Restart by Gordon Korman Chap. 1 p.1-12 – Transcript

00:05restart by gordon korman four levels teen center a create net public library chapter one chase Ambrose I remember falling at least I think I do or maybe that's just because I know I felt the grass is far away until it isn't anymore somebody screams wait it's me i brace for impact but it never comes instead

00:31everything just stops the Sun goes out the world around me disappears I'm being shut down like a machine just this mean I'm dead blank the light is harsh fluorescent and painful I squeeze my eyes shut but I can't keep it out it's an explosion voices are babbling all around me you can't mistake the excitement he's awake get the doctor

00:55they said he'd never Oh chase doctor I tried to make out who's there but the light is killing me I thrash around blinking wildly everything hurts especially my neck and left shoulder blurry images come into focus people standing and sitting in chairs I'm lying down a sheet over me white which makes the brightness even worse I raise my hands to cover my face and suddenly I'm

01:22tangled in wires and tubing a clip of my finger is tethered to a beeping machine next to my bed an IV bag hangs from a pole above it thank God the lady beside me is choked with emotion I can see her better now long brown hair dark trimmed glasses when we found you lying there the soul she could manage before she breaks down crying a much younger guy puts an arm around her a white coated doctor burst

01:49into the room welcome back Jace he exclaims picking up a chart from a clipboard at the foot of my bed how do you feel how do I feel like I've been punched and kicked over every inch in my body but that's not the worst part how am I supposed to feel when nothing makes sense where am I I demand I am in a hospital who are these people the lady

02:14with the glasses gasps chase honey she says in a nervous voice it's me Mom mom doesn't she think I know my own mother I've never seen you before my life I bluster my mother is my mother is and that's when it happens I reach back for an image of mom and come up totally empty dude Oh dad or home or friends or school

02:39or anything it's the craziest feeling I remember how to remember but when I actually tried to do it I'm a black I'm like a computer with its hard drive wiped clean you can reboot it on the operating system works fine but when you look for a document or a file to open nothing's there not even my own name am i chase I asked while my other question sent murmurs of

03:05shock around my hospital bed this one is greeted with silent resignation my eyes fall on the chart that in the doctors hands on the back of the clipboard is written Ambrose chase Who am I a mirror i exclaim somebody give me a mirror perhaps you're not ready for that the doctor says in a soothing tone the last thing I'm in the mood for is to be soothed a mirror I snap the lady who calls herself mom fumbles inside her

03:33pocketbook and hands me a makeup compact I open it up blow away the loose powder and stare at my reflection a stranger stares back at me amnesia that's what dr. Koopman says I have acute retrograde amnesia the loss of all memory prior to a certain event in this case me taking a swan dive off the roof of our house I know what amnesia is I tell him so how

04:00come I remember a random word like that but I can't remember my own name or him own family or why I was climbing on the roof that I can answer supplies the younger guy who turns out to my be my older brother Johnny a college student home for the summer your room has that dormer window you just opened it up and crawl out into the eaves you've been doing it as long as I can remember and did anybody warn me I

04:25might break my neck only since you were what six my mother puts in I figured if she's five this long it was time to stop worrying you were such an athlete her voice trails off and Nisha can be an unpredictable thing the doctor informs us especially with a traumatic injury like with this one we're just starting to understand which parts of the brain control which life functions but for all we know it has nothing to do with

04:51geography some patients lose longtime memory some lose short-term memory others lose the ability to transfer from short-term to long-term in your case the damage needs to be totally confined to your sense of who you are and what's happened in your life up to this point lucky me I say bitterly Cooperman raises an eyebrow don't knock it do you remember more than you realize you can walk and talk and swallow and go

05:18to the bathroom how'd you like to have to relearn everything even how to put one foot in front of the other the bathroom part is definitely an upgrade they say I was in a coma for four days before I woke up I can't say how the bathroom side of things was taken care of during that time but I'm pretty sure I had nothing to do with it maybe I'm better off not knowing the doctor checks a few readings on my monitor making notes on my chart and in

05:44regards me intently are you absolutely certain you can't remember anything at all from your life before you regain consciousness once again I peer back into the nothingness that's where my memory is supposed to be it's like you're reaching into a pocket for something that should be there but isn't only that something isn't keys or a phone it's your whole life it's bewildering and frustrating and terrifying at the same time try harder I

06:12push myself you didn't just whoosh into being when you came out of that coma you're in there somewhere a vague image starts to form so I bear down concentrating with all my might trying to wrestle it its focus what is it Johnny asked breathlessly as the detail sharpened to view I see a little girl maybe four years old wearing a blue dress with white lace she seems to be

