I speak in Silence

Nothing.

August 17, 1973

A bright fluorescent light flooded into my eyes. The room was completely and utterly silent beside from the noisy air conditioning vent and the ringing in my ears. My head was spinning and my throat felt tight as though someone were strangling me from the inside making every drawing breath a greater struggle than the last.

The room was sterile and lifeless. The round, circular lights draped from the ceiling in a straight line. My bed fit the rest of the room perfectly. The mattress was thin and provided little to no back support, its metal skeleton was a cold, hard metal. The room was completely empty. I was alone.

I looked at my hands, I saw my skin scabbed and scarred, bruises running all along my body, and the collar of my blue, wrinkly gown stained in blood. The entire scene was absolutely mortifying. After a few moments of panicked contemplation and frantic attempts of figuring out how I got here, why I was here, and where I was in vain, the door knob snapped.

Now, I had no idea who this man was, he was wearing an all-white lab coat with a black tie. A mechanism the shape of a wisdom bone loosely wrapped around his neck, it was all black except for a small, metal circle that hung down to his gut. He had dark, well-kept hair, bushy eyebrows, pale skin and stern, brown eyes.

"Hello ma'am," he approached me nonchalantly, despite seeing my disfiguration. He acted as if he'd seen people like this everyday. I wondered, did he kidnap me? Is he going to kill me? I moved away from him, tension growing in my body. He looked at me perplexedly as if it was not a natural reaction to fear a strange man in a strange room that I did not remember.

"I am not here to hurt you." The man smiled, "My name is Dr. Lockley. Do you remember how you got here?"

I shook my head. I had no recollection of anything.

"Your body was found bloodied and beat under a bridge. A kind homeless man had graciously carried you to the hospital and disappeared. We do not know of his whereabouts currently, but he saved your life. Do you perhaps remember what happened?"

I shook my head again.

The doctor now looked at me with even more confusion—and perhaps—even a bit of concern, "Do you remember anything? What is your name?"

I did not even recall my name. I strained my throat and attempted to tell him "I don't remember" but I croaked, and all that came out was the tiniest of squeaks. Again, I tried to speak, again and again until it hurt too much. My voice... it was gone.

"Don't worry, your voice will return soon. Just fill out this information for me please." Dr. Lockley passed me a clipboard "Just write NA for anything you don't know how to answer." He then motioned the letters N and A with his fingers in the air as if I were deaf.

I did not know a single answer to any of the questions on the sheet. I answered everything with NA, including my name.