Chapter 1

The back of my skull hurt bad, a sort of raw, burning hurt, but worse still was the head full of screaming voices.

I opened my eyes and if in slow motion his boot was swinging toward my head, with a Herculean effort I caught it toe and heel, with all the strength I could muster I twisted my assailant's foot. I felt something give and heard a high pitch scream as he fell face down; self preservation my only instinct I threw myself on him, his leg pressed oddly up his back. Grabbing his hair I slammed his face into the ground.

A rough hand grasped my collar and a fist slammed into the side of my head, swinging around I saw a fist travelling in slow motion towards my face, in a flash I stiff armed him, the heel of my hand catching him under the nose; I felt a satisfying crunch. As he went backwards I brought my knee forcibly into his groin.

Turning, I saw I was surrounded by a sea of young faces all cheering me on. The voices in my head were driving me to distraction and the pain from the second blow was making me feel dizzy. Pushing my way through the crowd I staggered for open space, waves of nausea washing over me, I ran until I collapsed.

As I regained conscious I heard a mixed babble of voices in my head, cautiously squinting my eyes I saw what appeared to be a nurse but the garb was that of any earlier era; her lips weren't moving but I could hear her thoughts as if she was speaking out loud. The 'babble' was the thoughts running through her head and I was picking them up; some of the thoughts were quite embarrassing to me, {I'll be glad to change this damned pad it's soaked already} so I concentrated on turning the 'volume' down, thank God it worked.

Peaceful sleep overcame me.

I felt a presence and squinting my eyes again I saw a young lass of about fifteen years old. She had a worried look on her face and as I turned up my thoughts 'volume' she was thinking over and over {don't die Jimmy, don't die, I love you Jimmy, don't die.}

I tried to speak but only a croak came out, she let out a squeak, "Jimmy, Jimmy you're alive" all I could croak was "water'. She rang for the nurse who rushed in "he's awake, he's awake' she shouted, "he needs water"

"Alright, don't panic" replied the nurse as she left to get me a drink. When she returned I wet my mouth and got some ability back to talk.

"Who are you? For that matter who am I? I'm totally confused" I struggled to say.

The lass started to cry, "I'm your sister Jenny and you are Jimmy Watson don't you remember?" The nurse looked a bit worried and tried to reassure Jenny, "patients often suffer a temporary amnesia after a blow to the head, a few days usually returns them to normal" she said, "I hope so" sniffled Jenny " he's not only my brother, he's my best friend as well."