The Glimpse of My Past

Diane’s P. O. V.

“Oh my God, Diane… you’re finally awake!” Mom burst out crying before she looked upwards.

“Oh, God! I couldn’t ask for more. Thank You for saving my daughter. Thank You so much!” Then, she stared back at me. My siblings also did the same thing, and it broke my heart to see them all crying.

“You’ve made me worry so much about you, Hija! I don’t know what to do anymore if something bad happens to you. Wait, is everything alright? Are you hurt somewhere? Is there anything wrong with you? Feel free to tell Mom here.”

My mom gently touched my face until her hands reached my shoulders, from which I twitched my lips. Her anxious expression made my tears run down my cheeks. I moved my head sideways, silently letting her know that I was suitably fine and she should not worry about me.

“Hey, don’t cry!” Mom wiped my tears from falling before she turned her attention to my brother.

“Dave, call the doctor. Hurry up!” She instructed Dave as she pushed something on my bed, adjusting it in a slant position. “Feeling better now?” she asked.

Now, I was comfortably seated in front of them without forcing myself to sit up. Then, I nodded at Mom.

On the other hand, my brother immediately obeyed her command and pressed something against the wall near the IV fluid stand. I was observing him through my peripheral vision. It was probably an intercom. David also rushed out of the room to personally call the doctor’s attention.

But why did Mom let me stay in a room like this? This one was so elegant and lavish. It looked like only those who were born with silver spoons could afford this palatial room. 

Oh, wait! How many days had I been sleeping here? We didn’t have the means to pay for this room, even for a day of stay, so how much more if I would stay here longer? Dad’s insurance would surely be consumed.

My youngest sister, Denise, threw herself on me, hugged me so tightly, and whined in between her tears. “We first thought that you would n-never wake up, big sis! You had been sleeping here for two weeks already.” And that answered my self-query.

But, for two weeks? How about my hospital bills?

“Are you already okay, sis? I thought that y-you would leave us too like what Dad did. The doctor mentioned before that you were in a state of c-coma, but I couldn’t fully understand what that means.” My baby sister was still sniffing while tears continued to roll down her cheeks.

“But I knew it! You will never allow that to happen. You will always return to us because you love me, and you will still braid my hair as you have always been doing. Also, you are a fighter, and you can’t afford to see me losing another family member at a very young age.” Denise buried her face on my chest, staining my white patient gown in the process.

Feeling weak and exhausted, I smilingly held her head, caressed her hair, and tried to hug her-even though I wasn’t able to do it entirely. My baby sister really knew me. She was right because I would do my best to fight for my life, and that was what I did.

But then, it was quite strange that Denise’s hair already reached her waist, and she seemed to have grown as well from the last time I saw her. It seemed like she was just a child yesterday, but now, she looked like a teenager. She even developed small boobs.

David appeared to have stood taller too when I saw him a while ago. He was even taller than me and looked mature.

I wanted to speak in order to calm and stop my baby sister from crying, but I felt drained. It was like my whole body just returned here after a long journey. My eyelids drooped as I panted heavily, prompting me to drift back to sleep.

That was when David came back in my room alongside a male doctor and a female nurse. Denise released her hug from me, politely took a seat at the foot of my hospital bed, and wiped her tears using her clothes.

The doctor reflected his medical penlight on my eyes-perhaps, to check if those were constricted or dilated. He looked so stoic when he checked my heartbeats.

Then, he briefly removed my bandage to probably examine if there could be any improvements on my head at all. On the other hand, the nurse took me various tests like temperature and blood pressure.

“Hi, I’m Dr. Ronrick Salvatore. Now, I want you to cooperate with me, okay? You suffered from hypothermia* before you fell into the state of coma. After what happened, you might have experienced a fuzzy memory or memory loss, so I’m here to ask you some random questions. Are we okay on that?” The doctor introduced himself, also revealing my condition.

I just nodded at him. If that would help me to recover quickly, then why wouldn’t I cooperate with him? He was a professional, and he knew better than me.

“Good, so first things first-how are you feeling right now? Are you hurt somewhere, or do you feel anything strange with regards to your body?” Dr. Salvatore asked while attentively looking at me.

“Hmm… my head, neck, and s-shoulders quite hurt, Doc,” I told him, but it was more of a whisper. I already got shortness of breath even though that was all I could utter.

“On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate the pain?”

“Hmm, eight.”

