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A three-way tie? Probably my fault for giving too many options. Hmmm….well, I’ll see if I can sort of combine the three choices. It won’t be a full combination, and some details that might have come forth in one option will be missed entirely. But I’ll do what I can to satisfy the voting. Hopefully I don’t ruin anything. Hope you all enjoy it.
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“You know,” she interrupted, ignoring the harshness of her sore throat, “there is someone else here in the room. I’d introduce myself, but my brain is having a hard enough time forming words, let alone my name. I’m sure Kate could tell you if you asked her. Though where is this bride-to-be? I have some questions for her.”
She had forced all the words out, each one like sandpaper as it came up. Still, whatever adjustments Doctor Grainger had done to her medication was making everything more bearable. It was worth the pain to see the doctors’ reactions.
Only, it was not the reaction she had been trying to tease out. Both doctors looked at her as if something was oozing out of her ears. Which could have been her brain. She was pretty sure it had not set after its earlier liquefaction. Still, the doctors had only looked embarrassed up until she mentioned Kate.
“Hold still for a moment,” Doctor Grainger was by her bedside and pulled a screen from the wall. It was a scanner of some sort. She was not familiar enough with medical equipment to know if that was specific for bone or tissue or something else. She must really look awful for the doctors to be giving her that look.
“Schizophrenia?” Doctor Harsten asked, her quarrel temporarily forgotten.
“Highly unlikely,” Grainger said. “But seeing how there was significant trauma…”
The doctors muttered some medical jargon and pointed to whatever parts of her insides they were examining on the scanner. She was going to interrupt, but Doctor Grainger peeked at her from over screen and smiled apologetically.
“Only one way to know for sure,” Grainger told Harsten as he pushed the scanner back to the wall. “Let’s just make sure the records are correct first.”
“Lose a patient?” she asked as Grainger sat down next to her while Harsten pulled the scanner back out and looked over it again.
“I’m not quite sure at the moment,” Doctor Grainger admitted. “I need to ask you a few quick questions first. How old are you and when is your birthday?”
“That’s easy. I’m twenty…..something.” she was not sure if that was a statement or a question. How hard could it be to know your own age? “And my birthday isn’t today.”
“What’s your full name?”
“My head hurts too much to think of what it was.” Something about the grammar of her own sentence seemed off to her, but she was not sure if it was stranger than the fact that she just could not remember her name.
“How about your favorite color?”
“Not blue.” Why the doctor needed that bit of information was beyond her.
“Do you know the name of the hotel you’re staying at and your room number?”
“Now I’m really getting confused,” she admitted. “What’s going on? What aren’t you telling me?”
“Well, you’re actually twenty-one,” Doctor Grainger said. It did not seem accurate to her, but she let him continue. “Your name is Miss….”
“Kate!” someone yelled from the doorway. A young man, younger than she was, excitedly walked into the room. “I’m so glad you’re awake. I was worried about you.”
“Katherine Marien Algernon,” Doctor Grainger said without missing a beat.
Katherine…Kate…the signed cast… All of those things connected and made sense, yet she could not reconcile the facts with herself. She was not Kate. She knew that. Yet, everything else said that she was. Either someone was playing a cruel joke on her, or she was missing something.
“There were strict orders that Miss Katherine was to have no visitors yet,” Doctor Harsten told the brown haired youth.
“They did page you a few minutes ago, but you didn’t answer,” the young man said as he winked at the one he called Kate.
“If I’m Kate, then does that mean I’m engaged to him,” she asked, pointing at the newcomer.
He was so caught off guard that he blushed, his ears turning scarlet. “I’m…no…don’t… uh,” he stammered. “I guess I’d be your future brother-in-law, Izen.”
“Amnesia,” Doctor Grainger said. He actually looked a little impressed. “Not surprising given the fall you took. You truly have no recollection of being Katherine Algernon, do you?”
“No, but apparently I am,” she sighed. “Even if I am Kate, can you please stop calling me that? It kind of bothers me since I think you’re wrong.”
Doctor Grainger laughed. “You definitely are you. However, I don’t think calling you Miss Amnesiac is hardly polite.”
“Then let’s just stick with Nesia,” she suggested.
“Nesia it is,” Grainger agreed.
“And you call yourself a doctor?” Harsten demanded.
“She needs time to relax and recover,” Grainger said as she practically ushered the other doctor out of the room with him. “Let’s give her some time while we discuss our cliental claims. You should let her be as well, Mr. Izen.”
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Voting Time – Fewer choices this time, but each of these choices will result in different things happening, and different information will come forth.
1 – Stop Izen from leaving the room and ask him about the accident “What hit me so hard that I got amnesia from it?”
2 – Take the doctor’s advice and get some rest
3 – Stop Izen and ask about her fiancé “What’s your brother’s name again?”
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1. I'm interested in this accident.
ReplyDelete1. Same here! And we will probably get more about the brother along the way!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely 1. She is too strong willed to simply take doctor's orders and there are other more pressing issues to question than his brother.
ReplyDeleteI like number 1 the most!!!
ReplyDelete