12.

Thank goodness for good natured strangers, huh? Waking in a coffee shop with a massive headache and with no memory of who you are or how it is you came to be where it is you are, is certainly not an everyday occurrence. Add a nosebleed to that and one would be grateful when someone else is freely offering assistance.

Why is she helping him? What does she want from it? Is she somehow involved with what is happening to him? Has he always been a doubting Thomas? Has he always been suspicious? He may need to put these thoughts aside, these feelings aside, to perhaps move forwards as best he can.

The nosebleed which came Sander's way had not been a heavy one though it would be cause for concern given the circumstances he finds himself in. It didn't bleed all so long either so no immediate medical help was called for though Sander would stick to his agreement with coffee shop barista, Mandy. She had offered to take him somewhere to be looked at and with all things being what they are he will take her up on her offer. Perhaps she really is just a good Samaritan, someone who only wants to help.

On the two occasions Mandy brought Sander round, while he had been both sleeping and zoned out, she had used her words to snap him out of it. She had been fearful of touching anyone she does not know with not knowing how such a thing could be interpreted and or reacted to, though seeing how unsteady Sander is in his attempt to get to his feet, she had no problem aiding him as best she could out to her car.

Inviting a stranger into her car when it is only her and this stranger could at any other time be reason in itself to be fearful though on this occasion, Mandy feels quite comfortable in the fact that she is doing the right thing, a good thing. If she were to be in a similar situation to what he is in, or in any other situation that would require a helping hand, then it would be of some comfort knowing that someone would be willing to bring aid her way.

To the nearest hospital accident and emergency department it so is, and it doesn't take all so long to get there. It is about a quarter after four in the afternoon when trip comes complete, and it has been about three hours since Mandy first woke Sander though about ten minutes before the journey reaches its destination there is something that briefly catches Sander's attention.

With the car being stopped at a red-light, Sander sees something or rather someone from his position in the passenger seat of Mandy's Ford Focus. It is more than a someone who has caught his attention, it is three someone's. Together these three individuals walk along a footpath not all so far away.

Two male and one female, individually two of them may not completely stand out as they currently look and together, they most definitely do stick out. The female of the group is relatively young, late teens or early twenties perhaps, certainly younger than her companions. She wears a white and red dress, red running shoes and her hair and make-up are a bit of a mess, the same lady he had noticed passing the coffee store a couple hours or so earlier?

Seeing this lady twice in separate instances and within a short period of time almost feels as if it were more than something coincidental.

Out of the two companions the odd-looking lady has, one gentleman appears to be in his mid-thirties. He is tall, slim, bearded and wears a light grey suit. The other gentleman appears to be the oldest of the three by at least a couple of decades, he is shorter than both his companions and is also balding and wearing more casual clothing, clothing a little on the grubby side.

The three grouped individuals only distract Sander for the length of time that it takes the car he is in to get by the stop lights. Once the journey does continue, he really begins to feel grateful for the aid he is receiving, grateful to the point he feels the need to say something and from here it takes him a moment or two to express his gratitude.

'I really appreciate this, you know' he eventually gets to say. 'I don't know what I would be doing right now if you hadn't been around or hadn't been so good to me.'

'You are welcome; you will be right as rain before you know it.'

'I hope so. Honestly, I am scared of what might come but I feel kinda calm next to you too. Don't mean to freak you out or anything; it is just the way you speak and your presence. When you tell me I will be fine I can believe it. Thank you.'

'You will be fine, you'll see.'

Mandy finds parking at the hospital grounds and they both exit the car. Sander hoped she would at least accompany him on whatever may come but he did not want to expect anything. She'll at least escort him inside and this gives him reason to be hopeful, he fears the moment when she will leave him for then he will know no one, not even himself and he truly will be on his own.

At the accident and emergency area reception Sander, and Mandy for that matter, have absolutely no information to offer. Apart from a forename handwritten on a takeaway coffee cup there is no name to offer up, no date of birth can be told, and neither can a home address. Sander does not know his exact age; he can only make an approximate guess; he indeed does not know where it is he regularly lives and as we know can only guess a partial name.

There is no cause or reasoning he can offer up as to why he may be suffering memory loss. He cannot speculate as to if he suffers from stress or anything else which may be attributed to his current condition. He knows not of allergies, blood type and there are no ideas to a next of kin. There is no evidence of a physical trauma. He doesn't even know if he can pay for treatment, or a hospital stay though once he is seen by a doctor it is agreed that they will at least get him started on a possible road to recovery and anything after that can be discussed at a later date.

Sander is admitted and Mandy had stayed with him all the while he had waited from entering the hospital doors right through his triage, doctor consultations and examinations then to his full admittance. It is only when he does settle into a ward that she prepares to leave him.

