paramnesia
[par-am-nee-zhuh]
*****************************
“Hey, Alex, what’s this?”
Brandon asked, holding up the large sheet of drawing paper.
Alex
turned from the drawing table he had been hunched over and looked at the
picture his roommate was holding up. It
was an unfamiliar scene that wouldn’t look out of place in a fantasy
movie. It featured a large, sprawling
castle under attack by some kind of generic monster army. It had been hand drawn, and was clearly
flawed in several places, but it was a decent attempt none the less.
“Uh,
looks like a drawing.” Alex said.
“Right. But it’s not a landscape drawing, is it?”
“Nope. Although, depending on how you look at it…”
“Yeah,
no. It’s not a landscape, that’s the
point. So why was it in your portfolio
bag?”
“What? That’s not…hold up, you went through my
stuff?”
“Meh. It was just kind of sticking out there and…” Brandon paused and blinked before
continuing. “Now wait a sec, I’m not on
trial here.”
“And I
am?”
“That
depends. Did you draw this for class?”
“I don’t
think so. I mean, I finished my
assignment, and it wasn’t that.”
Brandon
sighed in relief. If Alex didn’t pass his classes, he’d be kicked out. And there was no way that Brandon would put
up with a new roommate, not when he had just gotten one that didn’t completely
suck. Ok, so Alex did tend to zone out
sometimes, but that was pretty much the worst of it. Brandon needed to make sure Alex passed and
stayed in school, no matter the cost.
“Great. Let me see it.” Brandon said.
Alex
stood and went to the large, flat bag that housed his artwork. He opened it and rummaged through the
contents, examining the drawings that were placed in it. His brow furrowed in confusion before he put
it down.
“It’s,
uh, it’s not there.” He said.
“What
do you mean it’s not there?” Brandon
asked, getting very worried. His stable
dorm room life was hanging in the balance.
“I
mean, it’s not there.”
“I
thought you said you did it.”
“I
did. And I put it in the bag right away.” Alex said.
He paused and took another look at the drawing Brandon was still
holding. “Hang on, let me see that for a
sec.” Brandon handed the oversized sheet
of thick paper over for Alex to examine.
“I, uh, I think this is it.” He
said. “I mean, it’s my style and
everything.”
“Wait,
what? I thought you said you didn’t draw
it.”
“To be
fair, I never actually said that I didn’t.
I just said I did my landscape.”
Brandon
went over the conversation in his mind.
Alex was indeed correct on that point.
“Ok, so
where’s the landscape, and what’s with that drawing?”
“I, uh,
I don’t know. All I know is that I
remember doing the landscape work and putting it in my bag. I don’t actually remember drawing this one,
but it’s definitely my work.”
“So,
you have a picture that you drew, but don’t remember drawing, and no landscape
in sight. What’s up with that?”
“Uh,
well, actually…” Alex said. His voice petered out and he rubbed the back
of his neck nervously.
“What?
What’s actually? I don’t like actually.” Brandon said, getting very nervous.
“Lately
my memory’s been kind of messed up. I
remember doing something, but when I go back and check, I find out that I’m
remembering wrong. I doing one thing,
and I find out later that I did something else.
Or that what I did never actually happened at all.”
“Wow. Just wow.”
Brandon said. A silence fell over
the dorm room as they both thought about what had just been said. “That sounds bad. You should probably get it checked out.” Brandon said eventually.
“Yeah,
I guess so. I can probably talk to the
psych department or something. They’d
probably get a kick out of this.”
“Yeah, right.” Brandon said.
Another quiet spell fell. “So,
uh, what about the landscape? I mean,
you can’t turn that in.”
“Oh
damn it.” Alex said. Apparently, the realization of what his
mistaken memory meant for his academic life was just hitting him. “Uh, hang on, I can do this. I can totally do this.” He said as he flew back to the drawing table.
He
removed the piece he had been working on, got another sheet of paper ready, and
furiously began drawing. Brandon had to
do something to help. He had two
options. One was to keep an eye on Alex
the entire time to make sure one of those little memory problems didn’t crop up. The other was to get a whole lot of energy
drinks to keep the guy drawing as long as humanly possible. He opted for the latter option. He dashed out of the room, hoping the campus
store was still open.
***************************************
I imagine that having memory issues like this would cause a lot of problems for the person experiencing them. Although, depending on what one remembers in place of reality, it might also make things interesting. At least life wouldn't be boring, that's for sure.
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