The man skidded to a halt, nearly dropping his box as he fell to the ground. He quickly checked the pulse and breathing of the lump on the ground.
There was none.
How long had it actually been broken? A few days? A few weeks? A few months? Were these past two years lived with the delusion that this thing was fine when, in reality, it was dying?
The man tugged the box at his side to him. There was a large heart with an arrow through it engraved on the top. He flipped open the top to reveal a defibrillator. The machine was switched on as the man fiddled with the various knobs and buttons. After a few moments, the man was rubbing two metallic paddles against each other
“This can’t be happening” the man said as he placed the paddles on the chest of the crumpled mass on the ground. “CLEAR!”
The heap jolted upward once before collapsing onto the ground with a loud thump. The man twisted a few various dials and placed the paddles above the chest once again.
“I never lied to you! CLEAR!” Another large upward twitch followed by a thud.
Tears began streaming down the man’s face. How could it actually die? He had put two full years into nurturing it, caring for it, meeting its needs, satisfying its desires, going above and beyond what was needed for it to grow and mature. He was faithful to it, bragged about it, rejected the idea of ever having another. He had dreamt of it lasting forever, of it producing the happiest days of his life, as well as helping him trudge through the very darkest days. What more could have actually been done to make it better? More importantly, what on earth could ever ruin or de-legitimize what he had done for it?
“I’ll never leave! CLEAR!” There was no more of a reaction than the previous tries.
The man’s hands were shaking now, unable to accurately move the dials. Incapable of steadily holding the paddles he so desperately needed to work. Another try was met with no new results.
Slowly the man became more desperate, spending less and less time between each shock.
“I NEVER CHEATED! CLEAR!”
“I’VE ALWAYS CARED! CLEAR!”
“I CAN’T SLEEP WITHOUT YOU! CLEAR!”
“I CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT YOU! CLEAR!”
The device powered down due to overuse. The man completely disregarded this fact, and slammed the paddles against the shadow between every syllable.
“WHY-DON’T-YOU-SEE-WHY-WON’T-YOU-GET-UP-WHY-WHY-WHY?”
The man tossed the cracked paddles to the side and began to empty his pockets onto and around the mass. Theme park tickets, movie stubs, photographs, money, a necklace, a locket, a heart shaped box of candy, perfume, stuffed animals, poems, anything to revive its pulse.
The man’s voice wavered with sorrow and was laced with a pitch that could easily be misconstrued as hope.
“Oh…I know what can fix you…” the sentence was interrupted by a gasping attempt at breathing.
“…you’ve just been trying to get me to give you this.” The man reached deep into his pockets and retrieved a tiny black cube. The shaking hands struggled to hold the container steady. In one flawed movement, the man dropped a tiny gold engagement ring onto the mass. The man simply sat and stared, his eyes almost demanding a reaction. Nothing moved but the man’s quivering body.
“Oh…I get it now. This was just all one big test. You just want to see if I can wait for you to work. This is just a test to see if I’m truly dedicated to making sure you work. Don’t worry, I’m willing to do anything. I’m willing to wait forever.”
The man lay down and pulled himself close to the shadow, his crying slowly subsiding. He eventually passed out, tightly holding the lifeless remains of his once happy relationship close to his breast.
