Page 6 of Brody
His eyes sprang open like they were attached to springs, but he continued to lie perfectly still. The hazel eyes behind his lids were dull and blurry, like he wasn’t fully awake, and it took several moments for his pupils to focus.
Neither the doctor nor I made a sound as we waited for his reaction.
His eyes moved first, his gaze darting around the room. Then he tried to sit up in a single sudden motion. He didn’t get more than a few inches off the bed before his injuries caught up with him and he grasped his bandaged head with a gasp of pain.
“Sir, please don’t get up yet,” the doctor spoke up, placing a hand on his shoulder to keep him still. “Just relax and I’ll raise the bed up. Now, can you tell me your name?”
The bed adjusted slowly with the hum of a struggling motor. When the man was finally sitting up, he couldn’t seem to decide what to look at first. His head swiveled back and forth on his neck, trying to take in the entire room all at once. It took twomore attempts from the doctor to ask his name before he finally realized someone was speaking to him.
“Uh, Ellis. I’m Ellis.”
“Okay Mister… Ellis.” The doctor kept her tone light, but her brow was furrowed with worry. “You’re in Rynkirk General Hospital. You were brought here after you were injured while you were camping. Can you tell us anything about what happened?”
The man, Ellis, shook his head back and forth. “I don’t know.”
Something about his tone sent a rock sinking into the pit of my stomach.
The doctor took his pulse and listened to his breathing with her stethoscope, never letting her professional demeanor drop. “Okay, sir. I understand that you’re confused. Let’s start with something simpler. We didn’t find any ID on you. Can you give us your full name for our records?”
“I don’t know.”
His voice was sharp and panicked as he dropped his head into his hands, fingers digging into the pristine white bandages on his forehead.
“I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know.”
CHAPTER 2
Ellis
A light filled my vision,and my eyes watered as I struggled not to blink. The light came and went quickly, and a moment later the doctor was stepping back from where she’d been leaning close to me.
It wasn’t the first time she’d examined me. Not even the tenth time by now. Yet, despite all the examination and testing, the diagnosis never changed.
Amnesia.
That single word summed up a complex diagnosis. Apparently, I’d been camping in an area of the forest where a logging company had been working, and a tree had fallen on me. Why I was camping in a restricted area, or how long I’d been there, no one could tell me.
They couldn’t even tell me my full name. There’d been no identification on my body, and so far authorities hadn’t been able to track down any clues as to my identity.
My name was Ellis. That much I knew, but I wasn’t even sure if that was my first name or last. The rest of my mind was completely blank, with just that single word bouncing around in my otherwise empty skull.
“Well, Mister Ellis,” the doctor said as she scribbled something on my chart. “You’re doing well. The swelling in your brain has gone down, and the cut on your head is healing nicely. No signs of infection or other symptoms. If not for the amnesia, you’re practically in perfect health.”
“Other than the amnesia,” I repeated, unable to keep myself from scoffing.
“Yes,” she nodded in understanding. “I understand that this must all be very confusing. Head injuries are tricky. Your memories may eventually come back, or they may not. You have a lot of factors in your favor, since you’re in otherwise good health, so I have hope that the memory issues will resolve themselves, but all we can do for now is wait and see.”
“Wait and see.” I felt like a parrot, just repeating everything I heard. “Where am I supposed to do that? Am I staying here, or…”
I trailed off, not even sure what the rest of that statement would be. Surely I couldn’t stay at the hospital. Hospitals were for sick or injured people, and as the doctor had said, I was mostly fine.
Was there a place for people with no memories to go?
I’d never heard of such a thing, but considering my lack of memory, maybe I’d forgotten about it.
Even a hotel was out of my reach. Hotels required money, and if I had any, I didn’t remember how to access it. Without anidentity, I had nothing. Even the clothes off my back weren’t worth much. An attempt had been made to clean them up, but the incident with the tree had left them so stained and torn that I’d elected to stay in the hospital gown for as long as possible.
I literally had nothing.
