7 yrs, Gone and Forgotten

       Scientists say that every seven years the cells in our bodies renew themselves, we shed the dead cells and new ones are born. Does that mean that our life can begin again with a new slate, that you can feel reborn, renewed, reenergized, that you can really start again?         In those two thousand five hundred fifty-five days what could you do? In those sixty-one thousand three hundred twenty hours, would you find a lifelong career, take your steps to be able to stand on your own two feet in a crazy world? Or in those three million six hundred seventy-nine thousand two hundred seconds would you find true love at first sight?        So much could happen in one’s life in seven years, that you will either want to erase and begin again or wish to stay where you are. Perhaps you got married, you had children and started a family of your own. You made friends that would stand beside you through thick and thin for a lifetime. You could buy that dream home and furnish it with all the perfect things or drive that dream car. You could accomplish climbing that ladder in your profession to make it to the top and be successful.        You could spend seven years in your own personal hell; no spouse, no family, no home, no self-proclaimed path. You could spend those seven years trying to accomplish all those things only to find that when its time to renew yourself, life isn’t where you wanted it to be, and you can’t wait to start everything from scratch all over again. You could find that seven years were wasted in trying to find where you belong, trying to find your path, trying to climb the ladder and, at the end of it, you only find yourself looking up at everyone around you that made it there.          It could also be seven years of unforgettable memories, memories filled with laughter, heartbreak, tears; memories full of life-lasting decisions and spontaneous actions, memories of granted wishes and unheard whispers.           For me it’s seven years of walking in a world where I do not even feel like I belong most days. Seven years of knowing something is missing, seven years of feeling heart broken without knowing the reason behind it, seven years of hearing whispers in my mind of a life long forgotten. Seven years of complete numbness in my own skin.        My story begins on a stormy morning in a long-forgotten alley in Paris seven years ago to the day. My clothes were tattered and ripped, soaked with torn skin bits, my hair matted to my head with clotted blood and dirt. I don’t think there was an inch on my body that didn’t have some kind of tear, scratch or bruise. I could barely move without pain shooting through every cell and taking my breath away. My guardian angels Scott and Theo took me straight to the hospital that morning, and when the doctors and nurses evaluated me, they couldn’t believe that I was even still breathing, the number of breaks and fractures hidden beneath the surface they said was equal to someone who had fallen from a plane with no parachute. I spent weeks in the intensive care unit before being moved to the rehabilitation center where I had to spend even more time learning to get back on my feet and in tune with my motor skills. Nobody seemed to know who I was, including me. I didn’t know where I came from, my name, age, nothing; it was like I had just dropped from the sky in this body. We spent weeks searching missing adds all over the world, but to no avail, nothing came up in the searches. Six months after being found, I was finally released from the hospital and a year to the day after being found, I was found completely healthy and free of all doctor visits and therapy.         Scott and Theo stayed with me the entire time, taking me under their wing like a little sister. They were from what everyone called the old money wealth of France. They took care of all my doctor's expenses, they helped me come up with the identity I have today, and to the world from the outside looking in, I am exactly who I feel like I am somedays; Leona Marlette. The Marlette family opened their hearts and home to me and made me feel like I belonged somewhere.       Scott’s girlfriend Mandy soon became my best friend and together the four of us rented a flat where we have lived for the last seven years. They are all twenty-seven within a few months of each other, and best we can guess, I am about the same age, but they insist I am the youngest.       Scott and Theo own a security consulting business, Mandy is a designer and, well me, I am mainly the organizer for both businesses, seeing as how I went to school and got a business degree. Mandy spends her time designing some of the most lavish dress wear for high society, while Scott and Theo spend their time in physical training and traveling to different companies and organizations to help with training and security detail. I get to spend my days either at my favorite coffee spot near the Eiffel Tower organizing meetings and travel arrangements or in the apartment getting the orders together for the next shipment of Mandy’s designs.        Life seemed to be pretty good. I enjoyed it for the most part, and as long as my friends were near, or the guards that Scott and Theo insisted on me traveling with, I didn’t feel lonely. However, the moments that I didn’t have anyone around, everything crashed down on me and I couldn’t breathe. I knew there was something significant missing from my life, something life-altering, and no matter how much I searched my mind and thoughts for it, I never could seem to find what it was I was looking for. Doctors told me it was amnesia, and I may someday regain it, but other doctors told me that there was so much damage done to my brain when they found me that I may never regain it.         I have decided today, today is the birthday we celebrate me being found, and today I have decided to stop looking behind me, stop wondering what if, and start living my life the way I should, whatever happened in the past needs to remain there, and I only need to live for the present and future. And that is what I am going to do, starting today, seven years to the day I was pulled from that alley. It is the day my story begins.