Visiting Hours

She reached for it…

But she had one final thing to say first…

“Darling, I know that this is probably the absolute worst moment to end things with a speech, but the doctors say that you will not remember this tomorrow, and I have so much that I still want to tell you before I leave. So…let’s start at the very beginning…

“I’m still so happy we grew up on the same block as kids. My parents moved to that neighbourhood when I was very young, but I still remember that your family was the kindest one to us. You were a little older than me and I must have been very annoying to have around; absolutely the worst. But you never treated me like an annoying stranger. You were more comfortable treating me as an annoying little sister, wheelchair and all.

“You said something to me when we were in high school, and I think that will explain everything that I want to say to you right now before I leave: ‘I’m gonna make you walk again.’ You actually said that to me when we were in the cafeteria and I was not sure what to say. I wanted to punch you in the face but I realized that you were not acting like a bully. You were the one who helped me with my math and science homework. You were the one who always got a medal when there was a fair or a contest in those topics, and I would just sit back and wonder why I was so lucky to be your friend. No one else heard what you said. That’s what happens when you eat alone between classes because no one wants to be your friend. Absolutely alone…

“Absolutely…

“And then you had to leave. Got a full scholarship to one of the best schools in the country while I was still trying to decide if community college was worth the effort. Instead of just cutting us out of your life, you kept writing to me about things to do with my life. I was happy with the arts and you were not one of those people who kept telling me that I should aim for something else. You never said that I should go for something that would guarantee me a job.

“‘If you are kind to life, life will be kind to you!’

“I kept that letter and left it above my bed in a frame that I could look at every night as graduation approached. I looked at it when I got my diploma, came home, and wondered about my future. I looked at it when I finally decided to do something with my life…and stared at that wheelchair.

“We all heard about the experiments you were involved in, or the ones that people talked about online. No one really believed those headlines until the real medical journals started to write things like, ‘Medical Breakthrough for Spinal Cord Injury Victims,’ or ‘Repair and Possible Reconstruction of Damage for Disabled’. I really did not pay much attention to all the hype – I was teaching at a school by then and I had a hard enough time with keeping a group of toddlers occupied. What made me pay attention is when you mentioned me.

“ ‘There is a friend of mine who deserves more. I’m doing it for her…’

“No big mystery to me at the time, but I never said a thing to my mother or family about what was probably going to change my life. I put it away and left it in the back of my head. There was no reason to think that it was going to work.

“And then you sent me a plane ticket.

“Even at that point, I think that I was naïve about what you were going to do. I had to move a lot of things around to head out to meet you, but my mother could read the messages like the tea leaves in her cups.

“‘I think that he is going to propose something to you…,’ she giggled. And I just laughed and laughed. ‘He barely remembers me, mom.’ I was clearly trying to protect my own emotions when I said that. And I sat on that short flight that felt like the longest trip in the world, wondering what was going to come next.

“I guess I should get to the end of this before the day is done.

“It was only the two of us and one other assistant. Did that make a difference? Maybe if you had been a little more careful, we would not be in this room and you would still be able to smile and make me laugh. You even put me into a very nice hotel and had me out to dinner the next day. I thought that you were going to propose.

“I really thought you would…

“‘Are you ready to make history?’

“You really said that, right there in that dining room that looked like something out of a bad 80s dramady. I had the soup spoon just hovering over my bouillabaisse when you said it and could not really speak.

“‘What?’

“‘History. Remember what I said to you? Remember what I said?’

“It is amazing to recall how quickly it all came back to me. It is also amazing to me now how I could look at that chair and realize that it would soon be a thing of the past. I started to cry, weeping over that heady broth of fish and you handed me a handkerchief that you wore in your suit beyond just affectation. I was ready for whatever you had to do.

“Were you?

“I guess you were… You fell in my arms and I didn’t even need you to tell me who the other test subject was. You found the right one, long before anyone else could step in. You found it.

“You. Always you…

“They said you will never wake up and that you wanted it to be this way. I had to be the one you chose, right? You took on a duty and now, it’s my turn. I have to ‘pull the plug,’ as they say. And then, you will probably go after another day. And you cannot even hear what I’m saying, can you?

“All I can say has been said.”

She reached for the switch, with her eyes wet with pain.

He knew...