|| -------- -- -----  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 2--"A ROAD MAP OF ARCTICA" <-------  ||  Severe Repair  ||  A Road Map of Arctica  ||  -------> (Cup SRrm002, Created v2 (6/7/99), Copyright 1999) = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = At home, things were too normal for Daptin. Same old TV shows, same old dinnertime. The doctor had left him with a feeble attempt at hope--something about double-checking the results of the tests with some special lab in Baskonontana--that there was always a slight chance that the tests were in error. But Daptin knew... he knew that if a dozen tests all pointed in the same direction... the chance of them ALL being in error is astronomical. Daptin ate dinner and, like the rest of his family, tried his best to pretend that nothing was wrong. But inside him, he could feel his inner identity changing, metamorphosing like a butterfly. The idea was that if he was going to die anyway, he would have great freedom, since he had nothing to lose. No more school, that was for sure. He'd go back to get the stuff out of his locker, but no more. He'd heard of terminally-ill kids still going to school to retain some level of normalcy in their lives, but he could never understand it. What sense does it make to learn, when all you're gonna do is die with that knowledge, never having used it? After dinner Daptin retreated to the basement and set out a road map of Arctica on the floor in front of him. All the wonderful places to go! He was sure his parents would lend him the money to go on a grand journey, by air and rail and bus, before his malady began to claim him. The doctor had told him that he would have from four to six months of decent time left before the Hizzing's Disease would start to seriously disable and torture him. So! Six months of wonderful travel... followed by a brief period of pain, and then... at any time... he could say the word, get a lethal injection, and drift off to sleep forevermore... When he thought of being euthanized, he found it strange that he didn't care that much for himself, but rather felt horrible for what such an act would do to his mother, his step-father, and his two half-sisters. His real father was long dead. Died before he was born. If he hadn't been in the media, Daptin figured he never would have known anything about him. -------> ------------------- ----------- -------- -- -----