After scarfing down the food Ava brought me, I went back to sleep. When I woke Ava told me it was late evening and instructed me to take a shower. It was no surprise to me that blood and grime had crushed unto my skin overnight and refused to move. After frantically scouring and scrubbing at my skin in one of the working showers, the bar of soap Ava gave me had been rubbed down to almost nothing and my skin was red and burning slightly from the rawness. I only stopped because Ava yelled at me about using all the water left in the world. I hoped she was just joking about how long I took to shower.
As I pulled on the washed out blue jeans and grey hoodie and t-shirt fit me closely I was so graciously provided with, I caught a glimpse of girl with long dark wet hair and pale skin with a noticeable burn scar on her shoulder. It took me a second to realize I was looking at my reflection. A small stretch of wall opposite the showers was glass.
I frowned; I must have hit my head pretty hard to forget what I looked like.
I could tell the colour of my eyes even from the short distance. They were practically glowing. Blue, they were clear, cold, bright blue.
“Alex!! For crying out loud, what’s taking you so long?!!”
I snapped out of my stupor and quickly dragged on the rest of my new clothes and skipped out to what I found out to be the ground floor of the hospital, which only went up four floors.
There, waiting with Ava near the entrance was a girl with curly strawberry-red haired and bright friendly smile. There were bold black numbers on her neck.
F307 S023
“Hi I’m Charlotte!” she chirped as soon as I was within hearing range.
“Alex,” I returned.
“Ava says your number’s not like our-”
“Charlotte,” Ava chided. Charlotte smiled sheepishly, “My bad. I’ll carry her straight to Azel. No questions, I swear.”
My heart leaped in my chest and I was suddenly overwhelmed with adrenaline and panic at the sound of first familiar thing I’d heard since I’d woken up.
Azel. I knew that name. I pressed the sudden memory further searching for a place, a time, any connection between myself and the name. My efforts were rewarded with sudden light-headedness and nausea. I swayed but caught myself against the wall.
“Alex? Are you ok?” Ava grabbed my shoulders. I shook my head trying to get rid of the airy feeling and nodded.
“I’m fine; I just… thought I remembered something.”
“Don’t push it,” Ava said, “Your memory will come back over time. If you try too hard, you’ll just hurt yourself. Give yourself time to heal….properly.”
I nodded, the nausea passing slowly.
Ava reached into the pocket of her jacket and pulled out a small clear packet with a few of the white pills from earlier.
“It’s not much but it’ll help if the headaches come back.”
I took it, more than grateful for her help, “Thanks.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I saw the wall, it became clearer to me why Ava insisted I keep my mouth shut. I should have died from a fall that great. I should have shattered like Humpty Dumpty.
Humpty Dumpty……who the hell is Humpty Dumpty?
I didn’t chase the fleeting memory, feeling the oncoming headache as I had tried to grasp it as it withered away. The wall recaptured my attention. Even from the distance I could tell it was high. High enough to die if you fell from the top, head first.
