Consider Me Gone

The next day Codie woke up to Eminem’s latest music video on VH1. They day before had been awkward, to say the least. She spent hours laying in a hospital bed with two people who were supposedly her parents trying to spark some kind of conversation. They were both nice enough. They talked about their house. They talked about her little brother Tony. They talked about school. They talked about the family. They talked about everything.

It was a lot to take in. Codie just nodded her head. She listened. She listened carefully hoping that something they said would spark her memory. But she had no luck.

Everything sounded foreign to her. She didn't really remember much of what they said. She got the feeling that she was a good girl though. She was a good student and an overall caring person.

But she didn't recognize any of the names, any of the events or any of the places they mentioned. They all went in one ear and out the other. She hoped that when they arrived today they wouldn't expect her to remember anything they had told her the day before.

She wanted out of the bed. She looked out the window. The sun was shinning. She could see the trees flowing in the wind. She wanted to be out there. She was tired of laying in this bed. One thing she did remember was that her "parents" told her that she had been in a coma for about a month. And that it was now summer and school was out. And once she was doing well she had a few finals to make up. But other then that she was good to go.

The doctor told her that she could go home soon. She would need to start working her muscles again.

She heard someone open the door. She turned her head. It was her parents with some girl. The girl was pretty tall. She had a beautiful long red hair. She wasn't a carrot top. It wasn't orange looking. More like pure red. She had a weird look on her face. She looked happy, yet nervous. She stood back while Codie's "mom" rushed to her side.

"Good morning sunshine! Did you sleep alright?" she asked.

Codie hesitated. "Uhm, yeah I slept fine."

"We would of been here early but we had to make a pit stop..." She gestured to the girl with the red hair.

"Hi Codie," the red head said.

Codie's mom pulled the red head to Codie's bed side. "Codie, this is your best friend. You guys have been attached at the hip since starting high school. You two live at each others houses. You are always on the phone. And anywhere you go you bring her and vice versa..."

The red head rolled her eyes. "So how are you feeling, hun?"

"I guess I am feeling pretty good. I'm dieing to go outside," Codie’s eyes went towards the window.

"Haha, same old Codie. You always loved to be outside. You would say that the breeze made you feel close to your grandpa. Like that he was still around," the red head said with a smile.

"I'm guessing my grandpa... died?"

Codie's mom spoke up. "Yes, dear. Both of your grandfathers passed away. And one of your grandmothers. Your fathers parents are both gone. You called them Baba and Didi. It's Russian. Then my father passed away. You called him Grandpa. I'm assuming that’s who she was talking about. You were always the closest with him. When he died, you were devastated."

Codie processed it for a while. It upset her that she couldn't remember them. At least with the people around her she could get to know, make new memories with. But those who had passed, well that was it. She would never know them. If she didn't remember them, that was it. That frustrated her.

The red head spoke up. "Well once you get out of here my mom is planning a big 'Welcome Home BBQ.' I told her that you wouldn't go for it but she is relentless. All our friends are going to be there. It will be a blast."

Codie paused and thought hard for a moment. She got a confused look on her face. "What's your name?" she asked the red head.

The red head began to laugh. "Wow, I'm stupid. Of course you don't know my name. Sorry about that. Hi, I'm Dani."