|| -------- -- -----  A E R I E   O B L I V I A N A . singular book of text wandertainment by Frank Edward Nora ------------------- ----------- A ROAD MAP OF ARCTICA--CUP 1--"DAPTIN AS A KID" --------  ||  Severe Repair  ||  A Road Map of Arctica  ||  -------> (Cup SRrm001, Created v2 (6/7/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = "Mom, I'm really worried about this." "Daptin, always remember, it's better to face reality than to hide from it. If you have this... if you have something wrong with you, the worst thing is to hide from it. Come on, kiddo! We're gonna get to the bottom of things and find out where things stand. We're gonna face reality. And then... then we'll accept the way things are and go from there." "I don't wanna face reality." "Let me put it this way, Daptin. Imagine you're sitting on the railroad tracks, and you're really tired and enjoying the rest. Then you hear a train coming. You wish the train wasn't coming, so that you can rest some more, so you pretend that the sound of the train is just your imagination... or that it's on another track... or something. But no matter how much you evade the truth, if you don't accept the reality of the situation, you're going to be killed by that train! So the sooner you face reality the better!" "But Mom, I'm only fifteen! My life is just beginning. I don't want to die!" She moved her hand from the steering wheel of her car to Daptin's shoulder. "Come on, son. Lidrainen is the best doctor in Arctica for this kind of... condition. If anyone can help you, it's him." Daptin broke out into tears. "It's just... I was finally having a good time in school... I have some... some really great friends... and... and I just started going out with Phaetha..." Tears came to the eyes of Olga Gone as she gripped her son's shoulder harder. "Daptin... I'm not going to let you go... I've been by your side for fifteen years, and I'm not about to let go now." "But mom... if it is true... if I am going to die... there's nothing you or anyone else can do to save me..." "Never give up! We can never give up! There are medical breakthroughs all the time, honey!" "And there are people dying before their time all the time, too!" Soon... "Daptin Gone..." said Dr. Ponce Lidrainen, leaning out of his office door. He was a tall, good-looking man with green hair just like Daptin's. Slowly, Daptin and his mother rose from the couch they were spending their agonizing wait on. With effort, they entered the doctor's office. He closed the door behind him. "Daptin, Mrs. Gone," Lidrainen said as he sat behind his desk, "I have completed my survey of your health, and it doesn't look good. I was... I was fairly sure that you had The Dreab, and now I know, in fact that you do." Olga Gone started sobbing, but Daptin was numb and dumbfounded. "I don't want to hold anything back. I don't think it serves any purpose to play games with people. Daptin, you have a rare strain of The Dreab known as Hizzing's Disease. Have you heard of it?" "Um..." Daptin said through near-paralyzed lips, "I think... I don't know..." "It was named after Elfecorse Hizzings, an explorer and agriculturalist in Early Mobathy. He... committed some egregious acts of violence and terror against the native inhabitants of that land, and he was stricken by a painful and drawn-out malady. The legend had it that it was a curse cast on him by the natives, in punishment for his deeds. Now we know otherwise, of course." Daptin and Olga stared at the doctor wide-eyed. "But I digress." he said, then he looked down. "There's no easy way to put this to you Daptin..." The doctor looked up once again and caught the stony gaze of Daptin, and the look of pathetic youthful horror made him want to curl up and die. "Daptin... Hizzing's Disease is the worst strain of The Dreab. It is a kaidsine infection that slowly destroys all of the body's function, over the course of several years. There is no known cure for it, and very few treatment options available. So this is what I have to say to you--barring a medical breakthrough--or a miracle--you might live for another three years, most of that time in terrible pain." "Oh god no..." Olga whined. "Let me... let me set it all out for you. You have a choice. And this... this is not something you have to face right now, but I want to tell you everything. Under Arctican law, it is permissible to perform a mercy killing under certain circumstances... a diagnosis of Hizzing's Disease is virtually guaranteed to be accepted by the courts. Personally, I don't advocate this course of action. If you hang on, it's always possible that a medical breakthrough... or a miracle... will happen." -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----