Spirits In the Trees

by Morgan Hannah MacDonald

  “Uh…Jello?”

  “Good choice, my favorite. I’ll have it sent up right away.” Then she was gone.

  * * *

  Doug and Maddy were alone once again . An uncomfortable silence ensued as they stared at one another. Doug didn’t have a clue what to say or do. It was obvious Maddy had some sort of amnesia and Dahlia, the nurse, had already instructed him not to tell her a thing. Just to let the doctor answer all her questions, so he just stood there feeling awkward.

  “Look, whatever your name is--”

  “Doug.”

  “Okay, Doug. Could you please explain why I’m here?” Her voice tinged with irritation.

  “Uh, I brought you here.” He didn’t know what else to say.

  “I see, well, thank you. Would you do me a favor and go get my husband? He’s probably outside on his cell phone. I would like to thank him for the flowers.”

  “Um, the flowers are from me.”

  “Oh. Well, that was very nice of you to bring me to the hospital and bring me flowers. Really, I do appreciate it, it’s just that--,”

  “Look, why don’t I put the television on while we wait for the doctor.” He picked up the remote and started surfing the channels.

  “But--”

  “Here, a rerun of Friends. I’ll go call Ang and tell her you’re awake.”

  “Who?”

  * * *

  But he was gone. Maddy’s head fell back on the pillow, with a sigh and she closed her eyes. She must have dozed off, because the next thing she knew there was a doctor standing over her holding a chart.

  “Hello, Mrs. Anderson. How are you feeling?”

  “Confused. Could you please tell me what’s going on?”

  “You had some sort of accident. You’ve been in a coma for seven days.”

  “Coma!” Maddy’s head flew up. “What kind of an accident?”

  “We aren’t exactly sure. We were hoping you could tell us what happened . Your husband said he found you unconscious at your home. It looked liked you had been beaten up pretty bad.”

  “Oh my God, by who?”

  “That we don’t know. Can you remember anything, anything at all?”

  “Well… no. The last thing I remember was having an argument with my husband and going downstairs to sleep on the couch. Then I woke up here.”

  “I see. So do you think your husband did this to you?”

  “No! He would never lay a hand on me.”

  “We’ll get to the bottom of this, but I suggest you rest right now. We can talk some more tomorrow. I’ll send Dahlia in with something to help you sleep.”

  “Don’t you think I’ve slept enough? I want to see my husband. Could you get him for me?”

  “You rest now.”

  The doctor left the room.

  Maddy felt lost, abandoned. She wished she could just see a familiar face. Where the hell was Bob?

  * * *

  The minute he exited the room, Doug, accosted him. “Doctor, what do you think? Is she going to be all right?”

  “Walk with me.” Dr. Stewart walked down the hall at a steady pace. He stopped at the nurses’ station and turned to Doug.

  “She seems to have retrograde amnesia. I would like to talk to a colleague of mine, Dr. Elliot Hill, he’s a neuropsychologist. I’ll see if he can come by here tomorrow. I’m afraid to tell her anything that may traumatize her anymore than she already seems to be.”

  “Is there anything I can do?”

  “She talked about her husband. Said she remembered having an argument with him, but for some reason she doesn’t recognize you as that man.” Dr. Stewart eyed him suspiciously.

  “Actually, she’s a widow. She lived in Sacramento with her husband and daughter. They perished in a fire sometime last year. I’m her boyfriend. I couldn’t take the chance you would ban me from seeing her so I just told you I was her husband.”

  “I see.” Irritation showed on the doctor’s face. “Well, it seems she has had one too many traumas in her life of late. This last one put her over the edge. I’ll go to my office and see if I can’t contact Dr. Hill. Give me the number where you can be reached. I’ll have him call you so you can fill him in on what you know about her. Is there a relative we can call?”

  “She has a grandmother somewhere here in Washington. Unfortunately, I don’t know her name or how to contact her.”

  “That is unfortunate. She could be of great assistance in this matter. Mrs. Anderson has obviously blocked out the last year of her life, but her grandmother would be the one person she would recognize.”

