AMNESIA

The first thing she was aware of was the sound of waves lapping on a shore.  The waves were wetting her toes, which is what must have awakened her.  But that’s all she was aware of at first.  Then gradually she realized the sun was very hot and it was beating on her back.  The front of her was laying in sand, with her head turned to the side just enough to breathe.  And then she realized that she could feel the sand underneath her.  The bottom half of her was on smooth, damp sand; the top half was on dry, gritty sand – and she was totally nude.

            She must have dozed off again, or went unconscious, because the next thing she was aware of were the waves lapping around her ankles whenever she heard one come in, and one of her ankles stung with the salt water.  The tide must be coming in, she vaguely thought.  I’d better move.  But her body didn’t respond to the mental thought.   When the water lapped at her calves and stung fiercely, she was finally able to raise her head to look around.  She saw in front of her some more sand, but not much, then some dune grasses and beyond just a few of them, what looked to be a blacktopped road.

            By the time she was able to get her body muscles to obey what her mind was trying to tell them, the waves were lapping around her knees.  She slowly pushed herself up to her hands and knees and then very slowly got to her feet.  Her head was spinning and she had trouble making her feet and legs work, but she very slowly started across the soft sand, away from the water, towards the road.  She stumbled and fell back down to her hands and knees after each few steps.  So she crawled instead across the hot sand very slowly, aware of the burning and stinging, but not really caring.  After what seemed like an eternity, she found herself at the edge of the road.  Very carefully she pushed herself up to a standing position again and teetered there for a moment as she regained her balance.  She looked to her left and saw the road go around a curve and out of sight, seeming to follow the curve of the shoreline.  Looking to her right, she saw some buildings not too far away and began to walk toward them.

            She focused her mind as much as she could on just one step at a time.  Left foot…right foot…left foot…right foot.  She tried to concentrate only on each step so she wouldn’t feel the pain which seemed to stab throughout her whole body.  One foot…the other foot…left foot…right foot.  And so she slowly advanced down the road the short distance to the first house on her right.  Her mind was too foggy to notice it was a cute little bungalow, painted bright blue with white trim.  But she did notice the white picket fence around the small front yard and managed to push the unlocked gate open.  It was only a few yards to the front steps but it took her another eternity to cross them.  Mentally, she blocked out everything else and just urged herself on.  She finally stumbled up the few steps, almost on her hands and knees, and raised her right hand.  She brought it down as hard as she could on the door, and then promptly collapsed in a heap on the porch.

            She was unaware of the middle-aged woman who opened the door, saw her lying there and promptly called nine-one-one on her portable phone.  She was unaware of the ambulance that came, the medics who put her on a stretcher and in the ambulance, and took her away.

            The next thing she was aware of was voices.  As she slowly became aware of them, even though she couldn’t make out what they were saying, she knew they were nearby.  She felt the cool sheets on her body and sensed the bright lights in the room, even though her eyes were still closed.  Then she became aware of the pain.  It seemed that almost every part of her body either ached, stung or hurt like blazes.  She struggled to open her eyes, but it took several tries before her eyelids would move.

            As they slowly opened, she saw a fuzzy figure leaning over her and speaking to her in soothing tones.  She managed to finally bring it into focus and realized it was a nurse.  At least she had on what looked like a nurse’s uniform and had some paraphernalia in her pockets that seemed to be related to a nurse’s duties.  The woman was saying, “Hello, there.  Can you see me?  Can you tell me who you are?”  And similar things.  Her face was oval, crowned by light brown hair.  Her voice sounded so friendly and pleasant – she enjoyed listening to it.