I found myself lost in an unknown place.
"Where the hell am I?", I asked myself, my hands deep in my hoodie's pocket. I kept walking, just as I did when I left my hotel room and wandered around a place that somehow, somewhere in the back of my head, it was familiar.
Things had been strange for a while now. I couldn't understand nor recognize myself at sometimes. I've been walking for a while now, I don't remember exactly why, but I really wanted to walk. It's weird that my feet aren't hurting, I'm just walking around as I look at familiar streets – even though I'm sure I've never been here.
After fighting with Karen and Tyler Miller last afternoon, I kept my distance in everything related to the company. It's a relief that it's a Saturday night, I don't have any work pending to do, so I can just casually get lost.
I looked over at a street, it had nice houses. I forgot the last time I've ever been in a home that's my own. Ever since my mother passed away, I've been living at Dr. Oaks' house. Then when I was able to go out on my own financially, after ending college, I've been living at hotel rooms.
It's not that I don't have the money, but I'm afraid that I'll never find the comfort of a home again.
"Shit, that's deep", I laughed at myself in a low voice, until I stopped walking. Something had caught my eye.
It was a simple house. It reminded me a lot of my childhood home. I looked over and everything about it was perfect. I could even imagine myself living there. I stood there, like a stupid man, looking at the details of the house and then at the number of it. I was fascinated, for some reason, with it.
Even though the heart I own now isn't mine, I'm sure that it had something to do with my strange attitude.
"Jameson, I need you to buy a house on my behalf", I called my P.A that, by now, became used to my sudden out-of-character outbursts.
"Send me the address, boss", he said firmly, making me happy that I have someone like him, that doesn't hesitate to do what I want to do. "I'll take care of it"
After sending him the location, I kept looking at the house for a few minutes. I had the odd feeling that I have been here before. I shook my whole body at the thought of it, I might have to do a talk with Dr. Oaks on Monday. As I sent him a message for him to call me, I was coming through a weird street. It was too thin for a car to fit, so you could only walk through it.
As Stevie Wonder's Sugar started playing, because it became my new ringtone after I heard it for the first time and loved it, I saw it was Dr. Oaks' calling me. But I heard a woman sobbing a few meters away from me and I raised my head, ready to either help or run if it was threat.
But my heart started beating fast at the sight of Louisa looking up to me, as fat tears rolled down her cheeks. She had a suitcase beside her, it seemed that she was crying unconsolably but stopped after seeing me. I took my lollipop out of my mouth as I silenced my phone, I'd call Dr. Oaks later.
"Are you okay?", I asked her, after hesitating for a while. She silently wiped the tears off her face.
"What are you doing here?", she asked, standing up and looking away from me. She must've been embarrassed.
"I—", I didn't even know where to start. "Odd things have been happening to me, so I don't know how I even came here", I simply admitted as she nodded. Maybe she also noticed that things haven't been the same with me. It was pretty obvious. "And you?"
"I live here", Louisa said, pointing to a small entrance to an apartment that seemed to have a rooftop. I looked and nodded; I was about to put my lollipop back into my mouth when I saw her suitcase again. She followed my eyes and saw me staring at it. "I'm coming home after a month"
"You've been out of home for a month?", I asked her, furrowing my brows and putting my lollipop in my mouth.
She smiled painfully. "My fiancée died a month ago in an accident... I've been living with a childhood friend until now", Louisa said, and looked at me intently.
I was sure the look in my face must've been priceless. I had no reaction at all. I didn't even know how I ended up in this situation that has turned uncomfortable for the two of us. I made sure to look at my feet before saying anything.
"I'm sorry for your loss, Louisa", I said truthfully, before sighing as she simply gave me that fake tight smile of hers. I hated whenever she smiled like that, it didn't seem to be something she'd do if she was being herself. I hated when people weren't themselves.
"Thank you, Mr. Jackson", she said as she looked at me again, I think she was looking at... my hair?
I had a new fresh haircut. I was sure that no one had noticed before since I just had it cut this afternoon, but the way she looked at me was quite unusual. I cleared my throat. "You can call me Michael, we're outside the office now", I said as she looked away from my hair to look at my eyes. My eyes nervously shifted between her face and my feet, again.
Why was I even nervous?
"Sure... Michael", Louisa said, and it made me smile for a bit. "Look, I have to go in now...", she said, pointing at the entrance of her house.
I felt myself blushing. "Oh, sure, of course... I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting to meet you here, like this", I said and there it was, the smile that she gave me was a real one, one that lit up my world for a few seconds.
My heart beating like crazy against my chest.
"Right... then, see you at the office, Mr.—um, Michael!", she corrected herself, making me smile. I waved her goodbye and when she was out of my sight, I almost ran, looking for an exit to this neighborhood.
