~ Chapter One ~

Its hard to think about it. The last thing I clearly remember about my past was just before my coma. I was only about seven. I don't remember it well either. All I can remember is that I was in a hotel room with my parents- well I think they were my parents- and I was playfully spinning on a computer chair. I was going around and around faster and faster. I remember the wind on my face, and the nausea I was starting to feel. I lost my balance and fell of the chair. I hit my head on the computer desk, and cut my arm on a loose nail coming out of the chair. I hit the ground, and sat there for a short amount of time seeing nothing but darkness. I heard the door burst open, I remember thinking it was my mother coming to help me up-but the sound was too far away. BANG! An Earsplitting gunshot erupted from the other room. Following the gun shot was a faint panic filled scream, then a drop to the floor. I heard yelling and struggling, and then the worse sound of all came next. Silence.

My eyes were still shut, I could see if I wanted to- but I didn't. My heart was pounding fiercely and my hands covered my ears. I rocked slowly back and forth crouched under the desk. If I couldn't see them, they couldn't see me, right? Wrong. I heard footsteps. They stopped directly in front of me. "Sir," a female's voice called to her superior unsurely. Her voice was jagged and rough, but had a small hint of underlying compassion in it. "There's a boy here, sir." She didn't move from her position in front of me. I gasped for a breath of air when I heard her elease the safety button on her gun. I stopped rocking and closed my eyes tighter. I pressed my head between my knees and I tried to be somewhere else. Anywhere, it didn't matter, anywhere but there.

I heard a man start walking towards us now. His steps were slow and confident. He stopped next to the lady with the gun and I felt his eyes watching me intently. "Get out from there." He hissed. His voice filled with anger and impatience. I took a quick look up at him through the corner of my eyes. He didn't look so old. Maybe about late twenties, early thirties. His eyes were frightening though, filled with rage.

"I said," he began again. "Get out from under that desk!" I removed my hands from my ears and looked at him fully now. My head had been bleeding from my collision with the desk. He looked surprised when he saw the blood, so did the girl. "No." I muttered. My voice was not shaky or full of tears like they had expected. It was strong. The man grabbed hold of my arm and said "listen boy, I haven't got all day, get out from under that desk, now!" I tugged my arm away. "I can't!" I yelled, trying to seem brave. Again they both exchanged shocked glances. "Why not?" the girl said, restoring the safety on her gun. "My arm," I started to explain. "It's cut real bad, the blood is going everywhere, I have to hold it against this wall so I don't lose anymore." I used my free hand to point at the wall. They obviously didn't expect me to be able to give them a reasonable explanation, I was only 7 years old as it was.

The man picked up the desk and heaved it away from me. I sat there exposed to the world now, no longer protected by the desk's shadows. He peeked over my shoulder and saw my arm pressed up against the bloody wall. "Get me some gauze, and the 'special' anesthetic." he snapped at the lady. She ran out of the room quickly. "what's your name boy?" he asked me curiously in a softer voice. I had answered the simple question then, but now I haven't the faintest clue what I said.

The lady came back, she had gauze in her right hand, and a needle in her left. "listen kid," The man said touching my shoulder firmly. "Lean toward me and stretch out your arm, I'm going to wrap it up before anymore blood is lost." I nodded slowly, and extended my arm. I felt the blood trickling out of the exposed wound. I winced in pain. He grabbed my arm suddenly and I could feel him wrapping it up. My head felt weak and dizzy. The room started spinning. He poked and prodded my arm consistently. Then out of nowhere I felt a very painful jab. He had put something into my neck, and I didn't know what. The room started to blur. All of a sudden, everything turned black. I felt my head slowly hit the man's chest. And that was it.

I remember hearing a voice. Not a normal voice, a soft sweet angelic voice. It was singing. Singing to me. I don't remember what, but I remember it was a wonderful feeling. I tried to go to the voice, I tried to follow it, but I couldn't move, I couldn't get up. The voice was far away, and I was trapped in darkness. I wanted to find the angel that was singing to me, I wanted to say hi, but the soft voice was too far away, too far out of my reach. I heard this voice more than once, a lot of times actually, and each time I was mesmerized by the way it made me feel, safe and happy. I couldn't reach the voice though, as much as I tried I just couldn't get to it.

