My wife Cody and I have run an assisted-living home for the last seven years. She inherited it from her mother, and while I was initially very unsure about us taking over that kind of responsibility, it’s actually turned out great. Our twenty tenants have their own bungalows, and we aren’t taking care of them directly in any capacity. Our job is mainly maintenance of the property, helping the tenants get in contact with the services they need, and normal business administration stuff. And having our house next to the property means that we can spend more time together and with our son, Evan. He’s going into preschool next year, and having this time with him and each other…well, we’re all really close and very happy. And if you’d asked me two months ago how things were going, I would have said everything was pretty great.
But then back in September my wife had an accident. I got the call while driving through the country a couple of counties over. The cell service in that area is terrible, and when I looked over at my ringing phone, I saw multiple notifications coming in, with two missed calls being from the woman who was calling me again. I answered immediately, and as soon as she identified herself as a nurse, my heart dropped. Forcing myself to listen past the panicked buzz that was growing in my head, I understood that Cody had been in a car accident and was found unconscious behind the wheel. That she had not yet regained consciousness, but her vitals were otherwise stable and they were going to be taking her to imaging to see if they could find any signs of injury other than the scrapes and bruises they’d already seen.
I’d been heading home, but now I rushed to the hospital. Cody was still in imaging when I got there, so I had to sit anxiously in a small emergency room waiting area for them to get finished and give me an update. It’s while I was waiting that I thought of my phone again and checked what I had missed.
There were the two missed calls from the nurse that had finally reached me, but there were also a pair of text messages that hadn’t gone to my phone until I’d driven back into the service area. They were both from Cody.
Cody: Drove into a ditch. Hit a tree. Fucking stupid. Think a tire blew out. About to get out and check the car and then call wrecker. Am okay. I’ll call in a bit. Love you.
I found out later that was originally sent at 10:49 AM. Then eight minutes later:
Cody: I think I see me.
What did that mean? I was still staring at the messages when the doctor touched me on the shoulder. She said Cody had woken up while they were doing an MRI and that she seemed overall alert. When I asked if I could go back and see her, the doctor gave me an uncomfortable smile.
“In just a little bit, yes. We…well, we’re doing a more comprehensive examination of her now that she’s awake. Seeing if she has any pain and checking her cognitive function.”
I frowned. “But she’s okay? Is that just standard? The checking I mean. Or do you think she has some kind of brain injury?”
She nodded. “Well, those are good questions. We’re going to have our radiologist review the MRI and X-Rays in the next couple of hours, but from my review I haven’t seen any signs of internal injury yet.” The doctor raised her hand. “That’s not the final word, of course. We’re not there yet. But so far, so good on that front.”
“Um, okay. So what front aren’t we good on?”
The doctor’s faint smile disappeared. “Well, we’ve been talking to her since she woke up, and she’s showing signs of not remembering some things yet.”
I felt my mouth going dry. “Like she doesn’t remember the accident? Or like amnesia?”
She let out a small sigh. “Well, technically even not remembering the accident might be a form of retrograde amnesia, but yes, more than just that. She knows who she is. Her name and her date of birth and where she lives.” The doctor shook her head slightly. “But other details…where she works, being married…” She drifted off as she met my eyes. “I’m sorry. I should really wait to go into more detail after we’ve had longer to check her out. It’s just…I know I’d want to know how my spouse was doing, and honestly, while I’ve seen plenty of literature about amnesia, it’s just not very common in real life.”
Swallowing, I just looked at her for a moment as I tried to process everything she was saying. “Are you telling me that she doesn’t remember me?”
The doctor pursed her lips. “She doesn’t seem to, not yet. But often that’s very temporary.”
“But you said she’s not badly hurt?”
She shook her head. “No, I said we haven’t seen any internal injuries yet. We’re still trying to figure out what would have caused her to be unconscious for so long or have amnesia.”
I felt confused anger bubbling up in my stomach, and even though I knew it wasn’t her fault, it was hard to keep it out of my voice. “So you haven’t found any reason for her to have amnesia or have been blacked out like that yet. That’s what you’re really saying.”
She frowned. “Yes. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a good reason. And memory loss can occur due to things other than physical inju…”
“Look at this, please.” I held out my phone where Cody’s text messages were still on the bottom of the screen. “She sent this to me when she had her accident. How is she able to text all that clearly and then blackout before whoever found her…who did find her?”
“Sir, I don’t know. But…well, I understand why this seems strange to you. But she could have had some kind of delayed reaction or event after the wreck that caused her to lose consciousness. And the second text is very odd, so maybe she was becoming groggy by that point and didn’t know what she was saying.”
I stuffed my phone back in my pocket. “Okay. Well does she remember we have a little boy?”
She glanced away. “I didn’t ask her that specifically.” Looking back, the doctor gave another sigh. “But we did ask generally if she remembered having any children and she said no. But again, it could be very temporary. Let me go see how her full eval is going and we’ll get you back there in just a little while, okay?”
I sunk back down into the molded plastic chair I’d been sitting in. “Sure. I…Sorry. I’m just upset.”
She patted me on the shoulder. “I understand. We’ll know more soon.”
