Status: Coming Soon!

Myosotis

One

The darkness lingered. For how long, I do not know.

It felt like I had been submerged into a deep lagoon, viscous and endless. I was warm. I was comfortable. I felt safe.

There I remained, floating in a dreamlike state, waiting.

Then, one day, the white light greeted me like an old friend.


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The rhythmic sounds of a machine pulled her from the depths. Beep…beep…beep. It piqued her interest enough to stir her, but just as quickly she grew tired of them. Opting to give in to the sleep tugging at her mind she let out a breath and tried to tune out the incessant chirping. But the sound was relentless. Beep…beep…beep.

In frustration she threw open her eyes –only to slam them back shut. Bright light seared her vision forcing tears to put out the flame. There was so much flooding that the dam had breached and a few tears trickled out the corners of her eyes. She moved a hand to wipe them away and –ouch! Her arm jolted to a stop. It was attached to something! She tried to move it again. The twinge of pain answered in tandem.

On the other hand she could feel pressure on her pointer finger, but no sharpness. She tugged, yet it too did not yield much for her either. What the hell was going on?

She forced her eyes open once more, rapidly blinking away the tears. When her vision had focused her first view was a white stippled ceiling. It was stippled and bland –something that could’ve belonged to a thousand rooms. To her right sunlight trickled in through a curtained window. That too did not offer a clue to where she was.

A roll of the head shifted her gaze to the left. When her eyes focused she nearly jumped out of her skin. Slumped over in the chair beside her was a young man. Her eyes traveled down his frame. A thick mop of chocolate curls swirled chaotically atop his head. Several wisps had fallen over his closed eyes. The crinkles at their corners indicated that he smiled often. She followed long lashes down to impossibly large lips. Did this guy get regular botox injections? The thought made her snort.

She continued to study him. From the ketchup stain on his shirt to the torn knee of his jeans, she took everything in. There was something familiar, yet unfamiliar, about him. She reached out almost out of habit and was immediately reminded on her restraints.

Her eyes finally darted to her hands. Tubes protruded out from each side, coiling at her sides and then rising up to connect to various machines above her head. In the background she could hear the beeping pick up tempo in time with her racing heart. It awoke the sleeping man.

“How are you feeling?” He asked, stretching both arms over his head.

She stared back at him with wide eyes. “Where am I?” she blurted.

He leaned over, resting his elbows on the edge of her bed. “The hospital,” he answered.

Well, that explained the pain in her hand. It was an IV. “What happened?” she asked next.

“There was an accident…” he trailed off, reaching for her hand. She quickly pulled it away from his grasp. Who the hell did he think he was?

From the way his brows stitched together as his mouth drooped he thought he was someone close, she concluded feeling a twinge of sadness for hurting his feelings.

He stood up in one fluid motion. “I’m going to go get a nurse. They’ll want to know you’re awake,” he informed, making his way to the door. “I’ll be right back,” he reassured her before stepping out.

Five minutes later he returned with a woman in teal scrubs. “Hi there, I’m Theresa and I’ll be your nurse today,” the woman introduced herself, propping up the stretcher.

“Hi,” came the meek response from the bed.

“Is it okay if I ask you a couple questions just to see how you’re doing?” Theresa asked. She was answered with a nod. “What’s your name hun?”

She blinked a few times like a deer in the headlights. What was her name? She looked at the man and then back to the nurse. A name. She had a name. She shut her eyes hoping that would help. Nothing. What was going on? She had a name –wait a minute.

“My name is Andrea Williams,” she answered. Gotcha.

That seemed to put the man at ease. A broad grin illuminated his tired face.

“How old are you?”

“I’m…uh 26,” Andrea replied hesitantly.

“When’s your birthday?”

“June 12, 1987,” she spoke with ease this time. It was getting easier to recall things.

Theresa looked up from her clipboard and asked, “Do you know where you are?”

“The hospital.”

“What city?” she corrected.

Andrea turned to the man. “We’re in Ottawa aren’t we?” she asked him. His reaction told her that she was wrong. She bit her lip and looked back to the nurse. Theresa’s face remained stoic.

“What’s todays date Andrea?”

“October 3, 2009,” she responded, watching the man. His face did not yield much this time, but the white knuckles clutching the chair gave him away. He put his hands in his pockets when he noticed that she was observing him. Theresa continued to write notes.

“That’s all for now. I’m going to let the doctor know you’re awake and she’ll be in to check on you in the next hour or so,” the nurse smiled, holding the chart against her chest.

She turned to leave, but the man remained. “Nurse!” Andrea called out.
Theresa stopped, “Yes?”

