Hidden In Amish Country. Dana R. Lynn
“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 and soft.
Kurt stepped in before the silence could become uncomfortable. “She’s got amnesia or something. Can’t remember a thing. Her doctor popped in and said she may or may not remember everything.”
That was a lot of information to be giving a stranger. Ben might know Kurt, but he had no true connection with her. She frowned at her brother, trying to let him know to stop telling his friend about her.
A knock sounded on the door. She sighed, wishing to be alone with her thoughts to sort out what she had learned. Kurt opened it. From her position on the bed she could make out a dark blue uniform and a gold badge. Finally. The police had arrived. Maybe she could get some answers. Kurt swung the door wider. “Hey, Keith. Do you have some news about my sister’s accident?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do.” The officer entered the room.
Sadie sat up straighter. Kurt knew the officer, and the man hadn’t said anything when he’d named her as his sister. Which meant she was, indeed, Kurt’s stepsister. She noticed Kurt straightening his posture out of the corner of her eye as the officer approached her. She felt bad. To her, Kurt was someone she didn’t know, but to him, she was his sister. If only she could remember!
“Keith? What caused my sister’s accident?” Kurt’s question brought her back to the present.
“There was a small jagged hole in the brake line. You most likely tore the line by going over rocks or rough terrain too fast. The line could have been slowly dripping for weeks without your being aware. You might have noticed your brakes feeling mushy. Too many people wait too long before getting their brakes fixed.”
Kurt thanked the officer for his help. Sadie frowned. She had thought he would want to know what caused the accident, but she couldn’t help noticing that his expression was even grimmer than before. His friend, Ben, seemed to notice something was wrong, as well.
“Kurt, are you well?”
Ben’s voice was smooth and deep, unhurried with a slight accent. Not too noticeable, just somehow rounder than the speech she’d heard from others since she awoke.
Her brother glanced at her in a considering way. Then he apparently decided she needed to know what was going on.
“Sadie, you couldn’t have had a leak for a long time.” He drew in a deep breath. “You had the entire brake system, including the lines, replaced last week.”
She shivered, though his meaning wasn’t processing. “What are you trying to tell me?”
“This wasn’t an accident.”
“What do mean, it wasn’t an accident?” Her voice came out strained, like she had to squeeze each and every painful word out.
Kurt—she couldn’t think of him as her brother—gave her a look that was overflowing with sympathy. She was grateful he didn’t attempt to touch her again.
“Someone tried to hurt you. Someone deliberately made it so that your car would run out of brake fluid while you were driving.”
She shuddered. The fear and panic she had felt since awaking with no memory threatened to pull her under. Already she could feel the blackness dragging her down. She fought her way through it. The doctor had said that her memories might return.
The other man, Ben, shifted beside the bed. “If you feel your sister was in danger, shouldn’t you have told the police officer who just left? You knew him.”
That, she thought, was a valid question. Narrowing her eyes, she switched her eyes back to her stepbrother. He sighed, then he grabbed the chair and motioned for his friend to sit. While Ben cautiously settled himself, his eyes wary, Kurt strode to the other side of the room and pulled a second chair to the side of the bed. Sadie had the uncomfortable feeling that she was about to be interrogated.
“Okay, look, Sadie, I know you don’t remember me, but I need you trust me. Okay?”
She nodded. “I believe that you are who you say. I’m sorry. I just don’t remember anything!”
He sighed. “I know. I know. Look, the truth