Doctor Valentine

 I would like to consider myself a romantic. After all, I love a good romance story. It just fascinates me how people could feel such a deep bond with another that they are willing to spend the rest of their mortal life with that person. It's enough to make my head spin. It is for that reason that I have tasked myself with such grisly, thankless work. I suppose I should start from the beginning. After all, my work is not easily comprehended. It was a career that I assigned myself many years ago. I was a heart surgeon then, and a good one at that. I loved my work, but the hours did not love me. I spent many sleepless nights under the bright lights in the operation room, my eyes glued to the red mass of muscle and fat tissue that beated weakly from the chest of the comatose patient. I knew that our efforts would be futile. His heart was just a mass of useless fat tissue. I daresay, this man dug his own grave. I cut away at the fat the best I could but there was just too much. I remember thinking What I wouldn't give for a heart donor right now. Our wait list for organs was going through the roof. Luck was not in favour for those who needed a simple kidney transplant let alone a heart transplant. Finally, after long last, the steady beating of the heart ceased and the heart monitor went still. A high pitched ringing hit my eardrum.

"We lost him." One of the doctors said heavily. I yawned silently. We worked for eight hours straight. We had thought we could save him but no such luck. It's unfortunate but it happens all the time. One cannot get too attached in the medical field.

"He's an organ donor, isn't he?" I asked.

"Yes." The doctor replied. "We may have lost one patient but, with these organs, we can save many more."

"But his heart is useless." I remarked.

"...yes. So it is. We'll dispose of it promptly after I finish this report. I have a lot of paperwork to file right now... and, to top it all off, I need to talk with his wife." The doctor sighed.

"Don't worry. I'll take care of it. You finish the paper work."

"You sure?"

"Of course."

"Alright then. Thank you very much." He nodded and walked out of the room. By then, the other doctors had already busied themselves with detaching the now deceased patient from the heart monitors.

I stepped toward the corpse. His face was covered by a sky blue cloth leaving only the outline of his silouette in my view. "Hello, sir. What seems to be the problem?" I asked quietly as I pulled the cloth back to reveal the sick, dead heart. "Ah, here it is. Your heart is dead." I whispered matter of factly. "Such a shame. And you're so young, too." I reached into his diaphram and wrapped my fingers around the still heart. "You know, you have an odd shape." I remarked to the heart. "You look nothing like the hearts I see on Valentine's Day cards. "Maybe that's why you don't work properly. The human heart is not complete. Worry not, good heart. I shall fix that soon enough. You'll come with me."

I brought the heart home in my lunchbox. The box was stained red and smelled of death by the time I returned home so I tossed it as I was planning to replace the lunchbox anyway. I took a lamp from my beside table and set the heart down on a cookie tray in the kitchen, light trained on the red and yellow mass of muscle and fat tissue. "Now. Let's see what I can do for you." I stooped down to open the cabinet just below me. I entered the code of the safe inside to reveal a rectangular metal box; a freezer. Opening the box, I pulled out a pink mass of muscle and compared it to the size of the heart. I tsked when I noticed that the frozen heart was much to small. "No, no. I'm sorry, Lisa, but your heart is far too small to match. But don't worry, my dear. You'll find someone one day." I kissed the heart, feeling cold ice on my lips and returned Lisa's heart to its resting place. "How about Jane's heart?" I wondered to myself as I reached to the back of the freezer to wrap my hand around a slightly larger, paler heart. "You've been stuck in this freezer for quite some time, Jane." I remarked. "Maybe today is your day to find true love." I set the heart down beside the first. "Ah, what a beautiful pair! A perfect match, I think! Now, you two wait here. I'll be right back. Take some time to get to know eachother. Jane may be a bit older and cold-hearted but she'll warm up to you in no time." I chuckled at my own joke before leaving to go to the study. "Now. Where did I put that needle and thread? I knew I had it some—ah ha! There you are! A beautiful red thread to unite a beautiful couple."

I returned to the kitchen; a thick needle in one hand and a strong red thread in the other. "I believe we have waited long enough, don't you think? Hm... I suppose you deserve a name, patient. What do you think, Jane? What name do you like?" I thought for a moment. "John has a nice ring to it." I said finally. "Okay, it's settled then. You will be John. Oh, I'm so very happy for you two!" I slid the hearts closer together, forming them into the shape of a Valentine's Day heart. I then strung the needle onto the thread being sure to have it securely fastened before I got down to business. It goes without saying that it is difficult to stitch two heavy objects together. Although hearts are normally lightweight, I must be cautious with the stitchings to prevent the pieces from falling apart when I finished. As a surgeon, I have been trained well for this type of work. I stuck the needle into the side of the fatty heart. John's heart oozed red fluid onto the cookie sheet. "Oh John, you're such a mess. I hope you aren't expecting poor Jane to clean up after you." I wiped the blood away with a paper towel. After a half hour of stitching and overlapping the stiches, I was finally finished with my work. I held up the now completed heart to the light. "Not too shabby if I do say so myself." I said with a smile. "Would you like to meet your new neighbors? Of course you do! Right this way you two lovebirds!" I carried the hearts down the stairs into the basement. Jars upon jars filled the shelves each occupied by a lovely pair of hearts. I took an empty jar off the desk in my basement and filled it with fermaldehyde. "I apologise for the smell, my lovelies." I said empathetically. "You'll get used to it after awhile. This, here, is your elixir of life. You'll live forever now. Together for eternity. Doesn't that sound nice?" My lips cracked into an enthusiastic smile as I placed Jane and John into the jar. "Now I have a special place for you. You're going on this shelf right here above my desk, see? Look how special you are." I turned to one of the jars behind me. "Now, now, Fred and Cindy, don't be jealous. You had your time on my desk shelf. Now it's their turn. I turned to the shelf above my desk once again. "I love my job." I said with a smile.

I wish I could continue this work to this day but, alas, I cannot. I was found out, it would seem. Apparently a nurse thought I acted too 'suspicious' so they did a bit of digging and were horrified to find my beautiful creations. Anyway, that was how I lost my medical license. It's alright though. I'll find a way to bring my lovelies together. I am a romantic after all.