Page 40 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
The doctor looked up at me and pushed his silver-framed glasses up his nose. “Yes?”
“Lina Nelson is awake.”
He brushed by me immediately, and I followed him into her room.
Lina was trying to sit up straighter, and the doctor hovered around her and talked in a calm, soothing voice. He told her that she was all right. That she was at Pittsburgh General Hospital. That she had taken a hit to the head and had been sleeping for a few days. Then he asked her how she was feeling.
Her light green gaze flicked from him to me. And then she asked, “Who are you?”
“I’m Doctor Brennan.”
She didn’t look at him. “Not you. Him.”
My heart fell out of my chest. All I could think about was how she used to look at me. In high school, she looked at me with love and admiration and pride. At the reunion, she looked at me with distaste and anger and disappointment. But now, the glazed look in her eye was empty. She had no clue who I was.
“I’m Callum,” I said.
The doctor patted Lina’s hand. “Lina, do you know who you are?”
She turned her attention to him and licked her lips. She shook her head.
Doctor Brennan gave her a well-rehearsed, reassuring smile before looking over his shoulder at me. “Would you give me and Miss Nelson a moment alone? I will meet you out in the hallway in a few minutes.”
I nodded, dropped my head, and went out into the hallway. My heart raced. Sweat formed on the nape of my neck, and I crammed my hands into my pockets to prevent myself from fidgeting.
I had to wait about ten minutes. It felt like an eternity. Then Doctor Brennan came out of Lina’s room and closed her door behind him.
I pushed myself off the wall. “How is she? What does this mean?”
The doctor held up his hand. “Slow down, son. This is a lot. Even for me. She has memory loss from the brain swelling. This can happen, and it’s something we were prepared for. She’ll need to stay in the hospital for another night, maybe two, just to make sure the swelling is gone and she is healthy, and then she’ll be released. But she has no recollection of who she is, and therefore who anyone else in her life is. Including you. She will need twenty-four/seven care.”
“I can give her that.”
“I’ll have to clear that with Mrs. Rollins.”
I nodded. “That’s fine. What should I do? How can I help her remember?”
Doctor Brennan sighed and leaned over to pump a wad of hand sanitizer into his palm from a dispenser on the wall beside me. “Well,” he said as he massaged the stuff into his hands. “You can start by taking her to places that hold meaning to her. Places she used to go to. Do things she used to do. Things like that should help jog her memory. But, of course, you should be prepared for the worst-case scenario.”
“Which is?” I didn’t need to ask. I knew what his answer would be.
“That she might not ever remember who she is. Or who you are.”
16
LINA
I lifted my right hand. A heart-rate monitor was clipped to my index finger, and a needle had been shoved into the vein in the back of my hand. I squinted at it, turned my hand around, and then lowered it gently to the bed.
I looked around the hospital room. Everything was familiar but foreign. I knew the names of things. The use of them. But I didn’t understand my relation to them.
Why was I here?
The doctor—what was his name? Dr. Brennan—had told me I’d been in a car wreck and hit my head. He said I was experiencing temporary memory loss, but that didn’t make sense. I had no recollection of a car crash. In fact, I had no recollection of anything before this very moment.
Of course, that was probably due to the memory loss.
I sighed and lifted the blankets draped over my waist. I wished there was a mirror here. I didn’t have a clue what sort of state I was in. Or what I even looked like.
