The doctor's eyes went wide. He placed a hand on my shoulder trying to sooth me. "Calm down, please, Miss Gilbert. I'm going to call in a few of my colleagues. We will try and figure out what is going on." And with that, he left the room, along with Nurse Holt, after she'd once again checked my vitals.
I sat and waited, fidgeting and wishing this was all some sort of nightmare. Suddenly there was a disturbance in the hall. I could hear muffled shouting getting closer and I could make out the last sentence as, "I don't care what you say. She is my sister, she will remember me, now let me throuh, I want to see her!" and the shrieking of Nurse Holt before my door slammed open and a young woman stood in the doorway.
I shrank back in my bed as she walked towards me. She was rather pretty with long dark hair to midback, a small, but worried, smile on her face and she looked at me with big doe eyes that seemed to search my face for any sign of recognition. "Clara?"
My eyes opened wide in surprise. "Is that my name? Clara?" I asked. "No one else would tell me, they just kept calling me Miss Gilbert. Clara." I repeated the name again and again to myself. It sounded right. "My name is Clara Gilbert," I said aloud.
The other girl nodded. "Yes, it is. And I'm Elena Gilbert, your older sister. We have a younger brother named Jeremy, and we live with our Aunt Jenna." Suddenly her eyes filled with tears.
I frowned. "What? What's wrong, Elena?" I asked.
"You're in the hospital because of me, Clara. You've been in a coma for four months because I was selfish. It was my fault that we were in the car accident. It's my fault that Mom and Dad are dead," she whispered.
I gripped her hand in mine and pulled her into my arms, wincing as it tugged on my IV. I let her cry against me, my arms wrapped lightly around her, as she explained about how she'd gone to a party instead of spending family night at home, how she'd broken up with her boyfriend Matt and called for Mom and Dad to come get her, how I'd decided to come with them to comfort her about the break up on the way home, and how our car had crashed on Wickery Bridge. I rocked her gently, trying not to incur the dizziness that had plagued me when I first opened my eyes. I shushed her quietly as we rocked. I looked up at the sound of the door opening to come face to face with a young boy with dark brown hair. His eyes held a lot of pain, and a lot of anger, which was plain on his face in the form of a dark scowl. When I looked to him, his eyes softened for a moment, and his voice came out ragged as he whispered my name.
"Hi Jeremy," I said softly, catching Elena's attention and letting her know that we weren't alone any longer. She wiped away her tears and sniffled, sitting up on the edge of the bed. Another person came through the door, a pretty woman, I'd guess about mid-twenties with beautiful red hair. "Clara!" she cried, hurrying towards me and enveloping me in a hug. I smiled into her embrace, she smelled of soap and some type of sweet perfume.
"A-are you Jenna?" I asked, my voice soft and unsure. She looked perplexed for a moment before turning to Elena.
Elena answered my question first with, "Yes, she's Jenna, Clara."
She then turned back to Jenna. "The doctor says that there's possibly some minor brain damage that has caused amnesia. Clara doesn't remember anything about her life before she woke up a few hours ago. She didn't even remember her own name," Elena explained, her eyes filling with tears again.
"What? She doesn't remember us?" Jeremy's voice rang out, tinged with anger and fear.
I looked at him mournfully and shook my head. "Nothing, Jeremy. Not even my own name." I turned back to look at all of them. "How old am I? When's my birthday? What's my favorite subject in school? What's my favorite color? I don't remember any of it!" I exclaimed, bringing my hands to my face to cover it as my tears began again.
This time it was Jenna who came to my rescue, wrapping her arms around me as she slid into the bed behind me, propping up my back as she slid her hands up and down my arms in soothing movements. "You're sixteen, your birthday is December 28th, your favorite subject is history despite your horrible teacher Mr. Tanner-your words, not mine-, and your favorite color is green, closely followed my purple and blue," she answer quietly. "I'm your Aunt Jenna, your mother Miranda's sister. I'm a psychology major and your favorite aunt," she said, winking at me. I smiled back.
She pointed at Elena. "This is your sister Elena. She's seventeen. She loves to write in her diary, which you gave her for her birthday last year. You two are extremely close and would die for each other." I nodded, something inside me just agreed that this was the truth.