'You are very good, thank you very much' he says already beginning to miss Mandy despite the fact she has yet to leave him.

'Look, you are very welcome. I believe what goes around comes around. If it is alright with you, I would like to come see you here tomorrow after my shift at the coffee store finishes. It would really bug me not knowing what happens next.'

'I would like that very much' probably more than she could know, 'not the you not knowing part, but knowing you will return'. He will still miss her company until such a point she does return.

'I have written my number here' she says handing him a piece of paper. 'I have seen plenty of pay phones so if anything changes then let me know or ask a nurse to call me.'

'You are too good to me Mandy; I must have done some good in my life to be worthy of being in your presence.'

She smiles, stands, and takes his hand before nodding. It is time for her to go home; safe in the knowledge her good deed is easily a deserved one. Before she can completely leave the ward Sander now knows as a place where he has a temporary residence, she witnesses somewhat of a ruckus. A woman, roughly in the same age bracket as perhaps to what Sander is in, and being in tow of two young children, is being led rather noisily to that ward Sander is now resting within.

Two nurses are showing this lady and two children to where Sander rests. She gives this fellow the once over and begins to cry. This saddens Mandy, and the sadness coming at her catches her off guard. If this woman is a relative of Sander's than Mandy should feel glad for this, but glad she is not.

'No ... I am sorry ... it's not him' speaks the visiting lady. 'I am sorry for the interruption ... let's get going guys' and she leaves as quickly as she had come.

One of the nurses explains what just occurred to Sander while Mandy makes an inquiry with the other nurse. Apparently, the lady with the children has lost her husband, not in the sense that he is dead rather it is more that the father of her children has been missing for a little over three months. A third nurse who is a friend of a friend of the incoming, now departing, lady made it known to her that a man had been admitted with memory loss, she couldn't help but come investigate in the hopes that maybe her husband had been found and that memory loss could explain his disappearance.

Sander is not her husband and oddly enough Sander is relieved by this fact. It would be nice if a loved one had arrived knowing who he is and being well able to fill in the gaps, but the presence of the lady and her children was frightening especially when they were coming near him and now, he can at least calm himself a little despite not being any closer to knowing himself in any way.

Mandy is also relieved. She doesn't return to Sander in this moment, for all going well she will see him again the next day. When Mandy does return, she returns with two hazelnut flavoured lattes both topped with chocolate shavings though she is stopped in her tracks before she can fully reach Sander for Sander has three visitors, not the woman with the two children but three others.

A woman and two men have come to see Sander and they appear to be having a full-on discussion. Who are they? What do they know? This is another visit that brings her dismay, but she will wait, for the time being at least, to see if they will leave anytime soon. Little can she know that these visitors are a group with whom Sander had taken notice of the day before while Mandy herself was bringing him to this hospital, and they each are suffering from the same affliction that he is.

Half hour passes before the visitors leave. Mandy gives it a further five minutes before she goes on in to see Sander.

'Hi' she says hopeful the information will be forth coming rather than her getting nothing or having to fish for information on what is going on. 'I brought you coffee, unfortunately it is as cold as your first coffee from yesterday' this in itself says all she needs to say.

'Thank you, once again. Hey, how in are you with all this?' he asks with hope, himself fishing for a certain response, something he probably isn't fully aware he is doing..

'What do you mean?'

'Is it only out if niceness that you have helped me, that you are helping me or are you in it until it reaches some sort of conclusion?'

'In it for the long haul if that is alright with you?'

'It very much so is alright, no matter what comes out of all this ... so ... I have got news; I presume you have seen my visitors?'

'I did, yes.'

'Well then you won't believe this. The lady who came in here yesterday hoping I was her husband, well one of my three visitors overhead her speaking. She told someone of a man in the hospital suffering from memory loss, so they felt compelled to come see me.'

'Alright?'

'Would you believe me if I told you they all woke up yesterday, all separately, and all also suffering from memory loss?'

'You are messing!'

'Nope, I am deadly serious.'

'So, they have just left? They are not undergoing any tests or anything?'

'No, not yet anyway, they reckon we are all connected somehow but they cannot find this out for sure if we are all test subjects in here.'

'You are joking me.'

'I am as serious as I have ever been ... well as serious as I can be at least.'

'So, what is next?'

'We will be keeping in touch, just a matter of seeing where all this goes from here. I guess if I improve in here then they all may admit themselves too, but we shall see.'

'Do you think there can be a connection?'

'Four people wake separately on the same day in the same town all with severe memory loss. There has to be something to it, no doubt about it.'