“I don’t need a babysitter anymore” Andrea joked, nodding towards the man beside her.

The chart opened up. “Come again dear?” she answered with a question.

“I’m awake now. I don’t need someone watching me, so this nice gentleman can go help out wherever else you guys need him.”

The nurse’s pen scribbled furiously down the sheet as Andrea’s gaze shifted to the chair. The man’s face was hidden in his hands. He most definitely was not a part of the healthcare team.

Who was he then? Why did he know her and she didn’t know him?
The man looked up at the nurse. “Theresa, a word,” he spoke, voice strained. Without another word they stepped out of the room and closed the door behind them.

Only muffled sounds could be heard after that. Andrea tilted her head. What the hell was going on?

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White noise numbed his ears. She doesn’t recognize me. He blinked several times and shook his head. Maybe this is a bad dream, he thought, and all I need to do is wake up. When he opened his eyes the nurse was still there looking at him expectantly. He ran his hands through his hair.

“Why doesn’t she know who I am?” he demanded in a blind panic.

“I know this must be a shock Mr. Crosby–,” the nurse started.

“I need an explanation,” he interrupted.

Theresa sighed, “I’m not a doctor.”

His eyes softened. “Please,” he pleaded. Please help me make sense of this.

She placed a comforting hand on his arm. “The most I can tell you is that she has retrograde amnesia, which is normal for a patient with severe head trauma,” Theresa explained. When he flinched at the term ‘head trauma’ she gently squeezed his forearm before continuing on. “I’ll be taking her for another CT scan right away to see if the swelling in her brain has gone down. We’ll have a better idea of how things are going after the doctor analyzes it.”

He nodded, “Thanks.”

“No problem,” she told him as she made her way back down the hall.

True to her word, Theresa was back five minutes later wheeling Andrea towards the radiology department. He remained behind in the room at the urging of the young nurse. For an hour they were gone. There he remained in the bleak hospital room alone with his thoughts; alone with his fears.

He curled in on himself. She doesn’t recognize me. Tears stung his eyes. She doesn’t know who I am. The heels of his hands burrowed into his eyes. Will she ever remember? His head shot up with a knocking at the door. Andrea was back.

He quickly wiped his eyes and forced a smile, “How’d it go?”

“She was perfect,” Theresa beamed, pushing Andrea’s stretcher back into the room. Another figure trailed in behind.

“Hello, I’m Dr. Myers,” she replied. Her ID badge indicated she was the Head of Neurology. He took a deep breath –she wasn’t here to deliver good news.

He stood and extended his hand, “I’m Sid.”

“And I’m sure you know Andrea here,” Theresa chimed in.

Dr. Myers nodded towards Theresa who exited the room and closed the door behind her. Sid collapsed back in his seat –definitely not good news.

“Miss Williams, several weeks ago you were in a motor vehicle collision that rendered you in critical condition,” Sid heard a gasp from the bed, but the doctor continued to speak, “You were in the intensive care unit until you could be stabilized. You had endured massive amounts of head trauma so for the subsequent days following your stabilization we placed you in a medically induced coma to help reduce swelling in your brain. Despite our best efforts we did not minimize the damage as much as I would have liked.”

“What do you mean?” Andrea questioned softly.

“What I mean is that you have retrograde amnesia Miss Williams. It seems you cannot remember the last six years of your life,” Dr. Myers explained.

“But she will eventually remember, right doc?” Sid asked.

“Head injuries are fickle things as I’m sure you’re aware Mr. Crosby. It’ll take time to heal and maybe, in time, she will recall past memories, but there’s never any guarantee,” Dr. Myers responded.

The world fell out from beneath him. She may never remember me. The neurologist continued to speak but the pounding in his ears drowned her voice out. She may never know what we built together. He suddenly felt very hot and dizzy, like the room was spinning out of focus.

“We will keep you under observation for another couple days and then you can go home with your fiancé,” the doctor concluded.

Sid watched Andrea face him with wide eyes. “My fiancé?” She gaped, eyes darting to her left hand.

“You hadn’t told her?” Dr. Myers inquired, arching an eyebrow.

Sid gripped the back of his neck. They hadn’t even had the time to process Andrea’s amnesia, how could he have even begun to think about telling her everything she had missed?

And frankly, he didn’t even know where to begin.
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Was that a long hiatus or what? I'm back, but school's in full swing so I may only be back part-time (sorry). Got my inspiration from The Vow, but I promise that things are going to progress much differently.

As always, let me know what you think! Let's see if you can guess where this is going!