Chapter 2

I stared at the television silently, watching, but nothing really registering in my mind, and I wondered how the images moved so fast through the wires. The scene inside the box suddenly switched and my head snapped up, something about it catching my attention, but I wasn’t quite sure what. There was a man in sea green scrubs, pulling one of those paper masks over his mouth, and snapping latex gloves on, stretching his fingers to get comfortable. He adjusted something black hanging over the silver examination table…what was it? Oh, a microphone. That’s right, doctors used them to record exactly what they were doing to the patients during surgery or examination now a days.

            The camera shifted again, showing an off-white sheet covering a body that now lay on the metal slab of a table. The only part of the body visible was the foot, an identification tag hung loosely over the left big toe. The sheet was suddenly whipped off of the body, revealing a middle aged man, maybe 40 or 45 years old. He had thick, dark brown hair, like chocolate, and his steel blue eyes were staring lifelessly into the camera’s lens. The screen zoomed out to show the doctor gently laying his thumbs over the dead man’s eyes and pulling back, the  eyes now closed. He then took his fingers to the cadaver’s cheeks, smoothing out the skin, evaporating slight wrinkles, and molding his face into a slight smile. Always happy in death.

            “What are you watching?” Tina said from behind me. “That looks horrible.” I hadn’t noticed that she had been standing over my shoulder. She took the remote from the couch’s arm rest and turned off the TV. I sighed soundlessly, speaking without turning to look at her.

            “When I die, are they going to do that to my face?” She came around to sit next to me on the couch, pulling the blanket over herself.

            “Stop it, Alice.” I looked up at her with expressionless eyes. She matched my stare, her face set determinedly. “You have to stop thinking like that. You’re going to have a great life.” I interrupted her ‘life must go on’ speech with a sarcastic laugh. “I’m serious! Look, we all fall apart sometime, sooner or later. Bette and I had each other when we lost the baby, and I thought I wasn’t going to make it. I really did. But we got through it. I’ll be here for you until you get through your crisis.” She smiled reassuringly, and enveloped me in a hug.