Jenna then pointed at Jeremy. "This is you brother Jeremy. You were so excited when you found out you were getting a baby brother. You were constantly following you mother around to make sure that "your" baby was alright. You would fetch his bottle and pacifier for him whenever he'd start crying. You're the only person who's always been able to make him smile no matter what mood he's in. You're terrified of storms, and more often than not, when it storms at night, we'd find you the next morning curled up in bed beside him using him as your own personal teddy bear. I've never seen a brother and sister closer than the two of you," she finished.
I smiled at Jeremy and reached out a hand, grinning when he took it and sat down next to me on the other side of the bed so that I was surrounded: Jenna behind me, propping me up, Jeremy on my right, Elena on my left. I didn't realize I was crying until Jeremy reached up and wiped away a tear. "It'll be ok, Clara. You always tried to take care of us, now we're going to take care of you. We'll get you stronger and then we'll get you home in time for the start of the school year." he said, winking at me.
"Oh, joy. The start of the school year," I said, sighing and making him grin.
A knock at the door startled us all. Doctor Wendell stood there, a smile on his face. "Hello, I'm Doctor Wendell," he said, introducing himself to Jeremy, Elena and Aunt Jenna. "I'm afraid that you'll have to leave for now, Miss Gilbert is going to need lots of rest to recover. I know you're thinking, "but she just slept for four months!", but I assure you, it's not the type of rest she needed to recover properly."
With sad faces, my family gave hugs and kisses and wishes to get better before they walked out the door. Before she left, Elena mentioned that the bag that Jeremy had brought up with him was filled with my clothes from home and essentials like shampoo, conditioner, body wash, deodorant, etc. I thanked her and waved as they left, then turned my attention to Doctor Wendell.
"Good evening, Doctor Wendell. I was wondering if there is any way that I could get a shower before I try and sleep again?"
Dr. Wendell nodded. "I'll get the nurse to come in and help you. Your legs aren't strong enough to hold you by yourself just yet, but a few weeks with physical therapy and you should be right as rain. I'll see you in the morning, Miss Gilbert."
"Thank you, Dr. Wendell. Goodbye," I said, as he left, shutting the door behind him. I huffed out a breath and let myself plop back against the pillow. How insane was this? I closed my eyes, trying to get my brain to accept and adjust to everything I'd learned so far. I must have been more tired than I thought, because I started to doze. The opening of the door jerked me back awake and Nurse Holt was standing over me.
"Dr. Wendell says you'd like a shower?"
I nodded. "Yes, please." She smiled and helped me to carefully sit on the edge of the bed. I was only slightly dizzy, so we carefully stood me up. My legs hurt and felt really weak, but with help from the nurse I was able to half-hobble, half-be-dragged to the shower stall. Luckily the shower had a stool inside. The nurse stood outside the open doorway while I washed my body with white jasmine scented body wash, then the same fragrance for shampoo and conditioner. The nurse helped me comb my hair before braiding it back for me, though it was still damp.
Nurse Holt helped me stand in front of the mirrors and I finally got a look at myself. My facial shape reminded me a lot of Jeremy's, just more feminine. My eyes were an olive green, and my hair was the same beautiful red as Aunt Jenna's, just a bit darker shade, almost a chestnut color. It was also more curly, from the little bits that had escaped my braid and ringletted around my ears. My ears were pierced and small white diamond studs were placed in the holes. I assume that Elena had done it.
After looking my fill, I hurriedly brushed my teeth, then rinsed my mouth with a peppermint mouthwash that felt like it was burning my mouth with acid instead of peroxide for whitening. The nurse helped me back to bed and I sighed, feeling exhausted. "Thank you, Nurse Holt," I said, and she smiled and nodded before shutting off the light and closing the door, leaving the light above my headboard glowing as the only remaining light in the room. I sighed and reached up to grasp the cord to the light, tugging it to turn it off. The darkness closed in around me, but I was somehow comforted by it instead of afraid. I closed my eyes and allowed darkness to pull me under into the world of dreams.