WIDE AWAKE Teaser

          "Andrew," I said slowly, "I don't know you. I don't remember anything about you or us or anyone else. I am not lying or playing around or trying to trick anyone. Someone ran me over with their car," he flinched, but I kept going, "and left me there to die. Why would I ever lie about something that was so close to taking my life away." I felt my breath hitch. "No, scratch that, they actually did take my life away. The only life I knew, and now I'm stuck in a body I don't know with people around me I've never seen before."

          I felt out of breath from my speech. I gripped my forehead in my fingers. I could feel my pulse beating under my fingertips. I felt strange.

          He was stunned, I could tell, but he came forward and leaned down to see my eyes. "Are you OK, babe? You look green? Do I need to get your man-nurse?"

          "No," I said in irritation. "He's not a man-nurse. Mason is my therapist and he's helping me so I can be normal again."

          "You're normal," he said with a condescending laugh.

          It hit me. This was the chance to send this guy that I no longer had the capacity to care for packing. "Andrew, I'm not normal. Do you understand the extent of my…damage?" I said bitterly.

          "You…" he floundered. It made me angrier. "You don't remember anything. I get it-"

          "You don't get anything!" I yelled. "I can't walk! I can barely feed myself. I can't hold my hand up for more than seconds at the time. I can't even go to the bathroom by myself, Andrew. I am not normal."