button on her brain. And in some ways, she was about to do the same again. She was about to leave everything and everyone she knew. She was now in the care of some almighty fashion guru who wore specific travelling outfits. She was about to fly for nine hours to her home country, which she had no memory of.
“Aren’t you hungry?” Victoria questioned, her eyes transfixed on Holly’s mainly uneaten meal. “Or is something wrong with your food? Would you like something else?”
Victoria was already turning around to seek out the waiter.
“No, no,” Holly yelped to reclaim her attention. “It’s wonderful, I’m just not very hungry. I’m a bit nervous.”
“About the flight? You’ll be fine. You get used to it soon enough.” Victoria waved her hand dismissively and returned her attention to her iPad.
“I don’t think it’s the flight I’m nervous about,” Holly admitted. “More… everything.”
Victoria looked at her over the rim of her glasses. She scrutinised Holly for a few moments.
“You should try to take your mind off things,” she said.
“Easier said than done,” Holly replied.
Holly lifted her fork and started to pick at her food, hoping it may soothe her queasy stomach.
“Why don’t you read? I noticed that your bag contains practically nothing but books.”
Holly chuckled. “Yeah, they’re all my worldly possessions. When I first started to recover, I couldn’t read very well, so I practiced a lot and found out that I really enjoy it. But there weren’t very many English books around, so the ones I have are old and donated by the staff at the hospital. I’ve probably read each one thirty times or more. Some aren’t even stories.”
She reached down to the bag and unzipped it. She pulled the first dilapidated book out and placed it on the table. “This one is about clouds, mainly. Sometimes it goes into the possible theory of a god sitting on a cloud. But mainly, it’s clouds all the way.”
She reached into the bag, pulled out another book, and put it on the table.
“This one, well, this beauty is about train stations in Moscow. Which I’m afraid to say is actually quite interesting. The first time. But when you have little to do and you have read it several times—”
“Please get those off the table.” Victoria turned her nose up.
Holly put the books back in her bag. When she sat upright again, Victoria had pulled her iPad in front of her and was swiping away at the screen.
“What books do you like reading?” Victoria asked.
“Oh, I like everything,” Holly replied. “I think I like the classics the best. I have two books by Charles Dickens that I like a lot. I have a more modern book about some career woman’s romance, but that’s not really my sort of thing, I don’t think.”
Victoria nodded. “Crime? History? Humour? Science fiction?”
“Um. I guess?” Holly answered. “Not sure about crime, I haven’t really read any. History, yes. Did I mention the three whole chapters on the Moscow train stations during the forties? Humour, yes. I’m not sure about science fiction. Never read any.”
As Holly spoke, Victoria tapped away on her iPad. She sat up and nodded with satisfaction and handed the device to Holly.
Holly hesitantly took it and frowned.
“I’ve bought the current top one hundred books according to the New York Times. They are downloading. I’m sure you’ll find something that suits you there.”
Holly gasped and looked at the iPad as if it were made of gold. She knew that this was too much, especially on top of everything else that Victoria was giving her. She handed the device back to Victoria.
“That’s very generous, but I can’t take this. You need it to do your work.”
“Nonsense, I have my laptop. And I’ll probably rest on the journey anyway.” Victoria gestured for the waiter to take her plate.
Holly placed the device beside her own plate. “Then I’ll gratefully accept it. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Victoria took a sip of water.
Holly looked at the iPad with interest. “How do you use it?”
Victoria looked startled. “Oh, well, it’s rather easy. In fact, you taught me.”
Holly laughed. “Did I? Wow.”
“Yes, I was rather late on the party when it came to tablets and such. You installed all the applications and synched it with my laptop.” Victoria almost looked wistful as she recalled the memory.
As quickly as that look had come over her, it vanished again. She shook her head, removed the napkin from her lap, and placed it on the table. She shuffled her chair closer to Holly and looked at the iPad.
“As I said, it’s all rather simple…”