Community Read Free Page A

Catherine?’
    â€˜We’re going to be seeing a whole lot of each other, so Catherine is fine.’
    â€˜Sorry I can’t shake your hand, Catherine. I’m …’
    He stopped. He felt as if a black shutter had slammed down inside of his head. He simply couldn’t think what his name was. Not only that, he couldn’t think of
any
names, so that he could run through them and try to remember which one was his.
    He stared at Doctor Connor in complete bewilderment, blinking. How could he not remember his own name? But there was nothing.
    Doctor Connor reached out and stroked his fringe again. ‘Your name is –
what
?’ she coaxed him, very softly. ‘Don’t try too hard to remember it. Think of your mother instead, calling you. Think of what your friends used to sing, when it was your birthday.’
    She paused, and then she sang, ‘
Happy birthday, dear la-la-la! Happy birthday to you
. Can you remember the cake, and the candles? Can you hear them singing, inside your head?’
    Michael listened and listened, but there was nothing inside his head, only blankness and silence. He couldn’t remember his mother. He couldn’t remember the sound of her voice. He couldn’t even remember what she looked like.
    After a while, he gasped like a swimmer coming up for air. ‘I don’t know, Catherine! I just can’t think of it!’
    â€˜Don’t get upset,’ she told him. ‘It’s not at all unusual for people to suffer from amnesia, after an accident. There are ways of rebuilding your memories, and that’s one of the things that you and I will be doing together, little by little.’
    â€˜But how the hell can I not even know my own name?’
    â€˜It’s really not uncommon. I worked with young marines who came back from Iraq, suffering from just the same problem. Your brain has suffered from such a shock that it has simply shut down, like somebody hiding under the bedcovers and refusing to come out.’
    â€˜Tell me some names.’
    â€˜What?’
    â€˜Tell me some names and maybe I’ll be able to tell if one of them is mine.’
    â€˜That won’t work. You may pick a name simply because it rings a bell. It might not be your name at all, and that will only confuse you even more.’
    Michael lay there staring at the ceiling. Then he glanced sideways at Doctor Connor. The sun was shining in her hair so that she looked almost like an angel. He had only just met her and yet he felt desperately dependent on her. How else was he going to find out who he was and what he was doing here, up near Mount Shasta?
    The strange thing was that even though he couldn’t think of his name, he knew that he didn’t belong around here, and that he lived someplace far to the south. It was where that bar was – that noisy bar with the stained-glass window, where he had been talking about the speed of light.
    â€˜My accident,’ he said. ‘Do you know what happened?’
    â€˜Not in any detail, no. The paramedics said that your SUV crossed over on to the wrong side of the interstate, and got hit by a truck coming the other way.’
    Michael closed his eyes again, and tried to imagine it, but he couldn’t. The black shutter remained firmly shut. How can you get hit by a truck and not remember it?
    But then he suddenly thought:
Surely I must have had some ID on me, when the paramedics brought me in here? A wallet, with credit cards and a driver’s license? A cellphone? And what about my license plate? The police would have been able to check my identity with the Department of Motor Vehicles.
    â€˜Catherine,’ he said.
    She had been jotting notes on a yellow legal pad, but now she looked up, and he could tell by her expression that she knew what he was going to say.
    â€˜You know my name already,’ he said.
    Catherine nodded. ‘I do, yes. But encouraging you to remember it yourself –