Chapter 3

When Annie woke up, she was facing away from Matt. Lazily she rolled over, expecting, and looking forward to his smile. But he wasn’t there. Annie could only remember having known Matt for, like a day, but somehow, in that short time, she had sensed that she could trust him, that he would never hurt her. But he had. And now she realised that to place such trust in someone who was practically a stranger to her was a huge stupid mistake.

She checked the clock on the table next to her bed. The green digits told her it was almost one o’clock. The rational part of her brain insisted that Matt had probably just gone to buy himself lunch. And maybe bring something back for her too, she hoped, realising that she hadn’t eaten since she had come out of the coma.

Fifteen long, dull minutes passed before the door opened. Annie looked hopefully towards it, conviced it was Matt. But it wasn’t. it was yet another complete stranger.

He was tall, with dark hair and green eyes. He looked familiar, but Annie couldn’t figure out where she knew him from. He was smartly dressed, wearing a pale blue shirt tucked into navy blue dress pants and a navy blue tie with very narrow gold lines going diagonally across it.

"Annie! How are you feeling?" he asked, sinking into one of the awful chairs. Not the one Matt had been sitting in, she noticed.

"Okay, I guess," she said. "Look, I’m sorry if this sounds increadibly rude, but, uh, who are you?"

"Its okay. Matthew told me you couldn’t remember anything. I’m David Wilson, Dave, your husband," he said, never once losing the confident grin he wore like a mask.

"Oh, yeah, I think maybe Matt mentioned you," Annie said, because she felt she had to say something.

"He did?"

"Yes, briefly."

"What did he say?"

"Nothing much. Just that you were my husband."

"No past tense about it Annie. I am your husband," Dave said possessively.

"I know," Annie said, a bit frightened by the harsh look on Dave’s face, and by the sudden change in his voice.

"Good. Listen, I have to go, but I’ll come back after work. I just stopped by in my lunch hour. Bye Annie," Dave said. He offered her a small wave, then left, shutting the door so quickly that it blew a draught across the room.

Annie wondered why he had bothered coming to see her at all, if he was just going to rush off after a minute or two like that. As soon as he was gone, Anie went back to hoping Matt would come back real soon.

Five minutes later, her wish came true and Matt came into her room. Annie smiled as soon as she saw him. He looked as happy to see her smile as she was to see him.

"Dave came to see me," she told him.

"I know. I asked him to pop in," Matt said. He went over to her and kissed her cheek.

"You did?" Annie asked surprised.

"Uh huh, I thought you’d want to see him," Matt said. He seemed surprised that Annie wasn’t more pleased.

"Where the hell did you get that idea? Why should I be pleased to see a complete stranger?" Annie snapped.

"Sweetie, I’m sorry, I didn’t know he’d upset you. What did he do? Did he say something? Matt seemed ready to jump to Annie’s defense instanatly.

"No, he didn’t say anything. I just wish I could remember something," Annie said, gesturing wildly to convey the depth of her emotion.

"Shh, honey, its okay, its only been one day. You’ve got plenty of time to remember everything. I was talking to your doctor, that’s why I wasn’t here when you woke up this morning. Anyway, he said temporary amnesia is really commmon when people come out of a coma. And there’s every chance that you’ll remember almost everything really really soon. Does that make you feel any better?" Matt sat on her bed again and hugged her tightly.

"A bit," Annie admitted. "But Matt, what if I don’t get my memory back? What if I never get it back? What then? What wil I do then?"

"That’s not going to happen Annie," Matt assured her.

"But what if it does?" Annie persisted, tearing up slightly.

"It won’t."

"How do you know that?" she asked him. Matt held her and stroked her hair.

"I don’t I guess. But sweetie, the chance of that actually happening is really, really small. You will get your memory back Annie. And we’ll be here to help you, me Caroline, your parents, Dave, everyone," Matt promise. "Does that make you feel any better?" Annie nodded.

"Can we talk about something else now though? Please?"

"Sure. Oh hey, I was talking to Caroline yesteray," Matt looked at Annie. She looked tense and impatient. "Oh yeah, you don’t wanna talk about Caroline. Uh." Matt searched for a topic he could talk to her about that wouldn’t require her to remember anything. Annie was looking at him like he’d let her down. Matt hated the thought of her feeling like that about him. He suddenly remembered a funny story he had seen in a canteen based sitcom. He retold it to Annie, pretending it had actually happened to him the other day. He felt a tiny bit bad about lying, but seeing Annie laugh and relax dispelled any guilt.

The doctor came in after a little while to check on Annie. He asked Matt to wait outside so he and Annie would be alone. The doctor figured Annie was more likely to get upset if this guy was there, because she would feel like she was failing him in some way. Matt kissed Annie’s forehead and left the room.

"Annie, Matt told me you’re afraid you won’t ever get your memory back. Is that true?" Dr Morris asked.

"I guess. I mean, Matt told me what you said, that I probably will remember stuff soon, but that doesn’t mean I’m definitely going to remember everything, does it? There’s a chance I might never remember, isn’t there?" Annie demanded.

"Well, yes, there is a very small chance. But Annie, you have to get things in proportion here," Dr Morris told her.

"Proportion, right," Annie scoffed. "I’m lying here after some accident I can’t remember. And I have people coming in here who I should recognise but I don’t, telling me about stuff I don’t remember, but that they expect me to know. And now you’re stood here, talking to me about perspective," Annie said sarcastically.

