REPLACEMENT PARTS

by

Gail Louise Chagall

The nurse calls. My husband has moved up the heart transplant list. I call my friend Tom to tell him. His cell phone is crackling with static.

"Are you on fire?" I say.

"No," Tom laughs, as if that would be amusing. "I'm just driving to Indiana. Finally got my starter replaced."

I tell him about the transplant list, our number coming up. "It'll probably skid in on a motorcycle," I say. "You know what they call them, right? Donor cycles."

He laughs again, that gravelly laugh I'd do anything for, in any position.

"And you know what they call helmets?" he says. "Brain buckets."

Tom remembers his friend Pete doing heroin, riding a Harley with his little brother in back. The brother wore their single helmet and Pete sped clean off Highway 101. At the funeral they said, "Too bad Pete wasn't wearing a helmet. He could have had an open casket."

We catch up. Tom's wife visited his summer retreat, a visit which scotched our possible visit. Most of our visits fall through. Then she left and he dreamed the nightmares he has at each departure: execution by hanging, by firing squad, beheading.

"That's original," I say. I'm thinking I couldn't replace her.

"I'm so glad for your husband," Tom says."He's got a date with destiny." Tom is unselfconscious, quite sincere. We are kindly about our spouses on each other's behalf. We are not good marriage material, the two of us. We admire their persistence.

"A date with a loving heart," I say. "Probably barreling down a highway right now."

"Pumped full of heroin and speed," he says.

"What will you do in Indiana?" I ask. We are serious now. More serious. I am glad he's in a car, not on fire, not on his Harley. I don't want Tom's organ. Not that organ. There are trades you can't make with replacement parts, not with hearts, and not with men.

§ § §

Gail Louise Chagall directs a public interest group in Chicago, IL, USA and is writing for an MFA at the Bennington Writing Seminars.

Her work has appeared in Zoetrope All-Story Extra, FictionFix, The Salt River Review ("Sparta to Elroy" and "The Telemarketer's Point of View") and Brevity, Outsider Ink and 3am Magazine.

She can be reached via email at:Minokemeg@aol.com. .

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