The exercise:
Write about: the normal range.
Miles had his first blood test in three weeks today. His numbers had gone from 51 to 58 to 67 in his previous tests so they wanted to give him a break now that he was trending in the right direction.
Based on that trajectory we were hoping/expecting him to be in the high 80s or low 90s this time around. The normal range is 105 to 130.
He came back at 107 today.
BC Children's called to say his results were 'pristine' and that they'd like a follow up test done in three months.
Best. Possible. News.
2 comments:
Well done Miles, on recovering so effectively! Just don't get carried away and double that number in the next three months ;-)
I'm open to suggestions as to what characters I should consider writing most frequently about next, if you have any Marc. It seems a little odd not having Lord Derby on the go after what's probably most of a year of writing about him. I'm sure I'll recover in a few days, but until then you have a chance to suggest where I should head next :)
The normal range
Concrete forts ran along the length of the beach, each built to just be within sight-range of the ones on either side of it. The beach curved, quite sharply in places, so some of the forts were a good fifteen minute walk apart and others were barely more than a brisk minute's jog. They rose, grey and angled, from the dirty, seaweed-littered sand to the cloudy, off-white sky and cast bleak shadows over the churning water.
"They're waiting for a war that never came," said War, walking along the beach. He had been watching the Avengers movies lately and had blonde hair and muscles, a sleeveless leather cuirass and a short leather skirt, and looked rather like Thor would if he overdid the steroids for three hundred years.
"But you're here now, right?" E. Kevin Gway struggled along behind War, his feet kicking up the soft, wet sand in heavy clumps and water pooling in the scruffy footprints he left behind. He hadn't failed to notice, despite his hangover, that War wasn't leaving tracks on the beach at all, and might even be walking just a fraction of a centimetre above the sand.
"Not really," said War. "This is just an inspection. Looking over the munitions, checking the uniforms are all shiny and the buttons sewn on tight. That kind of thing. Even if I set up in one of these forts it'd take a couple of years to really stir things up to that level."
Kevin scratched his head. His scalp felt sticky, which made him wonder for a moment what he'd been doing last night. He remembered the Valkyries leaving and he couldn't put the sheer terror of Death sitting on the couch and playing FIFA 19 out of his head, but there were blanks otherwise. "I thought conflict started up wherever you went," he said. "That's why I'm here right? To document disruption. To reportage revenge. To...."
"Write about war," said War. He stopped and looked out across the white-capped waves, which, just for a second, looked like white stallions riding furiously into the surf. "Did someone buy you a thesaurus again? You can call this trip... I don't know, the Gold man and the Sea. Don't leave out that I'm blonde in this one.
You're sort of right; the normal range is that I turn up, I sit down in a lawn chair, put my feet up on someone's back, and ten minutes later there are suburban squabbles, domestic dramas and families fighting. Tarnation, you've got me doing it now!"
Kevin smiled, and then the memory of Death leaning forward to the television and poking at it invaded his head.
"You're not allowed to kill my goalkeeper!" echoed War's voice in his memory, while Death laughed and laughed and laughed.
"But here," said War, waving a hand, "here is well outside the normal range. Which is why I come here sometimes, to stop and think for a moment."
Greg - hah, I've had similar thoughts. Like... back to normal is good. You can relax now :P
Ooh. If I'm not too late to answer this, I don't think you'll be terribly surprised to find that my request is the four horsemen. The things you do with those four is pure, fun, magic :D
Oh, look at that. You're one step ahead of me :P
I'm really enjoying the new angles you've been taking with them, by the way. The idea of War finding a relatively peaceful place to think is... fascinating.
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