“It’s hard to say. Amnesia can be a very slippery opponent. Sometimes it only lasts for a few hours, other times a few days, and sometimes…”
He let his meaning hang.
It can become permanent.
I tried not to dwell on it too much.
I bit down on my reservations and fixed him with a look.
“How can I help myself recover?”
“Memory exercises. The pathways are still there but you’ve lost access to them. If you keep trying to walk down them, eventually, you should pick up on some breadcrumbs. But really, it’s up to your mind how you recover.”
I would be okay, I decided.
I would regain myself piece by piece.
So long as I was surrounded by medical professionals, I had a chance of making a full recovery.
“Is there anyone we can call?” the doctor said. “Someone who might be able to help?”
He caught himself a moment too late, remembering I couldn’t remember anyone or anything.
“What I meant to say is, you have no forms of identification. No dog tags, no wallet, no ID. It’s like you suddenly appeared out of nowhere.”
“If I’m a pilot, there must be some way to track down where I came from. Someone would miss a pilot and airplane going missing, right?”
The doctor nodded noncommittally.
“We haven’t heard anything yet but we’ll let you know as soon as we do. In the meantime, we’d best find you somewhere for you to recover.”
“Can’t I recover here?” I said, growing a little panicked.
“We need the bed, I’m afraid. And it will be much cheaper for you to stay elsewhere.”
He placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Trust me. Things should come back to you.”
He issued an order to a nurse and wrote out a prescription.
“Ensure the patient receives everything he needs. And find him somewhere to rest for a while. He’s going to need time.”
The doctor gave me a comforting smile and then whisked out of the room.
So far as he was concerned, I was no longer his problem.
Then I felt something tug on me.
Not a physical thing—though it felt like it could have been.
I had a feeling buried inside my gut that had nothing to do with my memories but some instinct hardwired into my cells.
The tugging led my eyes down the hallway to another part of the hospital.
Something was there, I thought. Something I was meant to see.
To find.
To explore.
All at once, I felt at home.
I was warm and desired more than anything to discover what that pulsing light pointed to.
The nurse handed me some medicine and I took it without hesitation.
“So, it’s my job to find you somewhere comfortable to stay for a while,” the nurse said. “Do you have any preferences?”
I handed the small paper cup back to her and glanced in the direction of the pulsing light.
“Well?” the nurse said. “Any ideas where you want to stay?”
Yes, I thought. But I wasn’t sure the person on the other end of this spiritual hotline would entertain such an idea…
Isabella
I rode with the patient in the ambulance to the hospital.
A team was on hand to help him inside.
I drifted after them like a puppet attached to his gurney.
“What’s the patient’s name?” a young nurse with a clipboard said.
“I… I don’t know.”
“Where’s he from? Are you related to him?”
“I… A plane… It… crashed… The storm…”
The nurse must have noticed I was in shock and led me into the waiting room.
She handed me a cup of fizzy liquid.
My tastebuds were too numb to notice the flavor.
It was black and bubbles popped on its surface and tickled my nose.
Coke?
Pepsi?
Dr. Pepper?
I had no idea.
I just sipped on it every time the nurse told me to have some.
“Is there anyone I can call?” the nurse asked gently.
I nodded and was slow in my movements.
I handed her my cell, unlocked it with my thumbprint, and said:
“My parents.”
The nurse searched my contacts and made the call.
I couldn’t even understand the words she was saying.
I would have been useless at making the call myself.
“They’re on their way,” the nurse said, not bothering to hand me the cell and instead tucked it in my pocket.
About twenty minutes later—I had to guess as my head was still packed with cotton wool—I blinked and came awake.
I was in the hospital but I hadn’t really been there.
Now the sounds filtered through my dumb ears.
New arrivals spoke in hushed whispers at the front desk while half a dozen friends and relatives waited anxiously.
I moved to the front desk.
“I’m here to check on a guy I came in here with. He was in a plane crash. A nurse asked me about him but I was still in shock. I’m feeling better now, if she has any questions for me.”
“I’ll see if I can find her,” the receptionist said. “Please take a seat.”
I never intended on spending so much time at the hospital.
After all, I didn’t know the guy.
I just happened to be the person he almost crashed into.
I had jumped in the water and waded in to help rescue him.
It all seemed so surreal now as if it were part of a nightmare.
My clothes were still a little damp and the ring of silt made a lazy line about my waist, so there could be no denying it really happened.
But the nurse from earlier wasn’t the one who greeted me to discuss the facts of the evening.
Two cops did.
“Am I in trouble?” I said.
“No, ma’am,” the officer with the sloping forehead said. “The sheriff sent us to make sure you’re okay and to ask for details for our report.”
The sheriff.
A.K.A. Liam, my ex-boyfriend.
Just the person I didn’t want to see right now.
“Are you going to take me down to the station or something?” I said.
“No, ma’am.”
Ma’am.
You got to a certain age and you were instantly cobbled together with grandmas.
“You’re not in trouble and you’ve done nothing wrong,” the officer continued. “We would just like to discuss the details with you.”
He motioned to a quiet corner of the waiting room and we sat down.
I told them everything—from the moment I
