Fragment Two

Back at the homestead

Where the air makes you choke
People don't know you
And trust is a joke
Don't even have pictures
Just memories to hold
That grow sweeter each season
As we slowly grow old.
Toad The Wet Sprocket - Walk On The Ocean

Ted looked at the clock. A few minutes since he last checked. It was taking too long. It had never taken this long.

He looked up at the receptionist again. She'd stopped returning his glances for the last two hours. That worried him.

"Ted?" Came a voice at his side. He stood up and the doctor looked at the ground.

"What is it?" Ted's voice trembled.

"She's had a mindfade, the cloning isn't going to take,"

Ted's eyes went wide and he ran. Down the halls, to the elevator, down another hall and to room two hundred and thirteen. He sat down in the chair beside her bed. He reached forward and held her hand. Her eyes were closed.

She'd been aging normally for the last eighty years. She finally convinced him to buy a new body for her sixty years ago. It'd been his anniversary present for her every year since. His own body was new and whole due to a recent run in with some pirates, and he'd never had a problem with it. He bowed his head and held her hands up to his face.

She never opened her eyes.