I have lost all
track of time. I don’t know if it’s day
or night or how long I’ve been in the hospital.
The same two
nurses come to me and move me to another room because I’m better they say. I am glad of it. Selfish, I tell myself. I don’t want to hear that man in the other
cubicle begging his wife to return.
I still dream about
him. I still hear him talking to her,
trying to get her to wake up. Sometimes
I think I’m still in the ICU. I see
strangers leaning over me but I can’t hear what they say. I don’t know who they are. Faces in a dream, people I knew in my former
life I suppose. I spend a lot of time
sleeping. It seems unreal.
The nurses help me
out of bed and help me to walk up and down the halls. They chat with me and tell me I’m doing a
good job and I’ll be going home soon.
Home. Yay. A
strange place with a stranger who is my husband. I stop walking long enough to look out the
row of windows that looks out into the hospital parking lot. It’s dark in the city. You know, I don't even know what city we are in. I turn and ask the nurse.
"Chattanooga." She says like it's something I should know. Which I suppose I should. Maybe they've told me a hundred times already and I can't remember.
It looks like any other town at night, I shrug and start to hobble away when I notice my reflection for the
first time.
You know, you
would think that you would recognize your own reflection when you see it. Even if you do have amnesia.
I look at a
stranger in the dark glass. I didn't even know it was me.
There goes that
theory. I look back at myself and wave
my hand at my reflection just to make sure it’s me.
She’s pretty at
least. Or I should say I’m pretty.
It’s weird though,
because I never felt like I thought I was pretty before. It’s almost like this really isn’t me and
through some freakish accident I am in someone else’s body.
For a second I
wonder why it’s always dark. I go to
sleep and it’s dark and I wake up and its dark and I do my rehab and its dark
and it doesn’t seem normal to me. At
least once, it seems I should open my eyes to sunlight filtering through the
windows to the side of my bed. I open
my mouth to ask but three people round the corner, and seem oblivious to myself
and the nurse. She has to step out of
the way to let them pass, and she harrumphs about the ‘rudeness of some
people’. The two ladies seem to neither
acknowledge our presence or my nurses’ comment.
They continue chatting about American Idol (whatever that is) but the
child in the hospital gown between them gives me a conciliatory smile. Our eyes meet and she seems to tell me that
she knows how I feel and for a moment camaraderie exists between the two of us as
she walks past. Her grey eyes leave mine
and she stares daggers through my nurse.
I find it both strange and amusing.
She, like me, had been on the pointy end of too many needles lately and
she glares at my nurse like she would bite her if she came any closer.
The nurse doesn’t
seem to notice. It’s close to her break
time so she encourages me to finish my walk.
We walk several
times over the next few days or nights I should say… and I wonder again why
it’s always dark. Perhaps I don’t wake
up in the daytime or perhaps I do but my mind is so shredded and I’m on so much
medication that I can’t remember. The
nurses and the doctor who claims to be my husband tell me that I’m doing much
better but I don’t really know because I can’t keep things straight in my head.
Dr. Doyle comes by
often and I begin to feel a little more comfortable with him. He brings out his iPhone and shows me
pictures. This is us a couple weeks ago. This is our dog. This is your friend Marilyn… I look at the pictures and try to be
interested but it’s like getting the wrong person’s vacation photos from the
developer. I know Doyle and I am used to
seeing my reflection enough now that I do at least recognize myself but nothing
more. He finally tires of pictures and
he tells me to rest.
He leans over to
kiss me but I stiffen. I don’t mean to,
it’s more of a reflex than anything else.
I try to relax and he places his lips to my forehead before he leaves. I see the slump in his shoulders as he walks
out the door and I am bothered by my inability to respond to him.
I can’t make him
understand what it feels like in my head.
There is nothing before I opened my eyes except the nonsensical dreams
from tidbits overheard from my coma in the ICU.
My memory is gone other than that.
No, not gone. I know it’s there
somewhere. I know it is, I can feel it,
but I can’t get to it. It’s almost as
though my mind is like a jail and the jailer has everything that was me before
locked away where I can’t reach it. The
cell door is barred and the jailer holds the key and isn’t about to let anyone
in, especially not me.
