Michael sat on the bed staring at his aunt. He looked at her hard but he didn’t have any recollection of who she was or whether she really was his aunt.

The fact that his parents had died in a car crash was shocking but he didn’t have any memory of them so the loss didn’t feel as great as it was meant to.  His aunt was quiet for a moment, staring at the ground not looking him in the eye.

Finally she looked up, Michael saw her eyes were wet and realised she had been trying not to cry.

“Your mum…my sister, Marie, named me as your next of kin.” Her voice sounded cracked and she was trying hard not to cry.  Michael could only sit and listen to her.

“So I’m sure you’re tired and you don’t want to listen to an old lady like me talking.” Michael wasn’t sure that she was older than 25, if she was she didn’t look it. “I’ll leave you to get some rest, I’ll be back later with George, my husband, your uncle.  The doctor is outside I’m going to talk to him to see when you will be ready to go home. Um…this button,” she walked towards him and picked up a long cylindrical object with a button on top, “just press it to call the nurse for anything. Do you need anything now?”

Michael assured her that he was fine and didn’t need anything and she left him to think about all she had told him.  He and his parents were in a car accident, he was the sole survivor and she was his aunt. She was called…he thought hard but couldn’t remember if she had said what her name was. His mum’s name was Marie, his aunt’s husband was called George and he was in hospital recovering from the accident.

All this he could process but anything past that he could not remember.  He didn’t know who he was, why he and his parents were in a car, what he was doing, or meant to be doing.  He stared at the white walls around him and the beds, the covers the pillows, how was it he could remember what these objects were called but not remember his own parents, their names or even their faces!

He was getting confused and upset, he lay down and pulled the white sheets over his head. He stared at the whiteness around him, this is what my head must be like he thought. Like a white sheet had been pulled over his eyes and he could only now fill it with new information and anything behind the sheet was stuck there, frozen forever in a place he could not reach.