Three Minute Clock

Jamie woke up one morning under the face of a man in his twenties who wore a blue gown and a mask, his clothes covered in blood. He had plastic gloves on, which were even more bloodied than his clothes. Jamie found himself looking over to his mother, who had long blonde hair. She had a very calm, gentle smile that held behind it the burden of being a parent, and the stress that would probably wear down on her tomorrow, but for now she wanted to look calm in front of her son. She looked exhausted, especially considering she still had to work two jobs. The wages were low where she lived and she was always worried about supporting a child here.

Next Jamie saw his father looking down, with thick gray hair that had long stripes of white and brown as if his head was once lit up with fire but now all that remained were scars and ashes. He had a scratchy beard that wrapped around his whole face the way those muscular men in ads aimed at other men have it, and his eyes were glowing red from the morning sun that peeked through the window. He looked big and scary, and somehow distant. He didn't get up to hug Jamie.

Words were spoken by the doctor, but Jamie couldn't understand them. They seemed muffled and choked. His parents responded lightly and softly in the same way, and then Jamie was taken out of the room. He couldn't remember anything, why he was there in the hospital or even what a hospital was. It all felt so unfamiliar to him. Why was the man taking him away so stressed?

Lights passed by overhead, and Jamie watched the pretty colors fall by. He saw red and blue and green, and the occasional nurses passing by in their uniforms. Everyone seemed so very stressed, and he knew his parents would be the same way while he was gone. The doctor looked down and saw Jamie looking around in a curious manner, and smiled down at him caringly. It was almost soothing. But he wouldn't be distracted, Jamie had to know why he was there. He thought about it for a long time.

Something flashed in his head. He felt his breath slow down as he tried to remember whatever thought had just passed him. He heard the doctor above him start rushing somewhere as he looked down at Jamie, his face changing into a look of concern. The doctor started shouting out what seemed like random syllables, and as Jamie started to piece together the words he realized he had forgotten something very important he needed to do, but it didn't matter as long as he could figure out what the doctor was saying to the nurse who had just stopped by to help.

"...Patient...not...accident..." was all he could catch at the moment. The doctor started running, bringing Jamie along in front of him. Jamie could feel some sort of constricting pain on his stomach, tightening up and emptying, like he was about to vomit but had forgotten how. Hadn't he forgotten something...

"...Not breathing... He has severe memory loss... You need to get..." Memory loss... Jamie looked down at his hands. His scarred, tanned, aging hands. No, this wasn't right. Jamie was just born. This didn't make sense. How could Jamie have just woken up with no memories and be just about to die?

"Get the sheets... Just in case... I'm not gonna let this one die on me yet... Can't let anyone else..." So I’m just a number to you? Jamie tried to say, but he couldn't speak. His throat was too dry. In fact, it didn't seem as if he'd remembered to breathe. It didn't seem that he knew how.

This is the point, he thought, when characters in a movie would look back upon their life. Jamie had three minutes to look back upon. He saw things start to get a little fuzzy and tried to remember how old he was, or what his last name was, or anything at all that he could cling to before he died. But all his efforts were worthless. His hands looked like those of a 40 year old, but that could have just been a rough childhood. And it makes sense now, that he could remember so much about that woman from the other room just by looking at her. She had blonde hair... Was it blonde or was it brown? How strange... He felt his body start to tremble for some reason... What a pitiful death for a pitiful three minute old man, who had his entire life stolen by himself.