The Words - An Autobiography

Ten Billion

Ten billion years before my birth:

The universe was still in its youth, early in its explosive expansion. We had no way of discovering the precise sequence of events or knowing whether any form of life had existed yet in the young universe. We could only speculate wildly. Perhaps, the universe was a seed planted by some unknown being, and life had germinated there from the beginning.

Ten billion years since my birth:

The Sun, our old Sun, had exploded and gone supernova. We looked forward to quite a display of fireworks in another million years if nothing succeeded in eating us before then. This possibility became far too real when a fifty-foot-long salamander-like creature did its best to make a meal of Mary.

The animal climbed the sheer rock-faced wall hidden beneath the waterfall near our new home and poked its head up, unseen, barely above the surface. Mary stood only twenty feet away when its tongue hit her with enough force, she told me, that she felt as if she'd been struck by a car, even though cars had not existed for a long time. But such analogies tended to linger. She told me later that she flew at least fifteen feet, glued to the tip of the salamander's tongue, before being whiplashed back towards its waiting mouth, which sprained and nearly broke her neck. It was a miracle she wasn't knocked unconscious, or she'd have been gone without a trace. I would never have known what happened to her - just that she was gone. Forever.

It was another miracle that her Magick Hat wasn't dislodged from her nose because, as concussed as she'd been, she'd had the awareness to manage the slightest movement of her eyes with intent. And an enormous nanobot harpoon shot through the salamander's eye and brain. And an invisible blade severed the beast's tongue, landing Mary on the rocky bank of the river that flowed over the falls only yards away. She sat stunned, trying to regain the breath knocked from her and regather her senses enough to detach herself from the considerable chunk of bloody salamander flesh still adhering to her body.

I didn't witness the attack, but I was near enough to hear her cry out and immediately run to her aid. I found her in agony, shaking as if chilled from shock, crying as much from terror as pain. Trying to be gentle as I could, I carried her back to our house, where I could better tend to her injuries after assisting her in removing the bulk of the remaining salamander tongue still adhered to her body. I asked what I could do since she had a far greater accumulation of medical knowledge. She told me she was in too much pain to think. She was naked, as she usually was, with no one else around. Without clothing protecting her bare flesh, the skin, several layers deep beneath her right arm, running to her mid-thigh, had been nearly torn away by the violence of being whiplashed back toward the animal's mouth.

Nanobots, externally and from within, instantly went to work. I watched the remaining bits of salamander tongue surgically sliced away from Mary's body, revealing the bloody or deeply bruised flesh beneath, which visibly began to heal as damaged cells were removed and replaced. When she finally regained her feet, she staggered back out of the house toward the waterfall. Rage flew from her eyes toward the dead salamander still clinging to rocks protruding from the edge of the falls.

Mary's lips pulled back from her teeth, and she spat. "Liver!" The muted sucking sound was barely auditable against the sound of the falls before the massive organ dropped at her feet, and she growled, "Guess who's having who for dinner now, bitch!" As if responding to insult and defeat, the salamander's body slid back beneath the surface and washed over the falls.

Sharing Mary's thoughts, I felt her pain as my own, physically and empathetically. But also diagnostically, trying to determine the extent of her injuries. In addition to the nearly healed damage beneath her arm, she had cracked ribs where the salamander's tongue had struck her and a fractured arm. 'Concussion,' we both thought through the fog of our communal pain, and she felt like pieces of broken glass stabbed the length of her neck. Adrenaline, still pulsing through her veins, simultaneously left us sick to our stomachs. I tried to support her as we vomited side by side.

Trying to process the realization that I'd nearly lost her. To a fucking salamander! I asked, "Do you really intend to eat that liver?"

"Goddamn right, I do!"

I could feel the swirling emotions of anger and fear of what we'd nearly lost pulse through the two of us with alternate beats of our hearts. Mary turned several times, looking back toward the falls. If the salamander hadn't already fallen from the edge, I'd thought she might have gone back for another chunk, which she confirmed, hissing, "Heart!" And I heard something large and wet drop on the ground behind us.

"I'm glad I never managed to piss you off that badly," I told her.

She pulled me closer and leaned her head against my shoulder. "You never really piss me off. Annoy me occasionally. But the only time you genuinely pissed me off was when you damn near killed yourself with those stupid cars!" She gave me a bump with her hip on her uninjured side.

I asked, "How long ago was that?"

"I don't remember. Forever. But it did piss me off."

"Okay. So, in about ten billion years, I've only pissed you off once?" I asked, pausing for emphasis. "Then, I am a good man."

"You are. Full of yourself sometimes, like now, but a good man."

"Let's get you back inside, so you can rest and let the 'bots take care of you. When I'm sure you're okay, I'll take care of the carcass and make sure there aren't any more of them around. Do you want any other body parts?"

"Do they have testicles?"

"You called it a bitch? Never mind, I'll fetch them for you if it has them. If not, I'll look for a male and get you a pair, alright?"

She began crying again, and I did too. We hadn't had such a reminder of our mortality in a very long time. But the reality was fresh before our eyes. Our lives could still end in an instant, and we had defied the odds for way longer than statistically made sense.

The Gift:

The good fortune to be alive and still have one another. Despite the events of the day, Best Birthday Ever!