Chapter One - Tanya

“Where am I? What’s happened to me?” I ask myself as I lie here in the darkness. I don’t even know where here is. There’s a beeping noise playing in my ears as my eyes stay closed.

            I try to pull myself out of the darkness by opening my eyes. For some reason, that seems so hard to do, but after a few tries, I finally get it done. My eyes open to a bright white blurry room. I look around as I try to focus.

            The room is not only bright and white, but it’s cold. I look down at the rest of my body to find that it’s covered in white linen. The more I look around, the more my sight comes into focus. I turn to the side as I lift my right hand to look at it. I see wires attached to it.

            My heart begins to race with the fear of not knowing what happened to me. The monitor attached to me begins to beep faster. That’s when I see a woman dressed in white come busting into my room.

            An older white nurse stands over me, pressing a button above my head as she looks down at me. “I can’t believe it. You’re awake.”

            She walks over to the side of my bed and presses another button. I hear a voice come through. The nurse says, “Can you please tell Dr. Richmond that the patient in room 240 has awakened?”

            After she finishes talking to the other nurse, she walks back over to me in the bed. “Can you speak?”

            I open my mouth to say something, but find that my mouth is too dry to speak. I lift my hand to my throat and make a noise.

            “Would you like some water?”

            I nod my head to answer. The nurse walks over to the table that is across the room and pours me some ice water from a small plastic container. She pours the ice water into a white Styrofoam cup with a straw and brings it over to me. I have to lift my head a bit to drink the water. The nurse places her free hand behind my back to help me lift. I wrap my lips around the straw and sip. As I sip, I notice my body feels heavy and weak. After sipping for a while, I get my fill and lay back.

            “Is that better?”

            “Yes, thank you,” I say in a weak voice.

            “Do you know where you are?”

             For some reason, I must think about it. Then it comes to me. “I’m in a hospital.”

            “That’s right. Do you know your name?”

            I want to say yes, but the truth is I have no idea. I search my mind for the answer, but it keeps coming up blank. The nurse is about to say something when a tall, black gentleman comes in wearing a lab coat.

            “How are we today?” He asks as he shines a light in my eyes.

            “Fine,” I answer in a raspy voice this time, now that my voice is getting a little stronger.

            I watch as the nurse leans over and whispers something in his ear. They pull apart, and the man stares at me. “Do you have any idea who I am?

                I shake my head no.

                 “Do you know your name?”

                  “No,” I say softly.

            I begin to shake, knowing an alarmed look creeps across my face as the doctor tries to reassure me. “It’s okay that you don’t know your name. You have been asleep for a long time.”

                “How long?”

                 “A year.”

                “What happened to me?”

            “I can’t answer that. I am your primary doctor, but your neurologist needs to speak with you first. First, I am going to run you through some physical tests, then I will go outside and call him. Ok?”

            “Sure.”

The doctor tests my reflexes to make sure they are in good shape. Then he has me test the strength in my legs and arms. All that seems to be weak, but he said that’s okay. He did explain that I will need rehab to build more strength.