I snorted at his comment. Nothing the other doctor did surprised me anymore.
"Now. I am not sure if you know this. But you were hit by a car a month ago and have been in a coma ever since. The good news is that your arm and leg only need a cast for a few more weeks. The bad news is that your ribs, while healing, will still probably be a bit tender for a while longer."
I nodded my head at his report. It made sense that if I had been hit by a car, I would be feeling it for a while.
"The other doctor said that I was in City A?" I asked tentatively, hoping beyond hope that he would laugh at that and assure me that there was no such city.
"You don't remember where you are?" replied Chocolate and Peppermint with a question of his own. "There is a note about that in your file, but you also demanded morphine…" He paused as he flipped through the notes on his clipboard.
"It seems like my memories are… weird," I answered. "I remember my name… Tian Mu, but not much else."
I would have to play dumb until I could figure out what was going on. Nothing made sense, and I needed answers more than I needed more questions.
"Your name is Wang Tian Mu," said the doctor, putting his clipboard on the bed beside me. "You are currently at the General Hospital in City A. It is one of the best hospitals in the country. You were originally at a hospital in your hometown, but they didn't have the means to be able to look after you."
"And where is my hometown?" I asked, cocking my head to the side. This guy was exactly my type. I wonder if I could get his number before I left. Hopefully I lived close to here.
"City D," he answered.
Nope. Never heard of that place either. For fucks sake. Was there a whole country that did nothing but name their cities after letters? And how did I not know about it sooner?
"Okay," I nodded my head like everything he was saying made sense. "Is that far?"
"It's about a good five to six-hour drive from here," he admitted. Welp, there went me asking him out.
"Okay," I replied, nodding my head. This place, City A, must be the capital, and I lived in a different city. Got it. "And I was hit by a car?"
"You were. You were crossing the street in front of your school, and the driver didn't see you," said the doctor as he looked into my eyes. He didn't cringe at my different colored eyes; that was definitely a point in his favor.
But school? I had been out of school for six years. How could I be hit in front of it?
"What grade am I in?" I asked, taking in a deep breath. Whatever he was going to tell me next was probably going to change my world as I knew it.
"It was your first day of Grade 1," smiled the doctor, like he didn't just tilt my world on its axis. Grade 1?!?
"How old am I?"
"You turned six a week ago. Happy belated birthday, Princess."
-----
Chocolate and Peppermint left after dropping that bomb on me, and I quickly scrambled out of bed as best I could with my IV still attached to the top of my hand and a catheter in parts that I will not mention.
I didn't care about the alarms being set off by the patient monitor as I removed all the sensors; I needed to find out what was going on. Hooking the bag with attached to the catheter to the IV pole, I wheeled the whole thing to the attached bathroom.
It only took a few steps to realize that this was probably not one of my better ideas. My knees were about to give out, and I probably shouldn't be walking on the cast on my leg, but doctors were notoriously bad patients, so I brushed it off. I was more worried about the fact that I was supposed to be six years old.
Entering the bathroom, I turned on the light and stared at myself in the mirror.
The world tilted at my reflection, and I ended up putting more weight on my cast than I probably should have, but my eyes were the only thing I recognized about myself in the mirror.
Even then, my eyes were so much bigger than before. But my left eye was a startling shade of blue, while my right eye was brown. As much as it might have freaked a lot of people out to see it, it made me that much steadier.
My eyes told me that I was looking at myself in the mirror.
A much shorter, childish version of myself. But it was me, nonetheless. My hair hung down like a doll's, the greasy roots telling me that it had been a while since my last shower. But my cheeks were plumper than I remembered, and it looked like I was missing one of my front teeth.
I closed my eyes, praying to whatever god was listening that when I opened them again, I would be 25, but this was a version of Freaky Friday that I never saw coming.
Doctor Chocolate and Peppermint wasn't kidding. I really was six years old.
Fuck my life.
I turned around, not needing (or able to) use the bathroom until the catheter came out, and slowly made my way back into the bed.
I had no idea how this happened, but I clearly was in a different body than the last one.
So much for getting the doctor's number after this. If I had asked, he definitely would have looked at me weirdly for sure.
I had just crawled into bed when the door to my room opened, and a middle-aged woman walked in, holding a paper cup of coffee in her hand.
"Mom?" I asked, my voice breaking at the sight of the woman. I hadn't seen her in seven years, and even then, it had been a much longer time since I had seen her so young.
"Tang Tang?" she gasped, almost dropping her cup of hospital coffee as she rushed over to the bed. "My baby is awake. How do you feel? Are you in any pain? Should I get the doctor? Or a nurse?"
"I'd settle for some water to drink," I stuttered, my eyes never leaving the woman in front of me. Could I have gone back in time? Before the fire?
But no, even if I had gone back in time, we would still have been in Toronto.
Either way. It didn't matter. I had my mom back in my life, and that was all that mattered.
"Mommy!" I shouted as loud as I could before bursting out crying. I wanted my mommy.