Narrative: Final Paper

Flash. I’m laying down in the back seat of a car with my head on Rebecca's lap. My mom and dad are in the front. Confused, I ask “what’s happening, where am I?”
Flash. I’m in an unknown place and my dad is sitting in a wheelchair trying to make me laugh.

Flash. I’m ….

Have you ever imagined what it would be like to suddenly forget almost everything in a certain period of time in your life? What happened? Where am I? People say I was awake, but it feels like a dreamless sleep. Blank, without images, but it took the past two days as well. Nothing. The worst part is, nothing seems to last forever.


Across from our house in Magna lived a man named Merlin. He had a disease or virus and the name keeps eluding me. The disease made him unable to walk, so he needed to use a walker or his wheelchair all the time. The only other problem with it is he was sixty-four years old. When he leaves home or comes back, my brothers and I would go and help him so he could get around easier. It seemed like something that should happen because of how much more able we were than he was. I had one problem while helping him. I forgot the next (past) few days. All I know is that I woke up in a hospital and what my family told me.

I awoke in a strange place, having no memory of how I got there or why I was there. Confused and a little scared, I ask, “Where am I?” My mom appears out of the corner of my eye. “You’re in a hospital. You got hit by a car”, says a doctor as he walks in. Why am I not dead? I think to myself. “How” is the only thing I can say. “You were going to help Merlin and got hit on the way”, my mom says sadly. After that it seems like I blacked out. “‘What happened?’ and I didn’t know what to do except to answer”, mom was saying when I came back to myself. I have no clue what she’s talking about, but I got the feeling that I might not want to know, so I keep my mouth shut. Josh walks up and says, “Why did you have to get hit on my birthday? You ruined it because we were worrying about you.” “I GOT HIT!” I say as my memory of what the doctor, my mom, and I talked about in the hospital (what I did/could remember anyway). “Yes”, several people say at the same time, apparently annoyed. I know they’re annoyed, so I ask, “What’s wrong?” “This is like the millionth time you asked that same question” mom explains in a calm tone. Blank.

Some of the things that I was told about when I was hit are: I was told that I was hit on my brother’s birthday. Another thing is that I had skidded several feet after being hit. The people that hit me said that they were going the speed limit, but I doubt that. I was told that I was awake during the whole time, even though I don’t remember anything, and I was yelling, “Get away from me” to some of our neighbors that I didn’t like. It seemed like forever that I was not remembering, so I had oridionally thought that I was in the hospital for a month, but it was only a day or two before moving me to a childrens hospital. Apparently, I had kept asking, “What happened” and would interrupt my mom while she was answering to ask the exact same thing over and over again.

The worst part about getting hit was that I couldn’t remember almost anything up until that time. I was told by my mom that I had a good memory before getting hit, the type that you don’t see in anybody except those with photographic memorys. Ever since then I have had the legidimate excuse of “I don’t remember” to get out of things I didn’t do or don’t want to talk about. I could swear that I was different after that incident. I thought in a different way. Things went back to normal after a while. The people that hit me came and said sorry to me, but even though I knew about being hit, I didn’t know why they were saying sorry to me. I didn’t know who they were.



I had oridionally thought that if you got hit, then you broke a bone, but you don’t. I learned that not thinking before you do something had concequences that can be very bad. Crossing the road without looking will get you hit, but I found that I was more daring with roads after I got hit than before. Nomatter what you’re doing of how good it is, you can still have bad things happen to you. The only protection you have from other people, nature, manmade things, etc. is yourself and the support of those around you.


Anthony