A Heavy Heart 2/20
Chapter Two:
"Oh god, oh god... Charles? Can you hear me?" Larry's voice and hands are shaking and he can barely pull out his cell phone and dial 911.
"I need an ambulance at Cal Sci..." Larry fumbles his words but manages to let the dispatcher know what building and classroom he's in.
The waiting is the hardest part. He rests his ear on Charlie's chest to monitor his heart, to convince himself that it hasn't stopped beating yet.
It's all wrong. The heart should beat with a mathematical precision that rivals Charlie's own brain.
It doesn't.
It falters.
Each time it does, Larry's own heart leaps into his throat and he panics. Will he have to do CPR to restart Charlie's heart? Does he really remember how to do CPR? Will the ambulance come in time?
Larry can't stop his mind from racing. His friend, his colleague, the man he's known since he was a boy is laying so deathly still before him it's as if he's already lost him.
'But that can't be,' he protests. 'A mind like his comes around only once in a generation! It can't be snuffed just out like that! Or can it...'
When the ambulance arrives, he goes with them, anxiously watching the heart monitor they connect to him as it shows a steady beat and then when it doesn't.