Don’t Forget to Remember Me by Kahlen Aymes

to
stop struggling and that I would be fine. Something in those eyes
calmed me. I trusted those eyes.
    I didn’t remember much after that; people
bustling around, coughing and getting sleepy. When I woke, I was
surrounded by my parents, Ellie and three others that I didn’t
recognize, but no sign of the gorgeous man from before. My eyes
searched the room. My mother reached for my hand and Ellie offered
her a chair.
    “ Hello, Julia,” she said. “Are you
looking for Ryan?”
    “ Who?” I asked. Ellie shot a glance at
the attractive blonde man to her right and then at my
parents.
    “ Ryan, honey,” Dad said.
    “ I sent him home to clean up.” The other
man stepped forward and I could see the same kindness in his face
and eyes…they were the same as the man who must be Ryan.
    My mother looked at me with a big question
in her eyes. “Do you remember Ryan, Julia?” Her voice was hesitant
and quiet.
    My mind had reeled and I shook my head. “Not
unless he was the one who was with me when I woke up.”
    “ Yes,” the man who looked like him nodded
and smiled.
    “ He’s quite handsome, isn’t he?” I asked
timidly with a soft smile. I felt silly for saying it, it was so
obvious.
    Ellie laughed and cocked her head. “Yes.
Quite. The nurses are constantly whispering and staring at him.”
The devilish gleam in her eyes sparkled and the blonde man nudged
her in the shoulder making her look his way.
    Everyone got quiet and stared at me
expectantly. I looked from one to another, hoping someone would
tell me something.
    “ Who is he then? Are we friends?”
    She glanced at the one they called Gabriel,
and he shook his head ever so slightly.
    “ Yes. We’re all friends. We met in
school,” Ellie explained as the door opened and the object of our
discussion walked in, even more handsome than before, if that was
possible. His hair was damp and his face clean-shaven; he came and
took my hand when everyone had been ushered out. He was dressed in
hospital scrubs with a stethoscope around his neck. So, he was a
doctor, this Ryan, who Ellie said was my friend…
    I closed my eyes, now alone in my room after
my talk with Ryan, struggling to fill the missing holes of him.
Surely, if he’d cried over me, I should know him. Gabriel and Dr.
Brighton said that it’d probably all come back, but sitting here,
without being able to remember, left me feeling lost.
    I remembered Ellie and the
first half of my freshman year at college, but then it was pretty
much a blank. My dad left a newspaper on the tray over my bed and I
could see that it was almost eight years later. He had some grey
hair and my mother looked more tired than I remembered her. I
wondered how I had changed as well. Ellie’s hair was longer, but
she looked pretty much unchanged. Would I look old? I would be 26 now. And, then there were all of
these people that I couldn’t remember at all. Tears slipped from my
eyes in mourning over the loss. How could so much disappear just
like that?
    And Ryan…Ellie seemed hesitant to talk about
him except to tell me we met at college. My heart was still
thumping at his breathtaking good looks and I could still feel
where his lips had burned into my forehead. I felt strangely drawn
to him. His gentle teasing and the velvet softness in his tone when
he spoke put me at ease.
    Bringing my thoughts to the present, I
looked down at the bed linens until a noise at the door startled
me. Another new person walked into my room.
    Okay, so is this a doctor or someone from
the past? I didn’t feel anything special
coming off of him. None of the familiarity or magnetism that I’d
felt with Ryan. He walked closer and smiled.
    “Hello, Julia.” His voice was deep and
clinical. “I’m Dr. Moore.”
    I sighed in relief. Not another forgotten
person from the past. “Hi. Are you here for another test? I’m sort
of tired right now.” The pain pill was starting to make me
sleepy.
    “No. Dr. Brighton and Dr. Matthews asked me
to check