Part VI

VI. Do or Die.

“Where is he?” he heard a voice say behind him. “Excuse me, doctor? I’m looking for my son...” He turned around slowly, recognizing the voice. “Mom… Mrs. Silver?” “Yes, how’d you know?” “I uhh, well your son just looks so much like you” “Oh, thank you. Can you tell me how he’s doing? Are you the doctor in charge?” her voice was soft and kind just as he remembered it. He wanted so much to hug her and feel the smell of her hair like he did when he was a kid. “Yes, I am. My name is Richard Smith, I’m the attending cardiologist. Your son needs surgery to replace one of the main arteries in his heart. Is he a smoker?” “Yes, a terrible habit I always told him.” “Well, it is a common problem among smokers.” “So, when will you be operating on him?” He thought about her question for a minute, suddenly realizing what her words meant and knowing that he had to do it. “This afternoon” he said plainly.

He couldn’t think about anything else for the rest of the day. He knew he had to concentrate if he wanted everything to go well with the surgery and he did want everything to go well with the surgery. He couldn’t risk his own body. But he couldn’t help to wonder what would happen if anything went wrong and his body died. Would he die too? But he knew that not operating would still kill him so he had to risk it.

He put on his scrubs, washed his hands and walked into the operating room as he had done so many times before except that for the first time in three years, he was terrified. As he began the procedure, he was a little relieved to see familiar faces in the room. The anesthesiologist was a friend of his and even if he knew he had no chance with her he was a little happy to see Nancy the nurse there. Suddenly all the things he had done for the past 17 years seemed to be coming to an end. He had a strange feeling in his stomach something like a hunch. There was a little voice that kept telling him to walk away even though he knew he couldn’t.

Almost an hour into surgery he had managed to calm down a little and his hands didn’t feel so sweaty and shaky anymore. And then in the blink of an eye something went wrong. All the machines around him began going off and everybody started saying things he couldn’t understand anymore. “He’s crashing, quick doctor…” “Doctor Smith, are you okay?” “We’re losing him…” “Someone page doctor Roberts…”

He couldn’t tell anymore what had happened, suddenly he saw a bright flash of light and the noises around him started to fade away, the voices weren’t so clear anymore. Everything had turned into a blur and muffled sounds. Suddenly Charlie was this 15 year old boy again. The body he was in felt so heavy. It was like waking up again after jumping, except this time he wasn’t waking up, he was dying.

Part V

V. Irony.

Charlie has been living as Dr. Richard Smith for a good couple years now, trying to help him too. Probably not the same way he helped Bill, because while good old Bill needed help getting out of the house, Richard needed help building himself a home. Things at the hospital seemed to be working out just fine for Dr. Smith, he had made a few good friends from his colleagues and since he had started putting a little more heart into helping his patients, everybody at the hospital had started to like him more. As for his personal life, Charlie was still trying hard to find a real connection, somebody whom Richard could truly love. Shelly had really broken his heart; he had come close to getting engaged to her. That was of course until he found out she was cheating on him with a guy from work. There was a nurse at the hospital that brought up this warm and fuzzy feeling inside Richard every time he so much as spoke to her or even saw her. However, Nancy the nurse didn’t seem to be all that interested in Dr. Smith. She had been a witness to the endless parade of women that had come and gone from Richard’s life and she had no intention of being one of them. It was on the day of his three-year anniversary with Richard, that Charlie found out his biggest problem wasn’t getting Nancy the nurse to like him.

It was a Wednesday afternoon and Dr. Smith was bored doing post-op rounds. Nancy the nurse was working that same shift and he thought he could talk her into getting a cup of coffee after work. “Maybe if we start going out she’ll see the nice guy in Richard” he thought. “Hey Nancy, listen maybe after work we could…” “Oh no, there he goes again. Quick Nancy, say something about work before he asks you out” she thought. “I got your charts here doctor, would you like me to give you a preview of your next surgery?” “Oh, sure but I was also hoping that you…” “Okay, name: Charles Silver; age: 33; he had a mild heart attack this morning at work. He was rushed in a couple hours ago and is now stable but the X-rays reveal a problem with one of the main arteries…” “Wait, what did you say his name was?” “Uhh, name, name, name oh yeah, Charles Silver, age 33.”

