That is exactly what happens to Eilida. She witnesses a gruesome scene but has no memory of it or anything else. She has no clue why she is in a hospital bed nor any recollection of who she is, her family, or friends. As the cobwebs clear from her mind her memories fight to survive.
Bits and pieces glistened through my head, yearning to break the surface. My body felt as though I was gliding weightless through a vast space. Fluorescent lights flickered above me and distorted voices hovered close, their faces long and misshapen as if I were looking at them through carnival funhouse mirrors.
“Ill..id..a,” every syllable elongated. A bright light flashed into my eyes, leaving behind a trail of colors. A face swam into view, its forehead and chin small, cheeks stretched like a rubber band.
The sounds got louder, and an enormous commotion surrounded me. I wiggled my fingers which sent a searing pain through my arm, unwilling to let that stop me. I needed to leave, forcing my torso upwards, nothing happened. I couldn’t move. Panic rushed up my spinal cord aching to get free. A loud, unfriendly beep wailed through my ears, then, blackness crept across my eyes starting from the corners and catching up in the middle.
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A steady rhythmic beep, beep, beep filled my ears. I was alone in a dark room. How long had I been here, days, maybe months? A table to my right held dozens of flowers and stuffed toys. A row of shelves behind my feet held dozens more. A small worn monkey stared at me from beneath a bouquet of daisies. The beeping stemmed from a machine with a blue line that pulsed in a familiar pattern. It was a heart monitor and the wires that left it were attached on the other end to my chest. A neighbor of the beeping machine, the IV, was holding up a bag of cloudy liquid flowing into tubes that connected to holes in my arms. I couldn’t remember what had happened or what brought me to this hospital bed. I had a few broken images of disfigured faces and sluggish voices. I can see that I’m on a bed but my body feels like its floating. Nothing, I can feel nothing.
A nurse strolled in whistling “When the saints go marching in”.
“Well, how are you today?” Her face was bright and cheerful with dimples that accentuated her round cheeks when she smiled.
“Looking good,” she said as she checked my vitals and meshed the IV bag. Taking notes on a tablet, “ I’ll be back in about an hour to change that. Keep up the good work.” Then, she was gone. I didn’t get a chance to ask, why am I here?
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Fever had consumed me and I shivered under my covers with sweat pouring out of every crevasse. A three tier wedding cake and bridesmaids danced around in my head. A hideous rainstorm nearly washed us off the road. Without warning, I was no longer in a car with friends driving in a ferocious squall but I was walking towards a proverbial melody following a dismal apparition.
A man coalesced before me, his face ambiguous, and his voice that of demon spawn. It mocked my existence. My feet took hold and pounded the saturated earth until a wooden chest manifested before my eyes, it represented safety from the beast.
Oh my head! Static reverberated against the walls of my skull leaving lacerations across the folds of my brain. A familiar warm feeling squeezed my hand. It was that of my mother. I recognized her face from the pictures but the warmth of her hand was native to my existence. She was indeed my mother and comfort washed over me.
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Flashes of people filled my head but the quickness of the flashes made it difficult for my mind to understand. I fought to hold onto these memories as having any had become a commodity. I saw young boys with dark hair, a football and an ocean with a man… my father? No, not my father, I don’t know, dark and handsome. Several quick bursts radiated behind my eyes. The water was deep and blue, sand everywhere. Laughter echoed around me and I was staring out a window watching them while being held up by loving female arms but not the motherly arms that held me now.
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Sage came home with me and we spent the day decorating the house and calling friends. Late in the afternoon we hopped in my racy little car, went to the video store, and got the zombie movie trilogy The Lost Dead, The Undead, and Dead, Dead, Dead. Priscilla and Kaila joined us that night and we ordered our favorite pizza, Italian sausage and pineapple.
After my parents went to bed, we snuck into the house bar - it was always fully stocked - and stole a few beers. With our beer, we followed the dirt path to the lake and dangled our feet in the water.
“It’s freezing,” shouted Kaila as she yanked her foot out.
“Quiet, I hear something,” Sage whispered. She fanned her hands out to motion our silence. “There it is again,” she stated in a barely audible whisper and gave me a wink.
“Blaaah,” I shouted and pushed Sage into the water. A few seconds later her head popped up and Priscilla, Kaila and I crumpled over in laughter. The look on Sage’s face was priceless as she pulled herself onto the dock and rolled in laughter with us.
She guffawed, “That water is friggin’ cold.”
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My breakthroughs within the structure of my memories continued their onslaught of information. One minute my dad was swinging me and the next I was even younger and watching my dad out of the window, only he wasn’t my dad that I knew. The one that visited me daily in the hospital, instead he was the dad I remembered with faint jagged images, my dad from long ago. My mother held me tight as we watched out the window.
I had seen this vision in the past, my dad throwing a football to two little boys who I now knew were my brothers. Ely overthrew the ball to Evie where it bobbled along the front of the tide, slowly rolling in and out. A man walking on the beach picked up the ball and handed it to him. His beady black eyes looked towards the window and threatened to swipe my essence clean away from me.
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Agony reached every possible muscle in my body as I attempted to lift myself upwards. Slowly I edged forward from the pillow that supported my back only to fall onto it once again. A storm raged in my head and images whirled like a cyclone through it. Outside the window, redbuds swayed with the ocean breeze until darkness covered it like a plague. Ughh… I squeezed my eyes, allowing my memory to convulse and consume me.
Help make my birthday week one to remember :-) Nothing would make me happier than you and other wonderful readers taking advantage of my sales and putting my books into the top 100 of their genres.
If you missed the .99 cent sale. Eye of the Storm is half price this week in celebration of my birthday.
Follow this link and use this code GK26D at checkout. Good until Dec. 5th.
As Snow Falls on sale for half price through the 5th as well. Follow this link and use this code DE55Z at checkout.
Don't forget Baby Girl Book 2 is free at Amazon everywhere, all over the world.
Amazon.co.uk. author page and links to all my books
Baby Girl Book 1 is free through U.S. Amazon only.
Baby Girl Book 3 is .99 cents or the equivalent through all Amazon outlets.
Happy shopping, happy reading, and have a wonderful week!
