Chapter 216: Even Though Stars Are Beautiful, You Are Even More Beautiful
"If you are not comfortable lying on the floor, I can let you have the bed or I can lie near you, or we could..."
He was just about to say "we can sleep together" when she interrupted him.
"I have a gastric problem recently, so I may have to be getting up late into the night frequently. Lying here will surely disturb your sleep."
She didn’t give him a chance to speak thereafter and walked out with her luggage.
He stared at her back and wanted to say, "It’s okay." However, seeing how quickly she left, he just held back and swallowed his words. It was only when he fell asleep that night that he realized that it was a silly mistake to not keep her close by his side. He’s so used to her warmth. He found that he couldn’t sleep at alone by himself at all.
Usually when the two slept together, he most times took it for granted, he would unintentionally despise her presence. However, now that he was by himself, he was not really not used to sleeping alone anymore.
He tossed and turned in bed several times, unable to fall asleep. In the end, he sat up, got out of bed, and walked out of the room. He walked to the door of the guest room next door. He wanted to knock on the door, but hesitated.
Probably not, besides it’s already midnight and she’s still trying to recuperate. I must not wake her up..
He thought to himself. So he withdrew his hand resentfully.
Meanwhile, she herself couldn’t sleep either.
She couldn’t fall asleep not only because of him. It was her baby.
It was solely because of the child that she was carrying in her belly. Her baby had stayed silently in her belly for so long, yet she has not yet noticed its presence at all, no movement no anything.
"And I had done many tedious tasks today.
When she thought about it, she really broke out in a cold sweat for herself and felt a tinge of sympathy for her yet to be born baby.
Lying in bed, she couldn’t force herself to fall asleep, so she got up, opened the door, and was about to walk out when she bumped into Christopher standing at the door.
She was really startled. "Why are you here?"
Seeing that it was she, who suddenly opened the door, he felt a little embarrassed. "You... haven’t slept yet?."
she lowered her gaze. "I can’t sleep."
"What a coincidence. I can’t sleep either."
They looked at each other and smiled.
"Then... why don’t we just sit around and talk instead?"
"Okay."
On the balcony.
The two of them sat side by side. Above their heads were twilight of glistening and dazzling stars, each of them gorgeously bright and bold in the skies.
This reminded Janice of their night by the beach.
The stars shone the same that night. The sky was full of stars, as bright as the sun itself. She sat next to him and they both bore witness the beauty and majesty of the scenery. It was lovely.
This time also, he was also by her side, but what’s different is that he had no memories of the beautiful times when he was with her.
It was so worse that she couldn’t even share her joy with him.
"What are you thinking about?" He asked softly.
She came back to her senses. "I’m just gazing and admiring the stars in the sky, they are so beautiful. What about you? What are you thinking about?"
She asked in return.
He looked at her with keen eyes and said. "I’m thinking that although the stars are beautiful, you are much more beautiful."
Only after he spoke, did he realize that there were times when he couldn’t really control himself. Just like a moment ago, when he practically blurted it out, and he utterly didn’t think about whether he should or should not say it.
So being rational wasn’t within his control after all.
When she saw his expression, she was both surprised and moved.
She thought, "Is he blushing or is he just trying to flatter her?"
She had not expected him to suddenly say something like that.
When she looked deep into his eyes, she felt that she was about to lose herself in them, but she quickly got back to herself.
She shifted her gaze, and just at the moment when a meteor streaked across the sky.
"Look, there’s a meteor."
She shouted instinctively and looked away.
He followed her gaze and saw that the shooting star had slowly disappeared from his
sight. He turned around and saw her put her palms together and her eyes were closed as she made a wish.
...
As she made her wish, he stared quietly at her. He felt a feeling of déjàvu creeping onto him.
Suddenly, a memory flash of an image flickered through his mind of a woman who was making a wish by the seaside, under the starry sky.
So, was she that woman?
He looked confused for a moment.
Just then, Janice had finished making her wish, she slowly opened her eyes.
"What was your wish?"
He asked abruptly and quite unexpectedly.
She froze for a moment before turning to look at him.
"I can’t tell you. If I do, it just might not come true."
He stared at her with a serious look and playfully. Condescending chuckled. "You really believe it."
With a self-mocking smile, she replied, "Well one should consider it as hope."
She looked up at the skies full of stars and brought to mind the wish she had just made as the meteor streak bolted through the clouds.
She truly and sincerely wished that Christopher could recover his memory and start to recognize her as soon as possible, so that she need not have to work so hard at hiding the fact that she was pregnant with his child.
"It’s getting late. Let’s go back to bed."
She stood up and said.
He also stood up and stared at her back as she walked in front of him.
"Must you sleep in the guest room?"
He asked concernedly.
She stopped in her tracks but did not turn around. "You still have to go to work in the morning. You must go to bed early."
After saying that, she continued walking towards the guest room.
He stood there for a while before he let out a sigh. He knew that without her by her side, it’s no different from a nightmare.
Sure enough, early the next morning, he sluggishly strolled downstairs with panda black eyebags. He sure hadn’t had a good night’s rest.
Janice had just finished prepping breakfast. As soon as she brought it to the dining table, she noticed his tiring and sluggish gait while he was coming downstairs. Her gaze also caught his dark circles, but she didn’t say anything. She turned around and picked up an ice bag from the fridge and handed it to him.
