Heart DisEase

Written for NYC Midnight #MicroFictionChallenge250, October 2019
Also available in audio on the podcast Story Time with Darcie: Episode 2.

by Darcie T. Kelly

A crooked tooth winks through his smile and owns my heart, just like the first time we met. I ache to be held by him. He extends a hand.

As I lead my husband’s clone from the airport and drive toward the hospital, I struggle to make small talk with the man I know so well but not at all. “How was the flight?”

“The best and worst I’ve ever had.” He laughs. I’ve heard the joke before, on our honeymoon. I steal a glance at arms that caught me during a rock-climbing slip. At eyes that cried with me when Mom died. At my husband, forty years ago.

“How’s he doing?” His expression is soft, sincere. “Your husband?”

I snap my attention to the road. “Not well.” My vision blurs. I rub my eyes, set my jaw. A new heart. His heart. “You’ll save his life.”

“I’m glad.” He doesn’t look it, watching the sunset like it is the first and last he’ll ever see. He isn’t wrong. A clone has one purpose – to die. A tear rolls down his cheek. I press the brakes, hard, stopping the car without pulling over. It has been years since I surprised my husband, but I remember that crinkled brow and tilted head.

I can not help but love this man. Both men. Two husbands. Same DNA. Same mannerisms. Same face. One heart. As I weep, shattered, he strokes my hair.