Blue Memory Lane (A short story)

He felt lost. His eyes kept roaming his surroundings in wonder and he would feel this great amount of pain, pulling memories he did not quite understand, every time he focused his eyes on anything that was the colour blue. The first memory, which came from the sky, was his surname and how he knew he hated it. He remembered he had spent years trying to change it and yet somehow, he was still stuck with it. The second memory, which came from his gown, was his age and the long years he had spent working as a cashier. He saw a slight glimpse of another memory emerging itself but was rudely interrupted as a very odd man walked into the room. “Glad you’re awake,” he stated. The man was wearing this long white jacket which he found completely absurd but instead of saying anything, he rather kept quiet and observed this strange man.

He had questions, a lot of them actually. Like who he really was, where he came from, what happened and how he got to this strange place with this really strange man. “I’m Doctor Marcus by the way,” he stated, “You were admitted into the Kingscliff hospital three years back, after being involved in a car accident. Due to the head injury you’ve suffered, you have temporary post-traumatic amnesia but will soon be able to recover and remember everything. Your family members will soon be here to see you, hopefully they will help you remember your past life.” He stared at the doctor for a while, taking in the new information that was just handed to him. He looked out, at the sky to try remember something as he had before but nothing came to his mind. A blue pen fell out of Dr. Marcus’s pocket and as Marcus picked it up, an intense, sharp memory of his near-to-death experience flashed in front of his eyes.

He saw how he had a plethora of different emotions, saw the car going off the road and saw a woman in a black Mercedes Benz staring right at him. “Intentional,” he blurted out. “Excuse me?” Dr. Marcus said. He had just been filling out some paperwork and was now looking at his patient, wondering what he was talking about. “Intentional,” he repeated, “the car accident was no mistake”. “What do you mean?” Dr. Marcus asked. The patient looked at him, as agitated as he was and repeated himself. “It was no mistake, I remember. Someone wanted me dead.”

“Mr Johnson, these are serious allegations,” Dr. Marcus responded. The patient sat up, his eyes roaming the room, looking for anything that was the colour blue and finally saw it – a stapler right in the corner of the room. This flashed memories of his mother, Georgina Johnson. She had cancer, lost the battle and he remembered the nights he spent crying himself to sleep.

“Mr Johnson, are you okay?” Dr. Marcus asked, looking at his very distressed patient. He heard chattery coming closer to the room they were in and saw a nurse, followed by three people behind her. The patient saw the nurses uniform and immediately remembered the woman in the black Mercedes Benz. She was his girlfriend back then, a very toxic relationship they had. He remembered the fights, the arguments, the screaming but most importantly he remembered the look on her face as he was in that car. “Lets give them space,” Dr. Marcus said to the nurse. He whispered something into the ears of the elderly woman and walked out with the nurse. There was this awkward moment of silence as they all stared at each other. The patient saw the eyes of the young girl and remembered who she was. “Tina,” he blurted out. There was this confusion, mixed with happiness and amazement. “You remember my name?” Tina asked, having this overwhelming feeling of happiness.

“I remember you,” the patient said, sharing the same feeling. The young girl practically ran over to his bed side and embraced him. There was this mixture of laughter and cries as the two embraced each other and the patient could not bare to let her go. “I missed you. I missed you so much and mom, I wasn’t ready for you to be with her,” she said. The patient was about to respond until a woman wearing a short off-the-shoulder dress walked into the room. She held flowers, different bags and gifts and stood there with the biggest smile on her face. “David,” she called out his name. David let go of Tina, saw the woman and immediately knew who she was.

“You wanted me dead,” he said, his light emotions being replaced with heavy, resentful emotions. Everyone turned to look at this woman in shock, disbelief, confusion. “What?” she asked, the same smile replaced with a face full of nervousness. “You took me off the road, you drove that black Mercedes,” David said, looking at the woman straight in the eye. Again, the room fell into this deep silence as the emotions were felt. David wanted to torture her, wanted her to feel the exact pain he felt during that accident but instead he sat and stared. Stared, searching for the three years he had lost. The three years he would never get back.