The following is the beginning of my short novel, Season of Bliss. The full novel can be found here.
Sasha shivered as she tugged at the thin gown. Why did
examination rooms always have to be cold?
“Ms. Merigole.” Doctors excelled at giving grim news. She
assumed they had a lot of practice. Her doctor gestured at a series of lines on
a monitor, as if she could understand what they meant. Things weren’t good, but
she’d known that for a while.
The thin bed mattress adjusted itself as she shifted. In
theory, the automatic adjustments made a patient more comfortable, but she hadn’t
felt comfortable for a long time.
“We’ve been over this,” he said. He was concerned. If only
she shared the feeling.
“I know, Doctor.” They’d had this conversation before.
He chewed his lip for a minute.
“I’m extending your prescription,” he said at last. “You should
continue taking them, even while blissing.”
“Doctor, I won’t be—”
“Sasha.” In the almost six years she had been his patient,
he’d never called her by her first name. “The damage to your heart is
considerable but not irreversible.”
She nodded. “I’ll take the pills.”
“The pills keep the pain to a minimum, but they won’t save
you. The damage is too extensive.” He clicked off the monitor. “You need to
bliss.”
Bliss. Sasha hated that word. “That won’t happen, Doctor.”
“If you don’t, you probably won’t survive.”
Her shoulders sagged. What could she do? Without Andrew,
there could be no bliss.
The doctor tapped his tablet and sent the prescription to
Sasha’s own tablet, which beeped inside her purse.
“I also want to give you this.” Her tablet beeped again. “It’s
an address to a blissing center.”
She closed her eyes, trying to control her irritation. “Doctor…”
“Sasha.” He tapped his tablet with his pen. He was older.
His last bliss must have been years before. So was Sasha’s, for that matter,
but for different reasons.
“It’s not far from where you live. Just stop by. Please?”
Sasha stood. “I’ll take the pills.”
“We have had this discussion. What you are going through is
normal. Others—”
“Thank you, Doctor.”
Sasha waited for him to continue to protest. Instead, he
just nodded. “Contact me if you have any questions.”
He left the examination room so she could change back into
her clothes.
Once the door closed, she picked up the tablet. She didn’t
bother looking at the address before deleting it.
The wet grass soaked Sasha’s dress as she knelt. She brushed
the leaves from the stone. The rain had stopped just as she arrived. The city
superstructure loomed above, without overshadowing the graveyard. Thunder
reverberated in the distance.
This would be her third bliss without him. During the last
bliss, two years ago, paramedics found her in her apartment after her tablet
notified them of her distress. She recalled begging them to leave her, but they
wouldn’t. The woman stroked Sasha’s forehead, telling her it would be okay.
Both she and the man with her were on the edge of tears, and Sasha remembered
they held hands at one point. They looked older. They probably hadn’t blissed
in some time, but remained bound together until death. Watching them made her
feel worse.
She had stood to leave when her tablet chimed. She looked at
the ID and smiled as she answered. “Hi, Kay.”
The background behind Kay bounced as she walked while
staring at her tablet. From the looks of it, she was in the prime minister’s
home. “Oh God, have you seen the news?”
Sasha smiled. Kay was never one for small talk. “I’m fine,
Kay. How are you?”
“Sorry, but you need to see this.” Kay spoke to someone off
camera, but Sasha couldn’t hear what she said. “We’ll catch up later. Oh, and the
boss wants to hire you.”
“Me? Why?”
“The paper you published in school. Remember?”
Sasha had written a number of papers, but only one caught
widespread notice. “Not…”
“Yes, girl, that one.”
“But… but that one was about what if someone from a lost
human colony visited us.”
“Exactly.”
Sasha looked up. Along the sidewalk near the graveyard, a
young man in an expensive suit held a tablet tightly, as if he were afraid it
would get away from him. Several others crowded around him, entranced by
whatever it was they watched. On the other side of the street, an elderly couple
held hands as they watched their own tablet. Even from that distance, Sasha
could tell they looked grim.
Sasha looked back at Kay’s image. “What’s going on?”
“Like I said, watch the news.” Kay disconnected. She always
had a flare for the dramatic, even as a schoolgirl. For her, everything was an
emotional uproar, blown out of proportion.
But something different was under Kay’s playful tone,
similar to when Andrew died.
Sasha brought up the news. Less than a minute later, she
knew nothing would be the same.
