DR. ZANTHUR’S JOURNAL: By Stephen Book
Tuesday, September 20th, 2011May 15, 2011: I am so excited. After months of studying chemicals and reactions, I have finally mixed the trial solution of tonic that promises to regenerate hair when the follicles are already dead. What a great discovery to cure baldness! And with the help of my Staffordshire terrier, Suzie, I intend to prove the worth of this product to the entire world. Last week, using six tubes of Nair I purchased from the local pharmacy, I successfully removed all of Suzie’s hair, and today I will restore her as good as ever within hours of applying my solution. I am thinking of calling it Dr. Z’s Hair Revival. It sounds kind of spiritual in a way, doesn’t it? And look at Suzie. Such a beautiful Staffordshire smile. I told her what I intended to do, how she would have a lustrous coat of hair better than before, and it now appears she is overjoyed.
May 16, 2011: I woke up today to the sounds of beeps and voices in the overhead speakers just outside my room. The nurse who checked my vitals told me I was lucky to be alive. Even luckier to have my hand still attached. Maybe, she said, with good therapy, I will regain the full use of it. Thank God it wasn’t my writing hand. I don’t recall everything that happened. I remember talking to Suzie, scooping a liberal amount of the revival solution into my gloved hand and then applying it to her skin. After that, my memory is a patchwork of pictures and sounds. Suzie’s growl. My wife’s scream. The paramedics asking what happened to my face, my neck. This evening, using a pen and a pad of paper because my jaw is wired shut, I asked my wife what happened to Suzie. I have been told the dog is missing. They’ve looked everywhere, but can’t find her.
June 30, 2011: Therapy is going well. I actually made a fist yesterday, which the doctors told me was a great sign. Since May, I have decided that maybe chemicals are not my specialty and switched to the discipline of physics. Today I will perform a simple study of gravity and inertia, using a rope and the garage door to the truck bay at the local grocery store. The manager, Frank, said it sounded like fun, and that I could use his facilities to perform my test. After calculating the tension coefficient of the door springs and the resistance resulting from friction caused by the door wheels in the tracks, and then weighing my own body mass, I think I am ready. Using a harness (a personal design that I am proud of, by the way), I intend to hook my body to the bay door and jump off the ledge. With the aid of gravity, my body will pull the door down. The acceleration of the door will be monitored through the use of lasers I have set up along the tracks. I’m not sure what I’ll prove through this experiment, or what I’ll be able to use it for, but it’s something to do to keep my mind off of Suzie. Still no word on what happened to her. Poor thing.
July 1, 2011: The doctor told me the pins are holding well. In time, my kneecaps will heal, and I should be able to walk proper again. Maybe. Suffice it to say, the experiment didn’t go as planned. While I correctly calculated the tension, the friction, my body mass and the pull of gravity, I failed to make sure the rope was short enough. After jumping off the garage ledge, I fell five feet with my legs curled under me. Upon impact, and hearing a sound which I will never forget, the pain caused me to lose my breakfast and then my consciousness. Not everything today is bad, though. While lying in the hospital bed, my legs in casts and elevated, I watched a news report of a rabid dog that has been terrorizing a neighborhood thirty miles from here. Apparently, it’s killed several other dogs, a few cats, and even took down a calf. Incredible! One security camera actually caught an image. Though it’s hard to tell—the animal looks almost dead, its skin hanging off in parts—I’m fairly certain it’s Suzie. Thank God, she’s alive!
August 28, 2011: Mobile again! The walker they gave me at the rehab has been customized just for me, and my wife thinks the tennis ball shoes are a sign that maybe one day I can hit the courts again. I doubt it, but it was good to hear the giddiness in her voice as she attached a trailer flag, the kind usually found on kids’ bikes, to one of the posts. With the recent spike in the plague around the country, there’s been so little to laugh about these days. The scientists believe it started with the animals, some sort of bacteria or virus. Many that were once thought dead suddenly stood up in the fields and starting running crazy. From there, it was only a matter of time before one of them attacked the humans. People attacking people now, eating each other, it’s just wicked-awful what mankind can do.
September 9, 2011: I saw Suzie today! She was outside, wandering around my shed. I tried to call her, but she bared her teeth at me, growled, and limped away. The disease has taken its toll; the poor girl can barely walk. Even so, in my condition there was no way to catch her. I don’t walk so well either. I tried to tell my wife about it, but she’s with so much fever now she didn’t understand a word. Some crazy woman at the store bit her yesterday—actually bit her!—and now she’s laid up. I worry for her. Anyway, I’ll keep my eyes out. Maybe Suzie will come back tomorrow.
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©2011 Stephen Book
Stephen currently lives in the South Plains of Texas, where he writes whatever his dreams tell him to. His fiction has been previously published by several e-zines, including Flash Fiction Online, The Nautilus Engine, and The Fringe Magazine. He does not aspire to find a cure for baldness. You can learn more about Stephen and his fiction at http://powderburnsandbullets.blogspot.com.
