Instinctively my hand goes to his shoulder, “Hey, come on Kade, we don’t know for sure; where is this shredder?” I ask.
“He points to one of the concrete structures, “Just behind that funnel.”
“Well come on, let’s go see,” I say, trying to remain positive. He shakes his head, “Listen, you hear that sound?” I hear it, like a mechanized scraping in the distance. I nod my yes. “That’s the noise the car shredder makes.”
…….
Kade drives toward the funnel with a despondent and heavy heart. The metallic scraping sound increases in ominous volume as we edge forward. I watch his body stiffen and tense as we get closer, “Come on, we have to face this,” I say; I can’t reassure him, but I can support him.
He maneuvers the vehicle around the funnel.
“STOP!” The word erupts from his mouth like a volcanic blast.
A mobile crane is within feet of the car shredder. It has fork like claws and in their grasp is suspended the hospital trolley, swaying gently on its way toward destruction.
Kade slams his hand on the horn and leaves it there.
But the crane continues to trundle toward the shredder.
……
Kade and I jump from the cab and sprint toward the mobile crane, yelling – “STOP!”
It doesn’t.
As I get closer, I can see Kelly in the cab, she’s totally immersed in the job and wearing headphones – no wonder she can’t hear us.
I wave frantically, but in vain, I’m not yet in her field of vision.
The crane stops when the trolley is positioned directly over the mouth of the car shredder.
“DO NOT RELEASE IT!” Screams Kade.
His words fall on deaf ears.
The trolley sways over the grinding teeth of the mammoth shredder.
I exert myself one hundred and ten percent and make it to the front of the cab before Kade. I throw myself up onto a ledge and pummel the windshield with my fists.
......
I’m too late.
I look away as the mechanical claw drops the hospital trolley into the mouth of the shredder.
……
Kelly looks confused as she takes off her headphones and opens the cab window, “Kade, what are you doing, why’d you turn the shredder off?” she shouts.
A surge of hope flows through me as I note the silence and see the trolley, resting unharmed on the top of the car shredder.
Kade walks toward the vehicle, his face like thunder. Kelly jumps down from the cab, “What’s with you guys, I want rid of that junk.”
“It’s not junk!” says Kade, jumping into the cab.
……
The mechanical claws take the trolley in an almost gentle clasp as Kade carefully, lovingly lowers it to the ground.
“What’s he doing, that’s shredder food, he knows that,” says Kelly, grappling to understand the situation.
……
There’s a potent tension in the air. Kelly can sense how pissed her brother is with her and she can also feel his fear as he walks slowly toward the hospital trolley.
No one speaks.
Kade crouches down.
……
There’s a significant space between the bed and the base of the trolley. In this space sits a metallic box, welded tight to the trolley’s fixtures. Kade touches it and turns to me, “It’s cold, refrigerated,” he says.
“Look – can you guys fill me in on what this is about,” says Kelly, with an impatient tone.
“I’ll do that.” We all turn to see Thomas’s hologram standing behind us.
It’s still a shock for me to see my male self walk with a confident stride.
……
Thomas positions himself behind the trolley – Kade and Kelly’s mom proceeds to communicate via him.
“You have to see me as I am now. Be strong.”
Kade stands between Kelly and I and puts his arms around us both. He pulls us into him – it’s a spontaneous, supportive gesture of strength and unity.
A front panel of the box slides to the left, revealing a glass front – behind which floats a brain, suspended in a plasma like substance.
A sound, like a heavy breath falls from Kelly. Kade strengthens his grip on our shoulders.
“They have isolated my brain.”
The organ pulsates to the rhythm of Thomas’s words.
“My intelligence and love for you remain.”
Kade whispers, “Your father said, we want one of the best brains in the business organizing our daughter’s wedding.”
“My physical body remains cryogenically frozen, overseas.”
“Can you hear me, Mom?” asks Kade.
“Yes. But you must listen. I have no time for conversation. I need your help; we must become a team. The event that I am here to organize is our only chance of freedom from The Surgeon.”
The Surgeon 21
Start from the beginning