I feel so
frustrated I just want to scream, but then I remind myself that he must feel
the same way as well.
He brings me
supper and tells me he has an hour off work.
I ask him things like do we have children? No. We have decided not to because of Doyle’s
“condition” which I never asked about and I don’t really know why. What about my family? My family and I are estranged. Something to do with my marriage to him… it
seems they didn’t approve of him. I
wonder why, but he doesn’t go into it.
He says something about them being narrow minded religious nuts… I tell
him that I don’t remember them and he says that is a good thing. I’m a little scandalized by that
statement. I don’t remember but I seem
to believe that you shouldn’t talk about other people’s families. It seems to be a sort of unwritten law in the
south. You can say anything you want
about your own family but other folk’s folks are off limits.
I change the topic
because I feel my blood pressure rising and I can see that he is getting
agitated. So what kind of doctor am I
married to? A surgeon, but he works ER
because it’s exciting. Wow. I’m impressed. And what do I do for a living? A hospital social worker. I help people who have loved ones here. Where
do we live? On the mountain in a large stone house that overlooks the
city. We have a pool and a dog- a German
Spitz.
I ask him where we
met and as soon as the question comes out of my mouth the answer comes as
well.
Paris. I met him on the subway and he got off at my
stop so he could talk to me.
Doyle smiles like
I’ve just given him a million dollars.
He nods and kisses me. I don’t
remember anything else but that’s a start.
I ask him if he’s French and he says no.
His Grandmother Helen was German and married an American GI after
WWII. His father was English and a doctor so he
grew up in Germany, France and England.
His grandfather was from the south and he would spend his summers here with
his grandparents. That is how we ended
up in Tennessee. The mountains remind
him both of Germany and his grandparent’s farm.
He spends the
night in the chair next to my bed. This
is the first time I notice and I wonder how many nights he’s spent there. My heart feels like crumpling every time I
see him. I want so badly to remember
him… Poor sweet man, I think to myself as I listen to the sound of his steady
breathing. I find his hand and
intertwine my fingers with his. His
hands are cold, but this is a hospital, it’s freezing here most of the
time. I wonder if he needs a blanket but
he doesn’t seem to notice the chill. I
turn myself so I can see the outline of his face until I fall asleep.
I dream about that
man again. The one with the wife in the
ICU. He’s crying and talking to
her. I feel so badly for him. He’s always praying for her to wake up and
come back to him. He makes me feel so
lost that I wake up crying.
My husband is
gone. Perhaps he’s been called away on
an emergency. Perhaps he’s got patients
to see. I have no idea. Nobody else visits me so I doze off or spend
time aimlessly flipping channels on the TV.
I wonder what kind of shrew I was before this accident- to have
practically no friends to visit me.
Looks like I’d see someone else besides Doyle and my other doctors and a
handful of nurses.
What about my
family? Doyle had said that my parents
and I were estranged. They didn’t agree
with our marriage. But still, I want to
talk to someone from my old life… even if I don’t know what to say. Even if I just listen to them talk about
their day. Something. Anything to make me feel connected with what
and who I was before. I think surely my
parents would say a couple of words to me- given my present situation. I would apologize and beg their forgiveness
for whatever I’ve done. I want my
mother. I want my mother, I want my mother!
It’s almost a primal need for me.
I start in on
Doyle about calling them as soon as he walks through the door. He tries to dissuade me but I pester him
until he gives me a cell phone and a number.
He tells me he is doing it under duress.
I dial in the
number. My breathing is shaky and I
don’t know if I could talk. A woman’s
voice says “Hello?” and familiarity washes over me like a warm shower. I say “Mom.”
And that is as far as I get before the woman’s voice interrupts me. “Andrea?”
She says and when I say “Yes.”
There is a click before I could say anything else.
For several
shocked seconds I hold the phone to my ear, not wanting to believe that she
just hung up on me. I swallow hard and
hand over the phone to Doyle who has been staring daggers through me.
“I’m sorry
Andrea.” He says but the tone of his
voice is angry as he tucks the phone into the pocket on his jacket. “But I did try to warn you. I hope next time you will believe me.”