When I woke up, I was in the hospital. I heard the constant, steady beeping of my heart monitor. I watched the lines move up and down, perfect and at ease for about 10 minutes before a nurse walked into my room. "Oh my goodness!" she exclaimed with excitement. "Oh my! Oh my! Your up! Your awake! Oh my!" I watched her carefully. She was tall, had long blond hair, and she looked like she could still be in high school. I was confused and unsure of what was happening. "Mr. Livingston? Doctor!?" she called out the door, but no one answered. "Doctor!?" she called again, this time much louder than the first. She ran to the phone impatiently, and didn't take her eyes off me. "hello?….yes, yes.. Get me Mr. Livingston now!…where?… its important…no…the coma patient has waken up….no, no the 10 year….yes… get him now!"I thought to myself, what did she mean 'ten years' 10 years for what? She hung up the phone and slowly walked over to me. "Hello," she smiled softly. I watched her intently, but said nothing. "Do you know where you are?" She asked curiously walking to the left side of my bed. Her voice seemed familiar, but I couldn't place it. I shook my head no, then glanced around the room. The walls were a pale blue, the room was small and crowded, and it smelt like plastic gloves. There was a counter and sink at the other end of the room. There was a small window with the curtains shut, but the sun beams came through the curtains brightly lighting the room. The nurse followed my eyes around the room as I observed. "Your in a hospital." She hesitated. "You've been in a coma for quite some time now. 10 years to be exact!" I felt a sense of panic. 10 years in a coma? Asleep? For ten years? Ten? The nurse sensed my confusion. "We," she hesitated. "we didn't know if you were going to make it. The other doctors, they…they wanted to…you know… they wanted to pull the…." she trailed off. "but Doctor Livingston refused! He said all of your vital organs were functional, and you were growing and everything too, I mean look at you! You turned out perfectly fine"

I gazed down at myself. I was in a blue spotted hospital gown. I had light white blankets covering my legs up to my waist. There were all sorts of wires and tubes attached to my arms. I tried to sit up but It was hard and I was weak, so I laid back in the bed and stared at the nurse helplessly. The nurse got up from her seat and adjusted the bed for me, so I could sit up straight with no effort. The bed hummed as I moved up slowly. She then went over to a desk-table and grabbed a hand mirror so I could see myself. I looked in the mirror cautiously, I didn't recognise who was looking back at me. I didn't remember who would have been looking at me before. I don't know what I'm suppose to look like, or what I was suppose to look like before. My hair was long and brown, shaggy too. My eyes were green, a light green. My face, it was pale, like I haven't been outside in a very long time. I touched my hand to my face, it was soft and smooth. My skin had no acne of any kind. I couldn't put the mirror down, I was stunned at what I was looking at. Who was it? Was it really me? Who was I anyway?

My curiosity was interrupted by the nurse, "Uhm," she paused and waited for me to look away from the mirror and at her. "Do you know how to...speak?" The question put me off balance for a minute, and I thought about it. "yes." I said slowly. My voice was deep, scratchy and unclear. I couldn't understand myself, and apparently the nurse couldn't either because she raised an eyebrow awkwardly and shifted her position. I cleared my throat and tried again. "Yes, I can." This time my voice just came out unfamiliar and deep.

She stared at me for a moment, almost in awe of my voice, like she had been waiting to hear it for a very long time, and finally she could. She continued watching me, then stood up from her chair and walked over to a counter in the room. She opened a drawer and pulled out a long blue sheet. She grabbed a pen and a clipboard, then came back to my side and sat In her chair. "I need to ask you a few questions, just to make sure everything is fine with you, is that okay?" As she said this, she placed the sheet of paper into the clipboard. I nodded slowly. "okay, " she hesitated. "my name is Ashley, please remember my name, I will ask you what it is after the end of these questions to test your memory, alright?" I was surprised at how professional she sounded. I nodded again. "what is your name?" I thought about it. A frown formed across my forehead. I couldn't remember. I didn't know my own name. I gripped the ends of my sheets and struggled to remember. The nurse, Ashley, watched me carefully. "I-I don't know." I looked down at the floor. Then raised my hand to my forehead, shaking my head slowly. I felt her gaze at me sympathetically, and I felt pathetic and ashamed. "hmm.." was all she mumbled. We were interrupted by a knock at the door. "one moment," She raised her finger to me, and walked toward the door. "Dr. Livingston!" she exclaimed. A tall man with glasses stood in the doorway, but didn't look in. "he's up! Look, look! He woke up! You were right!" He then turned his attention to me, and caught my stare, he gave me a quick nod and shut the door to discuss things in private with the nurse.

I sat there awkwardly not knowing what to do. I picked up the mirror again and watched myself. I opened my mouth, showed my teeth- they were pretty white and straight, I had no baby teeth, they were all full grown. I touched my nose, and examined my ears. I flickered through my hair. I stared at my hands. I played with my arm hair. I lifted up my shirt and looked at my stomach, my belly button, my chest. I put down my shirt, and glanced at the paper the nurse had been holding. I picked it up off the chair and reviewed the questions. What is your name? How old are you? Where do you live? Who are your parents? Who are your siblings? Do you have any pets?.. The questions continued, but I didn't know any of them. None at all. I had no clue. All I knew from this sheet, was that I could read, and I could read very well.