I was brought back to see Cody an hour later. The nurse I’d talked to on the phone was the one that came and got me, and she explained that my wife was still having memory gaps, so I needed to not overwhelm her at first. No going up and hugging her, pushing her to remember things that she couldn’t, that kind of thing. Just going in, talking to her a bit and seeing if that helped break anything loose.
It was hard not rushing over to her when I saw her laying there. She was awake and alert, seemed fine overall, but there was an uneasiness to her gaze as I entered past the curtain barrier that bothered me more than I’d expected given all I’d been told. Taking a couple of steps closer, I stopped and gave her what I hoped was a friendly smile.
“Cody? Do you remember me?”
She looked at me for several seconds before responding. “I’m sorry. I don’t. Not really. I can…like they told me you’re my husband. And I can see I have this hole in my memory that you would fit. But it’s not the same thing as really remembering you.” Her eyes widened slightly. “I don’t say that being mean. Or because I don’t care. I’m sure you’re a great husband.” She blushed. “They said it may take some time for me to remember.”
Forcing a smile, I shook my head. “Don’t you worry about that. Or anything. We’ll get through this. You’ll get your memories back, and well, if you don’t, we’ll still make new ones. Okay?”
She returned my smile. “That sounds great. Thank you for being so understanding about it.”
I felt tears coming into my eyes. “Honey, I’m just glad to talk to you. I…well, they’re checking you out and all, and we’ll see if anything else is going on. But yeah…I’m just happy you’re able to talk to me.”
Her expression grew a little sad as she nodded before glancing over at the nurse. “I’m getting sleepy again now. Is it okay if I sleep?”
“Sure, honey. Let me talk to…your husband for just a minute and then I’ll come back and check on you.” She gently took my elbow and guided me back out past the curtain dividing Cody’s bed from the others in the ER. Lowering her voice, she gave me a sympathetic look. “Now don’t you worry. She really doesn’t mean to seem distant, it’s all just strange to her right now. Sleep is the best thing for her.”
I met her gaze. “Because she doesn’t have a concussion.”
She gave a shrug. “No, that’s true. But I’ve been doing this for a long time. People react all kinds of ways to things. Main thing now is, we’re going to take good care of her and you need to try not to worry.” The nurse pointed back to the doors leading out to the waiting room. “Go back out and sit for a little bit, or go get something to eat. They’re going to transfer her to a room in about an hour, and when they do, I’ll come get you. And if anything changes before then, I’ll sure come let you know.”
I nodded numbly. “Um, okay. Thanks.” I walked back out into the waiting room, my thoughts all a jumble. Evan was staying with his grandparents until Friday, and I didn’t want to upset them with all this until I knew more, so I decided the best thing to do was just sit and wait. Going back to the same chair as before, I’d started to search on my phone for information on amnesia when it began to ring.
“Hello?”
“Hey. This is Jesse with Wright Wrecking Service. Is this Steven Miltry?”
“Um, yeah. Steve, but yeah.”
“Okay, great. Well, we just picked up a vehicle this morning that has your name on the registration. You familiar with that?”
Rubbing my forehead, I nodded. “Yeah, um, yeah it was my wife driving. She had an accident.”
“Well, I’m sorry to hear that. She doing okay?”
I felt a sudden urge to tell him all about it. That no she wasn’t doing okay, not really, because she’d forgotten half her life. That none of this made sense and the last thing I cared about at the moment was the fucking car he had towed. “Yeah, I just saw her and she’s…she’s lucky, I guess.”
He gave a short bark of a laugh. “Hell, I guess so. What was it? A bear?”
“What? Was what a bear?”
The man sounded less certain when he responded. “Look, I don’t mean to make light. And I really am glad she’s okay. I just didn’t know what else could cause damage like that.”
I could hear blood thrumming in my ears. “What damage? My wife…she hit a tree. She blew a tire and hit a tree. That’s…that’s what she told me.”
“Yeah, there was a blown tire, and I did pull it off of a tree. It broke the grill and dented the bumper, but it didn’t look bad. But the door and the window on the driver’s side…well, it’s none of my business and you’ll see it soon enough. And that’s actually why I was calling. Do you want us to store the vehicle for now, or is there somewhere you’d like it towed. The daily storage f…”
“What about the door? The window? What happened to them?”
A long pause and then. “Well the glass is all busted out. The door is partway bent.”
“Okay, well maybe she hit her head and busted the window. Maybe the doctors are just missing that she has a…”
“No sir, it was busted in, not out. There was glass all over the inside from that window being busted. Plus, the door…the inside of it? It was all ripped up. Something was trying to get in through that window and was strong enough to do all that. That’s why I said bear. I was only half-joking.” Another pause and then. “Did she get bit or anything?”
I found myself staring back at the emergency room doors. As though I could see through them to Cody if I looked hard enough. “I don’t think so. But I don’t really understand what’s going on yet.”
“I got you. Look, I’ll store the car tonight and tomorrow. No charge. When you get ready, you call me back and we can go from there.”
“Uh, okay. Um, thanks.”
“No problem. Hey man, hope your wife is okay.”
I felt something twisting deep in my belly as I stared in what I thought was her direction. “Yeah. Yeah, me too.”
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Credits
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