I have a hard time
believing that anyone’s mother would flat out hang up on their child.
“Do they know about—the accident?” I ask him.
He doesn’t speak
for several seconds. His jaw is set
firmly and he stares across the room at nothing in particular. “Yes.”
He says finally. “I had a nurse
notify them.” He laughs ruefully. “I
knew better than to try to talk to them myself.
I left them my cell number. They
never tried to call.”
“What” I choke on
the words before I can get out the question.
“What did I do to them?”
He laughs
dryly. “What did you do my dear?” He shakes his head, and I can tell he is
having a very hard time with the next sentence.
“You married me.”
I only manage a
strangled “Oh.” I can’t say any more
than that. My throat is thick and tears
sting the corners of my eyes. Doyle
tells me that I need to rest. He kisses
me before he leaves and promises soon we can go home. I try to pretend that makes me feel better,
and I lay my head back. I pretend to be
asleep until he leaves. When I am alone
I cry a little, though I don’t know why.
My mind tells me I’ve lost nothing, I don’t remember my parents anyway,
but my heart doesn’t see it that way. There’s
a deep aching hole in the middle of me, and I was hoping that contacting my
parents would help to fill in this void.
He comes back
later and tells me he’s taking me home tomorrow as he pulls the chair out
beside my bed but I scold him. This is his night off and he’s spending it with
me. I tell him to go home, sleep in a
real bed and get a good night’s rest for a change. He argues with me but I win him over. I tease him that the house is probably a mess
and suddenly he is interested in going home.
I figured I hit the nail on the head with that one. Reluctantly he kisses my forehead and tells
me to call him if I need him. He tells me
he loves me before he leaves my room.
I’d like to tell him the same thing, he seems to be aching to hear it
but right now it would be a lie. I like
him very much but in a lot of ways he’s still a stranger to me. I order him to go home and rest and he ducks
out of my room.
I sleep.
I look
around. I am alone. The sun is setting and I know I’ve slept
through another day. Doyle will be here
soon. I drag myself out of bed and try
to make myself presentable.
Finally he comes
for me with a wheelchair. His smile is
brilliant. He takes me by the hand and
helps me into it even though I insist that I can do it on my own. I have walked laps around this hospital and
I’m fairly sure I can make it to the car without the wheelchair but he waves
his finger in my face and tells me its hospital policy.
You don’t mess
with hospital policy.
He pushes me down
the hall and doctors and nurses I don’t remember speak to me. I nod and smile and feel a little like I’m on
display.
Doyle leaves me
with a nurse who waits patiently with me at the front door. She looks out into the rainy night and
otherwise does not acknowledge me. Her
silence is strange and unnerving. Nurses
were supposed to chit chat and carry on.
I feel conspicuous here in this wheelchair; people walk past me and
pretend not to notice me. Perhaps they
wonder what is wrong with me and instead of staring; it is more polite to
pretend I just don’t exist. A janitor
pushes a blue plastic cart loaded with buckets and cleaning supplies. He carries a mop and pauses long enough to
give me a friendly smile. I smile in
return and he busies himself with the wet footprints around the door while I
wait.
He moves closer to
me with his mop and I feel myself drawn to him.
I drop my eyes, but they keep moving to him, seemingly of their own
accord. I am attracted to him, not
because he is overly handsome or anything of a sexual nature. He seems…familiar… achingly familiar in a
world where everything is foreign. My
eyes settle on him at last and I decide not to fight it. Perhaps I knew him in
my other life.
I am about to open
my mouth to ask him if I know him when he speaks.
“Getting out of
here, huh?” He says without ever looking
up from the wet floor.
‘Going home.” I offer, but my stomach does flip flops. It ain’t home if you don’t remember it- is
it?
“Not your real
home.” He says quietly and I am sure I have
misunderstood.
“Excuse me?”
“You don’t have to
go.” He says to the floor. “You have a choice.”
I’m hearing things
now. I lean up in my wheel chair.
“Do I know
you?” I ask him and he smiles
shyly. He hasn’t looked up at me
yet.
“A little.” He says.
