Strangers - Actor Thoughts 3

“A borrowed memory from a time I did not exist:

Erika was a very popular girl from my high school years. She was loved by the average student, envied by the outcasts, and desired by the easily excitable pubescent male populace. Her breasts were perky and youthful, her curves smooth but not over exaggerated, like some of those playboy models. She wore the most fashionable clothing, and she wore it better than any other girl did. Perhaps, as these were the memories I have of her, I too was infatuated with this girl.

She was smart too, but not too smart. While a serious enough student to win her the admiration of teachers and parents, she was never a book worm, or a girl who cared to do math problems more than explore the secret world of a young man’s pants. She was athletic, and graceful; one of the school volleyball team’s top players. Everyone knew she had a promising future. It was common knowledge even to one such as myself.

During her final year, before heading off to university she stepped into the car of a boy lucky enough to retain her attentions long enough to be considered her boyfriend, for a drive. What her purpose was that day, I am unsure of, but the youth, with a lack of experience on the road, and stubborn, foolish teenage ego, managed to take a detour into a tree.

Erika was thrown from the vehicle and suffered serious head trauma and lacerations and broken bones. Her spine was dislocated in several areas and some would later say it was a miracle that she was not paralyzed for life. As it was, she was not able to walk for months. She could not even lift herself up from bed to the table where the hospital staff placed her meals in the few weeks that followed her after she awoke from her coma. She had to be retrained to sit, learn again how to walk and run. Her nerves had been nearly severed so she had to re-learn how to feel. It took her over a week just to be able to sit up in bed.

That day of the crash in the middle of the road, when the paramedics finally reached the scene, they found Erika, badly injured, but wide eyed and sitting up, her back so immaculately and straightly aligned that it would have made an English princess in training jealous.

Why was it that her broken body, unable to accomplish that feat in the following months, was able to maintain that position?

Trauma, physical or mental, has a powerful effect on a human being.”