The Concussion
by Annamaria Tadlock

I remember the ground flying up at me and a dull thud. Everything went black.

When I wake up-- probably only a few seconds later-- there's dirt in my mouth. I spit. My head hurts and I feel that confuzed, dizzy feeling, almost like a dream but nothing dreamy about it. My horse is standing a little ways away. I look at him and it seems surreal. I panick for a second-- where am I? Why am I here? Then I remember. Then forget. Then my sister is walking toward me-- and now I remember-- no wait -- where am I? I forget again, dang it.

Blackness. No-- not blackness-- because it's not black. It's blank, just a blank space where memories should be. Suddently I'm stepping into the living room of my home, and I'm holding a halter and I have no idea how I got here. I try to remember, but there's only blankness.

My mom walks in. "Did you feed the horses?" she asks. Did I feed the horses? I don't remember feeding them, so no. "No" I tell her. My sister looks alarmed, and it freaks me out a little. "Yes-- we did. Annamaria, don't you remember?". "No. I remember... falling. Then I remember walking in the door just now. That's it." How I got here I have no idea. I certainly didn't feed the horses.

"I feel weird" I say -- apparently for the tenth time, because my sister says, "I know, you keep saying that.". She tells me what happened.
Nope, no memories. "I can't remember" I tell her. My mom & dad are there. They ask me to count backwards from 100 to , a feat I accomplish without trouble. Counting is easy, but it doesn't help my head. They say I'm fine. If I'm fine, why do I feel so weird?
"I feel weird" I say again. Apparently I've said that before, because my sister looks at me funny and asks if I'm OK because I keep saying that. "I don't know, my head hurts," I say. My brain starts to panic, but I tell my self that it's OK-- I'm Ok, and things will be normal soon. Like soothing a horse, and it works.

A day or two goes by; Now I think I remember-- yes! I was riding Zippo bareback in just a halter. No saddle, no bridle. I was gallopping down hill, and I went down to the arena. My sister was riding Angel the same way. When I got to the arena, Zippo suddently bucked & I flew through the air, and landed in the dirt. I blacked out briefly, then I woke up and spit the dirt out. The memories are still blurry to me-- but my sister told me what happened. She explained that after I fell, I chased and caught my horse, whacked him, called him some names and lounged him a bit before turning him loose and feeding the horses with her. Then I walked into the house and forgot everything, and the weirdness began.