He didn’t ask for a reason either.
Instinctively, Christopher took it and put it on his eyes, but he looked at her with some resentment.
He casually wondered what level of attachment that would cause to lose sleep like this.
"Let’s have breakfast."
Janice laid the cutlery on the table and sat down to eat.
Christopher opened his eyes and put the ice bag aside. Looking down at her eating with no intention of asking him how was he, he said resentfully.
"I was expecting you to ask what’s wrong with my eyes, Why didn’t you bother asking?"
She didn’t look up and continued to eat her breakfast. "If I can’t sleep well, I will occasionally be like this too. Remember to drink a glass of milk before bed next time, it usually does the trick."
He just wanted to confess that having milk before bed couldn’t cut it, only her being around would.
After thinking it through, he felt that he’s just give her the benefit of the doubt and not say anything about it. It would be too embarrassing. It would appear as if he was being unfairly clingy and possessive.
After breakfast, Christopher headed to the office while Janice drove over to the Allson’s place.
When she walked in, Wanda and Nanny Daisy were busy in the yard.
Everything in the courtyard, including clothes and books, were being laid out to be dried in the sun.
"Mom."
Janice walked past the items.
Wanda raised her head as soon as she heard her voice.
"Janice, you are finally here."
She put down the things in her hands, dusted off her hands in delight and walked over.
Janice looked around. "Mom, what are you..."
Wanda said, "There are too many things in the house. I thought since I had nothing
to do, I took them out to sort through them. By the way, how have you been lately?"
Janice knew exactly what her mother-in-law was asking to. She nodded and said, "I am good. How is grandpa?"
Wanda sighed. "He still hasn’t woken up yet."
"Can I go and see him?"
"Of course."
Janice followed Wanda to the room.
"Go ahead. I won’t go in with you. The doctor said that he can hear us." Wanda patted Janice on the shoulder and turned to leave.
Janice stood there and glanced at the tightly shut door before taking a deep breath to summon up courage and walked in.
...
The room was congested, equipment everywhere, as if the hospital had been moved into this place.
Janice was really nervous as she walked in. She slowly walked over and stopped in front of the bed.
Old Mr. Allson was lying on the bed with a respirator fastened safely around his neck, locked to his nose. He seemed quite peaceful and appeared to be asleep. Janice quietly sat down by the bed and reached out to grab his hand.
His hand was wrinkled and his palm was covered in calluses. Although the room was at a normal room temperature, he was unusually warm.
Before, it was this hand that offered her the strongest support, allowing her to still persevere in her relationship with Christopher. She held his hand, as she put together her thoughts, and said slowly.
"Grandpa, it’s Janice. I’m here to see you."
Although there was no response from him, she continued.
"Grandpa, I have good news for you. I have a baby."
As she spoke, she unconsciously reached out to touch her flat lower abdomen.
"I can remember what you use to say back then, didn’t you say that you wanted to have a great-grandson? Your wish is about to come true, so please wake up quickly. Once you wake up, I’ll have another person to share the joy with. I don’t want to be the only person who knows about this happy news."
"I didn’t tell Christopher about this. I don’t know if what I did was right or wrong, but I promised you that I wouldn’t give up on him. I’ll wait for him to remember who I am."
She said meaning every word as if she was reciting a faith-based prayer.
Although she was not getting any response at all, she somehow felt much more relaxed as she vents on.
When she left the room, Janice felt her entire body was light. So all the while, there was something burning inside of her to be said that she had been suppressing in her heart all these whiles.
She heaved a long sigh of relief before going into the courtyard. When she saw that there were quite a few children’s clothes and toys placed there, she meant to use them to distract herself and divert her attention to something afresh. SO she walked in surprise.
"Mom, these are..."
Wanda saw her staring at a row of toys in a daze and so she said.
"These were Chris’ toys when he was little. At that time, I thought they were very
cute, so I kept them as remembrance for him. But when I was sorting them today, I found that some of them were already worn out, broken and no longer working. I thought it would be better to donate them to some orphanage or charity instead, at least they would be of some value."
As Janice listened to Wanda, she picked up an old rattle from the pile of toys. She fiddled around with it and tried working it by making a series of sounds. She was very surprised.
"Did Christopher play with this when he was a child?" She thought to herself.
"Mom, can you give this to me?"
She said excitedly.
Wanda said, "Of course, also take these back with you too."
As she spoke, she handed over a small box to Janice. "Inside this box are all of Chris’ birthday gifts. They’re made of gold and silver. Although they’re not worth much, they’re still very memorable and might come in extremely valuable in helping him regain his lost memories. It will help trigger some bits and traces of his past.."
Janice received the small box and looked into it. She saw that there were quite a few bracelets and chains inside.
She said gratefully to Wanda, "Thank you, mom."
After leaving the villa of the Allson’s, Janice drove back home. On the way, while she was waiting for the red light, she couldn’t help noticing a pair of silver bracelets from the box and she picked it up.
She held the bracelet and imagined Christopher wearing it as a baby. It made her feel at ease and excited. She couldn’t help it. "It’s amazing."
"Baby, look, the bracelet I’m holding is what your Daddy used to wear when he was a child. When you are here, I’ll give it to you, okay? Here are a lot of accessories that Daddy used when he was a child. I’ll give them all to you. There’s the smell of Daddy on them. You’ll definitely like it." She teased fondly.
