The Reincarnation

Abner Wagner picked up the magazine that had arrived in the mail. Only way to know what’s really going on in the world, he thought as he opened it.

He read about a fire. A terrible fire. Hundreds of children dead everywhere. Abner could barely look at the pictures, they were so gruesome. What a tragedy, he thought. The Church again.

He turned the page. Another catastrophe. He flipped another page. Another disaster. The magazine seemed to Abner like it was ten feet away from him, like he was looking at it through the wrong end of binoculars, the pictures and the print on it too small to see clearly. Fuckin’ world’s going to hell, he thought, throwing the magazine aside.

He picked up his gin and tonic and took a deep drink, feeling the bubbles caress his throat. Thinking about the state of the world and putting his drink down, the thought was replaced by another.

Oh well, what can you do?

Xiau Ping looked at her patient. She had come so far, yet over the last few days she was losing hope. Once she had overcome the physical aspects of waking her patient, she had passed off the rest of the delay as a side-effect of the long quiescence her patient had endured. She didn’t know what to expect. After she had gotten a heartbeat, she waited patiently for consciousness to return. With every hour that clicked past, she grew a little wearier. With every day that passed, her expectations diminished slightly more.

Although she knew her thoughts should be focused exclusively on her patient, they were currently wrapped up in one egoistic sentiment – she had finally caught up with the Church.

Then it happened.

Her patient’s eyelids fluttered, their eyes opened. Her patient looked up at her. Her patient asked her a question.

“What the hell’s wrong with me?”