Who? - Bryan Sammis

One

I hesitated as several more nurses filed into the room. The doctor took one look at my face and quickly ushered them back out. As the door opened and closed, I heard yelling, just outside the room. It sounded like one of the nurses arguing with a younger man, maybe the one that had been in the chair. The doctor flipped through the clipboard and quickly jotted something down on the page he was looking for.

"It's natural to be overwhelmed, don't panick," The doctor walked to the left side of my hospital bed, in front of the window, creating beams of the white light. "I'm doctor Mason, by the way." He held out his hand. Slowly, trying not to jostle my head, I took it. "I know you might have a headache, but there aren't any pain medications that are safe enough to give you at the moment. So what do you remember?" He asked cautiously. I thought. I couldn't seem to remember anything from before I woke up, but I guess my brain was just a little fuzzy from the headache and the fact that I had just woken up. I tried clearing my head, and attempting to remember what had happened before I went to sleep, but all I could remember was vague feelings of intense discomfort, pain, and confusion. I thought more, about the first thing the doctor had said to me, fighting against my aching head. It suddenly came to me that I would not have known what my own name was if he hadn't asked me how I was feeling, not one minute ago. I didn't know who I was. How old am I? What's my last name? My eye color? Who am I?

"Alexa?" The doctor asked, worried.

"I don't know anything," I admitted, unable to project my voice louder than a barely-there whisper.

"What?" Doctor Mason asked.

"I don't know who I am," I told him, not much louder than the first sentence I uttered.

"Ah," He said as if he knew the remedy to whatever it was I had and could fix it with a simple twitch of his nose and a snap from his fingers. "We can tell you who you are, don't sweat it." I could tell he was trying to sound calmer than he was at this point. "But listen," He pulled up the same chair that the man had been sitting on earlier and sat beside me where he was standing before. "What you have is amnesia." He left that thought a moment to sink in. But I didn't think a moment was enough. "We'll be running some tests tomorrow, or even today, if you're up for it, to find out just what it is that happened while you... Slept. But for now, I'll get one of the nurses to help." I nodded in consent as he got up from his seat, and left the bright room to find a nurse. My mind was reeling. Where are my parents? Do I have parents? My thoughts were interrupted by a nurse quietly entering the room.

"Hello," She said cautiously.

"Hi," I replied. After i got a look at her, I realized she was the same nurse from earlier.

"I'm Clara," She smiled. "I'm going to try my best to answer any questions you might have."

"What's my name? My full name, I mean."

"Alexandra Jade Franco. But we've been informed that you go by Alexa."

"Wait, like James Franco?" I asked, confusing myself. I couldn't remember my own name, but I could remember who James Franco was.

"I have no idea," Clara laughed.

"How old am I?" Clara looked down at the clipboard she'd brought in again.

"Well, it looks like you turned twenty about two and a half weeks ago, on April fourteenth." That explained why my parents weren't there.

"Who are my parents?"

"Mark and Lilly Franco."

"Do I have any siblings?" She flipped through her clipboard.

"An older sister, born three years before you. Aurora Jane Franco." That sentence confused me a little, but i brushed the feeling off, thinking it to be nothing.

"How was I injured?" I asked suddenly.

"You were involved in a serious car crash. You're very lucky to be alive," She said somberly.

"Was I in a coma?" I said, my voice small. She nodded.

"How long?"

"Almost two months." I furrowed my eyebrows. I wasn't completely sure how long that was. But my brain wasn't really working properly. I decided to give it a day before deciding anything for myself.

"was I born with any... Conditions that I need to know about?" Clara flipped to another page.

"Mild athsma. You were diagnosed with BED two years ago." She looked up cautiously.

"BED?" I asked.

"Binge Eating Disorder."

"Oh."

I knew what that was. It isn't like anorexia. It's bulimia, but without the purging. Normally caused by stress or anxiety or depression. Which meant that i must have a lot of stress in my life. I didn't want to go into that, though. Maybe, if I didn't remember what stressed me out, I wouldn't worry about it anymore. That thought cheered me a little.

"Who was the man that was in here before?" I asked. He must be someone to me, they wouldn't have let him in if he wasn't. A cousin maybe. She didn't say I had any brothers. Clara hesitated, looking up with the most heartbroken look i've ever laid eyes on.

"He's your boyfriend, sweetheart."