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Dr. Osborne was on his way to the morgue in
the morning when he heard laughter coming from there. He was pretty sure only
Jeff should be in there at this time, and was slightly worried he'd gone mad
from all his time alone with the corpses. Jeff was young after all. When he
opened the door however he saw Jeff sat on a chair next to the autopsy table
and a man sat on the table itself. He was wearing a leather jacket and a hat
from what Osborne could make out; his back was turned and he was laughing.
“What's going on in here?” Dr Osborne
asked. Jeff’s job description stated specifically that no unauthorised people
were to be allowed entry to the morgue. It was pretty much his one and only job
and he’d seemingly failed at it. Jeff nearly jumped out of his seat and the
unknown man looked around. He looked almost familiar but Osborne couldn't quite
place him.
“H-hello Dr. Osborne,” Jeff said to him, “I
was just talking to Trent here about some of his adventures.” Jeff explained,
motioning to Trent.
“Trent?” Osborne asked, starting to go a
bit pale, “Why the only Trent in here is the stiff in that free-”. He had
looked over at the freezer in question, and he found it was open. “Well...just
who is he then, and what happened to Mr. Saxon's body?”. Dr. Osborne demanded.
Now it was the other man's turn to speak. Trent, for it was he, turned around
and saw a fairly tall African American man staring at him in disapproval. He
was clearly not expected. Not that he expected to be. He was supposed to be
dead.
“You're looking at it doc” he said before
hopping off the table and shaking Dr. Osborne’s hand,
“Trent Saxon at your service. You might
want to rethink your autopsy procedure by the way, it sure hurt when you cut me
up.” he joked. Dr. Osborne just stood there with a dumb look on his face,
completely perplexed. Trent turned to Jeff and pointed at Osborne’s face,
“Hey that's the look you pulled Jeff. What
is it with people and pulling that face at me?”
This just caused Jeff to laugh, which
brought Osborne back into the room. He looked Trent over, and noticed
something.
“Wait a second”, he said, holding up
Trent's hand, “You're missing a piece of your finger. Trent made it out in one
piece, amazingly. Now just who are you?”. Trent took his hand away and put it
into his pocket. He produced a severed fingertip and held it up.
“Here it is. I have a bet going on with
Jeff. We worked out the details overnight”. Trent explained.
“A bet?”, replied Osborne, “Just what is
going on here?” He was finding it just as hard as Jeff had to process
everything that was going off in front of him.
“Well”, said Trent, putting the finger back
in his pocket, “if my finger grows back, then I get a date with Jeff's sister.
He showed me a picture of her and she's pretty cute. Plus he really thinks it
can't grow back.”
“Well he's quite right”, said Osborne,
“fingers can't grow back and dead people can't get up. Especially after they've
been autopsied on!” Dr. Osborne flustered. This caused Trent to sigh.
“Say Doc, is there any way I can convince
you that I am Trent Saxon, in the flesh?” Dr. Osborne thought it over for a
minute, rubbing his chin in concentration.
“Well”, he decided eventually, “Where was
your corpse found? No information has been released yet.” Trent whistled and
put his hands behind his head.
“I'd love to answer that, but wasn't I
already dead at that point?”
“Ah, but you said you couldn't die.” Dr.
Osborne pointed out. He felt that he had already won the argument before it
even had a chance to begin. Whoever this man before him was, there was no way
that it could be Trent Saxon. It still left the mystery of what happened to
Trent’s body, but that could be handled later.
“Well, I can and I can't. I die but I'll
always come back. When I die it's like I'm just asleep. If something that bad
happens to me anyway. I stabbed myself in the heart for Jeff over there without
any trouble, but my brain was pretty damaged in the crash, and my body was
absolutely mangled. Even if you can't die, would you want to be awake for that
pain?” Trent asked. Even when dead it was like some small part of his brain was
functioning and he had instincts that other people didn’t have. It knew when it
was safe to revive him and when to wait a little longer. Osborne did think that
was a good point. Even if you can't die, you can still feel pain. There are
points where pain is incredibly intolerable.
“You stabbed yourself in the heart?” Dr.
Osborne asked him.
“He sure did”, spoke up Jeff, who had been
watching all this quietly. He pulled out a scalpel and threw it at Trent. Trent
caught it and then plunged it into his chest, like he had the night before. Dr.
Osborne grimaced at the sight.
