Chapter 4 Something that she can't remember

"Did something happen?" Oliver walked beside her, approaching Lynne after their class.

As twins, the two looked quite identical, with almost the same facial features. You could say Oliver was the male version of Lynne because of their resemblance, except for Oliver's hair colour, which was light brown. One that made them easy to distinguish.

As Oli recalled, Lynne left for her school this morning quite cheerfully as he heard her voice asking him to hurry up. Carefree enough, although not as carefree as when her mood was really in a joyous state. Only good enough because there was no sign of her spirits dropping. But something seemed to have affected her mood. Since just now, Lynne had been walking silently as if her mind was elsewhere.

"Wh-what?" Asked Lynne, confused. She only heard Oliver's voice but had no idea what Oliver was talking to her about.

Oliver frowned, looking at Lynne a little strangely. He was not surprised at Lynne's reaction. He Just had a little question about what Lynne was focusing on until she seemed to think hard. "Did something happen?" he repeated to make sure.

Something, it felt like it.

Lynne was thinking hard. The crease on her forehead seemed to tighten, and her gaze was glued in one direction to focus. But no matter how hard she thought, she couldn't find what was stuck in her mind. "I feel like something's going on, but I don't know what," she said in a slight murmur, hardly audible to Oli despite being beside him.

"Watch your step, Lynne. You could end up hurting a pole on the side of the road with your forehead." Oliver tugged Lynne's hand for her to walk away from the pole in front of them. Before doing so, he made sure his quiet laughter was heard first.

Lynne looked up, raising her eyes that had been downcast. It then looked at the pole Oliver was referring to. "My forehead has more potential to hurt it than acid rain threatening to rust him slowly," Lynne said sarcastically.

Oliver's laughter grew louder, his parted lips revealing sharp fangs that looked conspicuous. "It seems so."

Lynne's gaze was fixed on him through the corner of her eyes. She didn't say a word, but the matte look on her face spoke more than Oliver could hear. That look was enough to stop the laughter and change the look on Oliver's face. "I was joking."

Lynne took her eyes off Oliver, staring at the other side of the road but still with an undirected focus.

From the school to where they lived was a short distance. Their school was quite close, a few blocks from their home to the city centre, with various facilities, including learning centres of multiple levels. Oliver balanced his steps with Lynne's; he was worried that Lynne would stumble because she was walking unfocused in the middle of a crowded street filled with other children who had just finished their lessons, just like them. "Watch your step." Oli pulled her again. "What are you thinking about?"

"Ah, that. I was thinking about-" Lynne tried to tell Oli what she was thinking about, but no matter how hard she tried to remember what she had been thinking about, Lynne couldn't remember.

There was no trace like she hadn't thought of anything before. But Lynne was convinced that she had thought of something earlier. Strangely, she couldn't replay the thought or even know the point of what she was thinking. "I don't remember what I was thinking," Lynne said consciously.

Just as Lynne looked confused, Oliver also looked at her in confusion. He stared in disbelief at the girl while chuckling. "You just don't want to tell me. Why even mention a ridiculous reason?" He laughed at Lynne.

Lynne denied it. Her head shook hard, and then her eyebrows knitted together. "I don't remember it," Lynne said seriously.

It was hard for Oliver to believe. He had just seen Lynne thinking out loud, and then a few seconds later, when he asked, she said she didn't remember. Isn't that funny? It made less sense if she insisted that she didn't recognise it. "You want me to believe it? Fine, even if it doesn't make sense for me to believe. For you, I'll believe it," Oliver said, simply agreeing that if Lynne didn't want to tell him, he didn't need to insist on knowing.

"But I don't remember!" squealed Lynne in denial.

"Yes, you don't remember, and I'll take that as what you said."

"I'm serious!" shouted Lynne, not wanting to be seen as pretending.

"Yes," agreed Oli suppressing his words and smiling, to Lynne's satisfaction. "Walk right someone could hit you if you walk looking to the side," said Oliver pulling Lynne's shoulder so that she looked straight ahead.

Even though he said yes, Lynne knew Oliver was saying yes, not because he believed Lynne's words. Because of that, Lynne didn't think it was right, and she again spoke softly, "I don't remember it. I know I was thinking about something. I could feel what I was thinking was getting me so attached, but afterwards, I don't remember. What I was thinking, what took over my mind so completely just now... I don't remember it."

There was someone she was thinking about, but the name, the look, even what made Lynne feel about him, Lynne could not remember.

It was only after the girl said softly and continued to insist that she didn't remember that Oliver turned his head in astonishment. How could a few seconds pass when someone forgets what they were thinking? Is it possible for such a thing to happen? Oliver thought Lynne might be lying and playing a trick on him, but Oliver recognised it. If she were lying, she wouldn't be so desperate to explain it; her voice would still sound loud instead of pleading softly and weakly like before. But Lynne didn't have a brain disorder, and she was also intelligent enough to remember things in a reasonably short time, had something recently gotten her into trouble, Oli thought about it silently for a while. He glanced at Lynne silently.

"Did you hit your head on something? Did you take a high dose of something like medicine or something?" probed Oliver, watching his surroundings as he spoke.

"Hey!" shouted Lynne sounding annoyed by Oliver's excessive questioning. "Do you think I've lost my mind? What would I use something like that for?" she hissed, shuddering in horror at the thought of herself in Oliver's words.

Lynne only focused on the question in the middle of the sentence; she ignored the beginning of Oliver's question or even the end. If she had put them together and processed them simultaneously, she wouldn't have thought that Oli said something rude to her. "Nothing of the sort! Why do you only hear what you want to hear and ignore the beginning and the end?" retorted Oli astonished at the short wick.

"Ah-sorry, there seems to be something wrong with my brain," admitted Lynne feeling guilty because she thought Oli was calling her out of line.

"Forget it. Just answer what I asked. You're not stupid, so how could something like that happen to you? To forget also takes time. It's not like the thought flashed through your head just like that until you immediately forgot. You thought about it so deeply that you were stunned while walking. I think forgetting it right away is almost impossible," Oliver said, thinking about the possibilities.

At least it would take something shocking for someone to forget what they had just done. But Oliver didn't surprise her when he asked Lynne what was wrong, which couldn't be surprising because he asked and spoke the usual way.

"You're right. I don't know. I think I was thinking of someone but who it was, what was his name, a girl or a boy or something like that, I can't remember. I don't remember at all," Lynne admitted, making it seem strange for her and Oliver, who also heard it. What Lynne said was that she was thinking about her dream last night.