I heard footsteps coming back, I quickly fumbled the clipboard back onto the chair, and folded my arms across my chest guiltily. The doctor walked in the room first. The nurse followed slowly behind him. "Hello," he said as he walked to the front of my bed. "how are we feeling?" I stared at him for an awkward moment, then my eyes shifted back to the sheet. "I don't know," The doctor raised his eyebrows [as the nurse had done] and waited for me to continue. "I don't know," I repeated. "I don't remember my past, or who I am, where I come from, my parents, my pets, my name, I don't know my age, or my birthday. I just.. I don't know"

He glanced at the sheet on the chair, then back at the nurse. "how many questions did you ask him?" she was still watching me steadily as she answered. "one," she said turning her gaze to the doctor. "only one, I asked what his name is." They both looked at me. "I read the sheet." I said looking down at my hands. The doctor came over to the chair where the sheet was laying. "you came here when you were a little boy," he started. "tests say that you couldn't be any older then seven. Could you read well when you were seven years old?"

"I don't know!" I said again louder then I had intended. "I suppose so, I mean I read all that." He watched me, his eyes were suspicious, but kind. "get me the book, in the top left hand corner of the cupboard." He told the nurse. She got up and found the book he requested. "this," he said. "Is a dictionary. I will say a word, and I want you to try and tell me the meaning, just to see how much you understand. I nodded hesitantly.

"okay, what is the meaning of Alert?" I answered pretty quickly, without much thought. "Like, wide awake, fully aware. Being ready or cautious." He looked at me and nodded. "Good, good. Lets try…ambitious." He looked at the nurse for a moment, then back at me. "having a strong desire for success." I answered again without hardly having to think. "right," the doctor said stretching the word on. " lets try a more difficult one.. How about auspicious?" I glanced out the window, wondering what the world looked like now. I hadn't remembered anything from it before, but I wanted to go outside. "do I have parents?" I asked abruptly. "ohh, uhm, I- I don't think.. We don't really…" I watched him struggle. "did they die?" his face fell to the floor, but I still didn't let my question go unanswered. "yes." he finally said. "we believe so anyway, it is not certain." I nodded. "auspicious means promising wealth and good fortune." I mumbled. "how old am I now than?" The doctor looked at the nurse, who glanced in a record about me. "your around 17 years old. We don't know for sure, because we don't know who you are yet. None of your fingerprints, or blood samples were found on any of computers. We believe that you have just past your 17th birthday about a week or two ago." I watched her mouth as she spoke. "not even dentist records?" I asked feeling my teeth. "no, we've checked." I glanced back out the window. "so, I'll never know?" The nurse was about to answer, but the doctor cut her off by raising his hand. "we still have tests going, I'm sure that we'll find out soon. Now that you have waken up, we have a strong motivation for the search." I wiggled around in the bed trying to get more comfortable, but it was no use.

"how are your basic math skills?" the doctor asked me, closing the dictionary. "I don't know." I said again. This seemed to be a common answer for me now. "2+2?" He pretty much demanded. I sensed he was holding back a little smirk, but his face was serious.

"four"

4+4?"

"eight"

"8+8"

I sighed slowly.

"Sixteen"

Before he could ask his next question I cut him off sharply by reciting "thirty-two, sixty-four, one-hundred and twenty-eight, two-hundred and fifty-six, five-hundred and twelve." Each answer just came out of my mouth without me thinking about it. The Doctor stopped asking the questions and looked at me amused. "wow, I doubt any kid with the education of a 7 year old could go up to 512 without any thought." I shrugged.

He asked me some multiplication, subtraction, and division questions as well. He was going to get into word problems but I interrupted him. "I'm sorry, but I've been in this bed for ten years, I have to take a piss." The nurse looked surprised, but the doctor just smiled. "of coarse, don't be sorry. Could you help him up please?" The nurse nodded and walked over to me. She undid all the wires and things around my arms. Then held my shoulder as I swung me feet across to the edge of the bed. I stretched my arms, and my legs. It felt unbelievably good to stretch. I could do it all day. They just observed me curiously. I stretched out my back, and heard it crack. It felt wonderful. "Ahhh" I sighed, touching my feet to the floor. "that felt so good." I tried to stand up, but my legs buckled and I fell back onto the bed slowly. They both gave a little chuckle. I felt my face start to turn red. "I guess its been a while." I smirked. "Your body isn't use to walking yet, we can put you in physical therapy for a little while to get your body working right again. Until then, your arms and legs are going to be a little weak, and you will require assistance." I tried to stand up again, this time the nurse was right under my arm. She helped me across the room slowly, but steadily. "Thank-you, Ashley" I smiled as we got to the door. She looked surprised. "You remembered my name?" her eyes sparkled. "Yeah, now if only I could remember mine." She smiled again and waddled me down the hall.