Richard stood there silent, not knowing what to do or say. Was he to operate on his own body? “How is this possible?” he mumbled. “I know right, people is so stressed out these days they’re having heart attacks so young, I once knew a woman who…” Nancy kept talking in the background without acknowledging the fear and astonishment in Dr. Smith’s eyes. “Nancy, listen to me, what room is the patient in?” he finally managed to utter. “Let’s see, room 241.” “Thank you” he said as he ran in the opposite direction, “Wait! Doctor Smith! Should I book an OR...?”

Richard stood by the door looking into the room and there he was, resting on a hospital bed all alone. Looking slightly pale, he looked so different know. It was so strange seeing his body just laying there almost lifeless. That was not the situation he had imagined for so many years, finding his body like this. He had played in his mind numerous scenarios but none of them involved him performing surgery on himself.

Part IV

IV. “Body jumping”

Charlie found out he had somehow “jumped” out of his body and into someone else’s. How did it happen? What triggered it? Would he ever find his body again? Was his body still living? All those questions ran through his head as he went on living as someone else. Sarah Mitchell had been his first, a twenty-year-old law student. He had traveled a great distance from home. He had made a resolution to not tell anybody about what had happened to him because it was just too strange of a story for anybody to believe it. He hadn’t skip any years though, it was as if his essence had flown off his body and into someone else. It was hard to explain, he didn’t have any strange dreams that he remembered before it happened. He could however remember everything about his life and about the other person’s life too. He realized he knew Sarah’s routine, friends and family. He understood everything going on in her classes and felt everything Sarah did. Like the time he ran into Mrs. Williams her history teacher and he felt like he wanted to punch the woman in the face, a person he’d never met before in his life and yet because Sarah hated her so much, so did he. It was strange living another person’s life but it was interesting at the same time. He often thought about what he would tell his father when he got back that is, if he ever got back. He stayed with Sarah for five years. Then, one night he went to sleep and woke up to an ill feeling, he knew immediately what had happened.

He’d jumped again. Who was it this time? He was very relieved to find he’d jumped into a man’s body this time, what wasn’t so relieving was finding out that he’d jumped into the body of a prisoner. The man had been imprisoned for killing two people in an armed robbery. However bad his actions were, Charlie couldn’t help but felt sorry for this man. There was nothing familiar about him. Being in the prisoner’s body made Charlie realize how lucky he had been growing up with his parents, it made him truly understand what his father always talked about. The prisoner’s soul was full of resentment and pain. “This man isn’t really bad, we are always fast to judge others for their actions without really seeing their motives” Charlie thought. He stayed with the prisoner only for three months, but those three months seemed a lot longer than the five years with Sarah.

The third time Charlie jumped he landed in Bill Johnson’s body. Bill was a good man, a widower with three grown children. Bill was already retired and lived a quiet simple life. He rarely went out, not because he didn’t want to but mostly because it was too hard for him to cope with the idea of moving on after his wife’s death. Mrs. Johnson had died of heart disease two years ago. She was, of course, the one who kept the house running; the one who attended to her children’s problems. She was perfect. The memories of Mrs. Johnson made Charlie think of his own mother, making Bill’s sadness even greater. “This time I can help” Charlie thought. “I’ll help Bill overcome his sadness, I’ll give him youth again” Of course he had to be careful too after all Bill was a 62-year-old retiree. Not to mention, any big changes in Bill’s personality would be easily mistaken by his kids as a cry for help or a sign of distress of some kind. “You know how the kids can get” he said as a joke to Bill.

