Page 5 of Broken Dream

She clears her throat. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because you’re pale as a ghost,” I say.

Her cheeks redden, and my God, she’s beautiful. She’s the most gorgeous woman in the room. Her lab partner is pretty as well, and on any other day, I might say she was the prettiest girl in the room. But she’s girl-next-door pretty, while Angie…

Wow.

Just wow.

“I’m fine. I assure you.” Angie drops her gaze to the floor.

“We’re not going to cut today,” I tell her.

Angie’s lab partner lets out a disappointed huff.

“Of course I know that,” Angie says. “I mean… You wouldn’t let us cut right away.”

She won’t meet my gaze, and she’s stumbling over her words.

It’s adorably cute.

I return to the front of the room. “Open your anatomy books to page seventy-five and take a look at the thoracic area in the diagram.”

I wait while they shuffle their textbooks open.

“See how everything has a proper place?”

Murmurs of agreement.

“Don’t expect everything to look like that when you cut into these cadavers. What looks perfect in a textbook looks very different in a live body.”

“Don’t you mean dead body?” a guy says from the back.

I let out a chuckle. “Touché. What you’ll see in these cadavers are organs that have been preserved. No blood flows through them. But don’t expect all the organs to be in a tight little group the way it looks in your textbooks. Every human being is different, and while most humans have their organs in roughly the same area, it doesn’t look the same as the diagram.”

“So when do we get to cut?” the same wise guy from the back demands.

“It won’t be too long,” I say. “Remind me of your name again?”

“Garrett.” He flashes me a goofy smile. “Elijah Garrett.”

“Right, Elijah Garrett. You’re interested in cardiothoracic surgery, if I recall correctly.”

“I am.”

About half the students mentioned some kind of surgery as their focus. I hate to tell them that only about ten percent of them will make the cut. Not the time or place.

“I understand your excitement,” I say. “I remember when I sat in this same lab many years ago. I couldn’t wait to make my first incision. It will be something you will never forget. But if you continue in surgery, Elijah, wait until you make your first cut into an actual living person.” My heartbeat quickens slightly. “That’s an addiction that will never go away.”

Elijah smiles, nodding.

Yeah, that kid will be a surgeon. I see it in his eyes.

I couldn’t wait to sink a scalpel into flesh, even dead flesh. The thrill of discovery, the responsibility that weighs heavy in your hands, the sheer awe of unraveling the mysteries held within the human body… It isn’t for the fainthearted.

I glance back at Angie, who’s still looking kind of sickly. I think her lab partner—Tabitha, if I remember correctly—senses it too. She gives Angie a pat on her arm.

“All right, everyone.” I raise my voice to regain their attention. “Look at your gloves and observe how clean they are. That will change very soon.”