Sadie, can you hear me?” a strange voice pleaded, over and over again.
Why wouldn’t he just be quiet? Her head was pounding with every word he uttered. Irritated, she dragged her eyelids open to confront the man who kept talking to her when she just wanted to rest. Two blurry figures stood beside her bed. That didn’t seem right. She blinked, and they wobbled before coalescing into one man. His messy brown hair and dark brown eyes gave her the impression of an excited puppy. He was obviously happy to see her.
But who was he?
Panic stirred inside her at the sudden realization that she had no memory of the man standing before her, a ridiculous grin stretched wide upon his face. He, however, obviously knew her.
“Who—who are you?” she gasped out, feeling like the panic was a steel band around her chest, making it difficult to take in a full breath of air.
His grin faltered and those brown eyes sharpened.
“Are you messing with me, Sadie?”
Sadie. The shock went through her. Her name was Sadie. The sound of the name was unfamiliar.
“My name is Sadie?”
The man’s formerly grinning mouth was now a grim frown. His brow was furrowed. Concern emanated from him.
“Your name is Sadie Ann Standings,” he began slowly, as if her ability to process information had disappeared along with her memory. She fought the urge to sigh in impatience. “My name is Kurt. Kurt Standings. I’m your brother.”
She’d forgotten her own brother?
“You’re my brother?” she blurted. She didn’t doubt him, but it was so much to take in at once.
He shrugged. “Stepbrother, but our parents have been married since we were both eight years old. When they married, my dad adopted you, gave you our last name. That was sixteen years ago.”
Which meant she was twenty-four. Why couldn’t she remember any of this? He reached out a hand to touch her shoulder. She jerked it away from him, then winced at the hurt on his face. Still, she was relieved when he didn’t try to touch her again. The thought of a stranger touching her so familiarly was disconcerting.
“Here,” he said, pulling his wallet from his back pocket and drawing out a picture. A young woman with light brown hair and a younger version of the man standing before her stood behind an older couple sitting on a couch, smiling at the camera. She glanced at it and then back at him, awaiting the explanation. He jabbed a finger at the young woman. “That’s you. This is your mom and my dad.”
She looked closer and saw a clear resemblance between the two women.
“Where are our parents?” Shouldn’t they have come the moment they heard she was in the hospital?
His face grew sober. “I’m sorry, Sadie. Dad and your mom, Hannah, were killed in a fire two years ago.”
The loss swamped her, even though the people he talked about were strangers.
“What was your father’s name?” she asked softly.
“Our father, Sadie. Your biological father was long gone. Our dad’s name was Tim.”
“Hannah and Tim,” she whispered to herself, wishing she could remember.
“Look, we need to get the doctor in here.” Kurt took the control near her bed and pressed the button.
Within minutes, a doctor and a nurse were in the room. The female doctor flashed a light in her eyes and asked her endless questions, most of which Sadie was unable to answer. She didn’t recall her family, where she went to school, anything about her job. She couldn’t even tell them what she had been doing when her car had crashed.
“You swerved to avoid colliding with an Amish buggy and hit a tree instead.” The doctor lifted her eyes from her laptop and slid her glasses up to rest on the top of her head. “The car was totaled, or so I hear. You’re very fortunate that no one else was hurt.”
Sadie detected a faint note of censure in the doctor’s voice but wasn’t sure why.
“I guess.” If only she could remember!
The doctor nodded. “You must have been going very fast to have hit the tree so hard.”
“What about my memories? Will they come back?” This total blankness was intolerable. She couldn’t imagine dealing with it for the rest of her life. A movement caught her attention. Kurt was frowning, his face disturbed. When he noticed her watching him, he smiled, but she could still see the strain in it.
The doctor’s expression softened. “There’s no way to know that. You may regain some memories, or you may regain all of them. In some instances, the amnesia is permanent. Your brother and your friends will undoubtedly be willing to help you fill in the missing memories.”
“Of course, we will, sis. Don’t you worry about it.”
Which was silly. Obviously, she would worry about it. It was somewhat unsettling to have someone of whom she had no recollection talking to her with such familiarity. She wondered vaguely if they had been close siblings.
As the doctor was leaving, another stranger entered the room. Sadie felt her eyes widen. This stranger was taller than Kurt, and his dress was very simple. Blue button-down shirt, dark trousers, sturdy brown boots. His hair was dark, and so were his eyes. The lower part of his face was covered with a beard. No mustache, though. She blinked at the sight of an Amish man standing in her hospital room. The beard signified that he was married, or at least she thought it did. Huh. It struck her as odd that she could remember how the Amish dressed, but that she couldn’t recall her own name.
“Ben!” Kurt strode to the door, astonishment stamped on his face. “What are you doing here?”
“Kurt. You know her?” He jerked the hand holding his hat toward where Sadie lay watching from the hospital bed. She could see the surprise in the rigidness of his posture.
“Know her? She’s my sister.” Kurt’s voice retained its puzzlement.
Ben, whoever he was, hadn’t said what he was doing there yet. Sadie listened avidly. Maybe he would have some details about what had happened to her. It was a rather desperate hope.
“Ah.” Ben shifted. His eyes sought out Sadie. He blinked when he saw her watching him. A slow smile, that reminded her of a sunrise, took over his face. She’d been so focused on the beard that she hadn’t noticed how gentle the deep brown eyes surrounded by several feathery laugh lines were. “It’s gut to see you awake. You crashed in front of my house. My neighbor and I pulled you from the car. I found this after you were gone.”
He pulled out a smartphone in a bright pink case and set it on the table beside her. It didn’t look familiar, but then, nothing really did.
“Thank you for bringing it. And thanks also for helping me,” she told him. “Do I know you?”
His thick eyebrows climbed up his forehead. “We’ve never met before.”
She liked the way he talked, slow
