Things Worth Remembering

“Why won’t you just listen to me, Swathi?”, Suraj exclaimed, annoyed by her dismissive attitude.

Swathi was two years older than him, and he had practically known her his entire life. He was orphaned at birth, and never knew or remembered his family. She was the only family he had - a friend, a sister, and a partner-in-crime. She had always been there for him. He held a deep sense of gratitude towards her for that act of unconditional kindness.

Swathi also loved him like her own brother. You see, Swathi was a special child. She was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of two, and hence did not have a normal childhood. She was always bullied for being different, by everyone. Everyone except him. She always felt calm and elated around him. She felt she could be her real self. For her, he was an ally in the fight against her disorder.

But now, he was trying to get her to do something she didn’t like - take medicines. In all fairness, no twelve year old girl would like to take her medicines, but her medicines were worse than most others. They made her feel funny. Her parents said they made her more focused, but she was still dubious. Suraj was fighting an uphill battle here, trying to convince her to gobble those pills.

“Why won’t you just listen to me, Swathi?”, he said. “They will make you better.”

“But I am fine right now! Mommy says they will make me focused. But they only make me confused.”

“Don’t be a baby! You know Mommies never lie. If you become focused, you can skip those therapy sessions. You know what that means - longer play hours!”. He smiled to himself, realising he just made his winning point.

“But I forget things when I take those pills - important things.”

“Come on, Swathi. You can’t forget things that are worth remembering - just the useless stuff”

“Yeah. I guess you’re right”, she finally succumbed, hesitatingly.

“I’m always right, remember?” Suraj smirked.

And so she started taking her medicines - not for herself, but for him. And all seemed fine with the world. But Suraj started noticing something weird, and got more and more concerned each day. Swathi was acting distant towards him.

“Do you wanna play Hide ‘n Seek?”

“No, I gotta do my homework”

“Do you wanna go look at the stars?”

“No, I need to help Mommy”

He was tolerating it, until the day she put him off with a single worded “No”. Which brings us to the beginning.

“Why won’t you listen to me, Swathi?”, Suraj exclaimed, annoyed by her dismissive attitude.

And his heart broke, as she kept walking without as much as a reaction. Suppressing his tears, the little boy dashed out of the room, only to stumble onto her parents. They kept talking, as if he were invisible.

“She’s getting better, isn’t she? She’s almost forgotten about the boy, and isn’t complaining about it either.”

“Yeah. I just asked her if she was forgetting something, and she replied ‘only those not worth remembering’. I think it is safe to say the hallucinations have stopped for good.”

Suraj’s heart sank, as he tried to push away what he  heard as lies. But deep down, he knew the truth. Maybe he had always known. Taking a last look at her with blurry eyes, he muttered to himself.

“I’m always right, remember?”