Off the Hill

    It was July 3, 2014, exactly one month since Orion graduated high school. She was in her bed surrounded with about fifty papers filling out college applications. The only light she ever saw after graduation was from her computer screen when she was typing personal essays. Her mother tried to convince her to take a break but Orion was too dedicated in her work to do anything else. “One little break wouldn’t hurt,” said Orion’s mother, Mary.
“I want to get this all over with before I go to Florida, I won’t have any time to do it there.” said Orion. As a mother, Mary worried about Orion all the time but was proud to see Orion have so much dedication and responsibility in her work.
After a four hour flight, Orion finally landed in Florida. She checked into her hotel at midnight and fell asleep as soon as she lay in bed. She woke up to the sound of her phone ringing; it was her best friend Sam. She groaned and slowly got up and answered the phone.
“Hello?”Orion groaned.
“Hey, you don’t seem very joyful,” Sam replied.
“Sorry, it was my first time getting actual sleep in weeks,” said Orion.
“So what’s up?” asked Sam.
“Just wanted to see how your trip was going, anything worthy enough for me to hear or is it too soon to ask?” said Sam.
“My hotel is pretty nice, I’m about to head out to go look at some schools then I’ll probably go out to eat with Andrea,” Orion said as she got out of bed to get ready.
“That seems nice, hope you have a good time. Call me when you can.” said Sam.
“I will,” said Orion. They said their goodbyes and hung up.
After ten minutes of lying in bed, Orion got up and began to get ready. When she looked into her bag to get her phone charger, she couldn’t find it. She looked through all her bags and pockets looking for her charger. She finally gave up accepting the fact that she had forgotten it at home. She continued getting ready. After she was finished, she headed out. As she was searching for the nearest store her phone died. All the possible things that could’ve gone wrong went wrong. Her phone died, she was lost, didn’t know her way around town, and the temperature began to rise. She decided to stop at a near corner store to get snacks and water since she didn’t have time to eat breakfast that morning.
“That’ll be $3.50,” said the cashier. Orion gave him four dollars and didn’t bother to get her receipt or change. As she was walking out the store she decided to sit down. She didn’t know what to do so she asked for directions to the nearest electronic store.
“Do you know the nearest place I could buy a phone charger?” Orion asked the nicest looking person she could find.  The stranger starred at her for a while before he caught himself and quickly answered.  “Oh uhm there’s a Radio Shack down the street to your left,” he said.
“Thank you,” Orion replied and quickly walked to the store.
After she finally got her phone charged, she looked at the time and accepted the fact that it was too late to go look at schools so she decided to just go to Andrea’s house. The drive there took only about ten minutes. When she got to her house she knocked on the door and a familiar face opened the door. “And so we meet again.”
“Ryan, who is it?” yelled Andrea from across the room. Ryan didn’t answer since he could hear Andrea’s footsteps on her way to check who was at the door. Orion stepped into the house and introduced herself. “Hi I’m Orion,” she said smiling.
“Hi I’m Rya…” was all Ryan was able to say before Andrea came in.
“Vanessa!” Andrea yelled as she was running to give Orion a hug.
“Hi!” Orion said as she gave Andrea a hug.
“Vanessa?” said Ryan with a confused look on his face, “I thought your name was Orion.”
“Most people call me Orion, which is what I prefer, but my close family and friends call me by my real name, Vanessa,” Orion explained to Ryan. “Anyways enough about me, I never got to get your name”
“I was in the process of doing that before I was rudely interrupted,” said Ryan looking at Andrea.
“Oh hush up and introduce yourself already,” said Andrea lightly pushing him.
“I’m Ryan, nice to meet you… again,” Ryan said smiling at Orion “Again?” said Andrea looking at the both of them, “Am I missing something?”
“On my way to the schools my phone ran out of battery and I needed a charger, so I coincidentally randomly picked out Ryan and asked where I could buy one, “replied Orion.
“I see, “said Andrea “Me and Ryan have been friends since freshman year and we were just about to go out and eat, want to come with us?.”
“Sure why not,” said Orion grabbing her bag.
Once they finished eating they took a cab back to Andrea’s house. It was raining hard, but they weren’t too worried about it. As they got on the freeway the driver lost control and they rolled off a hill. Everyone stopped their cars and did as much as possible to help. One called 911 and others tried to get them out the car. They were all unconscious and were hurt badly. Once the ambulances came they were all rushed to the hospital.
The driver was pronounced dead at the scene, Ryan just needed a few stitches, Andrea broke her arm, and Orion was in good condition. They all woke up around the same time the next morning in good condition but Orion seemed worried. “It all happened so fast,” Andrea said talking about the night before.
“I know, I don’t even remember what was going through my head once we got off track.” Ryan replied.
“What are you guys talking about?” said Orion in a confused tone, “Who are you guys? Why am I in a hospital? What’s wrong with me? What happened?” Orion continued to ask many questions and started to panic. It didn’t take much long for Andrea and Ryan to realize that she had lost her memory. They called in a doctor immediately.
“Can you check up on our friend, I think she might have amnesia” Andrea told the doctor.
“Hi I’m Doctor Peters, you were part of a horrible car crash last night,” he said. “Do you remember that?”
“What? No, I was not aware of that at all.” she replied. The doctor left her room to let her rest for a while and give her time to come to her instincts.
    Three days later they were admitted out the hospital. “You guys seem to be in good condition,” the hospital administrator said to the three of them, “you’ll be released once you sign these papers.” They signed the papers, got all their things, and went back to Andrea’s house. Orion’s memory slowly began to come back but she only remembered little things such as her birthday, age, and parents’ names. Andrea was worried about Orion and called Sam. “Hey what’s up?” Sam said when she answered her call.
    “Hey I just wanted to call and tell you that Orion and I got into a car crash a couple days ago, and she doesn’t really remember anything so if you try to talk to her she might act a bit strange.” Andrea said.
    “What?” Sam shockingly said. “Is she okay?”
    “She’s perfectly fine,” Andrea replied, “she just lost her memory, but she’s slowly starting to remember things.”
    “Does her mom know?” asked Sam.
    “No, but I’ll make sure to call her later,” said Andrea, “I have to go, I’ll call you if anything happens.”
    “Okay bye,” Sam said before hanging up the phone.
The next few days were going good for Orion. Her memory was getting better but she didn’t know anything about her graduation, childhood, or any big events that happened in her life. She remembered who all her friends were including Andrea and Sam.
It was Orion’s last day in Florida and Andrea took her to the airport. “Have a safe flight and call me once you land.” Andrea said.
“I will,” she replied, “thanks for everything.”
Andrea left and Orion was left alone. Orion’s mom called her and she answered. “Hi mom,” said Orion.
    “Hi sweetie, how’s everything going?” her mother asked.
    “Everything’s going good but I’m about to get on my flight I’ll call you once I land, bye mom love you.” Orion said as she quickly hung up.
    It was already seven hours since Orion was in contact with anyone and she wasn’t answering her phone. Her mom was ready to pick her up at the airport but she waited for over three hours, but she never showed up. She began to get worried and called Andrea “She was at the airport thirty minutes before her flight was supposed to take off, there’s no way she could miss it,” Andrea explained.
    “Has she called you or Sam in the last couple hours?” She asked.
    “No,” answered Andrea. The flight Orion was on had already landed but no one seemed to know where she was. She was pronounced missing the day after when she was nowhere to be found.
    Months have passed and Orion was still not found. Policemen, detectives, and everyone she knew all looked for her but they never found her. To this day Orion has not been found.