"When you're finished here, could you check on the patient in room 17?"
"Sure thing, Barb."
"Thanks. We've been really scrambling ever since they had to fire Angela."
"I know, what a shame. I really liked working with her."
"I did too, but who doesn't show up to work for a week with no reasonable explanation?"
He heard voices, but they didn't make sense. Nothing made sense. Everything hurt, and he seemed to be lying on a firm, crinkly bed. He wanted to open his eyes, but he couldn't quite master the action.
There were footsteps and then a new, deeper voice.
"Alright, Monika, what do we have here?"
"The patient is an unidentified male, six foot three inches, 163 pounds, appears to be about 17 years old. He was hit by a car and has been unconscious for five hours, but otherwise is stable."
"Good. Keep an eye on him and call me if he wakes up."
"Yes, Doctor Green."
He heard some shuffling and a faucet being turned on and off, and then footsteps fading away. He managed to open one eye and saw a dimly lit, sterile room. He closed his eye and wiggled his fingers and toes. He attempted to sort through the confusion in his brain, but every time he tried to make sense of things, he hit a wall. He blinked his eyes open and slowly turned his head from side to side.
I'm in a hospital room, he thought. But why? He carefully sat up in bed and became aware of a dull aching at the back of his head. He turned and saw his reflection in a mirror across the room. He took in a face that was only vaguely familiar, with dark blue eyes, shaggy blonde hair, and lips that seemed a tad too big. He inspected the rest of his body. His tall, lanky frame was nothing to get excited about, but it seemed functional. He looked back in the mirror and made his face go through a range of emotions. He smiled, frowned, waggled his eyebrows, and squinted. He wasn't the most attractive guy on earth, although he wasn't bad to look at either. But who was he?
His musings were interrupted by a gasp at the door.
"Oh! You're awake!"
He watched a short nurse enter the room and fiddle with some instruments by his bed.
"You had a pretty serious accident there and we weren't sure if you were ever going to wake up. But you have, and I'll call Doctor Green once I've got some information." She picked up a clipboard. "What's your name, dear?"
Name? He must have a name, but for the life of him he couldn't remember what it was. "Um... I don't know," he answered, swallowing hard.
The nurse furrowed her brows. "Can you tell me where you live, or if you have any family, or if you remember what you were doing in the middle of the street?"
Blank, blank, blank. He gave the nurse a helpless look and she nodded in understanding.
"Don't worry, dear. We'll try to get it sorted out. Sometimes this can happen after a head injury."
The nurse crossed to a call button on the wall, but before she could press it there was a ruckus in the hallway.
"I'm not crazy, I swear it! It was an elaborate underground world, with waterfalls and pirates and the most magnificent mermaids! And James Hook was there! He had been living there for 10 years!"
A young man with red hair and a thick beard came into view, fighting against the two guards who were escorting him down the hall. The red-haired man looked into the room and his eyes lit up.
"You!" He cried, rushing forward. "You were there! Tell them I'm not crazy! Tell them Neverland exists!"
He frowned and shook his head. "I...I'm sorry..."
"But you were there!" The distressed young man exclaimed as the guards dragged him out of the room.
He listened to the bearded young man's shouts fade away and sighed, wishing he could help. He didn't know what any of those things meant, but his intuition told him that red-haired young man wasn't crazy.
*****
"We believe you have retrograde amnesia," Doctor Green explained, scratching at the stubble on his cheek with his pen. "This can sometimes happen after sustaining a serious head injury. Usually it helps to have friends and family to help bring back your memories, but locating any of your kin has been slightly difficult."
His eyes lit up. "That's it! That's my name!"
"What is?"
"Slightly."
The doctor raised an eyebrow. "That's a rather unusual name. Perhaps it's a nickname?"
"Oh, maybe you're right," Slightly said. But even if it was just a nickname, he felt a bit more grounded knowing what he was called.
"Anyway, it's been difficult to find any of your relations since you didn't have any identification and none of the witnesses claimed to know you. We'll keep working on it, but in the meantime I suggest going through your belongings to see if anything sparks a memory." Doctor Green dropped a plastic bag at the foot of Slightly's bed and excused himself.
Slightly overturned the bag and let the contents spill into his lap. There was a pair of jeans and a purple and yellow striped shirt that he supposed he had been wearing before they changed him into a hospital gown. There was also a metallic body suit that had been sliced down the middle. He turned the garment over in his hands, noting the weight of the material and the fine workmanship of the stitching. There was also a bit of money, a scrap of paper with a recipe for cream puffs written on it, and a small container that looked like hair gel. He opened the last item and applied a bit to the front of his hair. In a few seconds the hair had become rock hard and had turned blue. Slightly got up and crossed to the small sink to wash it out. He leaned on the sink and stared at himself in the mirror, trying to remember something, anything, about his life. His personal belongings had been interesting, but they had elicited no memories. He narrowed his eyes and drew closer to the mirror, until his nose was almost touching the glass.
"Who are you?" He said quietly.
"Oh, I'm the housekeeper. I apologize if I'm interrupting you."
Slightly spun around so quickly he almost fell over. He had been so absorbed in studying himself that he hadn't noticed the girl come in. She was emptying the rubbish bin in the corner and when she straightened and turned to face him his mouth fell open. She had thick, dark brown hair that ran straight down to the middle of her back. Her almond-shapes eyes were a warm brown color and framed by long, thick lashes. Her olive skin was flawless, and she radiated a beauty that couldn't even be dimmed by her ugly hospital uniform. Slightly didn't know much about himself, but he did know that he was incredibly attracted to this girl.
"Are you alright? Shall I call the doctor?"
Slightly forced his mouth shut and cleared his suddenly dry throat. "I'm fine."
When he continued to stare, the girl gave him a tentative smile. "Can I get you anything?"
Slightly gulped, wondering if it would be out of line to ask for a sponge bath. Probably. "Some water, maybe?"
"Sure. I'll have your nurse bring some in." The girl took her cart and started towards the door, but Slightly didn't want her to leave.
"Do they usually have such beautiful girls doing the dirty jobs?" Part of him wanted to slap himself for saying something so stupid, but the other parts were genuinely curious about how such a gem of a girl could be doing janitorial work. She paused and looked him over, then shrugged.
"It's not a dirty job, it's an educational job. I want to become a doctor, and this is one of the best ways to study them and get acclimated. Plus, I'm only sixteen. There aren't many other hospital jobs available to teenagers."
Slightly nodded. He had learned so much about her in just those few statements. It didn't escape him that she had ignored his remark about her being beautiful and had instead highlighted her intelligence.
"How long have you known that you wanted to become a doctor?"
"Five months and nine days."
Slightly couldn't be sure if she was joking or being serious, so he just nodded.
"I'm Lily, by the way," she said, extending her hand.
He took it, wishing his palms weren't so sweaty. "I'm Slightly. I think."
"Is that a nickname?"
"Apparently. I have retrograde amnesia. I don't really know who I am."
Lily raised her eyebrows in a playful way that made his heart beat faster. "Well, aren't you lucky?"
"Lucky?"
"You get to reinvent yourself. You can be whoever you want to be." Her tone was light, but he detected a seriousness in her eyes. Lily looked down and saw that their hands were still clasped. She withdrew her hand and stepped back.
"I'd better get back to my duties. It was nice to meet you, Slightly."
He tried to think of something clever or memorable to say, but she was gone too quickly. Slightly went back to his bed and smiled. He could be whoever he wanted. Perhaps his predicament wasn't so bad after all.