Ones and Twos Ch. 11
“Hey,” Patty whispered to Morty early in the morning. “You awake?”
“No.”
“Today’s my day.”
“What?”
“I’m going in for surgery right now.”
His eyes were instantly open. “You mean the transfer?”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I almost didn’t believe it myself. I didn’t want to be a nervous wreck our last day together.”
“Our last day?”
“Well, I mean, like this… in these bodies.”
“Do you have to leave right now?”
“I’m afraid so.”
He looked her over, she was already dressed. “When will I see you again?”
“I’m not sure. If everything goes alright, you should be able to visit me tomorrow.”
He didn’t know what to say, “Well good luck. I’m sure everything will be fine.”
“I know it will.” She kissed him on the cheek.
He looked into her eyes and lifted his head to kiss her lips, but she stopped him.
“No, I want your first taste of my lips to be young and smooth. I want to start my new life with this new body and this new feeling I have for you.”
“Okay.”
“See you soon.” She kissed his cheek again and then left.
Morty laid back down in bed, but couldn’t get back to sleep. He hadn’t realized how much he’d come to rely on her, and the smallest possibility of the procedure going wrong frightened him to death.
The next day was hard for Morty. He couldn’t concentrate. Every time he tried to meditate and breathe, he’d think of Patty. I hope she’s doing okay, he’d think to himself. He approached Sophie and asked her how Patty was doing. She could see the worry in his eyes.
“She’s doing fine, Morty. She just got out of surgery and it was a complete success. No problems at all. She still needs time to rest, so you can’t see her until tomorrow morning, but I’ll be sure to let you know as soon as she can have visitors.”
“Thanks, Sophie.”
“No problem.”
That night, Morty’s sleep was restless. He awoke suddenly to his door opening. It was bright outside with a dark silhouette standing in the doorway. He squinted to bring the black body in view. It walked forward and Morty saw that it was Patty. He was so happy to see her until he noticed the scowl on her face and realized that she was still old.
She began screaming at him, “How could you do this to me? How could you?”
“What- what do you mean?”
“Look at me! I’m a freak!” Suddenly her head lifted off of her body and the veins in her neck became tentacles which she used to move her head off of her body and onto the bed. “HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME?” she kept screaming. She crawled up his body and wrapped her tentacles around his neck. “WHY?”
Morty woke up in a sweat. What a horrible nightmare. It was still early; too early to check on Patty. He got up and splashed water on his face, then sat down on his couch. He turned on the entertainment center and tried to take his mind off of things, but he knew he wouldn’t be better until he saw Patty in the morning.
BEEP BEEP. The com woke Morty, who found himself asleep on the couch. He walked over and answered it. “Sophie?”
“Yes, Morty, it’s me. Patty’s awake. You can come see her now.” She gave him directions and he rushed as quickly as he could to her room in the post-op area.
He stopped outside the door and looked in the room through the glass. There was a girl laying there on the bed. A young, sixteen year old girl he didn’t recognize. She turned to him and the light in her blue eyes told him it was truly her. She smiled widely. She was beautiful. Her head was completely covered in bandages except for her face, which was without make up and looked as though she’d been crying a lot. There were several IVs going into her, replenishing the fluids lost during the procedure. Morty walked in. “Hi.”
“Hey,” she said with a young, innocent voice.
“How do you feel?”
“Like my head just got smashed by a truck,” she said letting out a chuckle.
He laughed, “Well you don’t look it. You look beautiful.”
“I know. I’m pretty again. I can’t believe it.”
“You’ve always been pretty, Patty, just now your outside shows it too.”
“Thank you, Morty. Thank you so much. I couldn’t have made it through this without you. You’ve been such a mind-easer these few weeks.”
“Same to you, Patty.”
“Come here.”
He moved next to her, face to face. “Yes?”
“I wanted to wait until I was better, but I just can’t.” She wrapped her arms around his head and pulled him to her, kissing him with her red, plump lips. Morty wanted to pick her up and swing her around the room, but contained himself. “That was worth the wait,” she said.
“Hey, wait until I get my lips back. You won’t know what hitcha.”
She laughed, but then furrowed her brow.
“Are you alright?”
“I’m just a little out of sorts right now. This headache is getting worse. I think I should get some sleep.”
“Okay, you sleep now, darling.”
“Can you stay here for a while?”
“I could watch you sleep forever.”
She smiled as her eyes closed and she fell asleep.
He looked her over, this newborn sixteen year old child. Chronologically, her body was 44 years younger then he was, but mentally, they were the same age. She looked like an angel. He tried to think back on what he looked like when he was 16. He’d probably be drooling all over the place when he slept. He stayed with her for over an hour, then realized he had his own schedule to keep. His surgery was in two days and he had to be in tip top shape to make sure everything went perfectly.