  Doug stepped over to the nurse’s station and asked Dahlia if he could borrow a pen and paper. He wrote down his name and cell phone number before he handed it over to the doctor.

  “I’ll have the doctor call you directly. Good night.” Then the doctor turned and walked away.

  Doug felt lost. He wasn’t sure what to do next. This was definitely not what he expected to happen. In his head he imagined Maddy waking up, smiling at him, happy to see him. Instead, she didn’t even remember him. After standing there a moment he realized he was still holding the pen. He looked up to see Dahlia’s compassionate eyes staring back at him.

  “Everything will work out. I’m sure her amnesia is just temporary. You’ll see, before you know it she’ll be the woman you knew. I’ve got a good feeling about that.” She patted his hand and took the pen he was offering.

  “I hope you’re right,” he said solemnly. Then turned and sought the elevator himself.

  He grabbed a burger on his way back to the motel. After finishing his dinner, he decided to watch a little TV while he waited for the doctor to call. He surfed the channels incessantly, but found nothing that could keep his interest. He couldn’t get his mind off Maddy. He’d desperately wanted to know what had happened to her, but now he’d be satisfied if she just remembered his name.

  He thought back to the time he’d spent with her. When she laughed it seemed to erupt from deep within her very being, her entire body engaged. He envisioned her eyes, her lips, her kiss.

  He decided to call Grady and give him an update. He knew he was anxious to interview Maddy, but that would have to wait.

  After he got off the phone, he found the news, plumped up a couple of pillows behind him and settled in. He hoped he wouldn’t have long to wait.

  He awoke to the ringing phone. He glance at the clock next to the bed, it was after midnight.

  “Hello?”

  “Hello, Mr. Lindstrom?”

  “Yes?”

  “This is Dr. Elliot Hill, Dr. Stewart asked me to call you regarding his patient Maddy Anderson. I’m sorry if I woke you.”

  “No, no, I was waiting for your call.” Doug cleared his throat and sat up.

  “Dr. Stewart said you could give me a little background on the patient.”

  “Yes, little being the operative word. Unfortunately I haven’t known her very long, but I will tell you what I do know.”

  Doug then relayed the information he knew, which was actually more than he realized in the short time they had known each other.

  “Doctor, do you know how long it will be before she regains her memory?” Doug asked.

  “It’s hard to say, everyone’s different. It sounds to me like she has been greatly traumatized. Something like this can’t be rushed. She has to remember on her own. I’ll know more after I meet with her tomorrow and see the results of her tests. I’ll call you when I have a clearer picture of the situation.”

  “Thank you, Doctor.”

  “Good night.”

  Doug couldn’t explain it. He did feel better, but not much.

  CHAPTER NINTEEN

  Maddy opened her eyes to find Dahlia pulling back the curtains in her room. “Good morning, Sunshine,” came the nurse’s bright Jamaican sing-song voice.

  “Has my husband been in yet?”

  “I haven’t seen him. How are you feeling this morning?”

  “Hungry. Do you think I
could have something with a little more substance today?”

  “We’ll see. We have to be careful with you. Your stomach has shrunk and we don’t want you getting sick on us.”

  “I won’t, I promise!”

  Dahlia laughed.

  “Dr. Stewart is here making his rounds. You can ask him when he comes in. Why don’t I put on the TV while you wait, it’ll keep you company.” The nurse pushed the power button, handed the control to her, then adjusted her bed into a sitting position and finished by plumping up her pillows.

  “I’ll bring you some juice to sip on while we wait on Dr. Stewart’s word. It won’t be long now.” With that she left the room.

  Maddy sighed, turned to the television and began flicking stations. She stopped when she saw Brad Pitt being interviewed for an upcoming movie.

  “Good Morning! And how are we feeling this morning?” Dr. Stewart asked as he entered the room.

  “We are feeling frustrated and hungry! Dahlia said I had to talk to you before I could eat.”

