Astronaut

Chapter Four: Amnesia

Wednesday 10th August

On Thursday, Harvey managed to get the brand new Beatles album Revolver as part of his presents so now he's been listening to it non-stop, much to the irritation of his family. He also has the Beatles tickets from Uncle Ted and Aunt Joan for the District of Columbia Stadium concert on the 15th and he's decided he wants to take his Uncle Bobby and one of his brothers with him. He is currently reading up on one of his favourite scientists Albert Einstein and his theory of relativity, which he finds quite fascinating and also Nikola Tesla's discovery of the Alternating Current of electricity during the famous feud between himself and Direct Current electricity believer and founder of the lightbulb, Thomas Edison. After finishing his book on Einstein, he goes over to his record shelf and selects With the Beatles instead of his new one, feeling as though he's subjected his parents and siblings to enough "audio torture" from playing the record on repeat since Thursday. Today he is going up to Hyannis Port to see his grandparents with his dads and siblings, and he can see his aunts, uncles and cousins again - even though he practically just saw them on his birthday. He will be travelling in style again onboard Air Force One on the five-and-a-half-hour flight. Once he turns off his record player and shuts his room door behind him, he sees his brothers standing outside of their parent's room seemingly waiting for someone or something, he's confused about what's happening so he walks over to John and LJ and asks:

"What's going on? Are we not meant to be going to Grandma and Grandpa's soon?"

"We are, but dad's memory loss has come back again," replies John about Jack's post-traumatic amnesia that was diagnosed three years ago

"Oh no. Not that again!" Harvey exclaims out of worry

"What's memry loss?" Asks LJ struggling with the word memory

"It's when you can't remember anything that happens to you after something really bad happens, it's usually your head that's damaged so your brain is confused about what has happened to you as well as yourself," replies Harvey

"Oh. How did that happen?" LJ then starts to listen to his brothers telling him about what happened on that infamous day in Dallas minus the gory details and the sophisticated terminology to try and explain what happened to their dad in a way that his two-year-old mind can make sense of it. Once Harvey and John finish explaining Jack's amnesia, the three boys go downstairs to try and find their sisters and tell them about the sudden change of plans and that they're not going to Hyannis Port to see their grandparents. After informing their sisters, they all get told by Agent Hill that one of the nannies will be looking after the six of them since their dads are currently occupied with the unforeseen circumstances. Four out of six of them are understanding, Harvey and LJ are slightly annoyed that they're not visiting the compound, but they eventually get over it with the suggestion of going to Hickory Hill where Uncle Bobby and Aunt Ethel live with their nine cousins: Kathleen, Joseph, Robert, David, Courtney, Michael, Kerry, Christopher and Max. So, that will be a total of fifteen kids! With the six siblings shipped off to Uncle Bobby and Aunt Ethel's for a while to keep them occupied and out of the way of seeing their dad in a different frame of mind, the rest of the White House occupants specifically the staff, like the Secret Service and Jack's physician etc. All worrying about the president. Of course, the one who is the most worried out of everyone, Lee who like Jack didn't see this coming or indeed the amnesia coming back three years post-diagnosis, it only fully went away the first time a week after the assassination attempt – 29th November so this is a surprising turn of events! Hopefully, this time around it's not as severe as it was back then. After spending a few hours at Hickory Hill with their aunt, uncle and cousins, the Oswald-Kennedy sextet arrive back at the White House and their focus immediately shifts back to their dad and stepdad Jack as he's dealing with the return of the amnesia and memory loss. After being greeted by their most liked agent, Clint, they head up to the executive residence and arrive back outside of their parent's room just as the boys were earlier on; the six of them stare at one another simultaneously to see who will knock on the door first and bring an end to the staring contest. And surprise surprise, second oldest Harvey breaks the staring contest and musters up the courage to knock and find out what's happening with his dad. With John, LJ and June beside him and Caroline and Rachel just behind, he begins to knock three times until the called-out question of:

"Who is it?!" from Lee

"It's Harvey!"

"And John!"

"And LJ!"

"And June!"

"And Caroline!"

"And Rachel!" his siblings chorus after him. All six of them pile into the room after getting approval, at first glance Harvey as well as his siblings notice that their dad is awake but not here. Seemingly in a delusion that it's three years ago and that he's back in Dallas in the plaza but any memories before and after the assassination attempt are simply gone. Lee is the first one to try and get Jack's attention by saying:

"Jack, the kids are here to see you," this gets his attention thankfully and he turns his head to the left and is faced with seven pairs of eyes staring at him. He looks at the six children with a confused expression which seems to raise red flags to the current leader of the sextet, Harvey who hopes that his dad remembers him and his siblings as he'd entered his dad's life after the attempt as well as his sisters June and Rachel and youngest brother LJ – for eldest sister Caroline and slightly younger brother John came before, so hopefully, he'll remember them at least but as aforementioned, any memories or recollection of people before the attempt might not be as clear. Throughout the whole discussion of facial recognition and what happened after Jack's traumatic brain injury which caused the post-traumatic amnesia, also known as anterograde amnesia. So far Jack can remember Caroline and John, but can't remember who Lee, Harvey, June, Rachel and LJ are and can't seem to recall the date when himself and Lee got married just over a month ago and doesn't know what day it is or what the date is today. Harvey proceeds to ask the following question to test his theory:

"Dad, what's today's date?"

"Friday 22nd November?"

"No. What year is it?"

"1963?"

"No, it's actually –" he gets cut off abruptly by Lee telling him:

"You shouldn't try to correct him. It's not his fault he can't remember, it's his amnesia,"

"Oh. How long is this going to last?"

"The first and last time it happened it lasted for a week, but I hope it doesn't last long this time around,"

"Oh, okay,"

"If what doesn't last long?" Asks the current amnesiac

"Your amnesia. You developed symptoms and got a diagnosis of post-traumatic amnesia after a traumatic brain injury," informs Lee. Jack just looks at him puzzled, not fully understanding what was said.

"What's not going to last long?"

"You've just asked that question, dad!" Harvey shouts in agitation, not meaning to come off as rude

"Harvey!" He jumps in fright from hearing his daddy shout at him because he's being extremely rude towards his dad and not realising it

"Your dad is going to be asking the same questions or saying the same things over and over because that's a part of his current condition,"

"Oh. Sorry."

"Don't apologise to me,"

"Oh, right. Sorry, dad," Harvey laments.