Article 14: Anterograde
Ally Finnerty
The warm autumn morning of September 21 is the vacation day. The sleeping beauty, Bianca Blue, is fast asleep in her bed. She is a young woman living alone in a tight-knit apartment complex with her neighbours living close by. With her parents living across the country, she must fend for herself to be able to live in New York City.
With the sun shining bright at 7 a.m. sharp, Bianca wakes up to the blaring sound of her alarm clock. She quickly jumps out of bed with excitement.
“Today is the day! Venice, Italy, here I come!” She cheers to herself in the mirror while stroking her long brown straight hair: “I am so ready to leave the comfort and familiar smell of New York City; this feels like a dream!”
She fumbles with her luggage down three stairwells and then hops into the yellow taxi cab on her way to the airport. The excitement of her trip causes Bianca to experience deja-vu while inside the vehicle. Everything about the cab and the city was almost too familiar; she was ready to change and to differentiate from her repetitive lifestyle.
Bianca arrives at the airport in a rush. Before boarding the flight, she jolts down the hallways and presents her passport to the husky and short-tempered airport official. He had the attitude of the Grinch on Christmas day.
“Phew! That was a close one! Am I right?” sighs Bianca with relief.
“Here we go again…” the airport official murmurs under his breath, “we’ve been waiting for you,” he continues.
Confused but running out of time, Bianca brushes off his strange comment and continues to hand him her passport.
“Your passport is not valid ma’am,” he says, even before looking at her passport.
“Very funny,” Bianca jokingly scoffs and rolls her eyes, as she snatches her passport back from him and continues. Then, suddenly, the airport’s official’s bulky, protruding arm reaches directly in front of her, blocking her from entering the terminal towards the airplane.
“Stop right there, Bianca,” he affirms and grips her wrist.
“H-how do you know me?” Bianca stutters, attempting to break away from his sturdy grip.
The airport official calls for security as if she were a threat to others in the airport. In no time, a short and portly security officer is approaching in the distance.
“She’s aggressive today, look out Bill!” The airport official informs the security guard.
“I do not understand, I am just trying to catch my flight before it takes off, please, sir, I have been looking forward to this for months,” Bianca pleads.
Tears start to form in the corners of her eyes, and she begins giving the airport official and security guard her best pouting face. The two men, acting like two stooges, turn their backs towards her and start to whisper among themselves. At this moment, Bianca watches her flight take off. She begins to get lost deep in thought as she wipes a tear from her eye. Bianca was sure that her passport was still valid for at least a few years, and why did the security guards know her name? Everything seems so hazy.
Bianca begins to eavesdrop on the conversation between the two men. Her goal is to gain some insight into what is going on.
“This is getting out of hand, let’s just call someone,” the security guard huffed.
“Bill, we can’t keep stalling, we need to take her out of here,” snapped the airport official.
Bianca hears the end of their conversation and grows with worry and anxiety. She slowly backs away from the terminal before they notice. Once the two men are not in sight, she begins to run down the endless halls of the airport, with her luggage trailing behind.
Soon after she exits the airport, she is triggered by the blaring yellow sun and a taxi cab outside of the building. She is brought to her knees, and she runs her fingers through her scalp as if she remembers something, a strong feeling that this terrifying moment has happened before.
“I must just be having deja-vu again,” she weakly whispers to herself.
“HEY! There she is, let’s get her!” a familiar male voice exclaims in the distance.
Bianca gets up in a flash, ditches her baggage, and attempts to outrun the two airport workers.
The chubby security guard gives up as he tries to catch his breath, gasping like a fish out of water. But the burly airport official begins to catch up to Bianca. Suddenly, a shiny black jeep pulls up beside the sidewalk surrounding the airport perimeter. A mysterious man in aviator sunglasses, with brown hair poking out from his green baseball cap, motions for her to jump into the car immediately.
“Quick! Get in! There’s no time to explain right here,” the mystery man hollered.
Bianca leaps into the vehicle without a doubt, leaving the airport official in the dust.
“Thank you…” she says while catching her breath, “but who exactly are you?”
The mystery man looks disappointed, “It’s me, Adam,” he declares, while taking off his disguise.
“Uhh, I don’t know an Adam,” she objected.
Adam turns down a back lane and parks the jeep. He picks up his cell phone and dials Bianca’s number. Her cell phone rings and Adam’s name pops up from her contact list. Scared and confused, Bianca demands answers from him.
“Bianca, I am your boyfriend,” sighs Adam.