“Go on, take it out, so you know it's not
fake”, Trent said to Dr. Osborne. Osborne did as he was told. He pulled out the
scalpel and checked it over. He also checked out the wound on Trent's chest. It
was right where his heart should be, and the scalpel was covered in blood. It
was totally solid and even he couldn't deny that he really had just seen a man
shove a scalpel into his chest and appear completely unharmed. Into his heart
no less.
“Okay”, Osborne conceded, “You may be
Trent, you may not. Either way you certainly do seem to be pretty hard to kill.
But you have to appreciate how difficult this is for a person to take in.” he
said with a little exasperation. Nearly everything that medical science had
told him was being disproved right in front of his eyes. Trent cracked a smile.
“Well your boy Jeff there took it pretty
well” Trent said, pointing at Jeff. Jeff stood up and walked to Trent and
opened his arms, practically taking the man in.
“Well it's just so freakin' AWESOME. I'd
love to not be able to die, wouldn't you?” he said to Dr. Osborne. “Imagine
what you could see, and do”. Dr. Osborne sighed and shook his head.
“No I don't think it would be all that
good”, he said, “imagine all the people you love dying. I mean, you'd get bored
eventually wouldn't you? Your heart would break again and again. You wouldn't
be able to stay around people because you'd just be so afraid of losing them.
Right, Trent?” Trent laughed out loud at this and stuck his arm around Dr.
Osborne.
“Man you could not be more wrong. When I was
growing up, we were confined to just this one planet. I saw it all, and then
when I had done. I went again! Things had already changed, there was already
more to see. Eventually we humans finally got around to discovering faster than
light travel and space was opened up to us. There was even more to see and to
do! By the time you've “done everything there is to do”, you realise there's
even more to do, even more to discover. Humanity changes in the blink of an
eye. Look back to the invention of the internet, do you think people even
twenty to thirty years before then would ever believe what the internet could
do? Hell when I was growing up we didn't even believe in faster than light
travel. We didn't think we'd ever truly see the stars.” Trent said. His voice
was full of wonder and excitement. Even after everything he had done and seen
his eyes were still open to new possibilities. One thing his travels had taught
him was that space really was near infinite. There was always more to discover
and he never tired of discovery. His face took a more sombre and sad expression
before he continued, “Yes, you can easily lose people you love. Yes, it still
hurts when they die, or they go. It hurts anyone when someone leaves their
life. It doesn't make a difference how long you've lived. If anything I'm
thankful that it still hurts. That I'm still capable of feeling that loss. I'm
thankful I even met them. Even if they left my life, for a time they were in
it, they made it better. They made me better. Think of all the people you've
met in your life, how they improved you, or changed you. Now think of how many
people you could meet who could do that in two lifetimes. Now think about ten,
and just keep going. It is always, always sad, but it really does still make me
happy they were there. That they cared about me. That I was able to love, and
still am. I don't think I could ever get tired of that. I hope I don't at
least.” Trent said, looking away wistfully as memories of his departed friends
came back to him. Dr. Osborne thought about his wife, and his kids. How much
they had changed him, and how glad he was to know them, and be loved by them.
He thought back to the friends he had made over the years. Trent was right, he
realised. It hurt when someone left your life, but he knew he was glad that
they had been in his life. He knew that he was glad he had met them, and he
knew that he hoped he always would be. “Enough of this depressing talk!”, Trent
said, slapping Osborne on the back, causing him to jump in surprise. “I’m pretty
hungry and I need to find me another ship. It's also been a while since I was
back home, so I need someone to come with me and tell me where to get them.
Who's in?” Jeff ran up to him, almost literally jumping at the chance.
“I'd like to come, my shift ends when the
doctor turns up anyway.” Jeff said, pointing to Dr. Osborne.
“Well that's one down”, Trent replied,
turning to face Dr. Osborne, “How about you doc? You want to come?”
“I'd like to,” replied Dr. Osborne, “but I
have to start work now, I've only just got in. Maybe I can chat with you later”
he offered. He was very curious about Trent and would welcome the chance to ask
him questions. He wouldn’t have minded studying him a little too, to see what
made him tick. There might have been biological evidence to suggest why Trent
was the way he was.
“Sure thing Doc” Trent replied, pulling up
the collar of his jacket and tipping his hat. “Until later then.” Jeff followed
him out the door leaving Dr. Osborne on his own. Osborne poked his head out the
door after them. “By the way, the name's Osborne. Daniel Osborne, not 'Doc'!”,
he shouted at them. Trent raised his hand to show he got the message and
continued on the way out, Jeff beside him.
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This is one of my absolute favourite chapters just because of the speech that Trent gives to Doctor Osborne. I remember when I was that optimistic about life. I should, I wrote it after all.
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