Boston—the next day
I’m in a room with an aquarium.
I’m in an aquarium.
Who are these people talking?
Why are the lights on?
Johnny Givens opened his eyes. He wasn’t exactly sure where he was.
No, he knew he was in a hospital. How he knew that, though, he couldn’t say.
A woman was standing over him. She was smiling.
A nurse. She wore a paisley blue top and white pants.
A man stood next to her. Older. Gray hair. He was frowning.
“Doc?” he muttered.
“I’m not your doctor. My name is Louis Massina. I’m responsible for your being here.”
“You found me?”
The nurse choked back a laugh.
“No. I had you moved here. You needed a new heart.”
“What?”
“Dr. Gleason will be in soon to explain,” said the nurse.
“Can I have some water?” Johnny asked.
The nurse left to fetch it. Massina stared at him, his face stone.
“You’ve lost your legs. Both of them,” Massina told him. “We’re preparing prosthetics.”
“What? My legs? They’re here. I feel them.” Johnny started to push himself up, but a black wave hit him and slammed his head back to the pillow.
“They’re not,” said Massina coldly. “It’s phantom pain. They’ve done a lot of work on you. They’re going to do more. The sooner you can start rehabilitation, the better.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” asked Johnny.
“The heart is designed to last ten years. By then, either you’ll be a candidate for a human one, or we’ll have a better model. I suspect both. It’ll be your choice.”
“What?”
“We’ve given you drugs to speed your recovery. Normally it takes weeks to get stumps. In my day, it was months. Many months. The drugs will make it happen overnight. Literally. Without them you would have died. There are side effects,” Massina added, “but we’ll get into that when you’re well.”
“Who the hell are you?”
“I’m sorry you were hurt,” said Massina. He turned to leave.
“Wait,” demanded Johnny. “My legs—”
“You won’t miss them.”
“What the hell are you saying? How would you know?”
Massina removed his sport jacket, then slowly rolled up the right-hand sleeve of his sweater. He reached his left hand up to his shoulder below the shirt. Then he removed the arm and held it toward Johnny.
The black wave returned. Johnny felt as if he was going to faint. Massina left without saying another word.