Hospital Blues

Short Story

She wakes up with a startled gasp, mind blank and wide eyes searching around. She did not know what the cause of her panic was, but it had something to do with the fact that she now lay in a hospital gown. Blue is one colour she remembers hating, and blue was her gown. Why was she in a hospital? What is her age?
What is her full name?
Her panic only amplified as she realized she can't remember any crucial details about herself. Her silent intakes of breath now spiraled into hyperventilation. She pulled her knees up to her chest and held her head in her hands, trying to ease off some of the panic.
'Panic. Panic attacks. I used to get a lot of those.' Some of the panic did ebb away at the realization that she could at least remember her panic attacks. A hand gingerly touched down on her shoulder, startling her. She momentarily forgot she was at a hospital.
"Are you alright, miss?", a nurse tentatively asked. "She's awake! Patient Annabelle is awake!", the nurse took a moment to yell at the closed door of the emergency chamber.
'Anna...belle? Is that my name?', Annabelle wondered, her panic forgotten. She realized she really didn't remember her name and it wasn't just the panic. The weight of the fact and the fear of the unknown past she had had now lay heavily on hot just her heart, but also her mind. She saw black at the corners of her vision, her head swimming somewhere at her than earth.
The nurse had noticed the absurd shift in enemy in Annabelle, and suspected something was wrong,
"Annabelle dear? Can...hear what I...sayi...?", Annabelle only heard fragments of what the nurse was saying as she swayed midway between consciousness and oblivion.
"Emergency! Emergency! Mark! Get some medics in her!", the nurse yells. Annabelle was confused. Who was mark? Where is the emergency? Why was the end swaying?
Did she have amnesia?
'Amnesia. So that's what it is...', the world fades into serenity and darkness with that one recalled illness.

"....pass me that scalpel....that one! The on..... long tip.", Annabelle hears a male voice say above her head. Her head feels plenty strange. Not painful, just not like it normally would. She looks around and tried to ask a few questions to the owner of the male voice that spoke earlier. But that cost an effort, too. Her eyes couldn't seem to focus of one thing or another, nor can her lips or numb toungue for comprehendable words.
"Oh no! Doctor! The tranquilizer! It's not...", the rest of that sentence was muffled by a strange sense of peace that dawned on Annabelle. Only her arm stung at a specific point. But soon enough, that was gone, too. Annabelle drifts back into darkness, her exhausted brain unable to comprehend what just took place.

