Call of the Water (COMPLETE)

30. GOING BACK

"Doctor Kasian," I addressed him, "in the book you gave me, it is described what needs to be done in order for an Aquantien to become capable of living as a human. But the thing that isn't mentioned is whether it is possible to reverse the process."

Suddenly, all the chatter around us died down, as if the question I asked was more interesting than any other topic. Opal's parents, who were carelessly chatting with their daughter just a minute ago, went silent. The daughter in question also stopped talking, but her eyes widened and her ears pricked up.

Ardea's stare deepened, if that was even possible, and my parents looked at each other before they both fixated their eyes on me.

Finding it difficult to bear all the eyes upon me, I asked Doctor Kasian, "Could we talk about this someplace else? Somewhere more private?"

"Of course. Lead the way, and I will follow," he said and extended his hand, letting me step forward.

I led him to the library. No one was using it today, making it perfect for the conversation I didn't want to share with others.

"Well, can it be done?" I asked again once we found ourselves surrounded by walls of stories.

"You want to know if an Aquantien that underwent all the surgeries can ever return to the underwater home?"

"Yes. Is that possible?" I stood in front of him, looking at him with eyes wide open.

"I'm afraid not," he answered. His face became very serious. I hadn't seen him this serious since the time I was his patient and he awaited to see if I would wake up from my surgeries. "No Aquantien ever expressed the desire to go back. But even if one did want to return to the water, I don't think it would be within the bounds of possibility."

"Why?" I needed an explanation more detail than that.

"The biggest obstacle would be the lack of gills. The webbing between the fingers and toes could be reconstructed. Even the third eyelid could be recreated, but the gills... no one ever tried to create those. I'm assuming it would take years of research before it would be possible to even consider something like that. Once the gills are removed, the blood vessels are redirected to the new lungs. And you know very well that the lungs do not allow you to breathe under water."

I nodded, but at the same time saw a ray of hope.

"What if the gills never got removed? What if they were only hidden under the skin that had been sewn over them?" I lifted my humanlike eyelids to look at Doctor Kasian.

"No surgeon would do that," he answered. His forehead furrowed as he spotted the expression on my face. "That's not how it is done. It's impossible to hide the gills by stitching the skin over them."

"I told you that my question was hypothetical," I said to entice him to think in that direction.

"I suppose if someone still had gills, hypothetically, maybe it would be possible to reroute the blood vessels. But, as I said, it has never been done, so I can't guarantee that such procedure would be successful."

I nodded again and bit my lower lip. He narrowed his eyes, giving me the same look his daughter would so often use when she stared at me with those blue eyes of hers. I wondered what his eyes looked like without the contacts. Were they the same color as Ardea's?

"Will you tell me where all these hypothetical questions came from?" He interrupted my flow of thoughts.

"I was just wondering, that's all," I replied and smiled wide enough to display my reshaped teeth.

"So you won't tell me," he stated. The corners of his lips curled upwards. "I won't insist. But I want you to know, I'm there if you need me. No matter how unusual your questions might get."