I needed answers. And I was sure I couldn't wait until Monday to have them. I took a cab to Dr. Oaks' home in Palm Springs. I paid the driver and poked the doorbell. Of course, he opened the door for me with a wide smile. I felt happy to see him, too.
Dr. Salim Oaks had been kind of a father like me. After my mother passed away, he took me into his home and paid for my education. He's the one I really owe a big one. He also had been my father's cardiologist in the past and now he was mine. He was the one in charge of my heart transplant surgery.
Everything in this home was made of wood. It gave a cozy style to it and I was happy to relive some of my best memories here. As he and his wife Imani had only daughters, I was their only son. First was Ashe, who was a year older than me, then there was Taylor, Abena and the youngest named Lulu. I grew up in a household leaded by woman, that's why I learned to respect them since a very young age.
"Mama Imani!", I said as soon as I saw Imani in the kitchen, she was finishing serving something in a plate. She almost dropped everything she had in her hand just to come and hug me. But she started hitting my back, making me jump. "Ouch! Mama", I said, pulling out of her hug, she hit my arm again.
"You ungrateful child! How can a mother spend so long without seeing her son!", she hissed at me as I smiled at her tenderly and kissed her cheek.
"I'm sorry Mama, I've been busy at work", I said as I hugged her, I was way taller than her, but I still feared her whenever she had that wooden spoon on her hand.
"Did you have enough rest before going back to work?", she asked me, looking at my chest worriedly. I nodded, but I knew she didn't believe me. "You better straighten up, boy", she warned me before pinching my cheek. "Are you hungry? I was making your dad something to eat", she said, pulling away from my hug and going back to the food.
I never got used to tell them mom and dad, so I usually just call them Mama and Papa when I was at home. When I was out and in business, it was Dr. Oaks and Mrs. Oaks. Now that I was fully grown up, I was more used to call him Dr. Oaks rather than Papa, but it was okay, because they understood me.
"I'm okay Mama, I came here to talk to Papa", I said as I saw him looking at us with a funny expression on his face.
"Look at you, you're very skinny! Come eat some and then you can chat, sit down, sit down", Mama Imani said as she took me from the shoulders, tip-toeing as she did so, and guiding me to the dining room table. Dr. Oaks came behind her and sat on his usual seat. This place seemed so empty without my sisters.
"It's so quiet ever since Lulu left for college", he said, sighing and then we looked over at a picture of us all together in a studio. I was in the middle of four beautiful women and behind us, Mama and Papa were standing. My heart grew warm at the sight of it, a second chance for me. A family.
Since Lulu took off to NYU this year, I was sure that they felt lonely because Abena went to Boston University at least two years ago. But I knew they were proud of us, since the five of us managed to earn degrees and were on our way to make our dreams come true. I didn't tell them about my job that much, but I was sure Dr. Oaks was aware of it and decided not to tell Mama Imani because of her protective nature.
After dinner, Dr. Oaks and I went to his studio. It was the place I loved the most, aside from the private library room he had upstairs. He closed the doors and invited me to sit.
"You said you wanted to know a few things", he told me in his typical Doctor voice that made me smile. "Are you uncomfortable somewhere?", he asked worriedly.
"No, no... it's just that I've been acting weird and I'm aware of it, even my P.A thinks I'm going crazy since it seems that I've adapted someone else's habits", I told him truthfully, playing with my fingers. "So, I was wondering if this heart transplant could, you know..."
"Change your personality?", he asked me, raising an eyebrow at me. I nodded, feeling stupid. "There was a study released not long ago where at least six percent of the patients felt the same way you did after their surgery, but I'm aware that it is not a possibility, whatsoever...", he told me and I sighed in relief. "But, what might be a possibility lies more on the psychological part, Michael"
I furrowed my brows. "What do you mean?"
"You were on the verge of dying that night", he reminded me as I nodded, absentmindedly. "Maybe you don't remember the stress you went through, but maybe that might've triggered something deep in your mind that made you realize a few things... don't you think?"
I blinked repeatedly, knowing he was right.
"It's true, there was only a one percent chance that I'd ever find a suitable donor for me", I mumbled and then looked up to him. "Is there a way I can know who the donor was? To send his family my regards?", I asked him, genuinely wanting to do something for his family.
Dr. Oaks nodded at me and took some papers from his portfolio. His fingers wandered through some papers as I felt my heartbeats in my ears. I even gulped when he took one paper and read it.
"He was a police officer; he died the same night you had your surgery... he was the victim of a hit and run accident. He was the perfect donor for you, since he had no internal injuries", he read it carefully.
"What was his name?", I asked him warily, feeling my throat drying at that time.
"George Collins"
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A/N:
DUN DUN DUNNNNNN
I'm feeling very inspired with this one and I'm writing it quickly because whenever I try to let my computer go, I have a new idea and it's just very funny. I might keep writing but wait a bit to keep updating it, I need to control myself hahahah.
I uploaded a picture of Michael's before and after the so-called haircut.
See ya!