Love, Hate and Hockey Skates

Twenty-Nine

I woke up in an all too familiar place, I was back in the hospital. This time I only had an IV in my hand and breathing tubes shoved up my nose – and I wasn't alone in the room.

The girl from earlier, Sylvia, was still there waiting anxiously on the chair next to the bed. She gasped and rushed over when she saw me move.

"Isla, are you okay?" she asked.

I stared at her for a few minutes, but no other memories flashed in my mind.

"Are we friends?" I asked.

"Why would you ask that? Of course, we are! What happened to you?"

I wasn't sure if I should tell her what happened. Was she really someone I knew before?

"Where did we meet?" I asked.

She looked confused but proceeded to tell me about the University and the dance program we are both enrolled in, the time we met in the practice rooms and the drama we both went through with a girl named Amber.

"Is she the reason you're here? Did she do something to you?"

I shook my head, feeling a little more familiar with Sylvia.

"I was hit by an oncoming car apparently trying to escape my sadistic father. I've been suffering from total amnesia for the past three months; I barely remembered my own name when I first came here."

"So, what have you been doing for the past 3 months on your own?"

I gestured around me. "Staying here, recovering and trying my best to remember who I am. How did you find me?"

"I wasn't even looking for you at the time, not that I haven't been. I'm visiting relatives in the city for spring break, and they asked me to get some pastries from the shop for lunch and there you were. It took me a few seconds to realize I wasn't imagining you. It's no wonder we couldn't find any trace of you."

"What do you mean 'we'?"

Sylvia looked hesitant to tell me more. "Rest for now, I can tell you everything one detail at a time, so you don't overload your brain."

I knew she had a point, but something itched at the back of my mind that told me she was avoiding telling me for a deeper reason. I decided to let it go when the nurse came in and informed us visiting hours were over.

"I'll come back tomorrow and we can talk more," Sylvia said with a tight smile, then left.

I was baffled the entire night, wondering if I should continue to put my trust in this girl just because I had a second worth of a possible memory. Her story of where wed met matched up with the memory I saw, but that didn't prove she was someone to be easily trusted.

Ever since I woke up in the hospital with no memory of who I was, there had been an inner instinct that kicked in whenever I felt something wasn't right, and it was a strong feeling with Sylvia.

I rolled over on the bed, and the sudden urge to check my phone took over me. I searched the end table next to me, but it was empty, my phone wasn't anywhere in the room and neither was my bag. I distinctly remembered having it with me when I left work, it had everything I owned in there, and I never would've left it behind.

It was too late to ask any of the nurses where my bag was, I hoped it was back at my living dorm before I drifted off to sleep.

~*~

I was discharged the next morning, and the doctors gave me a clean bill of health other than the ongoing amnesia and odd headaches now and then. I was given strict instructions not to push myself if I do happen to remember something, or it might cause long-term damage to my brain and memory. If I wanted to remember the past, I had to let it come back to me naturally and through small parts, as Sylvia had also said.