"Proportion," Dr Morris corrected. To Annie’s amazment, he actually seemed amused. She gave him the finger, which just amused the consultant even more.

"Listen to me Annie. I’ve been treating patients coming out of comas for twenty five years. In that time, I’ve treated maybe a dozen who suffered from amnesia for the rest of their lives. And that works out as less than one every two years. Annie, that’s not a lot," Dr Morris said in a soothing tone that ground on Annie’s nerves. It made her feel about two inches tall.

"I know that. But there’s still a chance, right? You just said that there is a chance I might never remember anything that’s happened in my life before now," Annie insisted.

"A very small chance, yes. Look, you obviously don’t want to hear what I’m telling you. Perhaps you listen to your friend," the doctor suggested. Annie shrugged her shoulders non-comitally. Dr Morris sighed deeply. "I’ll be back in a few hours. Would you like me to tell Matt he can come back in now?"

"Yes please," Annie said stiffly.

The doctor went out, and a minute later, Matt came in again. Annie smiled with obvious pleasure when she saw him.

"Hey Annie," Matt said with a big smile.

"Hey. I’m sick of that doctor telling me I will get my memory back, I just have to be patient," Annie complained.

"Well, he’s telling the truth honey. I know you don’t believe that right now, but you will get better," Matt assured her.

"Urgh!" Annie grunted unco-operatively. "Stop it! Can’t we just have a normal conversation?" she begged.

"Of course, sorry. We absolutely can. So, what do you wanna talk about?"

"I don’t care Matt!" Annie said emotionally. "Just talk to me."

"Okay, uh, why don’t I tell you a bit about myself? The doctor said that’s okay, and it might even trigger off some of your own memories," Matt suggested. Annie gave him a look. "Sorry," he said meakly.

"You’re forgiven. Now talk!" Annie said with a grin.

"Okay, my names Matthew Wright. I’m twenty nine. My birthday’s on Decemeber 3^rd. I’m an english teacher at the High School, sorry, that’s Lawrenson High, about seven miles from here. I like rock music and horror films. Uh, is there anything else you wanna know?" Matt said.

Annie was surprised to hear that he was an english teacher, although after she thought about it, she realised what a good teacher he would be. He was patient and kind and persistant. She was also surprised that he liked rock music, she wouldn’t have expected that to be his style, although she realised how stupi that sounded, after all, she barely knew him.

"Uh, family?" Annie asked, just to keep him talking.

"Two brothers, one sister. Mike’s thirty six, Liam’s thirty four and Tina’s thirty one. And they’d all kill me if they knew I just told you all that," Matt joked.

"So you’re the baby of the family?"

"Yeah."

"So, are you married? Do you have kids?" Annie asked as casually as she could. She hoped the answer to both questions would be no.

"Nope and nope. I haven’t even had a serious girlfriend in the past year," Matt confided. He smiled, but a trace of sadness had crept into his voice.

"Aww, poor baby," Annie teased.

"very funny. Is there anything else you wanna know?"

"Uh, not right now. Can I get back to you on that one?" Annie said, then remembered the one thing she really wanted to ask, but didn’t dare, at least not yet.

"Sure. Anytime you wanna know something, just ask."

"I will."

For the next twenty minutes, Matt and Annie talked. They talked about everything under the sun, with Matt steering the conversation towards things he thought might help her remember and away from things which might hurt her or upset her. He talked about the latest episode of Annie’s favourite soap opera, telling her what was going on in the fictional lives of the people she had watched so regularly every day until three weeks and four days ago. Matt never normally watched the show, saying it was over dramatic and ridiculous. But since Annie had been in a coma, he had started watching, for her sake. But he didn’t want to think about that anymore. He had spent three godawful weeks thinking about it. But that part of it at least was over now.

Annie listened patiently as he told her stuff about people he said were from some TV show, she forgot what it was called as soon as he told her. But their lives were as new to her as the real people who she used to know.

"Matt, I’m really sorry, but right now, real life is complicated enough for me. I really do appriciate you trying to help me, but I just want to stay in the real world. This soap opera thing is too confusing right now. I’m sorry," Annie explained.

Matt inwardly cursed himself for having been so stupid. Of course it would be confusing for her! Hell, the stupid thing confused him, and he wasn’t the one with amnesia. "I’m sorry. You’re right. I was just trying to help you, but I guess I was helping in the wrong way, wasn’t I?" he said with a forced smile, as he mentally kicked himself in the shins.

"Its okay. Like I said, I appricite the effort. It’s the thought that counts and all that," Annie said. She had seen the hurt, wanna-crawl-into-a-hole look on Matt’s face, and instantly regretted being so blunt.

"Yup," Matt agreed.

There were a few moments of awkward silence.

"I have to get going," Matt said eventually.

"You do?" Annie asked, unable to keep the dismay out of her voice.

"Yeah. I have to sort out the arrangements for when you get out of hospital," Matt told her.

"When will that be? Soon?" Annie asked, excited. Matt laughed and patted her leg.

"Depends what you call soon," he said mysteriously. "Bye now. I’ll be back as soon as I can, promise," he added.

"Bye," Annie said as unmiserably as she could, even though she was dreading the time she would spend on her own after Matt left, knowing how the minutes would seem like hours, like when a kid is lying in bed waiting for Santa Claus, desperately trying to keep his eyes open.

Matt kissed her cheek and left. Annie settled back against the pillow and realised how tired she was. She drifted off to sleep.