Kate

I'd never seen this woman before until she walked into my room. I sit propped up in my bed, my hospital bed. I'm wearing one of those blue hospital dresses. I sit up trying to make myself comfortable when I notice them. I have numerous tubes running into my arms, they're IV tubes I think. The tubes feel are cold ice to my veins and I'm cold. I pull up the bed sheet but it's thin and offers little warmth.

"Hi," The woman says, I really notice her now. I think maybe I was trying to avoid confronting this woman, but I'm not really sure. The first thing about her I notice is her glimmering eyes. They're green, a light green that radiates from her. Her hair is red, a deep smoke red. It might have been dyed but something about it screams, natural. It lines its way down her head in soft fine strands, coming to a stop at her shoulders. She's wearing slim-fit jeans and a tight green tee.

She seemed really weary when she walked in, and that nervous energy seemed to transfer to me, but now she seems a little more relaxed and so am I. Just as I begin to feel at ease I get a chill run down my spin. So I try to pull up the sheet even more, but it won't budge.

"Oh, I can fix that," She says, walking forward towards my bed. She bends down and adjusts something at the end of my bed, "There ya go." And just like that the sheets free to come as far up as I'd like it.

"Thanks," I horse. It's barely audible, and it takes her a second to register what I tried to say. " Who are you?" I choke out the question with out even thinking about whether I wanted to ask it or not, or whether or not it was even a good idea to ask it.

"I'm…" The woman looks away, down at the ground and she takes a noticeably large breath.

"What is your name?" I press. I'm getting impatient and I don't even know why. I barely have enough energy to sit up. Theirs no use in getting worked up. A tear rolls down her cheek, she purses her lips together in what looks to be something between frustration and depression. Never the less she decides to tell me.

"Kate. My name is Kate Bound, and your name is Mark, Mark Bound." What! How can she know my name? Who is this woman, who is… Kate? Most importantly why does she have the same last name as me? Surely it's a coincidence, but that doesn't make since. If it's a coincidence then why would she have mentioned it like it was a big deal, or at least in a way that she know would grab my attention.

"Bound?" I ask. I made sure to ask in a calm and collected way.

"Yeah, Bound," She doesn't bother to look at me as she speaks, but all at once she forces her self up, to look into my eyes and its very evident that its hard for her to look my in the eyes. "Mark, I'm your daughter."

"What? Your not my daughter!" I look her straight in her eyes as I say it… and I the second I say it know I might be wrong. She bursts into tears, and storms out of the room sobbing. Don't understand what I did though? I don't have a daughter. So logically she is not my daughter, but if she's not my daughter then why would she tell me she was. And even if it was some weird joke there's no way anyone could have exploded into tears like that if they weren't real.

I sit in my bed for what to me feels like days, but by the clock on the wall I can tell its about eight hours. Then finally she comes back in.

"Hey Dad," she walks in and is very timid this time.

"Your not my daughter, I don't know that you are, I don't remember you being my daughter," I don't speak back with anger but I'm finding it hard to stay calm and collected.

"Of course you don't remember," she cries to herself.

"Why wouldn't I?" I ask, intrigued by her comment. She looks up at me again, and her eyes are stinging with tears.

"It was twenty years ago, Elizabeth, your wife… My mom, went into labor with me soon after you arrived home from work. You were driving her to the North York hospital but when you went to pull of the high way your breaks failed and you went crashing into a barrier, head first. They estimate you were going about sixty miles per hour when you crashed," She has to pause to collect herself, "From that crash you slipped into a coma, the one from which you just woke up… you were in it for over twenty years. The medics took Elizabeth to the hospital," She's weeping now, and her breaths come out in chunks, "Mark… Dad… She died… Giving birth to me!" She practically screams out her tears, "I'm sorry, but I have to go, Dad." Then with out a moment to spare, without a chance for me to say one last word, without a chance to call her my daughter she walks out the door leaving me alone and confused.

This much I know, or at least am choosing to believe. I, Mark Bound was married. I have a Daughter named, Kate. I got into a car accident putting me in a coma. My wife died giving birth to Kate just after the accident. I've been in a coma for over twenty years, and I remember none of this. Nothing at all, not the slightest trace of a memory is there. I feel as if my mind is blank. Like a new born baby, only I have my motor controls, I'm a fully developed adult male. However I have no memories to this woman, Kate, my daughter walking into my hospital room. It's really scary but at the same time, there's nothing I can do about it. I must just learn to accept this and live with it.