Dr. Roberts looked like a nice man to me. He was a little over six feet tall and had light brown hair and dark brown eyes. He looked about forty years old to me. He had some scars on his face and his nose looked kind of crooked. “Hi, nice to meet you.” I said to him with a small smile. I wanted to seem friendly.
“Same to you.” he replied. “Be right back.” He walked over to my mom and told her something and came back over to me.
“Your mother said that she was going to go shopping while you are here today.” he told me, “Now come on back here to my office.” I followed him back until we reached a door that said. ‘Dr. Gary Roberts’s Office’. He opened the door and we went in. His office wasn’t big but it wasn’t small either. It seemed like the perfect size. Inside was his desk, a computer, and a couch and two chairs. There wasn’t much, but I didn’t remember if there was suppose to be. Most of the light in the room was coming in through the one and only window.
“Take a seat.” he said pointing to the couch. He sat down in the chair across from me. “Now, you have amnesia, is that correct?”
“From what I can remember, yes I do, sir.” I told him obviously.
“Okay, well let’s cut right to the chase.” He said, “I want to help you get your memory back as soon as possible.”
“Thank you, doctor.” I told him, “It would be great to remember things again. Its hard not knowing who anyone is. Not knowing what I’ve accomplished in life, if anything. I want to remember my past again.” I said sadly.
“Trust me when I tell you, I know how you feel.” he said sympathetically. “I had amnesia before, too. Back when I played ice hockey guys would be getting hurt all the time. Broken noses, concussions, getting your teeth knocked out were just a few ways. Heck it could all happen to anybody, as a matter of fact all three of those happened to me.” That explains the crooked nose, I thought. He continued, “The concussion led to amnesia in some cases and that’s how it was for me. It was terrible. I didn’t remember my friends, my team mates, my family, or even myself. I was taken to a doctor, like myself, to help me regain my memory. The man was a genius. It took about a week of appointments with him and I had remembered everything again. He was the one who inspired me to become a doctor and help amnesia victims. So what I’m basically trying to say is, I will try my very best to help you.” He smiled at me. I could see where he had some teeth chipped.
“Thank you, Dr. Roberts,” I said to him smiling. “That’s really,” I paused thinking of the right word to use, “really inspiring.” He smiled.
“Now let’s get started .” He said seriously. “Did you bring your cell phone?”
“Yeah.” I said and pulled out my orange enV and handed it to him. He opened it up and looked through my pictures.
“Oh, so you’re a hockey fan?” he asked me and showed me a picture taken at a game. I didn’t recognize it, obviously.
“I have no idea actually.” I said sadly.
“Well, when I’m done with you and you remember if you are or not, I’ll take you to a game. That is if you are a fan. By the looks of these pictures you are.” He laughed and showed me the many hockey pictures I had. I laughed too. Was I that obsessed?
After he had gone through all of the many photos and showed me some, asking if I thought they were familiar, which I didn’t except for a few of myself and my family, we then went to my contacts.
“Well you sure had a lot of people to talk to.” he said laughing. I had one hundred and fifty seven people in my contacts. I hoped I would remember some of them. He had named some of the people, asking if I could picture any of them. Some of the names sounded vaguely familiar but I couldn’t picture anyone except my parents, sisters, and a few of my best friends that had come to visit me after they found out I had amnesia. It hurt to see them. They were so upset and worried about me so much, but I couldn’t tell you their names if my life depended on it. It was hard.
After a few more things Dr. Roberts had me do that didn’t help much, he told me that I could do the walk-around method.
“And that is?” I asked him.
“Well, basically, you walk around town alone.” He said simply. I gave him a confused look.
“Is that, safe?” I asked him.
“Trust me, you’ll be fine.” He assured me. “It really helps. It gets you thinking. You walk around L.A. not knowing where to go, you have to think about what you’re doing, where you’re going, and by doing a lot of thinking, it brings back parts of your memory.”
“Okay…” I said still unsure of this.
“Here is one hundred dollars,” he said handing me ten, ten dollar bills from his wallet, “but anything you want. Walk around for a few hours and then go back to your hotel. I put my number in your phone in case you need anything and you can call your mother too.”
“Alright, thank you.” I said putting the money in my pocket.
“No problem. Now get going.” he said smiling. He walked me to the door. “Remember, call if you need anything.”
“I’ll try,” I said still unsure if I would be able to remember anything. I looked at my phone once I was out in the California sun. Ten-thirty am. Los Angeles, here I come.
