Memories

Chapter 2

1987

We met on Christmas Eve. I was a sophomore in college living with friends in Manhattan, getting so drunk I thought it was summer. I ran outside in a pair of shorts and a tank top, spinning beneath the snow flurries and imagining they were airplane leaves, spiraling down in masses beneath the trees. I was laughing to myself, getting further and further away from the party at the frat house. I didn't feel the cold pierce my skin as I lay down in the freshly lain snow, staring up at the stars with my tongue sticking out. It must have been freezing out—at most 2 degrees—and I started to get tired. Hypothermia was setting in, but I didn't feel it. I was still laughing lightly, my eyes glazing over as I watched the whiteness cover my vision. I wasn't scared as I began to fall into a coma, my heart beating crazily in my chest. I remember hearing someone shout indistinctly and footsteps pounding on the street. At the time, I thought the people from the party were coming to join me, and I was excited. I tried to get up, but found that I couldn't move at all.

"Oh, my God! Are you okay?" it was a man's voice—one that I didn't recognize.

Yes, I tried to say. How couldn't I be? Come join me, it's beautiful.

"Someone call 911!" he screamed, and more pounding rang in my ears. "Can you tell me your name? What are you doing out here wearing that? God, do you have a death wish?"

That is the last thing I remember before waking up in a hospital, wrapped in what seemed like hundreds of blankets, freezing my ass off. There was no one in the room except a man I had never seen before. His hair was dark and wet, plastered against his forehead. His clothing was also soaked and he was sitting in the chair by my bed.

"Hi," he said with a half-smile. His voice was gruff and tired.

"Who are you?" it came out in a hoarse whisper between my chattering teeth. My whole body was shaking and my fingers were blue. "Oh, God, what happened?"

"You're hypothermic," he said slowly. "You fell into a coma for a while. What the hell were you doing outside with barely any clothes on?"

"I'm so cold," I said instead, huddling deeper into my blankets.

The man gave me a strange look. "If you were warm, I would be very alarmed. What's your name? We've just been calling you Jane Doe."

"We?"

"The doctors and stuff. And me, I guess."

"Willa," I said after a moment.

He smiled, his eyes crinkling. "Nice to meet you, Willa. I'm David."

"Why are you here?"

He shrugged. "I didn't want you to be lonely when you woke up."