"Ah! The patient is finally awake!"

Rubbing my eyes back and forth did not stop dreaded reality from peering through.

I had no idea who I was and was currently in a hospital for an unknown reason.

"Thank you Miss Cortez for keeping an eye of him. I'll take care of the rest from here on out.", a tall man in a white lab coat told the nurse in accented English.

Miss Cortez softly grinned and left the room as quiet as a church mouse.

"My name is Dr. Ramirez. I'm here to check up on you and make sure you recover fully from that fall you had. You hit your head pretty hard and have been resting for a few days."

"Where am I?", I asked him.

Replying with a surprised look on his face, he answered with no trace of accent, "You're in the hospital."

"No, I meant which city am I in?"

"Tijuana, Mexico."

How in the world did I get to Mexico? What happened to me that I can't recall?

"Now I'm going to ask you a few questions to assess your state. Is that good with you?"

I nodded and he proceeded to say,

"What year is it?"

"What? Why would you ask me that?", I replied.

"You seem to show symptoms of memory loss and I am following procedure. Can you answer the question, my son?"

"2011."

He looked at me peeking from his clipboard and faced it away from him for cheating.

"The date?"

I responded with, "I don't know."

"Who is the current president of the United States?"

"I don't know.", I lied.

I could not tell the doctor the fact that I felt that I had never cared enough to learn the names of presidents.

Where did that thought come from?

"Your name?"

"I don't know.", I answered.

Dr. Ramirez sighed and wrote on the clipboard, leaving me wondering what he was thinking about me.

"You must have knocked your head harder than we previously thought. Oh well, we already diagnosed you with a concussion when you came in and will have to scan you for any sign of permanent brain damage. It is possible that you could have a traumatic brain injury, Marcus."

"Is Marcus my name?"

"Yes."

"Will I always have amnesia?"

Wait. How did I know that word?

"From the way you are speaking, it seems as your vocabulary and language skills are still intact. We will have to check your motor functions now."

Relaying me to raise my leg, he tapped it with a blunt metal object and instantly my reflexes kicked in at the sign of pain and I struggled not to visibly wince.

Boys don't cry.

I turned around and checked for signs of another person in here. Was it really me who was saying those things to myself?

"Looks good." Immediately, he placed my foot down and answered, saying, "As for your question, it depends. Retrograde amnesia affects people differently on a case-by-case basis. You'll have to stay a couple more days for observation and follow up with your physician."

Processing what he was saying, I saw him go towards the door and motion me forward.

Was he telling me to follow him?

"Can you walk, young man?"

I hesitated before saying, "Yes."

We went up to a scale where he measured my height and weight, telling me that otherwise from the memory loss and concussion, I did not exhibit other signs of brain damage.

"Tell me. Do you have different taste preferences? Has your personality changed?"

"I don't remember."

"In any case, sit here and stay tight. I have to contact your guardian before we make any decisions."

I furrowed my eyebrows, puzzled at his words.

"Guardian?"

"Yes, you are still a minor under the law. He has been visiting you everyday while you were unconscious. I'll call him right now and inform him of the improvement in your condition."

Heading off, I called out to him, "Can I..."

"Eat? Of course. I'll have the nurse give you something to eat. You must be starving after not having food for a few days."

"I feel dizzy and my eyes..."

"It is quite normal for you to be groggy. The best medicine is to rest and eat up so when the nurse comes, let them take care of you."

He turned to leave only to stop at the door and utter with a grin, "Nurses can be a tad difficult, but they do everything out of love. Don't make their jobs harder and eat your vegetables!"

I could barely keep my eyes open as I pondered over what he had said.

Even though I was a minor, I knew that I didn't like to be treated as a baby even with no memories left of the past.

However, love...was something I had not felt in a long time.

I was sure of that certainty. If I truly had a guardian, they must not have shown love towards me because the only thing I felt now was emptiness.

Emptiness and sadness.

Even now, I despaired over ever being who I was before again.

No. I stopped myself; I had to have hope I would recover the missing pieces of the puzzle.

It was the only way I could keep on going in this state.

The knob squeaked as the door was opened again and Dr, Ramirez appeared.

"Where did you learn Spanish?", he asked with accented English.

"Why do you ask?"

"I saw from your ID that you were an American, but am surprised to see you speaking with such fluid Spanish as your guardian did not mention that when he spoke with us."

"If I was not able to speak it before...then why do I speak it now? And when did I speak to you in Spanish?"

"Did you not realize our entire conversation up til I left was in Spanish? Hmph. It must be like those people who wake up speaking French, though usually those people have had a brain injury...Anyways, I called your guardian and he is on his way here. I'll tell him of our plan to have a scan of your brain when he gets here, ok?"

Closing the door on his way out, he left me with silence and doubt.

The clues to my predicament were all there, I was sure.

Mexico. Speaking Spanish. Guardian. Marcus. Love.

What did I do to end up this way?