How do you know
someone a little? I wonder. “Please tell me who you are. I can’t remember…”
The man stops
mopping just long enough to look up at me. He wears muted blue scrubs over a
long sleeved white tee shirt. I know the
color denotes he is an orderly. Doctors
usually wear a hunter green here if not wearing suits, and nurses I’ve noticed-
come in a myriad of colors but seem to prefer a maroon. I know I’ve met him before- I know I know him
but I can’t think of his name so I search for his name tag. Josue Mendez.
Josue. I haven’t
said the name since I’ve awakened but surprisingly I know how to pronounce
it. HO-SUE-WAY. The Spanish equivalent of Joshua and I wonder
how I know that and how to pronounce it correctly. It feels ‘right’ in my mouth. I can’t explain it but I know I’ve said this
name many a time in my former life.
I notice that his eyes are strange, like
Doyle’s. His are blue. Clear blue.
Middle of the ocean blue, which are offset by his dark features. I study his face when he turns back to his
work. He is dark but not too dark. Pleasantly brown but not the kind of brown
one gets from working out in the sun all day.
His hair is dark and curly and a little long, and he has a close trimmed
goatee. He looks like he would be more
at home stepping out of a beat up old Ford pick up truck than in hospital
scrubs. He doesn’t stand out in any way-
he could be any one of a million good ol’ boys.
This is Tennessee after all, and he is from the area- his accent tells
me that much. He’s got that soft Tennessee
twang that someone from somewhere else can’t fake.
How does a guy
named Josue Mendez get such blue eyes and an accent like that anyway?
And how do I know
him? The question chews at me like a dog
chewing a bone and I’m struck by the irony of it all. I didn’t recognize my
drop dead gorgeous husband but I seem to know this woolly hillbilly? Life is strange right now.
I laugh at the
absurdity of it all and he gives me a questioning look.
I throw up my
hands, “Okay, I give up. I have amnesia. Will you please tell me who you are?”
“How can I tell
you who I am when you don’t even know who you are?” He leans closer to me. ‘I’m not here to tell you all the
answers. You have to figure it all out
on your own.” He pretends to be
disappointed when I frown. “Them’s the
rules.” He says playfully and shakes his
finger at me. “But I am just here to
tell you… enough.”
“Enough… of
what?” I respond. My guard dog nurse has not noticed my
conversation with Josue the crazy orderly.
“To guard your
heart. You belong to another.” He’s mopping again. “Not to rely on your own understanding. All
around you is deception. Listen to your
heart. That’s all I can tell you, the rest you’ll have to figure out on your
own.”
That is the most
ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. I want
to ask if the man is crazy, but I know he’s not. Somewhere between the twilight zone that is
my life right now and the black hole that is my memory it makes sense. It niggles at the edge of my consciousness,
and I feel as if I could just catch it, everything would make sense at last.
He had said “You
belong to another.” A feeling of unease
ripples through me as a silver BMW pulls under the canopy outside. I know it’s the husband I don’t remember. Perhaps my gut is right and he’s not really
my husband. What if he is a serial
killer that kidnaps girls who have lost their memory and… I lunge at him as he mops and he looks at me
with a smile on his face that could very easily be pity or amusement- I’m not
sure which it is. I have to know before
it’s too late! Before he guts me and
hides my body in the freezer!
“Belong to
another!” I hiss as I see the silver
door open and I grab his arm. “Who do I
belong to?”
“God of course. We
all belong to God first.” He says kindly and pulls a slip of paper out of the
chest pocket of his scrubs and tucks it in my hand. “Seek and you shall find. Have a nice night, Mrs. Bradley.”
I look down at the
paper and see it is a gospel tract. On
the back is a label with a telephone number.
I stare at it, not really knowing what to do with it.
Josue starts to
move away from me as the door opens outside.
He stops like he has forgotten to tell me something very important and
leans close enough to whisper.
“And the choice
has not been made. As long as you have
breath… as long as your heart is beating… you have a choice.”
What choice? “What are you talking about?” I ask incredulously and he smiles and moves
further away from me.
“Oh, you’ll figure
it out.” He winks at me playfully. “You’re a smart girl.”
