So, an older man with mild to moderate dementia. This might get a weeee bit tricky.
Some sort of summary:
Had at least two brothers, Jacques and… Napoleon? Sounds more like an animal name, but once he states that “Napolean always hid the lamp in his Bedroom”, then he states that his little brother did it, and Jacques isn’t born yet. So we have… Alexander and Napoleon. Why, if it wasn’t for jacques, there would be a pattern here.
Had at least one sister of unknown name, though I wouldn’t be surprised if her name was Katarina, Cleopatra or somesuch
Witnessed their barn burning down as a child, no physical harm to family. Still, the memory rattled him.
Travelled a lot to farm fairs in his youth (until 17. Presumably he stopped working for his father at that point).
Met his wife at one of those fairs.
Probably has a son called Jacob.
Worked with his in-laws for an indeterminate amount of time.
Was delivered to WARE by his wife and Jacob in the hope of treating his dementia.
Something odd about his wife. At one point he forgets about her, or might be alluding to her death, though he later says that she was with him to visit the doctors at WARE. A momentary loss of memory is usually more in line with dementia than completely false memories, so that would seem more likely. On the other hand, the way he reacts to mentions of her seems to indicate something repressed.
Can’t quite make heads or tails of it at the moment, as is usual when dealing with people with dementia. I like him, though.
More likely it was the fire. If a roof catches fire due to lightning strike, the fire starts spreading from a relatively small, but very hot spot. Sounds close enough to what he describes for me.
Have wondered about this. My dad had dementia. He often confused current things with past events. After surgery for his hip, he kept talking as if he were reliving his childhood. In his mind he was the little boy who lost his mother at 12. I think something like that may be happening here. That is why we are given both conversations at once
What’s incredible is that this is one of the first times I’ve been able to remember it all so clearly.
Alexander :
Usually it’s just blurs and flashes.
Alexander :
I’m very happy to have been able to share what I remember.
Emily :
What helped you?
Alexander :
Just sitting here, you know.
Alexander :
I could hear the whispers of the crowd.
Alexander :
I could smell the candy apples. And then, I remembered.
He can’t normally remember things clearly;
The whispering of the crowd, and the smell of candy apples, brought it back to him.
So he says, but he was a kid scared out of his wits. For now I’m going to go with ockhams razor
There might however be a possibility that he’s mixing the memory up with something he saw in the simulation.
Do you know what their treatment plan was for you?
Alexander :
I don’t know. They went through a process, a bit like you.
Alexander :
I don’t know.
Alexander :
Made me talk to them.
Alexander :
Dream a lot.
Alexander :
Smell a lot of things.
Emily :
Were they trying to look for combinations of things?
Alexander :
I don’t know.
Alexander :
At the end, I was almost always smelling burnt hay.
Emily :
Burnt hay.
Alexander :
Yes. They tried to mix it with something else.
Alexander :
To make me remember.
Alexander :
Burnt hay and…B….
In the fair conversation, the trigger was the combination of a sound and a smell.
In the doctor conversation, we’re told they tried to mix the smell of burnt hay with something. But we’re not told it was a smell. It could be a sound we’re looking for.
