A look of confusion passed over her face. Package? Her? What was that supposed to mean?
“Do you know someone called Red?”
Red, like the color? Were people actually named after colors here? Where was here anyway? Everything was so foreign to her. It dawned on her that she couldn’t recall anything. She had suddenly found herself in water and then she was surrounded by fire, not giving her much time to think about where she was, or who she was. Try as hard as she could, she couldn’t remember a single fact from her life besides whatever she had just lived through. Apparently, she could understand whatever language Katy and Inspector were speaking, but she didn’t know anything else. She looked down at herself. Well, she knew she was female, but nothing else came to mind. Her arms were dark, not incredibly dark, but darker than the man standing next to her bed. Speaking of, what did he want again?
“I guess this is why Red didn’t tell me what the package was. I probably wouldn’t have agreed if I knew I was going to be taking care of a kid until they said so. Jesus, I’m such an idiot, there was obviously a catch. You goddamn idiot, you should be smarter than that. Fucking idiot.”
She didn’t really know what a few of those words meant, but she guessed they weren’t positive considering the look on his face. Oh, well. Her goal now was to regain some memories and figure out what she was doing there. She hoisted herself off the bed, but before her feet could even touch the ground, the man had his arms under her armpits, holding her up in the air.
“You are much heavier than you look.” He put her back on the bed. “Ouch, I may have thrown out my back.”
She attempted to get off the bed again, but he held her arm down.
“Oh, no, you’re not going anywhere, not until I get some answers.”
As if on cue, Katy came in holding a paper cup with water.
“Sorry it took me so long, I had two doctors have me do some quick errands for them. Can’t say no to doctors around here...Anyways, drink up.”
She cautiously took a sip of water and felt much better. Downing the small cup, she cleared her throat.
“I can’t remember.”
“You can’t remember what, sweetie.” The nurse asked.
“Anything. I don’t know anything. No memories at all.”
That seemed to catch everyone off guard.
“Excuse me, what?” Roger asked, incredulously.
“I don’t even know how old I am, but I guess I can speak this language.”
“English? Well, that’s hardly a feat if you’re raised here. But then again, you don’t remember anything do you?” Roger’s voice was sharp and he ran his hand through his hair, frustrated. She didn’t know what she had done wrong, but Roger didn’t seem to like her very much.
“Well, that’s okay honey. Sometimes when you experience something traumatic like what you went through you can suffer memory loss. It’s usually not your whole lifespan, but you may be a rare case. Let me get a doctor to sort this out.” She shot Roger a dirty glare before she walked out, but he didn’t seem to notice or care.
“So you seriously don’t remember anything?”
“If I say it a few more times then will you believe me? I don’t remember, I don’t remember, I don’t remember.”
The Inspector stood there with his mouth agape.
“Clearly someone never learned how to speak to their elders.” He retorted.
“For all I know, I could be older than you.” She replied quickly.
“Listen here you little--”
Just then the doctor walked in and Roger shut up. She turned away to smile since she had a feeling it would piss him off.
“Alright, miss. I hear you don’t remember anything. What is the earliest memory you have, I’m just trying to get a picture of how severe this is.”
She tried to explain simply waking up underwater, but she did a poor job expressing the feeling of panic and pain she felt using words. The message did get across to her audience, however, because she saw the expression of anger fade from the Inspector’s face and one of surprise mask it. The nurse and doctor had expressions of pity painted on their faces, and she hated it. She’d even prefer Roger’s anger over those looks.
“It looks like we’re looking at an extreme case of amnesia here. To be honest, I’ve never faced such an extreme case in someone so young. You look seven, which falls under our pediatrics sector. I’ll contact them and see if they have any idea how to treat it. In some cases, the patient regains all their memories, in others, none. Just try your best to do whatever comes naturally to you since it’s probably your subconscious guiding you even though you may not be aware of it. I’m going to discharge you since we are running low on beds and your vitals are looking much better. Inspector, a word please?”
Roger and the doctor walked out of the room, but she could still hear them. They weren’t exactly being discrete.
“How did you find her?”
“Like I said, I was at the riverfront when I saw her literally climbing out of the water.”
“Well, considering her condition I feel that she needs to immediately go into the foster care system before she gains the illusion that you are her father. You are the first person she saw, and considering the trauma she endured, she could very well think you are her father. I suggest that whatever you do, you do it quickly.” The doctor’s footsteps pattered away on the tiled floor.
The Inspector trudged in, his hands in his pockets, a muddled expression on his face.
“I’m going to leave you two alone. The room will only be available for another ten minutes though since a patient just got out of surgery and is needing a room.”
“We’re leaving now, don’t worry. Let the surgery person have his room.” She said while jumping off the bed.
“We are?” Roger asked, amazed at the gall of this little girl who was slightly over half his height.
Not warranting a response, she strolled out of the room with Roger nipping at her heels.
“You are taking this whole amnesia thing very well. You seriously can’t remember anything, you’re not just pulling all of our legs?” Roger just couldn’t believe that this child was handling the fact they couldn’t remember anything in such stride.
The little girl didn’t say anything. She simply picked her stride down the white hallways, clearly on a mission to get out of this place. Bursting through the doors, she ran into the street with her arms outstretched. Breathing in the crisp, cool air was the perfect medicine. The warmth of the sun to her left was seeping into her pores, rejuvenating her energy. She felt light, but a twinge of sadness pricked at her heart. The euphoria of getting to rediscover things around her shoved the feeling of loss down deep. For some reason she had the elated feeling of starting anew; her past was behind her and would never touch her again, not as long as she kept moving forward. The curiosity of her past was nagging at her mind, but she refused to focus all her energies on finding out who she was rather than identifying herself as a new person.
“Hey, girlie, you need to slow down before you get hit by a car.” Roger’s hand had shot out and grabbed her by the shoulder, stopping her in her walk through the parking lot.
“So that’s what you took me here in. Can you show me?” Her expression lit up as if the sun itself were shining through her eyes.
“You mean, show you my car? Have you never seen a car before?” Confusion wrapped around Roger’s brain.
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