Doyle steps into
the waiting area and my nurse wanders away without even saying goodbye. All I get is a disinterested look. I’m a little taken aback. Not that I expected much but she could at
least have said “Have a nice night.” Or “Take care of yourself.” So much for bedside manner. The orderly
almost gave me a heart attack but he at least took the time to acknowledge my
existence. I resolve to write a strongly
worded letter to… my mind blanks… whoever is in charge of the nurses at this
hospital…when I get home and I can keep my thoughts straight. Maybe I just need to rest.
I tuck the tract
inside my purse as Doyle approaches. I
don’t know why, but I don’t feel comfortable having it out.
“You ready?” Doyle asks as he claps his hands together and
rubs them like he’s trying to warm himself.
His voice is too chipper and excited for this weather.
I nod; eager to
get away from the stoic nurse and the cryptic orderly.
Dr. Blue Eyes
almost trips over himself in the rush to push me out the door. I tease him
about being in a rush. Are they going to
charge me for another night if he waits around too long?
He laughs and says
something like “I just want to get you back home where you belong, honey.”
A voice in the
back of my mind whispers. “So he can
stick you in the freezer..” Nice job
Josue.
I turn to give
Josue a second look but he’s gone.
Somehow, I am not
surprised. Perhaps I’m getting to the
point in my life where nothing surprises me.
“Well let’s go
Mrs. Connelly.” He says pleasantly and
my eyebrows squish together in dismay.
“I thought he said
my name was Mrs. Bradley.” I say before
I catch myself. I thought I had only
thought that but obviously it just came out my mouth. Connelly sounds strange but Bradley had fit
like an old shoe.
Doctor Doyle
looks at me like I’ve just slapped him.
“Who?” He demands a little too
forcefully. “Told you that?”
I shrug. “That orderly. Josue. ” I nod behind me as if he was still there, but
I know he’s not. “Surely you’ve seen him.
Dark hair. Eyes like yours- only blue.”
He whips around
like I’ve just told him I saw a snake in the lobby- his neck craning, his violet
eyes startled. He looks around the
almost empty lobby for several seconds before he turns back to me. His face shows the nearest thing to panic
or fear that I have seen since I’ve awakened and didn’t remember him.
“So why did he
call me Mrs. Bradley?” I muse as if I’m clueless. Which I’m not. Well, not entirely.
“Bradley
was—“ He seems to be searching for an
answer. I can almost see the wheels turning inside his head. “Your old name. Before—“
I stop him. “My maiden name?” I finish for him and he seems relieved.
“Yes. Yes your maiden name. Sometimes I still get
words mixed up. You know.”
I chewed my bottom
lip. So whoever Josue is- I know him and
he knows me. Not as Mrs. Doyle Connelly-
but as Andrea Bradley. He knows me from
before I married Dr. tall, handsome and mysterious.
“Do we know
him?” I ask. “Josue?”
Doyle looks
flabbergasted. “No. No you don’t know him!” He spits too readily; and of one thing I’m
sure as he pushes me out through the double glass hospital doors.
He’s lying to
me.
I don’t know why.
I don’t know what
about either; but I know Dr. Doyle Connelly is lying about something.
He scolds me as he
helps me into the BMW. “You should
never, never talk to strangers!” He warns me as he climbs in beside me. “Especially that one! He is crazy! Never speak to him again, do you understand?”
Right now my whole
world is comprised of strangers and crazy and I are walking hand in hand along
this journey. I feel as though I am
never more than five inches from “crazy” and at any moment I could topple over
the edge. I glare at him.
“In that case I
should have never spoken to you Doc.” I
almost spit the words at him.
He sighs angrily
and I feel a little bad for goading him as he drives me out of the hospital
parking lot and into the heart of a city I no longer remember.
We drive through
streets that are totally foreign, I peer out the window but am unable to
recognize any of the buildings as being the least bit familiar.
It’s as though
I’ve woken up on Mars. I have a husband
I no longer know, in a city I don’t recognize.
I have no memory of my home or family or life before a couple days ago.
Nothing around me feels familiar or comforting in the least.
Nothing, that is,
except for a woolly redneck orderly named Josue who talks in riddles.
C’est la vie. I tell myself and wonder where I learned
French.
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