One or Two

When the police arrived at apartment twelve they found the body of a middle aged man and the landlady who had alerted the police to the crime. The dead man was George Henry, he had no criminal record, no suspicious history and hadn’t worked for the past month. The apartment he was living in was nondescript and extremely cheap. Detective Salzinato was put in charge of the case and upon digging into George Henry’s history he found one living relative, the man’s brother. He visited Mr. Herbert Henry with the unfortunate news of his dead brother. The detective asked if Mr. Henry thought his brother was depressed or had any other reason to commit suicide. Mr. Henry said he couldn’t rightly say. He hadn’t heard from his brother for twenty two years. Salzinato asked Henry to call if he could provide anymore information about his brother.

After a month's searching turned up nothing conclusive, Salzinato wrapped the case up as a suicide. The detective moved onto other cases and left the death of George Henry behind him.

~~~

-“Where am I? Why is everything dark? And why can’t I feel my body.”

~“Oh, hello. I wasn’t sure if I was all alone or if there was someone else here.”

-“Who are you? And where are we?”

~“I was about to ask you the same thing. As to the first question my name is Carl. I don’t know where we are. Last thing I remember is taking a flight to Miami for a long deserved vacation. I work in a stuffy office building full of stuffy people. Well, at least I used to. I don’t know how long I’ve been here. For all I know it could have been moments or years.”

-“Huh, I don’t remember anything. Wait, that’s not true. I do remember now that my name is George and I know what living felt like.”

~“Do you think we are dead?!”

-“No, well, I don’t know. I mean I remember what it was like outside this place. I remember what ‘being’ felt like. But all I know now is that I'm not in the place I was.”

~“Well, I guess it could be worse. That was always my grandfather’s philosophy. 'Life is never so bad that it can’t get worse.'”

-“Sounds cheery.”

~“Well if you think about it, we could have been in different places and not been able to converse with each other. I don't feel the need to eat or sleep, and in my current state of feeling or lack thereof I don't think I need worry about bodily harm.”

-"I s’pose you got a point.”

(long pause)

-“Say, do hear voices?”

~“Yea I do. They aren’t like yours or mine though. They sound different; more full I guess. I can’t really make out what their saying though. Do you think we should call for help?”

-“Might as well. It doesn't seem like we have any other options at the moment. Hey! Can anybody hear me? We can't see anything but we can hear you!"

~"Well, the voices stopped but I don't think that is a good sign."

-"I'll try again. Hullooo! CAN. YOU. HEAR. ME?"

~"Your voice didn't sound any louder to me. Come to think of it I don't think either of us are making any sound at all. We just sort of know what the other is thinking."

-"Creepy, but I know what you mean."

~"Hang on a moment. I think I see a light."

-"What? Where? I don't see anything."

~"Where is it? Well I guess it must be in front of me. I can't focus on it and I can't seem to turn away from it. What ever it is, it is getting stronger. Oh! I can see things. People, lights, color!"

-"Wait! Don't go! Don't leave without me! I still can't see anything but it seems like your voice is fading away. Stay here please. I can't think what will happen to me if I stay all alone!"

(an expanse of silence)

-"Hello? Are you still here? Please."

~~~

"Well Carl you've made practically a complete recovery. You will probably have a headache for a while but considering the brain surgery I think that would be a given." The doctor smiled at his patient. "You will notice some differences due to the operation, but you can go back to your normal life."

"Thanks. Could you send my wife in?"

"Sure thing." The doctor left and a pleasant looking woman came in.

"Hi honey. They say your good as new." She smiled at her husband and held his hand.

"Silvia," Carl said, "I had a really weird dream and I don't know what to make of it."

"What was it dear?"

The man shuddered. "I was trapped in darkness and would have probably gone insane had I not talked to a man."

"What man, dear?"

"I don't know. But I think... I think... I don't know." Carl looked at his wife and winced. He put a hand to his head and said, "The doctor wasn't lying about a headache. Oh man that hurts."

"I'll go get the doctor for you." Silvia walked out with a concerned look on her face.

The doctor came back in and handed Carl two pills and a glass of water. "Take these. And try to get some sleep." He turned to go but Carl stopped him.

"What was the operation you did again?"

"A corpus callosotomy. We had to separate the hemispheres of your brain. You will notice differences in your actions but as I said before you should be able to have a normal life."

"Huh. Thanks doc."

Two days after Carl was allowed to go home he was sitting at his computer looking up what a corpus callosotomy was. He was looking for a support group because the left side of his body wasn't acting quite right. On an impulse he put a piece of paper down on the desk and gave his left hand a pencil. Then in big letters he wrote across the top of the page, "Are you there George?" Hardly before he had finished dotting the question mark, his left hand started writing on the bottom of the page. A single word. "Yes."