She wakes up again. In a different room this time. She looks to her left and finds a huge window. The window covered the entire left wall. And the view was breathtaking. Annabelle wondered, 'what did they call this time of day? Sunset? Or was it sunrise?', she couldn't tell which one was which. But she could tell she was thinking much more clearly now. Her guts were telling her that something had happened earlier that day, other than waking up in a hospital. She just couldn't remember.
She discovered soon after that she couldn't find the energy to move any of her limbs, and moving her head from side to side felt strange and took a lot of effort.
The door to her chamber opens softly. So soundlessly that, if she wasn't looking in that direction she wouldn't have noticed it. A nurse walks in, looking down on a tray cart stuffed neatly with food, mineralized water and what she remember was orange juice.
'Probably my dinner.', Annabelle thought, noting that the food wasn't breakfast material. She can recall eating most of the food on those plates. She also remembers a table, chairs, plates designed with florals. And a fridge covered in pictures. The pictured with a blurred mess. A kitchen, a doorway and now a hallway. Just by looking at the food, she now recalls, albeit partially, what her house looks like.
She also recalls a smile.
A smile so beautiful, so radiant that Annabelle now wore a smile, laying on the hospital bed as the sunset turned from orange to purple to navy.
The nurse walks further in the chamber and shuts the door behind her. She now turns around and notices that Annabelle has awakened. The nurse smiled softly, tentatively even, at Annabelle and asked how she was feeling.
"I...I'm kind of funny in the head.", Annabelle replied. She noted how her sentence was not easy to form, like her language has been severed.
"Well, that's because we had to fix a few things up there, yeah?", he nurse explained this Annabelle like she would to a five year old.
"Fix..my brain? Oh, because I have amnesia?", Annabelle inquired.
"Um...yes, that is what the doctor suspects.", the nurse retorted cautiously. She found it strange that Annabelle knew of her condition. After a few moments of thought the nurse decided to let Annabelle in on the full picture.
"A passer by on Rees street called in after witnessing a car crash. Darling, it was your car that crashed", Annabella's heart beat loudly in her ears at this new piece of information, the nurse went on, "our ambulances were there in a jiffy, but you have already taken a pretty serious hit to the back of your head, causeing your, hopefully temporary, memory loss.", the nurse paused looking back at the cooling food on the tray, "have you been able to recall anything from before the accident? During the accident even?", the nurse finally asked. Annabelle couldn't answer that question.
"I .... I'm not sure of anything. What day is it? What country is this? How old am I?", Annabelle asked more to herself than to the nurse. She fumbled with the hem of the covers, now recovered her energy. She then looked up at the nurse hopefully, " can you tell me?"
The nurse wheeled the food cart to rest beside Annabelle," I will answer what I can. But first, you need to eat something. So you can't remember anything?" The nurse repeated her original question.
At Annabelle's silent shake of head, she nodded understandingly. Annabelle really couldn't rme bed, it wasn't a complete lie. But there was still that joyous smile, that long golden hair resembling her own. Whose smile was that? Who is this sweet lady? At the memory of the woman Annabelle's heart warmed, and filled with reassurance. Like a mother's embrace.
"Okay. Um, okay, well, I will call the doctor in to give you a check up, alright? Just to make sure everything's going smoothly after the operation. Try to eat something, the doctor'll be here in 15 minutes. If anything's wrong just press that red button.", the nurse walked over to Annabelle's side, and pointed to a red button on the night stand.
The nurse gave Annabelle one last sweet smile before departing the room. Annabelle was left alone to her thoughts again. She looked down at the food another wave of memories unlocking. Annabelle deemed it impossible that she would have forgotten her own mother, but here she lay, unable to remember what colour her mother's eyes were. With the thought of her mother came the thought of her father. Where was he? Why wasn't he in any of her recalled memories?
Her hands tingled, as if begging for her attention. She looked down at her open palms and another memory was brought up, followed by many others.
A black dress, she was wearing black. Her mother was, too. She remembered tears and sadness. Her father's funeral? A rose garden. She remembered knowing that the roses were covered in thorns, but she grabbed at them anyways. She remembered the pain, not just in her hands, but her heavy heart, too.
Unconsciously she let loose a few tears of grief. How old was she when her father died? Six years old? She remembered being so small at the gloomy funeral. She had wanted to give those roses to her father, on his deathbed.
Without thinking, she swung her legs off of the white bed, and onto the cold, tiled floor. Tears swam freely from her field of vision and down to the floor. She made her way to the door. Memories of grief and sadness and of her father clouded her judgment as she sped down the white corridors. She was feeling claustrophobic all of a sudden. A few nurses regarded her with alarm. She knew she must have looked like a lunatic; running through the hallway in a blue hospital gown with a patched up head. She made her way quickly down the stairs. She truly didn't know which way to go. Where was that humble home she remembered? She didn't know for the life of her.
But she never paused, never slowed down.
It was as if there was an invisible force urging her to leave this hospital, to just get out of here.
She didn't count how many steps she took going down or how many sobs radiated off of her. But less than five minutes later she was standing at the foot of the staircase. She noticed she was being followed by two security guards. She only paused to catch a much needed gulp of oxygen before running full speed towards the open exit.
Before she knew it she was out. The cool night breeze like ice cream on a hot summer day. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the breeze for a long moment before starting to the left side of the street.
But then she came to an abrupt stop.
Although it was chilly and the sweat from running down the stairs was cold on her skin, she felt so warm and bubbly inside.
She saw those golden strands of hair. That sweet, angelic smile.
And the colour of her eyes; beautiful hazel.
Her grief over the death of her father years ago is now long forgotten as she gazed upon her dearly loved mother.
"Mommy!", Annabelle whimpered as she pelted into her mother's outstretched arms.
"Oh Anny dear, are you alright? Have you been crying? I came over here as soon as they told me you are awake!", her mother whispered to her, her whispers muffled by the cool autumn wind.
"Thank you mommy! I love you", tears of happiness streams down Annabelle's cheeks at the sight of someone she recognized.
Now, she felt that it's going to be alright, that everything's not so bad. Her mother was here, alive and well. And together, they will get Annabelle's memories back.