"There are so many better ways to go about this," says Dana. "So many better ways."
"There were other ways to beat the Russians," replies Heather. "But we went to the moon." She smiles a little bit. "I want to go to the moon, Dana."
Dana reaches forward and takes Heather's hand. She squeezes it. "The moon was so much safer than this is. They'd been planning for months, and-"
"We've talked about this so, so much. This has been tested!"
"On rats. And dogs, and monkeys," Dana says. Heather nods.
"And we're really not that different, are we?"
Dana is about to reply when several doctors come into the room. They smile and ask Heather if she's ready. She says she is; Dana doesn't agree, and she wants to say something, but Heather has the most serene look on her face in the world. As she is wheeled away on a gurney, Dana feels a lump rising in her throat. She hopes she is wrong, she prays she is wrong, but she can't stop feeling that this is the last time she'll ever see Heather again. She makes her way to a waiting room, with posters promoting healthy habits like using protection and eating whole grain. Her knees are weak, and her head is heavy, so she rests it in her hands as her face twists and grows red.
A week later, a nurse leads Dana to a large tank, filled to the brim with water tinted blue. "We're letting her swim today," he tells Dana with an encouraging smile. Dana raises her head and sees a serpentine shape slowly descend into the water.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Yeah, I'm not ecstatic with how this came out. It should be focused on Heather, not Dana, because it's not about watching a friend go through what is essentially a drastic plastic surgery, it's about a modern-day mermaid, a person who wants to become something from myth. I didn't do a great job representing that with what I have here. I'll probably come back to it later.
Until then...
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