Technically Incorrect (Six)

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"How do you feel?"

"Terrible!" was all Aaron could say.

He felt more than terrible but what was the point talking about it? Nothing could be done since the doctors had already pronounced her dead.

He was hurt because he felt he and May had been given false hopes of Kathy's recovery, maybe because the doctors had an idea how much he loved her.

He might have screamed a little and demanded something be done to make her feel better. Maybe they never told him she was getting better. Was it only what he wanted to hear? Everything seemed so scattered and blurry, he could hardly put the pieces together.

Today should have been the beginning of something amazing. His family were to take the next thirty days to repair their ailing home. He was going to show Kathy all the love and attention he had deprived her of.

It was to be his second shot at being an amazing dad. She had loved him despite his shortcomings. How sweet of her. He could still see her blue eyes glow as she grinned every time they had a video chat.

Now that she was gone, how would he make amends? How could he forgive himself for never showing her as much love as he should have? The world seemed so empty at the moment, she was the reason why he stayed alive. She was his Kathy.

"You should go bring the body home"

His eyes opened in bewilderment as he read the message.
Bring her body home? Why? Shouldn't she be buried?

"Do you want your daughter back?" The message asked and Aaron, almost instantly, blurted out three yeses before remembering he had to type it out.

"What's going on Aaron?" That was May trying to sound as cool as she could. She had heard Aaron scream like he just made a new discovery.

May wore a rather cold countenance. She had been quiet from the moment she watched her daughter struggle to hang on to life and subsequently succumb to death's wishes.

She could still not find a way to forgive herself for letting their daughter die. There had been rumors of a terror attack and all security outfits had been monitoring the situation. Target areas had been marked and she had persuaded Kathy to take an alternative route.

How did I make the mistake? How could I have led her away from safety and straight into death's arms?

All these thoughts would remain trapped inside her as she was not the type to breakdown emotionally.

"It's the message again" Aaron let out those all too familiar words.

"What does it want this time?"

"Kathy's body"

"Kathy's body? What for?"

"I have no idea. It only asked if I wanted our daughter back."

"Our daughter... back?"
May began to pace back and forth as she repeated this. It's what she does whenever she was deep in thought and trying to figure things out.

Aaron was eager to know what she was thinking about but thought it best to let her be till she was done. His thoughts also wandered off, rather aimlessly, as he tried to make sense of what the message sent him.

"Could you have been designing the life forever machine?" May asked with her left hand wrapped around him.

Aaron returned a blank stare so she continued "Two days ago, there was talk about the machine being almost ready and today there's this talk from the message."

"I could not have been building the life forever" Aaron tried to brush off the thoughts. "It's simply impossible to give life to a dead body."

"So what is the machine for? The one you're building. The one the message said needed one last piece of the puzzle."

"I don't know, May. All I've done was follow instructions just to protect you and Kathy..."

"And how is that going?" May blurted out. She was beginning to show her frustration. "How is your grand plan to protect us going? Where is Kathy?" She couldn't fight the tears anymore.

All along she had tried to put on a bold face and not cave in to her emotions but at this point, it was an impossible ask. All the tears she had bottled up inside began to pour out like water from a fountain.

"Kathy is in the hospital and we need to bring her home." Aaron said after seeming to be deep in thoughts for some time.

~

On reaching the hospital, Aaron and May were greeted with yet another shock. It had been a day of the unexpected and it didn't look like stopping anytime soon.

"Mr. Williams," a voice called and as they both turned around to see, it was Greg, the Chief Medical Officer.
"I've been waiting for you two. All the papers have been signed, you can go home with your daughter. Please accept my condolences." he added.

Aaron and May exchanged glances. They were unsure of what just played out before their eyes. Aaron wondered how Greg knew of their plans. They hadn't informed anyone. It was just weird.

May on the other hand was quiet and going with the motions. She was tired of questioning the happenings around her and was looking forward to the end of it all.

"You ask questions at the wrong time. Let's just take Kathy home already"

~

"So that's how we took Kathy home," Aaron continued narrating the story "the woman we got the brain juice from is you and your name is Emily."

"Em... Emily?" I was not sure the name sounded familiar.

"Yes Emily." May said rather impatiently "and you were pregnant at the hospital when we took you." she added.

"So where's my body? Am I ..." My mind drifted away as I remembered one of my many dreams. I remembered that Greek god looking man, the two charming kids and el... Eleanor.

Yes, I was in a rocking chair in a beautiful house made of glass but that's all I remember. I had many more questions to ask them both but it seemed they had lost interest in talking to me.

They were obviously tired and it was only proper I made this easy on them. "So what's the plan?" I asked and my question seemed to startle them.

"Yes. The plan to get me back into my original body"

"There's no special plan" Aaron finally let out, "if we turn you off at this end, you should be able to stay with your family without needing to come back here."

It was clear to see that Aaron was treading unknown territory. but how wouldn't he know all about what he built? I'll never know.

"So you're saying i'm not 100 percent sure of getting back fully into my real body?" I questioned.

I would have loved to stay with them, their story was so touching. It must hurt so much to lose your only child but I would be of no use to them.

Kathy's body is paralyzed from the waist down so I would be unable to walk. I just can't put them through all that pain and stress. Plus I can't stress myself either.

After all, I am somebody's daughter too and they won't feel good if they have to lose me but what are my chances?

There was no real certainty that I'll make it back to that glass house. What if I got trapped in that darkness and all I did was run from weird sounds?

"Are you ready to go now?" Aaron asked. The room had been awfully quiet with everyone being deep in thoughts.

I nodded my head and as he reached to pull the plug, I added "Thank you for doing this. I'm sorry for your loss." and without a response, everywhere went dark.

The End.

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