Going Insane by Tim Kizer

for a moment, and turned her face to him, taking the handkerchief away from her eyes that were full of tears. There was a mixed expression of sadness and surprise on her face.
    “My Lord, he’s going to be alright!” she almost wailed, letting her tears loose.
    “Mister Fowler,” Doctor Raynolds said. “Your sister-in-law is here. Can you speak now?”
    Frank looked at the doctor inquiringly and asked, “Who is she? Who is this woman?”
    Raynolds raised his eyebrows in slight amazement.
    Josephine? Sister-in-law? Josephine… Josephine… The name didn’t ring a bell at all.
    “Mister Fowler, your sister-in-law has come to visit you. Would you like to speak to her?”
    Josephine… Josephine… Josephine… Still nothing.
    “Frank, do you recognize me? Do you remember my name?” the woman asked with a tinge of hysteria in her voice. “Do you have a headache? How are you feeling?”
    Josephine… Frank… Yes, his name was Frank Fowler. He was sure of it now. The good doctor called him Mister Fowler. And Josephine called him Frank. Frank Fowler. Had he really forgotten his own name a while ago? Nonsense.
    So who the hell was Josephine? And what was he doing in the hospital? He must be in the hospital, right?
    “I’m okay. I can hear you very well, you don’t have to shout,” Frank murmured. He was mesmerized by these two names spinning in his mind: Frank, Josephine. Josephine, Frank. 
    Frank… Josephine… He didn’t know Josephine. And he still needed time to get used to his own name.  Frank Fowler. Not as cool as, say, Cassius Clay or Chuck Norris of course, but he could live with it.
    “We were all so worried about you.” Josephine took his hand, squeezed it, and gave him a significant look as if she was going to tell him a very big secret. Or as if they shared a mind blowing secret and were members of some underground society chartered to protect it.
    She kept squeezing his hand. Her grip seemed to have grown tighter, unless he was hallucinating that.
    Frank… Josephine… Frank and Josephine.
    “You were in a coma for thirty six hours, Frank. We all prayed for you,” the woman named Josephine went on. “How are you feeling, Frank? Please, say something.”
    Who was she? She was his sister-in-law, according to Doctor Raynolds.
    “I have no idea who are you, Josephine.” Frank disconnected himself from his surroundings and dove into his memory where this damn name, Josephine, had to be stored. He scanned the name index inside his head as thoroughly as he could and came up empty.  It was as though all memories of his sister-in-law were buried under a skyscraper the size of the Empire State Building, and Frank was unable to budge this monster and look what it was hiding underneath it.
    Frank Fowler and Josephine. Josephine was Frank’s sister-in-law. She was Frank’s wife’s sister. Frank did not remember he was married either. What was his wife’s name?
    “It appears Frank can’t recognize you, Missis Buckhaus,” said Doctor Raynolds. “He doesn’t remember you, I’m afraid.”
     
    4.
    Frank really couldn’t recognize Josephine. Her face was completely strange to him. He saw that woman for the first time in his life.
    “Why?” asked Josephine in a concerned voice. Her eyes shifted from Raynolds to Frank and then back to the doctor. “How could he forget me? We just spoke two days ago.” She sounded indignant now. “What does all this mean, Doctor?”
    Raynolds frowned but remained silent. He probably believed that frowning made him look empathetic and cerebral. 
    Josephine Buckhaus… Okay, enough memory trawling; this name had vanished into thin air. He would just accept that Josephine Buckhaus, a woman in her mid-forties, was his sister-in-law. He saw this lady for the first time in his life today, but he had talked to her only a couple of days ago, if she was telling the truth. He must have lost his mind.
    “What do you mean he doesn’t remember me?” asked the woman.