The Brother

10

I woke up with a sore in my right hand. I felt myself yawn then rub my eyes. It’s like I had no control over my body. After a few seconds of yawning and struggling to open my eyes, I had total control again.

I opened my eyes to find an IV tube in my right hand, me wearing a hideous dress, and a woman that looked very familiar. She had a beautiful aged face with brown curls. A man was by her side with thinning brown hair.

“Audrey, babe.” The woman said and came to my side. Her touch was cold on my pale blood drained hand.

“Mom? What happened?” I asked.

She brightened up to the name mom. “Get the doctor, Tom.” She said not even glancing to my dad. “Hey, what do you remember? Do you remember why you crashed?”

“Crashed? Crashed what, I don’t even have my license?”

Her face dropped slowly. There was a despairing expression all over her face. The age lines aged even more than they were supposed to. She didn’t say anything more, her muddy brown eyes impaled into my grassy green eyes.

“I see Audrey’s awake!” Who I assumed was the doctor walked in with my dad by his side. My mother didn’t look. The same look was plastered on her face that seemed to pierce my heart with worry. What crash?

“Maryanne?” My dad called out to my mom.

She shook out of her daze and turned to the doctor with a tear down her eye. “She doesn’t remember the crash.” She cried out. “She doesn’t even remember getting her license!”

“It seems like the crash did some more damage to her brain than we thought.” The doctor pulled up a chair and sat next to me. “How old are you Audrey?”

“Fourteen.”

“What grade are you in?”                                                                                            

“I’m going to be a freshman in two weeks.”

My parents gasped heavily. What was going on? Was I in the hospital because of this so called crash? I wouldn’t drive without a license. I was not that rebellious. Not even rebellious to start out with.

“Don’t worry. The damage was not bad enough for her memory to be stripped away permanently.” The doctor advised.

Memory? My memory?

“What are you talking about?” I retorted. “What about my memory.”

The doctor took my wrist. I was tempted to pull away from this stranger.

“You have lost four years of your memory due to a car crash.” He said calmly.

“What?!” I sat up straight on my bed. “So I’m eighteen and I missed all of it?!” I wanted to scream.

“No, no,” he helped me back down, “you will get the rest of it back in a short amount of time.”

“How long?” I demanded.

“Three months to the max.” I doctor cleared.

Three months? Was I going to be able to have no memory for three months? “So you need to get your rest, Audrey, we will come see you tomorrow again.” My mom said.

I looked over to the clock on the wall it was six o’clock. “I can’t sleep now, my body is too awake.” And worried.

“We’ll instruct the nurses to give you some medicine to fall asleep.” The doctor patted my back and shook my parents’ hands. My mother was tense and alert.