Chapter 2: Heart Notes “I love you more than you can imagine,” he said while gliding his thumb across her lower lip, fondling the surface to prepare it for a passionate kiss to come. “Not sure whether I should be happy or insulted you underestimate the power of my imagination,” she smiled lazily, closed her eyes, and slowly sucked his finger. *** “It doesn’t matter what you did, honey. I love you with all my heart and that’s the only thing that matters to me, you hear me?” her mother whispered. “Even if I become a serial killer, a criminal… a Republican?” “Yes, even then,” she laughed and hugged her even more. *** “I do,” he responded. “Do you take this man to—” “I do, I do!” she wrapped her arms around her husband-to-be’s neck. *** The affection Sylvia encountered throughout her entire life nourished her body and created an addict hungry for more. Literally. The love from her first boyfriend left her satiated for a month. Her family’s unconditional love was an IV gradually delivering sustenance that kept her alive. A junkie that she’d become, she distilled particles of love that resuscitated her feeble heart back into its biological duty. When her parents were informed of structural irregularities in their daughter’s heart, they did not comprehend the gravity of the statement. An abortion was not an option—they had been trying to conceive for more than five years, and they were not ready to waste the only opportunity they had ever gotten. Their unborn child’s heart was of an unnaturally small size and built of a perplexingly alien tissue. The doctors had never seen such an unstable structure—whenever the ultrasound machine was on, the heart would slowly disintegrate, threatening the fetus’ existence. Yet, when the father was gently caressing the baby bump, or when the mother would talk to the baby, it would come back to its previous state. The remedy was none; no one knew how to stabilize the matter, nor was it clear of what kind of particles it was even comprised. As long as the fetus, baby, later a teenager, an adult obtained sufficient amount of care and love, the heart preserved its overall structure. However attentive the grooming of the organ was for every family member, from time to time, Sylvia’s heart would rot on its own. Not enough care, illusive affection, fake friendship, any kind of a breakup—they would cause annihilation to its structural design. Thankfully, the injuries were not permanent; the heart would always work to mend its fractures to function properly. Remodeling was hurtful and arduous, yet it always restored the default settings it came with. The substances used to reconstruct the valves, aortas, atriums, and ventricles were extracted from surplus reactants from the chemical processes in other parts of the body. Yet, at some point in her life, when the scarring was deemed insufficient and frail, Sylvia’s heart was ignited to use
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The WASP | Volume I | Spring 2018