by Curry, Edna
“Ah…I hurt everywhere. Where am I?”
“In Regions Hospital in St. Paul. Just relax, you need to rest.”
“What am I doing here? What happened?”
“I don’t know, ma’am. An ambulance brought you here late last night. Someone found you along the road in the snow and called the ambulance. They thought you might have been hit by a car. Do you know how you got there?”
“No. I’m in St. Paul? What am I doing here?” She tried to look around and Anna raised her bed.
Anna showed her how to work the buttons on the control bar beside her. “This is your call button. Press it to call the nurse if you need anything, okay? And this button controls the TV. This one changes the channels, this one raises or lowers the volume.”
“That’s great.” Lucy had never seen one like that before, but could see why they needed a special control for hospital patients who couldn’t get out of bed to change the channels.
“What’s your name?” Anna asked.
“Lucy…I mean, Lucinda…Johnson.”
“What’s your birthdate?”
“June tenth, 1930.”
Anna looked at her strangely. “What day is it?”
“Wednesday.”
“And the date?”
“Mar 3, 1955.”
“How old are you?”
Lucy frowned. This woman couldn’t add or subtract? She swallowed and tried to remain polite. “I’m twenty-five. I’m an elementary school teacher, third grade.”
Anna asked, “Who’s the president?”
“Dwight Eisenhower.” The questions continued and Anna just frowned at her answers, then bustled out of the room.
Soon she was back with another woman, who said she was Janet, her doctor. She examined her, shone a light in her eyes and looked at all the info on a clipboard she’d brought with her. After a bunch of more questions along the same lines as those Anna had asked, the doctor said, “I can’t find anything other than bruises physically wrong with you, but I think you may have amnesia.”
“But doctor,” Anna began, but shushed at a look from the doctor.
“We got your driver’s license and picture from your purse.” She handed her a clutch and opened it to reveal a Minnesota driver’s license. The picture on the license had a weird reflective light to it, but looked familiar. “This is you, isn’t it?”
Anna handed her a hand mirror to compare herself to it.
Lucy stared at it. Long, thick dark hair hung from a left side part to under her chin, curving in at the bottom. Dark eyebrows, neatly plucked, rose above clear blue eyes rimmed with thick brown lashes. Raised red and purple bruises marred the left side of her face.
Lucy sighed and nodded. “I guess so. The face in the mirror looks like me, although it’s pretty hard to tell with all my bruises.”
“I know. But I think it’s close enough. We found your medical insurance card and sent it in to the company. We’ll let you know if they accept it. Do you know if it’s current?”
Lucy shrugged and gave her a wry smile. “I have no idea.”
The doctor sighed. “Read the license info, Lucy, or whoever you are.”
Lucy did and her smile disappeared. She felt the blood drain from her face as she read aloud: “Lucille Denton, 650 Willow St., Minneapolis, MN. Born February 2, 1990.” She looked from the nurse to the doctor and gasped through stiff lips, “But that’s impossible. This must be a mistake. How can I be born in the future?”
The doctor patted her arm. “You weren’t, Lucy. It’s not 1955, it’s 2015. You’re just a bit mixed up. I’m sure your memory will straighten out soon. Oh, and a police detective wants to talk to you, too. He’ll be here in a few minutes. Just rest now, okay? I’ll stop back in a few hours.”
Lucy stared open mouthed as they walked out of the room.
2015? That wasn’t possible, was it?
