RICARD
— Bloods —
I swear that when you reach a certain age, it gives doctors a licence to prescribe a whole range of medicines they’ve been itching to give you for years.
So they ask you to pop in for a blood test.
A simple blood test. Nothing to worry about – just routine. Give us a call in a week and we’ll have your results.
Those results, once you reach that magic age, open the floodgates to a catalogue of woes – diabetes, heart problems, cholesterol, cancer… You name it, and you’ve probably got it.
Not me.
I switched my son’s samples for mine.
TANGENT
The world was due for cancer screening. A century prior, it had barely survived. From the fallout, symptoms were documented, and as the years of testing passed, the world was content that it would not return. Attention turned to its autoimmune disease. If left untreated, fever would come, and kill. A screening was missed while the autoimmune treatment plan was drafted, but the symptoms were minor, and the world was content.
The cancer, it turns out, had returned. Its presence accelerated the autoimmune disease, and the fever had started.
The world is dying, but it has survived worse. Have hope.
LISA
Six Months
It wasn’t the result anyone would have wanted. But there it was, unquestionable. She shunned all treatment feeling if it was her ‘time to go’ she should leave with grace. She contemplated speeding things up but didn’t want to leave anyone a mess.
She swapped a Netflix series for a brisk walk, a pint for a green smoothie, stopped smoking and started yoga.
So, sixth months turned to sixteen, turned to sixty.
She survived decades; then died as she crossed the road whilst engrossed in an article about a blood test mix up in her area, all those years ago.
SERENDIPIDY
To give them their due, they were very thorough.
They took swabs, they dusted for prints, they took hundreds of high resolution photographs.
And they found nothing.
Just the blood test to go.
I held my breath, and waited as they sprayed Luminol over every surface they could find.
They turned on the blacklights… And still found nothing.
Not a smear, not a spot, not even the slightest indication of blood anywhere.
I’d done my job well.
And, if they couldn’t find any sign of the murders, I was pretty certain there was no chance of them finding the bodies!
LIZZIE
She was in the tub. Went for a swim, someone joked. The blood test was inconclusive. Are you sure it was a person? He nodded. Melted in that tub, someone joked. It wasn’t funny. Where did he get the blood from then? The wall. Plenty of it. The acid took care of the rest. And now? Now, it was in their hands. That’s why you’re cops, he said, I’m just the coroner. Well, the blood wasn’t hers. It was his. That damn pocket knife he used to slit her throat first. Good thing no one noticed that he kept saying she.
NORVAL JOE
Linoliamanda, her mother and Billbert waited in the front lobby of the hospital while they admitted Mr. Withybottom. The nurse told them it would be an hour or more while he got his blood test, xrays, and possibly an MRI of his head, so they might as well get comfortable.
A group of teenage volunteers surrounded a small table, chatting, and waiting for their turn to push a patient or carry flowers to a room.
They were mostly girls and Billbert considered how some were very shapely, like Sabrina. While others had hardly any shape at all, more like Linolamanda.
TOM
Often discovery in less than amazing.
It was discovered in remote corner of Anatolia. Bronze Gears festooned with Lapis lazuli. After cursor inspection a sweeping claim was made, this was the world’s oldest safe. X-rays of the interior while clearly showing all the working part didn’t offer a clue how to open. In the heart of the safe was signal sheet of parchment. 10 years of exploring different methodologies the safe finally swung open. The Parchment took another 10 years to decipher. Seems the glyphs on the parchment were the combination to the safe. It ended up in a museum the parchment taped to the side.
968
There can only be one
Two go in, one walks out. Imagine the duel in Dune. Two form circling. Muscles coiled like steel springs. A fury of jabs failing to hit the mark. Glancing blows drawn no blood. Sweat rolling of arm. Finally, a countermove brings the point to the skin of the neck, but not quick enough. With a roll to the right and dropping to one knee she finds the tiniest of open. S jabs and press the plunger. Red fills the crystal chamber. The crowd screams. It is over, the blood test has been fulfilled. This one hell of a Nursing School.
PLANET Z
I order a lot of things online, and I get a lot of packages.
On recycling day, there’s a stack of cardboard boxes and padded envelopes on the corner.
Sometimes, I mail things out.
Warranty cards, returns.
Tests my doctor orders for this or that.
Most tests I take at the corner clinic, but some are tests I can smear some blood on a card and mail back to the lab.
Most bill my insurance, others take a credit card.
One lab requires that I write checks.
If they can’t process a credit card, how will they process my blood?