It’s 4am when I’m jolted out of bed in a panic. My heart is beating so fast it feels like it might jump out of my chest. I climb out of bed and stumble down the hall of my tiny apartment and enter the bathroom. I brace myself on the sink and splash my face with cold water. I look up at myself in the mirror to see my dirty blonde hair matted against my face. I try and process what had just happened. It felt like… a memory… of myself.
I was in a white dress with a gold heart shaped locket around my neck. Holding my hand was a man who had a strong jawline and short brown hair. We were laughing and in the distance was a little girl about the age of seven, with long blonde hair like my own. She runs towards us and tugs on my arm. “Mom look what I found!” as she smiles and hands me a dandelion, “make a wish” and that’s when I had woken up. I climbed back into bed trying to calm myself down, it just felt so real. I tossed and turned until my alarm went off and I had to get ready for work.
I walked into work and was immediately comforted by the smell of new books and happy buyers. I had since tried to push my morning events out of my head and was happy to spend the day stocking shelves. It was closer to 10 o’clock when I noticed out of the corner of my eye a man walking towards me.
“Excuse me, uh Lauren, could you help me find something”. I turn towards him only to stumble backward in shock. It was the man from my dream and peering behind him was the little girl.”I’m James and this is Rebecca” he said.
“How, uhm, how do you know my name?” I mutter. The man smiled and pointed politely to my name tag. The little girl came out from behind him which is when I noticed the same gold heart shaped locket from my dream around her neck. As I snapped out of it I realized I had been touching my own neck.
“Sorry” I say “what book were you looking for?”
“Uhm I was wondering if you had any books on memory loss”. Memory loss?? “Uh, ya for sure, follow me,” I say and walk towards the back of the store, the whole time feeling their eyes watching me. “Here you are,” I say and quickly hurry away. When I looked back I wasn’t shocked to find them staring at me with the same hopeful look they had given me when I first spoke to them. Who were they? What did they want?
Throughout the whole week I continued to have vivid dreams of James and Rebecca and I just couldn’t figure out why. I layed in my queen size bed while staring at the light blue wall in front of me. My room was pretty bare, a bed with a dark wood frame and on the far right side, a dresser to match. I got lonely sometimes, no friends, no family, no memory of ever having any either. I decided I didn’t want to waste my day sulking in bed and went to get some coffee. As I entered the two story shop, my senses were immediately soothed by the calming sense of coffee. I walked up the flight of stairs and waited in line to order. My eyes glanced to the patio where I noticed James and Rebecca. I panicked and turned the other way, too late I thought, they had already seen me. As I tried to make a quick escape back down the stairs I lost my balance and slipped. I fell down the stairs hitting my head and knocking me unconscious. As I lie there all these memories suddenly started flooding my brain. They were coming in snapshots all too fast. They were memories of James and Rebecca, and me…. us holding hands and kissing and laughing and making breakfast together and oh my god, an accident. I had been in a car accident. I had woken up and forgotten about everyone I had loved. James had bought me the apartment to live in because I didn’t know who they were. I suddenly opened my eyes to see half a dozen people trying to help me up. Beside me was James and Rebecca holding my hand.
“James!” I scream and wrap my arms around his neck. He hugs me back and I feel him sobbing against my neck. “We missed you so much,” he cried. “Mom?” a shaky whisper asks. I pull her in too. I can’t believe I had forgotten them, my family. James explained that it had been almost a year since the accident and that they had tried to help me remember as much as they could but it hadn’t helped. I hugged my family close to me, and was so thankful that I finally remembered.
brittany lynn 