Charlie made Bill re-discover the joy that friends can bring. He made Bill finally take those Spanish lessons he always wanted to but was too afraid to try. Bill’s sons could see the slow change in their father. One of them even asked at one family dinner what had made him change like that. “It’s like I’m a different person” Charlie answered posing as Bill. “No dad, really. Something must have happened that made you change your perspective of life. I mean you were always a great man but after mom passed away we all thought you’d lost yourself. Don’t get me wrong, we’re all very happy that you’re looking better, but we’re also curious to know what brought this change upon you?” “Well you’ll see, one day I woke up, looked in the mirror and felt as though there was some other person living inside me; a person that wanted a different life.” Everybody at the table saw Bill’s eyes glimmer as the words came out of his mouth. Charlie had meant every word and he knew that Bill would be thankful for the things he’d done after he was gone. Even if Bill Johnson wouldn’t know what had happened.

Charlie stayed with Bill Johnson for 10 years and two months until one day at a family gathering Bill decided he wanted to take a nap and fell asleep in the rocking chair on the back porch. This time it took Charlie a few moments to recover from his trip maybe because Bill was so old by the time he’d left him. Dr. Richard Smith would be his last jump.

Part III

III. Charlie Silver.

Charles “Charlie” Silver was born in a middle-class family, first and only son to Lucas and Anne Silver. Being an only child granted little Charlie some advantages. One of them was having the unconditional love and attention of his parents at all times. See, Charlie had been Lucas and Anne’s little miracle. Anne Silver was a very loving and generous woman, perfect candidate to a mother except that she was unable to have children. Firm believer that she was, she told her husband to never mind what the doctors said, she was going to give birth to a child even if it was the last thing she ever did. After a few years of trying and praying, it happened. Against all odds she had become pregnant. Mr. Silver couldn’t believe his eyes the first time he got to hold his son in his own arms. It isn’t hard to imagine that after Charlie was born, his parents dedicated their lives to giving him everything he could possibly need. But don’t be mistaken, Charlie Silver was no momma’s boy. Mr. Silver worked very hard at making his son understand just how lucky he was to be alive and to have a nice house to live in and a family that could provide him with a few comforts. All and all, Charlie was a normal kid, who had been raised by wonderful parents.

It was on the night before his sixteenth birthday that Charlie’s life changed forever. He went to bed a little after eleven, as he always did. He had been working on his literature assignment, reading H.G. Wells “The Time Machine.” “What an amazing thing time-traveling must be” He thought to himself as he fell asleep.

The next morning Charlie opened his eyes to find he was some place unknown. He wasn’t in his bedroom he knew for sure, it kind of looked like a girl’s room. The wallpaper had a floral print; the bed sheets were of pastel tones and smelled like lavender. He spotted on a corner a collection of china dolls; a few pictures here and there, a mirror hanging on the wall and on the opposite end a white desk and a white wicker chair. He stood from the bed feeling a little dizzy. “Here’s something new, why am I wearing a sleeping gown?” Charlie walked to the mirror and couldn’t help but scream at the sight of a girl staring back at him. “I must be dreaming” he thought. He sat down again closed his eyes and began repeating to himself that it was nothing but a dream. “Wake-up Charles, wake-up!” It took a few minutes before Charlie realized it wasn’t a dream. “What happened last night? Where am I?”

Part II

II. Dr. Smith.

“Doctor Richard Smith is a very successful cardiac surgeon, a rising star one might say. Dr. Smith is a bachelor and therefore someone who very much enjoys his trouble-free life. Lives alone in a very nice condo he bought just last year, very expensive too. Even if he is a cardiologist, troubles of the heart he has naught. Dr. Smith has dated all kinds of women from waitresses to lingerie models. None of these women have mattered at all of course; to him they are just like his scrubs; nice to wear when new, but after a day’s work not worth keeping. I could tell you all about the one time he fell in love. Shelly was her name. But all I will tell you is that it didn’t work out. After that, he made up his mind to never let that happen to him again; and it worked. The problem with shutting down your heart is that a little part of you dies along with it. So, after all the partying, the A-list friends, the expensive clothes and cars, Dr. Smith has nothing but coming home to an empty house every night.” He opened his eyes again. “That’s what I could tell you about Dr. Smith. A sad fella” he thought.