“No, you aren’t. I think I would remember if I had a boyfriend,” she says confidently.
“Well clearly you don’t” he shrugs. “We do this every day, I pick you up from that exact spot by the airport every single day.”
“What do you mean?” she trembled.
“You have anterograde amnesia, Bianca. You were in a car accident in the taxi cab on your way to the airport on September 21, 2019.”
“That’s today’s date…” she faltered.
“No, Bianca, it is September 21, 2021.”
“No… It can’t be…” she says in disbelief.
“You wake up every morning, ready for your vacation. Instead, the security guards turn you down, and you come running outside, upset. Some days are worse than others. I am always here at this time, to save the day, and pull you away from the angry airport workers.”
With the stiff feeling in the air, tears begin to fall from her face as she remembers bits and pieces about her accident in the yellow taxi cab. She feels like such a burden to everyone around her, especially Adam, whom she still doesn’t remember. Adam wipes her tears, and he begins to cheer her up. He introduces himself as if they had not previously met for Bianca to feel more comfortable with him.
They are parked in the back alley of a sketchy road, talking away and getting to know each other for what felt like the first time. The conversation felt natural and Bianca felt safe in Adam’s presence; he no longer felt like a strange mystery man.
“Do you ever get tired of doing this?” Bianca questioned.
“Never,” he assured her, without hesitation.
Bianca, still feeling like a burden, assured him that he should forget about her and that she would figure it out on her own. Adam simply shakes his head at her.
“Wh-what about my parents?” she stammered.
“I told your parents that I would take care of you here in New York. So, you can wake up every morning in your own bed, excited, instead of scared and confused in another one,” he stated.
Things are starting to make more sense to her, although she will forget it all by the morning. They continue to drive around the city and find Bianca’s luggage on the sidewalk by the airport, just where she had abandoned it. Adam waves at the airport workers, assuring them that Bianca is safe with him. Suddenly, Bianca is not so upset about missing her trip to Venice. Instead, she feels lucky to have someone like Adam in her life, even if she does not quite remember him.
The two of them are attached at the hip and spend the rest of the day together. They begin getting to know each other more in-depth, which feels like a first date for Bianca. As the day comes to an end, Adam sluggishly drives her home to her cozy apartment. She feels like she returned home with a whole new life story and purpose; to be thankful for what she has. Bianca invites him in to keep her company, as she refuses to fall asleep so that she does not forget him. They sit on the couch and continue to converse.
“Why do you do this, Adam?” Bianca asks, half asleep.
“There’s nothing I’d rather do than to fall in love with you over and over again. Every single day,” he reassured her, looking deep into her eyes.
She feels her heart skip a beat and grins from ear to ear. Her smile lights up the room like the bright yellow sun on an early summer morning. However, her eyes start feeling heavier and heavier; she feels as if she could fall asleep standing straight up after the draining day she’s had. Once she is out like a light, Adam carries her to bed and tucks her in. He sets her alarm for 7 o’clock sharp. He puts her luggage beside her bed and prepares for another day tomorrow. Adam deeply believes that one day, she will remember him; he never loses hope.
The following day, with the sun shining bright at 7 a.m. sharp, Bianca wakes up to the blaring sound of her alarm clock. She quickly jumps out of bed with excitement. Looking outside of her window, she sees the yellow taxi cab waiting for her, and she is instantly reminded of Adam.
Authors’ Bio:Ally Finnerty was born and raised in The Pas Manitoba. She graduated from Margaret Barbour Collegiate Institute (MBCI) in 2020, and she has always had a strong work ethic. Ally is a recipient of the Governor General’s Academic medal, which was awarded to her during her high school graduation ceremony. Currently, she is pursuing her Bachelor of Arts degree at the University College of the North, majoring in social sciences and minoring in natural sciences. Ally believes that with hard work and effort, one can achieve anything. After graduating with the Bachelor of Arts degree, she plans to continue her studies at the University of Manitoba in order to further her studies in Psychology. In her spare time, she enjoys spending time with friends, family, and pets, along with working out at the Wellness Centre and spending time outdoors.
Instructor Remarks: Ally Finnerty is a gifted student with a beautiful personality. I have had the privilege of instructing her in both the ENG.1002 and IDS.1003 courses that I offer at UCN. Her short story “Anterograde” was submitted as a creative work in my ENG.1002 course in fall of 2021. I am sure that the reader will find this story captivating due to the non-linear structure of the plot—Dr. Joseph Atoyebi.