Disclaimer: Escaflowne does not belong to me.
Lessons of the Heart
Looking defeated, Van jumped out of Escaflowne. Hitomi was gone; he could scarecly believe it. She had given herself up willingly. He went back to the castle where the others were waiting.
Millerna was tending to Dryden's wounds. "You know," she said, "we never did that lesson on circulation like I promised."
Van exploded. "How can you even think of lessons at a time like this? Doesn't it matter to you? Or are you that heartless?"
"I'm just trying o keep everyone's mind off things." She tried to smile brightly. "I know. How about, instead of circulation, we learn about the heart?"
"Uh, I think I know enough about heart problems, thank you very much."
"But the human heart is an absolutely fabulous thing!" Millerna said. She glared at Merle. "Don't you dare say a word, kitty-cat, or else you'll be a guinea pig." Merle turned pale and backed away slowly.
"Now, let's begin. Dryden, can you hand me my bag?"
"Sure," he said, "when my head stops spinning. You think you can fix it first, before you start rambling on?"
"You know her too well," Merle said under her breath.
"You're heart's going to be working over time, if at all; after I get through with you your head is going to need all it can get. So, my husband, I suggest you wait patiently. You'll survive unless you aggravate me."
"Talk about touchy," he muttered.
"Perhaps we can preserve your heart for further study after I kill you." He shut up.
"Now, the human heart is about the size of a fist."
"Like this?" Van interrupted, holding it in the air.
"Yes, exactly like that."
"Allen, come here for a minute. I'll teach you a thing or two about heart trouble."
"Can we continue please?" Millerna said, annoyed. "What are you so angry about anyway?"
"He's upset because we were fighting over the same one and I got it."
"You two act like children sometimes," Merle said.
"Anyway, back to the heart, the real, blood-pumping, heart. Not what you're all talking about. Anyway, like I said, the heart pumps blood through regular contractions. It's mostly muscle. The heart has four chambers."
"Yeah," Van interrupted again. "Torture chambers." After the last lesson, he no longer bothered to raise his hand.
"No, the atria and the ventricles. It also contains veins, the aorta, arteries and valves. The pumping of the heart has two periods: diastole and systole."
"Speaking of stealing," Van raised his fist at Allen again.
Millerna pushed it down. "Diastole is the period of relaxation and systole is the period of contraction."
Eries Aston poked her head in. "Periods and contractions. Don't you think that's inappropriate to discuss with men?"
"We're talking about the heart," Millerna explained to her sister. "That comes in the lesson about human sexuality, and it's something I believe men should learn anyway."
"I suppose you're right." She sat down.
"Hey, speaking of human sexuality," spoke up Dryden, "it is our wedding night."
"Did you forget my warning?" she asked.
He sighed. "Never mind."
She continued. "The oxygenated blood, which is oxygen rich as opposed to deoxygenated blood, which is oxygen poor…"
Van interrupted yet again. "If Hitomi were oxygen," he said, "Allen would be oxygen rich and I'd be deoxygenated."
Merle was growing exasperated. "I may need some oxygen, because I'm going to start screaming until I'm blue in the face!"
"That deals more with the lungs, I believe. I haven't researched it enough yet. But the oxygenated blood comes from the lungs through the pulmonary veins. The flow of blood between the heart and the lungs is pulmonary circulation. The oxygenated blood first goes into the left atrium then through the atrioventricular or AV valves into the left ventricle. The ventricles contract and the semilunar valves open to the pulmonary arteries where blood comes from the right ventricle. But we'll talk about that in a minute. The blood flows from the left ventricle into the aorta. The aorta is the largest artery. It carries blood to all the other body parts except for the lungs. Deoxygenated blood comes from the right atrium then to the right ventricle to the pulmonary arteries and back to the lungs where it becomes oxygenated again. It's a cycle," she explained.
"This has all been very interesting," said Van sarcastically. "But we have other things to do."
"Fine, go. That's enough for today."
"Thank goodness!" Merle exclaimed.
"Yeah," Van said, a bit sadly. "And I still don't know what's wrong with mine."
"Well, I don't think it has anything to do with what she's talking about."
"No, I sill think punching Allen would be a good idea."
"Oh, wait!" Millerna called after them.
"What do you want now?"
"I forgot to tell you about blood pressure."
Merle and Van exchanged a look. "Perhaps Allen isn't the one who should be punched," Merle commented.
"Yow!!!!!!"
The End.