Faces, Names, and Memories (completed)

Chapter 2 - Images

It was a while until the doctor came, not that I saw her come in, I was still looking at the view.

"Ahem," The doctor cleared her throat when she came in. She was female and wearing a similar outfit the nurse was wearing except she had a hat with the red plus on it. I looked at her.

"It's nice to see our mystery patient finally up and about," The doctor said with a smile. She sat down on a chair next to my bed that I didn't notice before. She grabbed a remote next to my bed and I felt the back lift up, bringing me to a sitting position.

"Now, I have some questions for you," The doctor said. When I didn't respond, she continued. "We don't know much about you Jade. You were found in an old lab at VeraTec Industries that hasn't been used in over 20 years. You looked as if you had been in some sort of explosion, your clothes were charred and torn. Can you tell us what happened?"

"I-I want to. But I can't," I said.

"Why not dear," The nurse said putting a hand on my hand. The one that had an iv needle in the crook of the arm. "You're not in trouble."

"But I don't know what happened. I only know - I don't remember anything before waking up here," I said. The doctor looked thoughtful.

"Do you know your name?" She asked.

"Jade- Jade Vera," I said. Saying the name felt weird. But I knew for sure it was mine. The doctor's eyes grew wide.

"Sweetie, what was, is, your dad's name?" The doctor asked. I thought hard, an image of a face appeared in my head. I knew it was my dad. But I couldn't remember his name. I couldn't remember my dad's name.

"I don't know. I can't remember. I know the face. But I can't remember his name," I admitted.

"That's alright sweetie, it'll come to you but it takes time." The doctor said. I didn't reply.

"Do you remember how hold you are?" The doctor asked. I closed my eyes and thought hard. An image of a birthday cake with 14 candles on it came to the front of my foggy mind. That must have been my last birthday.

"I'm fourteen," I said.

"Good," The doctor said. "See if you focus you will remember." I realized that if I focused on a specific question, then a memory would come to the front of my mind. I wondered who my friends are. I closed my eyes and thought hard. Nothing, just blankness. So my mind didn't want me to know that yet. But I would find out.

"Jade," The doctor said. "Can you try to remember when your birthday is?" I closed my eyes again and thought hard. An image of a certificate popped into my head. It was my birth certificate. I was born July 26 2000.

"July 26th 2000," I told her.

"See its not so hard Jade, is it?" The doctor said.

I shook my head. The doctor smiled. "Well I think that's enough questions for one day. I'll come back to check on you later all right?" I nodded. While I was waiting I must have drifted off because I awoke to hear two people talking.

"That's not how time machines work Cher," The man said.

"Dan, her image fits exactly. The resemblance is uncanny," The doctor said.

"I'd like to see what the boss says when he hears that you think the mystery patient is the daughter of the infamous Dr. Vera blasted in from the past." The man said with a chuckle.

At the word blast, an unclear image of fire and smoke flickered across my mind then dissapeared just like that. When I tried to pull it back, I got a headache. Actually, everything was giving me a headache right now. I didn't know what they were talking about. Time Machine? But there was no way of knowing. It was hard, not knowing anything - who I was, where I came from, who my family is. It left me helpless. If someone asked me a question. All I could tell them that my name is Jade Vera and I'm fourteen years old and I just woke up from a year-long coma. I don't know where I lived, I didn't know who my parents were, and I didn't know how I was gonna get out of this mess.

Tonight, I dreamed of pictures, some were from the past, some were from the present and some probably were dreams I had once in my life. It didn't reveal anything from my past, they weren't in order. But they did let me know that I wasn't just some normal teenager with a normal life. At some point I took advanced classes on something at a college. And I saw a lot of parts of technology, and chemist equipment. I guess I had been into science and technology. For some reason it didn't seem right to me. I didn't feel sciency or techy. But, why would I see that stuff in my dreams if I wasn't into it?

"Jade, how are you," The doctor walked in as I sat up. They must have been watching watching me.

"Hello," I replied. "I-mean good." My talking still wasn't very good.

The doctor laughed. "According to our sources you'd never been good at talking to strangers. Don't worry I was just like you when I was your age."

"What sources?" I asked ignoring her sentimental reminisce.

"Every person who comes in here we get as much information as we can about," The doctor replied.

"Then how come you needed to ask me for my information if you could get it all from a computer." I asked.

"Well you haven't been very socially active have you?" The doctor asked. I thought hard to see if any name of a social network popped into my brain. Nothing. I just shook my head, it seemed better then saying that I didn't know.

"We found very little information on you, but it'll come to you eventually, that's how amnesia works," The doctor assured me. But I didn't feel assured so I decided to stay quiet. The doctor bit her lip and walked out of the room. The rest of the day went like that. I napped, ate looked out the window and occasionally the doctor stopped in. I wonder why she stopped by me so frequently. Don't doctor's normally have more than one patient?

But that night I had a dream. It was of my dad.

He was standing in front of something I couldn't see but he was talking. At first the image was clear but his voice was warbled. Then the image fuzzed and his voice was clear. He said, "I Richard Vera, swear to use this..." (the image got clearer and his voice faded out)"...for the benefit of my beautiful daughter Jade and..."

The image got clearer here and the voice warbled out here but then this dream faded into another one that don't remember. But I knew my dad's name.