Mrs. Belden
Honors English 1
9 October 2014
The
Journey to Memory
“Beep,
beep, beep!” I wake up and look at my alarm clock. 5:15, time for work. I get
in my cargo pants and put on an old t-shirt with rips and tears and then put my
neon vest on over it. I get in my white
truck that has rusted over the years but has everything I need in it and drive
to pick up my work partner, Nathan who is also my life long best friend. At 6:30 we get to our work sit where today, we
are fixing an electric line. We get there and it is raining but we have a job
to do. I climb up to the electric line
and start working. It is hard to see what I am doing because it has started to
rain more. The wires are slipping around like wet fish in my hands. I cut the
wrong wire. There is a big spark then everything goes black. In that moment,
everything changed.
I
wake up in I place I don’t recognize. My entire body aches with pain. I try to
move but the pain is too strong. A lady comes in who I think is a nurse.
She says, “Good, you are awake. How are you
feeling?”
“Everything hurts.”
I reply.
Next she asked
what my name was. Such a simple question, one that you should know your whole
life, something that you tell everyone when you first meet him or her, but a
question I could not answer. I didn’t know my name. I don’t know anything about myself! I don’t
know when my birthday is, what my parents’ names are, who I am married to (if I
am married), how old I am, what I do for a living, where I live. It is like I am a stranger to myself. The
only thing I know is my physical appearance. I have light brown shaggy hair,
sun kissed skin, and emerald green eyes. How can I not remember anything? How
is that possible to not know anything about yourself? I feel light-headed, the
room starts to spin and then everything goes black.
When
I wake up my stomach is rumbling with hunger. The nurse is there again with
some creamy, steamy soup. Since I am too weak, she feeds it to me. After I finish eating, she asks me if I remember
anything, anything at all. With sadness I tell her I don’t. She said that it was normal for people to not
remember things about themselves after having an accident like I’d had. I don’t
even remember my accident though. The nurse said that she would show me some
general pictures to see if it would help me remember. She showed me a picture
of a dog.
“Do you have a
dog?” She asked.
“Can’t remember”,
I replied.
Next
she showed me a picture of a happy family.
“Do
you have a family?”
“Maybe.”
Then
she showed me a picture of a calendar.
“
I’m sorry but I don’t remember” I said with frustration in my voice.
That
when the tears started to come. They
would not stop streaming down my face. I probably looked like a crazy person. I
mean how often do you see a grown man cry?
I shouldn’t be crying. I was just so upset and frustrated. How bad was
the accident that I don’t know anything? The nurse came up to me and said that
everything would be ok. That when a person loses their memory it usually takes
awhile to come back and that sometimes they just need to see something that
will make them remember. She told me
that we had done enough for one day and that we would work more tomorrow. After she leaves, I start to wonder if I will
ever get my memory back. What will happen to me if I don’t and where does that take
me for the rest of my life?
Today
I got new and exciting news. At the
accident, there was another person with me! They said that he was unconscious
too and now is in a coma. I was not allowed to see him yet because I was in a
fragile state and they wanted to want until I was doing better and he was not
in a coma anymore. Now I have the hope I
thought I’d lost to carry on. I turned on the T.V in my hospital room and a
show comes on. It was a football game. I
remember reading that this should be a good season for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Wait, I REMEMBER!!! I actually remember something!!!! I remember reading that
article!!!
Today
I get to see the other person that was with me at the time of the accident. The
doctor said he woke up and remembers being with me! When I walk into his room I
stare at him with a blank expression. I have no idea who this person is. I walk
up to him briskly.
“Hey
dude. I hear we have been though a rough ride,” he said with a husky voice.
“I’m
sorry but I don’t remember you. Don’t take it personally. I don’t remember anything.”
“I’m
Nathan. We’ve know each other since the beginning of time”
Every
day for a few weeks I go to his room and he tells me something about myself, us
together or work. I now know that my birthday is May 13th and that I
am 21 years old. He told me that I have a good heart and personality and no
matter how frustrated I get don’t let that change me. I now know that the
accident happened when we were fixing an electrici line and I cut the wrong
wire because it was raining and I could not see very well. Nathan said that after he recovers enough to
get out of the hospital that he would take me back to his apartment and take
care of me until I remember enough to be on my own.
Nathan
got out of the hospital two days ago and today is the day that he is coming to
pick me up. At 9:30 Nathan comes up to
get me. I leave the room that has become the only place I’ve known for the past
few weeks. We start to walk down a hallway that seems to be going on forever.
When we finally get outside, Nathan shows me where my truck is parked. I see a
white truck that looks like it had rusted over the years but has everything you
could need in it. I know this truck. I remember everything.
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