Miss Mystery

Pumpkin Spice

I woke up to the sound of yelling.

"Micheal J. Rye you put that cup down right now!"

"But I -"

"Nuh-uh mister. You know what that does to you."

"I just -"

"You just what? Wanted to die of diabetes?"

"Diabetes? Hon, it's just a pumpkin spice latte. It's all the rage with the teenagers these -"

"Are you a teenager?"

"Well, I mean -"

"I said, are you a teenager?!"

Gulp. "No, sweetie. I'm not."

I attempted to open my eyes to see what the fuss was about and put and end to the dispute, but winced as the bright white light harshly assaulted my vision. I grimaced and squeezed my eyes shut, throwing my arm over my face to block out the light.

I heard a gasp and a maternal cry as my eyes became adjusted to the light. Once they were adjusted, I saw two faces hovering over me, both looking to be on the verge of tears.

"Martin! Oh Micheal, look! Our baby is awake!"

My mom was crying now, tears streaming rapidly down her worry-ridden face.

"Oh thank the Lord..."

My dad  had sunken his face into his hands, his shoulders slumping as if the weight of the world had been lifted off of his shoulders.

I tried to speak, but found myself coughing aggressively instead. My dad spun into action and grabbed me a cup of water as my mom continued to sob and whisper my name as if I would disappear at any second. I greedily drank the water, feeling as if I had been stuck in a barren desert for a lifetime and had just found life.

Once I was satisfied, I put the cup down and observed my surroundings. I was on a large hospital bed with scratchy sheets that irritated my skin, and connected to various machines that monitored my heart rate and other levels. The walls in my room were a bleak grey, doing nothing whatsoever to make up for the dirty, more off-white than white, linoleum floors. The atmosphere in the room seemed fragile, almost as if any little move could shatter the air around us into millions of tiny pieces.

"What's going on?" I rasped out.

"Oh my baby. You... you were mugged. A young lady found you on the street, near death... You've been comatose for two months." My mom had slightly composed herself, and had already wiped the tears away with her embroidered handkerchief.

I drew a blank. None of what she said had registered in my head. The last thing I remembered was coming home from work the other day and falling asleep on my couch while watching a documentary on the savanna. I was panicking, trying to remember a mugging, but I kept drawing a blank. The monitor sounding my heart rate started beeping faster, alerting my parents of my distress.

"Honey, we should call the nurse. He needs to be checked and we're alarming him," my dad, always the voice of reason, gruffly stated.

"Let's just go find her. This hospital is obviously understaffed and someone needs too attend to our son right this second!"

I was still lost in my panicked thoughts as my parents exited the room. I was so absorbed that I didn't notice another figure walk through the door, and was completely startled as I felt two arms wrap around me gently. The smell of citrus overwhelmed my senses as this stranger clung on to me, shaking with what seemed to be relief.

"Sorry, but do I know you?"