SLAM!

EDITED FOR CONTENT

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The Etruscian aide led me through a labyrinth of white walls, to the back of the building, where no one ever wanted to go. Not visitors, at least. The man, like all his kind, looked exactly like a human male, but for his silver skin tone, and the fact that his life spanned eons, unlike our own very limited one-hundred and twenty-years. Intelligent beings, the Etruscian; friendly without being creepy, and completely non-threatening (considering they were congenital eunuchs).

I peer into your eyes; hazel depths once lively, now dead. How did this happen to us? This… war? I move away silently, rigidly, afraid to startle you from your slumber. That's right: afraid. Even though it is me with closed fists, this time, I am still afraid. Bastard! I exhale, frustrated with your dead silence; frustrated with my own weakness for being there, at all. I should have left you before we ever said 'Hello.' Anger consumes me, propelled by familiar fear, formerly stuffed inside. Since I took Marissa away, since I left you.

She's sixteen now; you didn't even stick around long enough to know her. I shake my head violently, trying to dispel the memory of your skinny carcass, hanging in the rafters of our garage. Fifteen years ago. Still, it seems like yesterday. The white spandex clad Etruscian claimed they were all set; I took his proffered seat in the white gilded pod, repeating that I was, indeed, 'fine.'

Yeah, I replied that I was 'fine', just as I always do, wiping tears behind my glasses away. I had been so broke over the years, fighting the estate attorneys, trying to enforce the new 'Death by Suicide' laws, trying to get legal ownership of our joint properties. Not for me, no, but for Marissa. My husband's known infidelity went against the joint property laws, as well as the insurance policies. To top it all off, his last will and testament left every dime, every property even, to his mistress. I was able to stop the policies from paying out to her, but still the courts require his live signature in order to uphold the new 'Death by Suicide' laws created in 2067; the laws that, for once, were in my favor. This was it, I thought; the big shebang. The final sendoff. Fifteen years I have been hoping for this very moment, relishing the act of finally having my revenge.

The automatic doors slid open, silently, revealing two doctors. Marilyn slithered into the room behind them. Nastily, I thought, the old bitch has gotten more plastic surgery, I see. Really! My husband had no taste, choosing that trollop over me, all those years ago; serves her right that he killed himself while still married to me. That I was strong enough to fight her claims on our property. Not a dime; not one dime!

The Etruscian nodded his head as the reverse-osmosis machine began to fill Ernie's body with fluids; in essence, breathing life back into his cold, very dead, but cryogenically preserved body. One hour, and lifelessness became a quasi-existence. Ernie's impossibly pale face began to darken, pixilated with deep bronze melanin once again, even without his daily golf matches.

I watched with glee as Ernie's eyes flickered not an hour later; striding with confidence up to him, anticipating his quick return and demise. Sucker thinks his plan worked; that I am here for HIM. Pen in hand, I approached the 'jerk'- that is what I called him, never by name- forcing the pen in his still-stiff fingers. "Sign these for your release," I said, trying to tone down my excitement, as he scrawled his signature on the multitude of court documents that would ensure my freedom. Glorious freedom- legally!

I walked away immediately, leaving his grieving mistress to ponder why her two bratlings would get nothing from Ernie's estate. Man, I love science, I thought, as the whir of the reverse-osmosis machines petered, then died out altogether. Don't you?

So long, Ernie.