  The doctor smiled, “That’s correct. You’re going to have to continue with the semi-liquid diet today.” He picked up her chart.

  “I don’t get it, why can’t I eat?”

  Dr. Stewart looked up, his expression turned serious, “Mrs. Anderson, you’ve been in a coma for several days, all that time you have been fed intravenously. We can’t start you out on solid foods. Your stomach has to get accustomed to having something in it first.”

  “Call me Maddy. What happened to me?”

  “You’ve had a severe head injury. I’m having a colleague of mine come in this morning and talk to you. Maybe things will be a little clearer then.” The doctor looked down at his watch. “He should be here any minute now.”

  After he left, she dropped her head back onto the pillow. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Where the hell is Bob? I can’t believe some stupid case is more important than me! I swear, if I didn’t love him so much I’d seriously consider dumping his ass.

  Maddy looked back up at the TV in time to see the credits rolling. She had missed the entire interview.

  “Damn, that was probably the only joy I would have gotten all day,” she muttered.

  “Excuse me?”

  She turned toward the door to see a handsome older man in a white coat standing there. He appeared to be in his late forties, maybe early fifties, with tanned skin, baby blue eyes and salt and pepper hair. She was embarrassed.

  “Oh, hi,” she said, sheepishly. “I was just talking to the TV.”

  “I see,” he said, with a smile. “And do you do that often?” He teased. He walked over, stood next to the bed.

  “Nope, this is a fairly new development.”

  “I’m glad to hear it. My name is Dr. Elliot Hill, Dr. Stewart asked me to come by and talk to you.” He shook her hand. “I’m a neuropsychologist.”

  “Great. Now you probably think I’m showing signs of early dementia and will have me committed, right?”

  “Uh, no. You should see me during a Mariners game. I can be quite verbose myself.” He gave a slight chuckle. “Actually, I’m not that kind of psychologist. I deal mainly with the brain’s cerebral cortex, specifically those disorders of perception, memory, language, and behavior that result from brain injury or disease.”

  “Do I have a disease?” This must be what everyone was keeping from her.

  “No, but you did have a severe brain injury. I’m here at the request of Dr. Stewart. He and your friend, Doug, are quite worried about you.”

  “I don’t know this Doug guy, or why he should be worried about me.”

  “Okay, then tell me what you do know.”

  She recounted the argument she had with her husband, ending with her falling asleep on the couch. Once she had finished, the doctor was silent a moment.

  “So you don’t remember coming to Washington?”

  “I’m in Washington?” And the hits just keep coming.

  “Do you have any family members besides your husband and daughter?”

  “Yes, my grandmother and great-aunt. Why?”

  “And where do they live?”

  “In Washington. Is that why I’m here? Has something happened to my grandmother, my aunt?” Maddy started to panic.

  “I’m sure they’re fine. Why don’t you give me their names and phone numbers and I’ll try to get in touch with them.”

  She gave him the information and watched as he wrote it down.

  “Why didn’t Bob take care of all this?” What the hell is wrong with that husband of mine?

  “You’ve been in a coma. It appears you have been through something terribly traumatic which your brain is having a hard time coming to terms with, so it has decided to wipe out that part of your life.”

  Maddy stared at the doctor in disbelief. “You mean I have amnesia?”

  “It’s called retrograde amnesia. Your brain has decided it doesn’t want to remember some rather difficult events that have happened in your life over the past year. Therefore as a survival technique it has put walls up around those memories. Losing one year in the grand scheme of things is really not so bad.”

  “What do you mean, not so bad? How would you like it if someone told you that you’d lost a year of your life?”

  “What I meant to say is that I’ve had patients who have lost their entire identity, entire life. They don’t know who they are, or their family members. That can be extremely distressing. It can take years to regain those memories. Some never do.”

  “You mean to say I may never remember what happened in the last year?” She was nearing hysteria.

  “I can’t give you any promises. No one can. But I can tell you that those cases are rare.”

  “Why didn’t Bob tell me any of this?” She was so confused.

