The hot shower rejuvenated a tired Samuel, washing away the sweaty residue on his body from an early morning jog, a habit he picked up to re-introduce the drive and energy back into his own life. God knows he needed one; the years of being in public service had allowed a reverse inertia to sink deep into his psyche. He had lived life without caring for those people around him, the authority vested in him at the Department he headed making others answerable to his every beck and call.
One night, he returned home to find both his children having left. Moved in together into a shared apartment. Said they've gotten tired over their parent's constant backbiting and arguments. Said they needed the independence and immediate leave from the nauseating level of negativity in the house.
"I don't want to come home to see you and mom killing each other. You're not the dad I used to know," Bernice had said when he called her and asked why.
His daughter's words rang true, as he reflected the layers of excesses he had worn for a long while. A life rife with entertainment sessions, bingeing on drinks and cavorting with loose women available at a snap of the finger for men in the circle of power, influence, and authority. Gifts from parties needing his signature on pieces of paper to the millions and billions in government's contracts. He became the very persona he detested when joining the civil service decades earlier.
Determined to turn his life around, Samuel began to religiously adhere to a routine of morning jogs and hitting the gym in the evening to shed the excess weight on his body as his starting point. He requested and received a transfer from his position to a new responsibility. True enough, those who had thronged around and cavorted him to no end immediately thinned.
No longer did he received any bouquets of wines, chocolates and wads of cash slipped into the pages of accompanying cards or books. Even when Radian embarked on the ambitious task of monitoring bandwidth energies and required the construction of the many facilities across the country, Samuel left the responsibility of contracting to those at the Ministry. He was contended with having a smaller portfolio, a single personal assistant to answer his official needs, and a nominal number of staff to administer. And he reverted to the man he once was. But Bernice and her brother remained living away from them. At least his daughter relented to joining him at the company.
Samuel wiped himself dry before stepping out of the bathroom. The lacquered, laminated flooring was cool to his steps, as he walked towards a built-in wardrobe. On a king size bed, a figure huddled underneath a silken, gold-colored duvet. His eyes went across the rows shirts and settled on a dark blue shirt, and creamy white pants, placing them on the bed.
"So casual. Are you going on a field trip?"
"Morning dear. Nothing scheduled, but my intuition says I may need to."
"Cross state?"
"…"
A woman propped herself up in the bed, her bare shoulders resting on the leather headrest, scruffy uncombed red hair hiding her pan Asian looks, the smooth duvet lain just above her breasts.
"Could she ever be revived, Chan? It's been months now. At least, let's bring her back here. Let us take care of her..."
Only she calls him by that name
Samuel stayed muted, donning his clothes, his eyes gazing at her reflection in the full-length mirror beside the dressing table. He could see her lips quivering and anticipated more words to flow, the same old argument to follow, when the buzzing of his smartphone – charging on the side table - held any such inevitability in abeyance.
"Maria," he said, taking his mobile, and heard a grunt of distaste escaping his wife's lips, her right hand reaching out to her own smartphone, smooth naked back turning towards him.
"Anything?"
"We've located Syafa and the young man she's with. They've stopped at a village called Rusa Palembang, near Kuala Selangor."
"Overnight stay?"
"That's right, Datuk. And there's one more thing. Last night the monitoring team detected another subliminal energy emission that's way off the chart from the same location."
"Similar to the one in Tanjung Malim?"
"Much higher levels, Datuk, and it went much longer. I've asked the team for a detailed report on the matter."
"Thanks, Maria. I take it that there were no other untoward incidences after the roadside restaurant?"
"None, Datuk."
"How is Stephen doing?"
"They've decided to put up at a homestay about three miles from the village. He did request permission to move in if there are still no movements by this afternoon."
"Negative, Maria. Please have them to keep their distance."
"Yes, Datuk. The report from the monitoring team will be on your desk."
"Thanks, Maria."
Replacing his smartphone on the side table, Samuel turned to the woman whom he had spent the night making love to, a bemused look on his face when he saw her engrossed with her own device.
"Lien, we've had this conversation so many times you already know how I am going to respond. Some things are out of our hands. Bernice is much better with the rest of her team members. At least until we know more."
"I don't care about the rest of them. I care only about her. And it's not like there's any breakthrough so far, isn't it?"
"Not until yesterday. That's why I need to persist with this. See where it leads and if it could help Bernice. You know I love her as much as you do."
"This girl, Syafa. Why her and not Bernice? Why not all of them?" she said, shaking her head, her gaze turned downwards.
"I wish I knew. Syafa didn't look at all like she had been incapacitated for long months. We must believe it can also happen to Bernice."
"I pray so, Chan. I missed her so much, and she was finally warming to us before this damn thing occurred," she said, her voice breaking.
Samuel moved towards her, placed his hands on her shoulder, and planted a kiss on her forehead.
"She will come back to us."
Why hasn't Syafa contacted us? Or called the company?
She was an orphan, which meant the company was the only semblance of a family she would have in her life.
If her memories had somehow been affected….
He didn't finish the thought, knowing its stark implications in their continued hopes and prayers of their daughter's return to health.