Gabrielle Zevin - Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

IF THINGS HAD BEEN DIFFERENT, ID BE CALLED Nataliya or Natasha, and Id have a Russian accent and chapped lips year round. Maybe Id even be a street kid whod trade you just about anything for a pair of blue jeans. But I am not Nataliya or Natasha, because at six months old I was delivered from Kratovo, Moscow Oblast, to Brooklyn, New York. I dont remember the trip or ever having lived in Russia at all. What I know about my orphanhood is limited to what Ive been told by my parents and then by what they were told, which was sketchy at best: a week-old baby girl was found in an empty typewriter case in the second-to-last pew of an Eastern Orthodox Church. Was the case a clue to my biological fathers profession? Did the church mean my birth mother was devout? Ill never know, so I choose not to speculate. Besides, I hate orphan stories. Theyre all the same, but most books are bursting with them anyway. You start to think everyone in the whole world must be an orphan.

I cant remember a time when I didnt know I was adopted. There was never a dramatic we have something to tell you talk. My adoption was simply another fact, like having dark hair or no siblings. I knew I was adopted even before I knew what that truly meant. Understanding adoption requires a basic understanding of sex, something I would not have until third grade when Gina Papadakis brought her grandparents disturbingly dog-eared copy of The Joy of Sex to school. She passed it around at lunch and while most everyone else was gagging with the realization that their parents had done that to make them (so much hair, and the people in the drawings were not one bit joyful), I felt perfectly fine, even a little smug. I might be adopted, but at least my parents hadnt degraded themselves like that for my sake.

Youre probably wondering why they didnt do it the old-fashioned way. Not that its any of your business, but they tried for a while without getting anywhere. After about a year, Mom and Dad decided that, rather than invest about a billion dollars on fertility treatments that might not work anyway, it would be better to spend the money helping some sob story like me. This is why you are not, at the very moment, holding in your hands the inspiring true account of a Kratovan orphan called Nataliya, who, things being different, might be named Nancy or Naomi.

Truth is, I rarely think about any of this. Im only telling you now because, in a way, I was born to be an amnesiac. I have always been required to fill in the blanks.

But Im definitely getting ahead of myself.

When he heard about my (for lack of a better term) accident, my best friend, Will, who Id completely forgotten at the time, wrote me a letter. (I didnt come across it immediately because he had slipped it inside the sleeve of a mix CD.) He had inherited a battered black typewriter from his great-uncle Desmond whod supposedly been a war correspondent, though Will was unclear which war it had been. There was a dent on the carriage return that Will theorized might be from a ricocheting bullet. In any case, Will liked composing letters on the typewriter, even when it would have been much easier to send an e-mail or call a person on the phone. Incidentally, the boy wasnt antitechnology; he just had an appreciation for things other people had forgotten.

I should tell you that the following dispatch, while being the only record of the events leading up to my accident, does not really convey much of Wills personality. It was completely unlike him to be so formal, stiff, boring even. You do get some sense of him from his footnotes, but half of you probably wont bother with those anyway. I know I didnt. At the time, I felt about footnotes nearly the same way I did about orphan stories.

Chief:

The first thing you should know about me is that I remember everything, and the second thing is that Im probably the most honest person in the world. I realize that you cant trust anyone who says that theyre honest, and knowing this, I wouldnt normally say something like that about myself. Im only telling you now because its something I feel you should know.

In an attempt to make myself useful to you,

I have assembled a timeline of the events leading up to your accident, which you may or may not find helpful, but you will find below.

6:36 p.m. Naomi Porter and William Landsman, Co-editors of the national-award-winning1 Thomas Purdue Country Day School yearbook, leave the offices of The Phoenix.2

6:45 p.m. Porter and Landsman arrive at the student parking lot. Porter realizes that they have left the camera back at the office.

6:46 p.m. Discussion3 ensues regarding who should have to return to the office to retrieve the camera. Landsman suggests settling the matter with a coin toss,4 a proposition which Porter accepts. Landsman says that he will be heads, but Porter states5 that she should be heads. Landsman concedes, as oft happens. Landsman flips the coin, and Porter loses.

6:53 p.m. Landsman drives home; Porter returns to The Phoenix.

7:02 p.m.6 (approx.) Porter arrives at the Phoenix office where she retrieves the camera.

7:05 p.m. (approx.) Porter falls down the exterior front steps at school. Porter strikes head on bottom step, but manages to hold on to the camera.7 Porter is discovered by one James Larkin.8

As I mentioned to you, I am always available to answer any other questions as they might arise.

I remain your faithful servant,

William B.9 Landsman

P.S. Apologies for the I [i] key. Hopefully, youve figured out by now that the thing that resembles a trident is actually the letter I. Theres a defect in my typewriter such that every time capital i is pressed, U comes down with it.

Of course, I didnt remember any of this. Not the coin toss. Not the camera. Certainly not my best friend, the veracious William Blake Landsman.

The first thing I remembered was that cat James Larkin, though I didnt even know his name at the time. And I didnt remember all of James, James proper. Just his voice, because my eyes were still closed and I guess youd call me asleep. Or half-asleep, like when your alarm clock sounds and you manage to ignore it for a while. You hear the radio and the shower; you smell coffee and toast. You know you will wake; its only a question of when, and of what or who will finally push you into day.

His voice was low and steady. Ive always associated those types of voices with honesty, but Im sure there are loads of low-pitched liars just waiting to take advantage of easy prey like me. Even semi-conscious, I lapsed into my prejudices and decided to trust every word James said: Sir, my name is James Larkin. Unfortunately her family is not here, but I am her boyfriend, and I am riding in this ambulance. I didnt hear anyone argue with him. His tone did not allow for discussion.

Someone took my hand, and I opened my eyes. It was him, though I didnt know his face.

Hey there, he said softly, welcome back.

I did not stop to consider where I had been that required welcoming. I did not even ask myself why I was in an ambulance with a boy who said he was my boyfriend but whom I did not readily recognize.

As ridiculous as this might seem, I tried to smile, but I doubt if he even saw. My attempt didnt last that long.

The pain came. The kind of pain for which there is no analogy; the kind of pain that allows for no other thought. The epicenter was concentrated in the area above my left eye, but it barely mattered; the waves through the rest of my head were almost worse. My brain felt too large for my skull. I felt like I needed to throw up, but I didnt.