Page 16 of Amnesia

“I have no way of predicting that.”

I stepped closer, lowering my voice. “Do you think it’s her?”

“You know it’s not,” he said sadly.

“But is it possible?” I pressed. I was probably the last person in this town, on this planet, who refused to give up hope.

He didn’t want to say it, but he couldn’t lie. Not to me. Not to himself. Hell, the entire town was speculating. “There are several similarities, and the age does seem to be about right.”

“And the fact no one has come to claim her.”

I’ll claim her. I’ll claim her right now.

“Don’t get your hopes up, son.” Dr. Beck put his hand on my shoulder. “Even if by some slim chance this is her, she isn’t the same. She never will be.”

I couldn’t hear that. I didn’t want to.

I turned to go into the room, but Dr. Beck stopped me. “You can’t tell her, not yet. She’s fragile. Her mind is still coming to terms with her new reality. Too much, too soon will only hurt her further.”

Frustration welled within me. I wanted to march in there and pour it all out. Tell her everything and then hope recognition brimmed in her eyes.

I couldn’t.

Actions like that, words like the ones bubbling inside me were pollution to her. She needed a friend. Someone to be there. No pressure to be anything other than who she was in that moment.

I didn’t know how to do that, but I also couldn’t stay away.

My head bobbed. “I can do that. I won’t say anything.”

“Keep her calm. Be her friend.Take it slow. Any signs of memory recovery, call meimmediately.”

I nodded.

Dr. Beck moved to walk away. I grabbed his wrist. “How, um… how bad was it for her?”

His eyes darkened and his mouth pulled into a taut line. “You mean whatever it was that caused the complete dissociation?”

I nodded.

“Severe. So severe…” He stopped and shook his head.

“What?” I cajoled.

“So severe it may be better if she never gets her memory back.”

The last thing I expected was to fall into the arms of a dark-haired, blue-eyed man with dimples for days.

Not that I really expected anything. I mean, that’s all there was for me. Nothing.

I thought maybe the man who found me was a fisherman or someone older… less attractive.

I guess there was something else I could add to my ever-growing list of character traits. I liked men. Or rather, I found one in particular attractive.

Eddie was attractive; I couldn’t deny it. So handsome it filled in some of that stark silence in my mind. His face was exactly what I needed to mull over when nothing else was there. The blue of his eyes was almost startling, reminding of what the sky looked like on a summer day. The blue was accentuated by dark, long lashes and a head of hair so dark it made me think of midnight. It was thick and curly, kind of unruly in the sense it flopped over his forehead and ears. I liked his jawline, too, the strength in it, the clean line. I bet when he got angry and it flexed, it would make my stomach flip.

And he was tall, too. So tall. I had to crane my neck back to study him. When I almost fell and he was there, I noted the warmth of his skin, how alive he felt, even the erratic beating of his heart.

Settling back into the bed, I marveled at my own thoughts. It amazed me how effectively my mind was whirling, how noticing mere details on someone sprang alive parts of me that I thought were gone, too. It gave me hope. Hope that maybe I wasn’t as lost as everyone assumed.

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