“There’s a little bit of sensitivity,” Rod said.
“We couldn’t put any TV shows on!” said Wendy.
Craig laughed.
“Same for me,” he said. “And sneezing!”
“Oh, don’t get me started on that!” said Rod.
The two men sat adjacent to one another in the waiting room of the cardiologist. Wendy was holding Rod’s hand. She patted it periodically, reassuringly.
“What’s your name?” Rod asked.
“Craig,”
The men shook hands.
“How long is yours?” Craig asked.
Rod looked down the buttonhole of his shirtline.
“Maybe fifteen, maybe twenty centimeters…” he said through the material.
Craig looked down at his own shirt.
“Yeah, same with me,” he said.
“You have a stent or a transplant?” Craig asked.
“Transplant,” said Rod.
“Same here!”
“Mechanical?”
“Yeah, the Steamville eight thousand,”
“Me too!”
“Remarkable technology isn’t it?” Rod said.
“Tell me about it! I cannot believe I have… Well… Virtually a Robot inside me, pumping away and keeping me alive,”
Rod looked at Wendy. She leaned forward.
“It was a case of nick of time for Rod,” she began. “He had seven hundred thousand pumps left before his old heart was set to stop,” she explained. Rod nodded. She rubbed his hand.
“Is that good?” Craig asked. “I’m a bit thick on the math,” he explained.
“Well…” Rod began. “The heart pumps about a hundred thousand times a day,” he said as he cleared his throat. “The doctors reckon I had about, just under seven hundred thousand pumps left, as Wendy says. That means I had about a week left before I was set to drop dead,” he said.
“Unbelievable,” said Craig. “How do they know all of this?”
“What do you mean?” asked Rod.
“How do they know how many beats a heart has left?”
“There’s a test you can do when you have an organic human heart. They take a blood sample and can give a reading. I forget the name of the test but I had it done about… What was it, Wendy? Ten years ago?” he asked. She nodded.
“I’ve got eighteen years left based on my readings,” she said. We’re making arrangements now for my own transplant but there is a very long waiting list. I don’t want to wait too long, so I’m signed up for one now and the doctors say there could be an availability in the next three years, which will suit me down to the ground,” she said.
“Pump line reading!” Rod remembered.
“Yeah that’s the one,” Wendy confirmed. “We had a pump line reading test done. Cost a thousand dollars but worth the price to know the date… you know what I mean?”
The three of them laughed.
"Yeah because these steamville's take about six years to manufacture," Rod explained. “Wendy needed to go on the waiting list.”
Craig nodded.
"Yeah, I remember the doctor explained that to me when I went under. He said I was very lucky to have one on the line ready to be inserted."
Wendy began unbuttoning her blouse. Craig looked around the waiting room. The other patients were staring off into the void of the daytime TV that played at a volume above acceptable. Rod watched on as she unslipped button after button, he said nothing.
"If you look at my chest," she explained. She exposed her bra. "I have synthetic skin outside a metallic rib cage - I have all of this inserted in expectation of the transplant," she said, pointing at the skin around the bra.
"Can you remove the fake skin, Wendy? Show Craig what they do for the next generation of transplant receivers," he requested, turning to Craig. "Get a load of this mate, you won't believe it. You know how they put in the Steamville inside our regular chest cavities, well look at what they are doing for now..."
"It's okay, I'm all good..." Craig began to protest. Wendy didn't pay attention. She grabbed a heap of skin on her chest and removed it as if it were putty from an uncooked cast. The fake skin peeled away showcasing a metallic rib cage with a series of red and yellow LED lights emitting signals back and forth.
"This will power the Steamville twenty-three thousand which is currently in development in Geneva. It will act as a prolonged battery to keep the device in motion forever... Well, that's what the scientists say anyway. Whether that's true or not," she said patting away at the exposed frame on her chest. Beneath the metallic ribs, Craig could make out her organic heart pumping away.
"Wow," he said. He wanted to look away but the technology fascinated him. "Isn't that dangerous?" he asked.
"How do you mean?" Wendy asked.
"Your heart is pretty exposed there," Rob said.
"Oh, there is a layer of fiber plexi super glass between the spaces in the rib cage where the heart sits behind. They will remove all of that when the Steamville gets put in place. That's just because the fake skin is not as protective as natural skin. So If I go out in the sun and the raise beats down on my chest it's not good for the heart, that type of thing. Not that I'm getting much sunshine these days," she began to laugh. Rod patted her hand back and gave a snort.
"So the test revealed you only have sixteen years of pumps left on the current heart without a transplant?" Craig asked.
"That's right. What’s the test called again?...”
“Pump line reader,” said Rod.
“The pump line reader told me that,” she said. “But you with your Steamville, that thing will beat forever. You blokes are lucky," she buttoned up the final button on her blouse, hiding the neckline where the exposed chest cavity began. She then folded the fake skin into a neat square and placed it in her handbag. Craig pretended not to notice.
"I have to get it checked every year," Craig said.
"Really?" Rob wondered.
"Yeah,"
"Those things are meant to outlive us, they'll keep beating even when we're one foot in the grave," Rod explained.
"Well, that's not what the doc said about mine," Craig folded his arms.
"That's incredible," said Rod.
"There is an iodized magnaforce or magnabolt," Wendy said.
"Magnaflex," Rod corrected.
"Magnaflex battery in them," Wendy continued. "Supposed to last donkey's years and then some," she explained.
"Mine just runs on an ordinary voltage," Craig said. "At least that's what they said to me when the procedure ended."
"It's a Steamville eight thousand?" Rod asked.
"Yes," Craig confirmed.
"Might want to check that out then mate,"
"I will,"
The receptionist rose from her desk and approached the awaiting patients.
"Craig Tilson?" she inquired.
Craig stood from his chair and turned to shake Rod's hand.
"All the best with your recovery," he said.
"You too, here's to living forever," he said. Craig smiled weakly. Wendy gave him a nod and a wink.
Mechanical ooze was appearing on the outer layer of her shirt, a result of her exposed ribcage underneath.
"You'll have to change your shirt wendy, you're leaking," Rod explained.
"I know, Rob," she said.
Great story!