Residues of a Legend

Sylvia glances around the hospital park, looking for her patient. The moment she spots him, she makes a run and accidentally bumps a girl on her away. After muttering an apology, she runs to her patient, Zaroshi again and grabs his shoulders. She asks, exasperated,

"Where is She?"

The thirteen year old looks up, his right eye wrapped in folds. He leans back,

"Probably in the director's office. The research head managed to get her permission too, somehow."

"Darn it!"

Sylvia runs back again to the building, narrowly missing a kid running around with his dog. She climbs up the stairs, knowing damn well she's going to be yelled at later for running in a hospital.

Nurses try and stop her from entering the office but she barges in anyway.

"Stop!", she yells at them. The director and the new researcher that showed up a week ago both glance back. She runs to the researcher,

"I told you not to mess with my patients for your experiments! You got away with performing that questionable eye surgery on Zaroshi but no way am I letting you do that to Ellisa! She needs a proper heart transplant, not some shady artifact!"

The researcher, Ava, pushes her away, "it's not some shady artifact, for God's sake! I thought I made it clear what that heart really is and why people who can take them in absolutely should!"

"Well, your hypothesis and idea stem from a legend as old as time! And no amount of research can convince me otherwise."

Ava laughs, " you really think I absolutely need your permission to check her eligibility for the heart?! Well, practically everyone except you agrees I should atleast try. Look at zaroshi, for example. We all know his eye healed the moment I stitched that eye in but he's wearing those bandages only because the eye works too well and he's not used to that."

"Bullshit!", the doctor hisses knowing what ava said is the truth. But that doesn't mean the heart would work that well for Ellisa too.

So, a week ago, this researcher showed up, bringing with her three items: an eye, a kidney and a heart. While Sylvia was on a sick leave, Ava managed to give the eye to Zaroshi, who previously lost his eye to a pitbull. And this time, she got her hands on her other patient, a girl with a failing heart.

The director, Mrs Lius, chimes in, "Well,it's not like we're going to perform the surgery right now. The only reason I agreed to this is the drug Ava has to check the eligibility of the transplant. I'll let her explain the rest."

"Thank you, Director. So... this drug is basically a carefully synthesized to check whether the body will be able to accept the heart or not. If the body doesn't show any adverse reaction within a span of 37 seconds, she's eligible for this heart."

Sylvia glares, "and what if the body does show a reaction?", to which Ava pulls out two syringes, one filled with scarlet liquid, the other with a blue solution identical to CuSO4,

"I formulated an antidote for that exact situation. The moment this blue solution fills her bloodstream, she will be back to normal and I'll make myself scarce."

The doctor sighs, "Listen-"

"For God's sake, Sylvia. Have some faith in my ability. You think I spent the past year just passing my time idly? I'm not the head of drugs and toxicology sector of this country for no reason! My hair has turned grey solely due to this project, yet all I want is for these children to stand an equal chance in the world! I only have two surgeries left to make now but I will make sure that even if it just makes one life fuller, then spending countless years on this project doesn't bother me in the least! So please, don't bother me."

The doctor hesitates to retaliate, shocked by her speech. The moment she tries to speak, an image of Ellisa appears in her mind, as a healthy woman living her life. She gulps and mutters,

"You know what? Go ahead and do what you want. But if anything happens to her, to Zaroshi... I will have your head."

Ava grins, "Fine, then.", and injects Ellisa right that instant, who is lying unconscious in the bed. The moment she does, she starts the timer. Sylvia pauses her breath, looking closely for any sort of change in Ellisa's body. Seconds tick by and they glance at each other and back at the body.