“Oh, it’s completely normal. I won’t expect that your injuries would immediately heal in as fast as two weeks. I’ll prescribe some pain relievers later, so you don’t have to worry.” Then, he paused before his eyes roamed at all of us here.

“And for everyone’s info, waking up from a coma in less than a month was already a miracle. Most of the patients woke up after a year,” the doctor stated before he motioned the nurse to disinfect my head wound and replace the old bandage.

For that, I silently thanked the Lord for showering me with an enormous miracle. He truly loved me, despite the fact that I questioned Him before about why a horrible thing had to happen to me.

“Okay, let’s proceed to the second phase-I want to know your name as well as your birthday and the things you still remembered right before the car accident,” Dr. Salvatore demanded to know.

He looked like he was only ahead of me for a few years. He might have been in his early thirties. He wasn’t smiling, but he wasn’t that serious either. He wasn’t intimidating too-probably the main features required for a male doctor.

“Di-Diane. Dayanara Clariz Rivera. I was born on May 12, 1987.” I answered him, although I was a little taken aback. I pressed my lips together as frustration, dread, and anxiety covered my heart.

“But, w-what car accident are you talking about?” I asked perplexedly, also glancing at Mom. “I-I don’t remember any car accident, Doc.” I continued as my chest moved up and down.

Disturbed by my own thoughts, I got bewildered by what the doctor was asking me. So, I got into a car accident? Was it the main reason why I ended up here, sustaining a head injury? How fatal was it?

Lost about what was happening around me, I closed my eyes while trying to recall the memories of the past events. My head just ached from intricately forcing myself to think.

But no matter what I did, I couldn’t remember what he was asking me. What I could remember was a fucking nightmare, and it was even worse than a car accident.

“Okay, Diane. It’s alright! You don’t have to push yourself towards your limits. Anyway, do you remember them?” I opened my eyes when the doctor asked me again. Dr. Salvatore was referring to my mom and two adorable siblings.

“Of course, Doc. Why would I even forget them? She’s my mom, and her name was Cecille, then, I have here my two younger siblings, David and Denise,” I replied, which earned a positive smile on my lips.

Anything about my family would make me delightfully beam. I was glad about seeing my complete family the moment I opened my eyes. At the same time, I was grateful that I didn’t leave them. They also smiled back at me and I could see the same glee on their faces because I was able to remember them.

“Great! So, how about them? Do you still remember them?” Dr. Salvatore was still throwing me questions that would help me dig my memory.

He showed me a picture of where I was in between a guy and a girl. The guy who was with us even had more makeup than the rest of us girls. On the other hand, the girl who was hugging me had ginger hair with rose-gold highlights on her strands.

While holding the photo, I nodded. The truth was I couldn’t remember them exactly, but they both looked so familiar to me. I closed my eyes for a moment, and that was when I grasped a swift memory with them…

“Hey, bitch! I’m just reminding you that you might have a story to tell, so any plans of disclosing it to us? My manicure would soon fade away, and here you are, still as tight-lipped as ever! Oh my God, stop acting like a teenager!” A bit of annoyance was present to my gay best friend’s tone because I was hanging them-silently mocking them for not talking so soon.

“It was a long story, but to cut it short… I only met him last Saturday night, then I gave him my sweetest ‘yes’ just this morning… in our house,” I told them while feeling the non-stop butterflies wobbling around my stomach.

Unconsciously, I touched my lips when I remembered the passionate kisses that the two of us shared this morning.

“What the fuck! What’s ‘long’ in there? Two days?” the two shrieked as they laughed out loud.

They even duet the same phrases, for Christ’s sake! I couldn’t do anything but roll my eyes in the process. I guessed that these two had the same brains.

Their laughter boomed across the whole classroom, and their blended voice was too raucous-it could even raise the dead. They even lifted their hands and uncontrollably did a high-five in the air.

While opening my eyes and cutting the memory, I successfully remembered their names. I stared at Dr. Salvatore in such astonishment. These two were my college best friends, but what really happened in that reminiscence? The question made me wrinkle my forehead.

Who was the man I cited there-to whom I had given my sweetest ‘yes’ in just a matter of two days?

_________________________

Hypothermia* is a medical emergency that occurs when your body loses heat faster than it can produce heat, causing a dangerously low body temperature. Normal body temperature is around 98. 6 °F (37 °C). Hypothermia occurs as your body temperature falls below 95 °F (35 °C).

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