Memoirs of Forgotten Yesterday

Aaron Grahame

Description

Memoirs of forgotten Yesterday is about the Hargraves complex family following Harry Hargraves with Alzheimer’s. Mr. Hargraves doesn’t quite know himself anymore because his memories that make him who he is, are fragmented. Mr. Hargraves relives moments of his past vividly as memoirs of the person he was in his early childhood, late teens and his mid-life crisis. Mr. Hargraves is sent back reliving the love he had but also the pain that followed with each lover’s eventual dismissal, where blame of who was at fault phases Mr. Hargraves, so when his son, Bailey, still visits him every day despite not recognizing him on some, he loathes for him not living his own life, falling in love and leaving him alone with the birds out his bedroom window. It isn’t until Mr. Hargraves accident that sends Bailey down on his merry way. However, the Hargraves family is complex.

Sujets

• Romance contemporaine
• Fiction
• Romance
• LGBTQ+

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris AU
• Date de parution: 14 mars 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798369490228
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Memoirs of Forgotten Yesterday
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
AARON GRAHAME
 
Copyright © 2023 by Aaron Grahame.
 
Library of Congress Control Number:
2023903737
ISBN:
Hardcover
979-8-3694-9024-2

Softcover
979-8-3694-9023-5

eBook
979-8-3694-9022-8
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
 
 
Rev. date: 02/28/2023
 
 
 
 
Xlibris
AU TFN: 1 800 844 927 (Toll Free inside Australia)
AU Local: [phone] ([phone] from outside Australia)
www.Xlibris.com.au
850356
 
