A Tale of Two Hearts

Rhea

They ambushed me on my way back from college. The bus drops me near the Huda City Centre metro station and then I prefer to walk the rest of the way. It's only 1 km or so and takes about half an hour for me to cover the distance but still I prefer to walk. It helps me to clear my mind. Sometimes, Avinash, my boyfriend, accompanies me. But today he was busy with football practice and it being winter darkness had already fallen.

The road is lined with trees on both sides and suddenly three guys leap out from behind them. I started slightly because they had covered their faces with masks. They menacingly surrounded me and the one in front of me snarled "You are a selfish bitch."

I looked him in the eye, ignoring his grotesque mask "Get out of my way."

"Or what, bitch?"

I honestly didn't know what they had planned and I didn't care either. I kneed him in the groin, hard. He crumpled with a whimper and laid there moaning. But I was already moving to face the other two. Judging by their reaction, no one had told them that I could kick some ass. I scythed my elbow on the neck of the one to my right and laid out the one in front me with a ferocious right hook. I walked away from the three of them with nothing but some swollen knuckles.

I am generally not so vicious but occurrences like this were becoming the norm. So, as they say, better to be safe than sorry. As I reached home I was greeted by a now familiar sight of a bunch of people surrounding my house with placards like 'Save a life, Donate your heart', 'Your selfishness is costing a person his life.' You know your average welcome when you get home from college. Sometimes I wonder, don't these people have something better to do.

I ignored their stares and went in. My mom was waiting for me, she didn't ask how my day was, she didn't need to.

"Dr. Patil called, he was requesting for your decision" she told me.

"No" I simply said.

"Are you sure, Rhea?" asks my mother.

"Of course I'm. Survival of the fittest, mother, I am not going against Darwin. Also I don't want any unnecessary scars on my body."

It's a known fact that we are all born to die. And frankly, I don't understand why it has to be made into such a big deal. If it weren't for my mother I would have said that to the bunch of people outside my house, some of them with young kids, shouting slogans, waving placards, literally wanting me to cut out one of my beating hearts out. "Save a life, donate!" they shout.

For someone who is one in billions, 7.125 billion to be exact, I expect to be treated better. Scientists are still befuddled regarding my condition that gave me two hearts in my mother's womb. But years of research and sticking needles into me have led them nowhere, and they have labelled me as some freak mutation. It's so rare, literally one in all humankind- that they didn't even name the anomaly (as they call it, I will call it awesomeness). I wanted to name the condition myself, something along the lines of Rhea's heartawesome but the doctors aren't thrilled with the suggestion. Instead they want to cut one of them out and save a life. Huh?

An IQ of 180, increased concentration, exceptional athleticism and a phenomenal metabolism rate- are just the few boring benefits of an increased blood circulation. Why would I ever give that up? Who would?

Let me start from the beginning. You see, knowledge about my awesomeness was limited only to a few people, including my now ex-best friend Swati and of course the scientists who examined me.

Swati and I went a long way back. Both of us went to the same school and then the same college. She wasn't a least bit intimidated by me. Instead we had a good natured competition going for all our lives, be it studies or sports or anything else that caught our fancy. But things rapidly turned south in college when both of us fell for the same guy, Avinash. He asked me out instead of her. So in short, he became my boyfriend and she became the evil incarnate.