CONVICTED
Chapter Fourteen
I crept out from behind the two
garbage cans and walked until I reached a street. My heart was pounding in my
chest and I was confused.
I wonder who that man was, I said to myself.
The sun was creeping up from
behind a couple of buildings, and soon the streets were filled with noisy
people. When I tried to cross the street, I always ended up jumping back onto
the sidewalk, nearly getting hit by a car.
I leaned toward one woman.
"Please, ma’am, can you tell
me where I am?" I asked her carefully.
"Why, you’re in Maine,"
she answered, and walked down the street.
Maine? How’d I get in Maine? I wondered.
Once I was sure there were no
cars, I ran across the street at lightning speed. What was my name? How come
I couldn’t remember anything? These were some of the thoughts zooming
through my mind as I ran down the sidewalk.
"Hey, there you are! Marie,
please, come here!" that man’s voice called again.
I saw him running towards me and
I panicked. I ran until I saw a hospital sign, and I weaved through the crowd
into the hospital. I ran into one of the doctors and got behind his back.
That man--what was his name
again?--appeared in the doorway at that moment.
"Keep him away from me! He’s
been stalking me all night!" I screamed loudly, hiding behind the doctor.
"Jack? What’s
happened?" the doctor asked the man.
"Huh? You know him?" I
asked.
"I don’t know what’s wrong
with her! She must have hit her head or something! She doesn’t remember who I
am!" the man shouted, distressed.
The doctor leaned down to my
level.
"I’m going to take you in
for an x-ray. Is that all right?" he asked me.
Not sure what he was saying, I
nodded. He took my arm, led me into a room, and took some x-rays of my head.
The man walked in, rubbing his
hands together nervously.
"Well, what’s wrong with
her?" he asked.
"Well, it seems she does
have a bump on her head right here. I have to say it’s a pretty nasty one, too.
I can’t quite tell if this will be permanent or not, with only one day’s
progress, but so far all I can tell you is that she has amnesia."
"What do you mean, you don’t
know if this will be permanent?" the man called Jack demanded.
"Look, we’ll keep her in the
hospital and see how the injury progresses. All right?" the doctor asked,
his voice rising.
"Fine…but I’m staying with
her," the man mumbled.
The doctor steered me through the
hallways and into a room, where I laid down on a bed and relaxed. The man came
in and sat down on a chair next to the bed. I tried to edge away from him, but
met up with the rails around the bed.
"Listen, I know you’re
confused right now, but we are actually really close friends," the man
said.
"What’s your name?" I
asked.
The man looked really hurt and
tired. He leaned back in the chair and shut his eyes.
"Jack. Jack Dawson," he
finally answered.
"I’m sorry, Jack," I
told him, yawning.
"Why’s that?"
"Because I don’t remember
you."
Soon, I nodded off to sleep.
*****
The following morning, I woke up
in the hospital bed. That man was still sitting in the chair, his head in his
hands.
His eyes opened a crack, and once
he saw I was awake, he sat up.
"Good morning, Marie,"
he said.
I looked around.
"Oh, you mean me. Okay. Good
morning…um…Mac," I responded.
"It’s Jack, actually,"
he said.
"Jack…Jack…" I
repeated.
The doctor from the previous
night walked in and looked at his chart.
"Well, I don’t see any
permanent damage, so she should regain her memory sometime today."
Mac or Jack looked very pleased.
The doctor sat down and stared at me hard.
"Just make sure you be extra
careful. All right?"
I smiled and nodded at the
friendly doctor.
Then, suddenly, it all came back
to me. All my memories came flooding back. The sinking, the other sinking, the
fighting, the running, everything!
"Jack! Oh, God, I
remember!" I exclaimed.
Jack put his arms around me and
squeezed me tight.
"Oh, Marie! You don’t know
how happy that makes me!" Jack whispered in my ear.
*****
A few days later, we went back
home. The house was a mess, and I was still paranoid about the police. So, we
packed up our things and moved. We had enough money to take a train to New
Hampshire, where we lived under bridges for awhile.
But all the while, I was feeling
really strange. Jack and I were happy together, but my stomach was really
bothering me. Finally, about a month after my amnesia incident, I went to see a
doctor.
All the while, Jack was waiting
outside, probably wondering what I was doing.
When I got the diagnosis, I was
mortified. I walked out of the doctor’s office in a daze.
"Marie, what’s wrong?
What…" But suddenly, he stopped.
I sat down on the sidewalk with a
sheet of paper crumpled in my hands.
"Jack…I…"
"What is it, Marie? What’s
wrong?" he asked.
I handed him the paper. He looked
at me quizzically.
"I…I’m pregnant."