06:38standing in some kind of garden at least she's surrounded by greenery well there's this girl I began struggling to keep the picture in my head girl cool from interns to my mother does chase have a girlfriend I don't think so mom replies it isn't like that I insist this is a little kid Helene my mother asks the name means nothing to me

07:03who's Helene dad's kid Johnny supplies our half-sister dad sister I searched for a connection between these words and the memories they should trigger my mind is a black hole there might be a lot in there but I can't get out but the two of them closed Cooperman choirs mom makes a face doctor after the accident my ex-husband came to shout and

07:29accuse and punch the emergency room wall have you seen him here since then well his son lays in a coma that should give you an idea of the relationship between my boys and their father and his new family I don't know any Helene I volunteer but you can't go by me because I don't know anybody this is just a little blonde girl in a blue dress with white lace kind of dressed up like maybe she's going to church or something but why I remember her and nothing else I

07:56can't tell you definitely not Helene mom concludes she is dark hair like her mother I turn to the doctor am I just crazy of course not he replies in fact this little blond girl suggests that your memory isn't gone at all it's only your ability to access it that's been damaged I believe that you're missing life we'll come back to you or at least some of it will this girl might be the key I want

08:23you to keep thinking about her who she is and why is she so important to you that you remember her when everything else has disappeared I honestly tried but there are too many other things going on now that I'm not dead the hospital suddenly in a big hurry to get me out of there doctor Cooperman runs two tests on every part of me except my left earlobe turns out my brain may be short-circuited but the rest of me still

08:47works so how come I a call over muscular this is diagnosis from the full floor or should I say he chuckles at his own joke the sudden stop at the bottom every muscle from nose to toes tenses up from that kind of shock tack on 96 hours of complete inactivity and you stiffen all over it's normal it'll pass my only real injuries are a concussion and a separated left shoulder

09:14turns out my bad diving form saved my life my shoulder hit the ground a split second before my head I'm absorbing just enough of my hard landing to get the impact from killing me mom Springs clothes for me to change into I suppose I shouldn't be so blown away that they fit they're my clothes after all but of course they're new to me I can't help wondering if I have a favorite shirt or a super broken-in pair

09:39of jeans I don't remember the car either a Chevy van or the house I take the opportunity to fill in a few blanks about myself I am NOT the child of millionaires I have no great love of cutting the grass or maybe that one's on Johnny I've got an excuse I've been in a coma I note the window I must have climbed at him since it's the only one with roof access for some reason I expected it to be higher and I'm

10:05embarrassed like it's an insult to my manliness that's such a puny full scrambled my brains when mom opens the door of course the voices cry out surprise a makeshift banner hangs across the living room welcome home champ a heavyset man about mom's age steps forward and folds me in a crushing bear hug and rubbles knuckles up and down in my head good to have you back son mom is

10:31horrified stop it Frank he has a concussion the man my father lets me go but he's defiant Ambrose men can take a few licks Tina you're talking about an old country running back all X all county running back dad John men's you heard the doctor chase can't play football this season don't be doctor my father snorts what does he weigh 140 soaking wet he faced

10:56his mom don't turn him into a wimp like you did with Johnny thanks that means a lot my brother says dryly why are you here Frank my mother is quickly losing patience how many times have I asked you not to use your key anymore this is not your house and it hasn't been for a long while I pay the mortgage on this place he growls what once the cloudless from its face and he's grinning besides we had to be here to welcome home the conquering hero

11:24falling off the roof doesn't make me a hero I'm humble I can't put my finger on it there's something about my dad that makes me nervous it isn't physical in fact for a middle-aged guy he's pretty energetic and spry despite the paunch in the thinning hair his smile is totally overpowering to see him is to want to like him maybe that's the problem I decide he's too confident then he's welcome everywhere and going by mom he isn't not here anyway he's

11:51brought his new family a wife named Corrine who doesn't look much older than Johnny and Helene my four-year-old half-sister mom was right Elena's definitely not the girl in the blue dress it's no big deal I guess but I'm disappointed I was kind of hoping for one thing in my life to be connected to reality although I'm meeting them for the first time I have to remind myself they already know me for some reason they don't seem to like me very much

12:17Corrine hangs back and little kid seems firmly attached to her mom's skirt they look at me like I'm a time bomb about to go off in their faces what did I ever do to them my father seems to be settling in for a long visit but mom's having none of that he has to rest Frank she says doctor's orders what he's chopping wood he's resting alone she insists in his room where it's quiet

12:43he sighs answered a picnic that's what you are he hugs me again squeezing slightly less this time great to have you back champ sorry it couldn't be more of a celebration but nurse killjoy over there he inclined his head in my mother's direction I stick up for her a little she's right about the doctor he said I have to take it easy because of my concussion concussion he snorts when I played football I got my conk bonked