The New Brain

The New Brain

“It went well. We didn’t have any unforeseen consequences. All went as planned. She should be in her room in a few moments. You can see her then.” Dr. Freeman left me alone. I’d been waiting for hours for this good news.

Janie was asleep when I went in, her head covered in a gauze turban. She looked so peaceful. Hard to believe she was in surgery for over eighteen hours.

Finally she woke, blinked her eyes a few times, glanced my way.

“Hey, you. How’re you doing?” I squeezed her hand.

“Mmm.” Then she was out again. She lay peaceful and serene as if nothing had happened.

Dr. Freeman told me the transplant had been successful. The first such surgery ever done. It was no small feat to take someone else’s brain, then insert it into another’s cranium. So many little connections to make, drilling into a hard skull. Scooping out the old brain, sliding in a replacement.

Janie’s brain was riddled with cancer, inoperable they said. So this operation was a last-ditch effort to save her life. I would be glad for just a few more hours, days or months with my lady.

My vigil by her bedside went on for many days. Janie lay motionless. Basic life functions went on, a good sign they said. Then one day she sat up.

“I need some paper and a pen,” she stated.

“Well, okay! Be right back.” I ran down to the gift shop, purchased some flowery paper and a pink pen then raced back to her room.

She grabbed the paper and pen then started to scrawl some mathematical functions. Page after page were filled with these math formulae.

“Janie, what are you doing?” I questioned her after an hour.

“My name is Albert Einstein, sir. Who are you?”

W/C 302