  “What do you mean? You said the last thing you remembered was the night you argued,” the doctor stated.

  “Yeah, before I came to the hospital. I mean all those times I woke to find Bob sitting next to me holding my hand.”

  “Mrs. Anderson—“

  “Call me Maddy.”

  “Okay, Maddy, you’ve been in a coma. Coma patients don’t just wake-up and go back to sleep.”

  “The doctor’s must be wrong then. Because I know Bob was here, I saw him!”

  “Okay, fine. What did he say?”

  “Now that you mention it, not much. Most of the time he just sat there looking worried.” Maddy stared down at her lap, then she remembered something and she looked back up at the doctor. “Wait! One time he said that Emma Rose was fine.”

  “And what do you think he meant by that?” Dr. Hill asked.

  “I guess that she was doing okay with me in the hospital.”

  There was a light taping on the open door. A man stood there with a tray.

  “You eat, I’ll come back later and we’ll talk at greater length,” Dr. Hill said.

  The man in scrubs came over, deposited her breakfast on top of the tray table and pushed it in front of her. She picked up her orange juice. After a couple of sips, she placed the glass back on the tray and pushed it aside. She seemed to have lost her appetite.

  * * *

  That afternoon, Maddy was watching Ellen DeGeneres. She never had time to watch TV during the day, so she hadn’t seen her show before, but she was pretty funny.

  “Hello, stranger.”

  Maddy turned her head to see her best friend walk into the room. “Thank, God, Elle, finally a familiar face. I’ve been living in the twilight zone here!”

  Gisele sat down on the side of the bed, reached for her hand and placed it on her lap before she covered it with her own. “You can relax now, I’m here. I came as soon as Grandma Mary called,” Gisele said in a soft voice.

  “Grams? How come she didn’t come with you?” Maddy sat up straighter, her heart picked up a beat.

  “It’s Aunt Madeline, she’s in the hospital. Her pneumonia has taken a turn for the worse, she’s in the ICU. Grandma Mary has been st
aying by her side. She’s afraid to leave. That’s why she called me.”

  “Oh, no, not Aunt Madeline. I should be there.” Maddy tried to get out of bed, but Gisele blocked her.

  “There’s nothing you can do right now. Your job is to get better and I’m here to help.” Gisele stroked Maddy’s hand.

  “Grandma Mary was relieved when she heard the message on her answering machine from Dr. Stewart. She’d been frantically trying to contact you for over a week. If not for Aunt Madeline’s illness she would have come to the island herself.”

  “I don’t understand where Bob is. Everyone around here seems to change the subject whenever I mention his name. Please don’t tell me he’s too busy to come visit his own wife!”

  “The doctors said you had some type of amnesia?”

  “I know, ridiculous, huh? If there’s something weird out there, I’m the first to catch it.” Maddy tried to laugh.

  “No one can say exactly what happened to you. They say you were attacked and you’ve had a severe head trauma.” Gisele’s face creased with worry.

  “It’s really scary. I can’t remember a thing, so I can’t ID my attackers. I’m sure that’s why the police haven’t been in yet. I haven’t seen Bob since I woke up last night. Did he leave town?” Maddy was so frustrated.

  “This is not going to be easy to say.” Gisele looked down at their hands on her lap. “Honey, there was an accident and--”

  “Accident? Bob was in an accident?”

  “Actually, there was a fire-”

  “Fire, where? Is Bob okay? Is he in the hospital too?”

  Gisele paused, then looked back up at Maddy.

  “The fire was at your house, something to do with the electrical wiring. It’s gone, burned to the ground.”

  “Oh my, God! Is that why I’m here in Washington? Did we move here or something?” Maddy couldn’t keep her voice from shaking. The way her friend kept dodging around her questions made her pulse quicken. There was something wrong here, something worse than her house burning to the ground and she wasn’t sure she wanted to know.

  “There’s no easy way to tell you this.” Gisele’s eyes seemed to be imploring her to understand something, but what, Maddy couldn’t figure out.