"Bad news," Enzo says.
He is sitting up in bed. Gem is sitting with him. Holding his hand. The others - Robyn, Mum, the twins - sit with him, too. Mum and Robyn on chairs. Faith and Ren on the floor.
"Yes." The doctor heaves a sigh. "Bad news." He rubs his forehead. "I'll start from the beginning. Right from the beginning. You are aware, of course, of the artificial 'heart' we implanted in you fifteen years ago."
Enzo nods.
"Well, fifteen years is a long time. A very long time - especially for the metal contraption that we had placed inside you shortly after your birth. You see, man-made objects simply aren't meant to exist within the human body - they are unnatural, strange - potentially harmful. Your body regards them as this, too, and has, over time, learnt to resist them. I mean, of course, you can argue that the human body itself is man-made" - a weak chuckle - "but not in the way of, say, artificial hearts. Your artificial heart has been spending the last fifteen years of your life working - steadily working - to keep you alive. The rest of your body, however, has been working the opposite way - working to expel and destroy this unnatural implantation in your chest. We knew that this would happen, of course. It was inevitable, unavoidable - not a matter of if, but rather a matter of when."
"And when," Enzo says, "is now. Right?"
"Yes," the doctor says, "right."
"So," Enzo pauses, "so - this is it? It's just going to...end?"
"No." The doctor sounds cautious. "No, not quite. It is true, certainly, that, over the last few months, your body's attack on your heart has been increasing at a rapid rate. This has led to certain consequences - consequences that I am sure that, recently, you will have become aware of: shaking hands, loss of control, perhaps occasional bouts of hate, or violence? But we can work on this. There are things that we can do, medication that we can use, to slow down this process. Not end it completely, mind, but at least slow it down. Give you a few more years."
Give you a few more years.
"You told me, once, that this was never meant to work," Enzo says. "That it was a fluke - a lucky fluke - that I am alive at all. So why have you been keeping me like this, keeping me alive, when you know that, in the end, your luck - my luck - me - are just going to...die?"
"For the same reason that mankind still exists today," the doctor says. His voice is calm. Quiet. "We know that, someday, we will all die - yet still we continue to grow, and love, and reproduce - still we continue to bestow upon others, generations and generations of others, a death that cannot be escaped - and we will not stop. Because to stop - to give up - is to let them win, Mr Callahan. Our hearts may be our monsters, our undoers, maybe even our murderers - but we will not let them win. That is why there are doctors, medics, nurses. We are fighting reality - fighting us - every day. Do you see?"
For a moment, Enzo is quiet. Then he says, "So what are you going to do? To me, I mean? Are you just going to...wait until I die?"
The doctor shakes his head. "Of course not. We're going to help you - in any way we can. Medication. Surgery. Anything."
He leans forward.
"I know you view yourself as this, but you are not our experiment, Enzo. You are our hope."
YOU ARE READING
The Anatomy of a Parody Heart
Teen Fiction|| Highest rankings: #1 in notfittingin (30/03/19) #9 in antibullying (25/05/18) || - COMPLETED - Enzo knows that he is different. He knows it in the way that people look at him. Talk about him. Bu...