I dedicate this book to the idea that chivalry is dead.
CONTENTS
Chapter 1         Birds Are Beautiful
Chapter 2         Winning Is Everything
Chapter 3         Honeybun
Chapter 4         Siren’s Song
Chapter 5         I’m With You, With or Without You
Chapter 6         Saving Private Charlie
Chapter 7         Love Has Thorns
Chapter 8         Jealous Jacob
Chapter 9         Whine and Wine Until You Feel Fine
Chapter 10       Beth, Betty, Bree, Bella, and Brittany, Bitch!
Chapter 11       A Late Flight to Vegas
Chapter 12       Brand-New Lover
Chapter 13       Sunday Morning — The Day to Cure Sin
Chapter 14       Young and Wild but Not Free
Chapter 15       The Bird with the Broken Wing
Chapter 16       The Fallout with God
Chapter 17       Freaks
Chapter 18       A Flightless Bird Can Only Run So Far
Chapter 19       Help! My Period’s Late!
Chapter 20       Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?
Chapter 20.5   Homesickness
Chapter 21       Set in Stone
Chapter 22       Date Night Was a Prune
Chapter 23       How to Fly
Chapter 24       Forget the Player, Not the Game
Chapter 25       Two Birds with One Stone
Chapter 26       Cowbird
Chapter 27       When Birds Were Lover Birds
Chapter 28       Lover Birds
Chapter 29       Honeyeaters
Chapter 30       A Little Bird Told Me
Chapter 31       Wait, That’s Not a Magpie! That’s a Pied Wagtail!
Chapter 32       This Isn’t My Egg in Our Nest
Chapter 33       Lauren the Lorikeet
Chapter 34       Recipe for Honeybuns
Chapter 35       A Happy Family
Chapter 36       The Lovebird – It’s Endangered
Chapter 37       Throwing Stones That Are Too Big
Chapter 38       How Do I Say Goodbye?
Chapter 39       How Do I Say Goodbye Again?
CHAPTER 1
Birds Are Beautiful
An old man sits alone by a window – looking out as if something were on his old, frazzled mind – in a white room filled with pictures of his family, whom he would forget about if these were not on display. However, his attention is on a rainbow lorikeet chirping in an artificial tree in the distance.
The tree looks and smells of oak wood, but scientists have bioengineered it so it wouldn’t need rain to grow. The trees are an illusion of what they used to be; the oceans have dried up, and rain is a fragment of the past, but still, these trees live forever in the burning sunlight.
The old man watches the tree sway from the wind, and the bird chirps again and flies off to another branch, using it to rest its flapping wings.
A woman walks in and says sweetly to the old man, ‘Mr Hargraves, will you join us in recreational time?’
Mr Hargraves doesn’t turn; his gaze is on the bird still. He sits by the window, staring out with focus.
The woman steps closer and speaks louder. ‘Mr Hargraves, will you join—’
Mr Hargraves interrupts with a whisper. ‘Hush! You’re going to scare those lorikeets away.’
The woman walks out, hoping she won’t disturb his bird watching from the glass. The rainbow lorikeets sing as she passes the door. Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!
Another bird flies to the same branch and starts chirping back; soon, the lorikeets start kissing. It is a beautiful sight for Mr Hargraves. It makes a tear fall because it brings a memory of a lover he once had.
This lover of his made music too. She played the piano while Mr Hargraves played the trumpet. They were school lovers and married in their early twenties. They were both in the school band, and that was where their eyes first met. Each practice, they played their music, and their hearts sang for each other – but there was another woman whose heart cried for his.
Mr Hargraves starts to daydream about how life was back then; to him, it feels like yesterday.
Ms Hargraves is just a little over 19, and she says to him, ‘You know, the day we met, I didn’t like you. I found the sounds of the trumpet obnoxiously loud. The longer I spent watching you play off key, the more I saw the effort you put into blowing that massive thing of yours, and it made me smile. Your face would be as red as an apple, and everyone would judge your skill. Then I forgot I was staring one time when we were in choir practice. You saw me staring and smiled while blowing it, and it went off key, interrupting the whole practice. It let out a loud fart sound, and everyone laughed, including me.’
Mr Hargraves smiles and begins to laugh, as if he can hear Ms Hargraves and the chuckles of their other bandmates in his head.
Then the figment of Ms Hargraves says to him, ‘Falling for you wasn’t planned, but that day, I wanted to know you better.’
Mr Hargraves, staring out the window, says, ‘I love you. Please don’t leave.’
Ms Hargraves replies, ‘And I love you – and so does our son.’
The vision of Ms Hargraves is now holding a small baby boy. She places him in Mr Hargraves’s hands and then points to the door the woman left through seconds ago. Mr Hargraves turns from the window to see his son, Bailey, standing by the door, ready to knock.
Bailey walks in, interrupting the illusion of his mother, Ms Hargraves. Then he says to his father, ‘Hey, Dad. How are the birds today?’
Mr Hargraves smiles. ‘Hey, Bailey. They are mating. It’s mating season. Did you know lorikeets pair for life?’
Bailey smiles and replies, ‘I did indeed know. A wise man told me.’
‘Come here. Watch them,’ Mr Hargraves says, pointing in the distance.
Bailey comes by the window to look out; the birds are sitting on the artificial tree’s branch, making out. ‘Bird porn is what it is,’ Bailey remarks, laughing.
Mr Hargraves looks at Bailey with disgust. Mr Hargraves explains, ‘It’s not porn.’
Bailey enthusiastically shouts, trying to scare away the birds. ‘Come on, old man. Let’s get you out of your room. Everyone’s doing recreational creative time while you’re in here watching bird porn.’
Mr Hargraves whacks Bailey’s arm softly. ‘Why, you! I’ll smack you silly in a second. It’s not bird porn.’
The birds fly away.
Bailey laughs and remarks, ‘Someone’s getting defensive.’
Mr Hargraves stands from his chair and walks out of the room, with Bailey holding his shoulder. Mr Hargraves looks at Bailey and speaks with a tear falling from his eye. ‘Bailey, I miss her.’
Bailey looks to almost start to cry and replies, ‘I do too, Dad. I do too.’
‘I had a dream of her again when I was watching the birds,’ Mr Hargraves explains.
Bailey replies, ‘The more reason you need to get out of your room. It’s been years since Mum’s death. She would want you to move on. You see the way Mary looks at you. She’s had her eyes on you for a while.’
Mr Hargraves looks at his hand to see a ring around his finger. ‘That old hag can barely keep her teeth in when she speaks. That’s why she uses a whiteboard,’ Mr Hargraves remarks.
Bailey freaks out and explains, ‘Dad! You can’t say that. What if someone heard you?’
‘I don’t care. I’m going to die soon. I know it,’ replies Mr Hargraves eerily.
Bailey questions his dad. ‘What makes you say that?’
Mr Hargraves states, ‘I’m old. It’s just natural. I’ve lived. What is my only son doing here with me in a nursing home? Where’s your missus? Go out and live. Go experience love.’
Bailey replies, ‘I have. Remember?’
Mr Hargraves thinks for a second. Mr Hargraves, in realisation, says, ‘Oh yeah, that’s right! How is your crow these days?’
Bailey smiles at the thought of Catherine being a crow. Bailey lies as if knowing what he will say if he wouldn’t. ‘It’s complicated.’
Mr Hargraves comments, ‘Marry her. If you love her, don’t let her get away.’
Bailey smiles and responds as if he will forget, ‘Maybe. One day.’
Mr Hargraves smiles. They reach the creative table, where a bunch of oldies sit, playing with knitting needles, pencils, and puzzles.
Bailey then asks his dad, ‘What do you want to play today?’
Mr Hargraves replies, ‘Do you want to play chess?’
Bailey sarcastically says, ‘But we played that yesterday.’
Mr Hargraves, confused, questions Bailey. ‘Did we?’
‘Yeah,’ Bailey lies, going along with it.
‘Maybe we can just do a puzzle today then,’