Page 68 of The Lies I Told
“So the same dream.”
“Yes.”
“Any memories?”
I thought about the smoothed bed comforter. If that had been a memory, I didn’t want to share it. “No.”
“And no alcohol, correct?”
“That’s right.” Two sips of beer still weren’t enough to check theyesbox.
The doctor removed a small penlight, clicked it on, and moved in front of me. She flashed the light back and forth, turned my head from side to side, and then inspected the spot on the side of my head where she’d made her incision two months ago. “How do you like the short hair?”
“Okay once I had a hairdresser even it out and the bald spots filled in. I keep thinking more hair should be there.”
“I wish I could’ve saved it.”
“Better my brain,” I said.
“When you were first brought in, you were terrified. Do you remember that?”
“A car accident will do that, won’t it?”
“This was different. You thought someone was chasing you.”
Chasing me.My mind flipped back to sitting in a booth. There was a nearly full cola in front of me. My head was heavy, my vision blurring.
“You okay?” Dr.Webster asked. “Got a far-off look.”
“Hazard of being an artist,” I joked. “Our minds drift.”
“Where’d it go?”
“What does it matter?”
“I want to make sure you can articulate your thoughts.”
“Thinking back to a time when I was in a bar. I felt drunk, confused.” Hearing the words made it all feel uglier and dirtier. And then more hopefully: “Not a first for me.”
“Do you think it happened prior to the accident?”
“I don’t know. Past and present memories mingle these days.”
Dr.Webster’s gaze softened as she clicked off the penlight and pushed it in her pocket. “Something trigger this thought?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you remember the incident?”
Incident.Made it sound like a line item in a report. “No.”
“When did this happen?”
“Like I said, the details are fuzzy. It could’ve been years ago.” I sighed. “Brit says the paramedics thought I was on drugs.”
“Toxicology screens weren’t run until after your surgery. They found nothing.”
“I wasn’t using.”
