The Marine

Waking up for the who-knows what time Bill rolled over on his belly. Although he still controlled his body like a drunkard, every time he woke up he would play with his hands and try to control his motor skills. Finally, after much hard work it was now possible for him to touch his own face without slapping himself silly.

He wasn’t sure how long he had been in the room at this point, babies normally need anywhere from three to five-and-a-half months before rolling over. However even that point he wasn’t sure since to the best of his knowledge babies would typically roll over from belly-to-back first whereas he had rolled over straight from his back to his belly.

Bill knew that while this may seem like a minor thing, the fact of the matter was that babies had weak neck muscles which usually meant that they had to practice ‘easier’ movements to get strong enough to become more mobile.

Bill: ‘Or I could just be laying here losing my mind’ he thought to himself with a laugh.

Doing his best to stay sane, Bill lifted his head to look at the only other person normally in the room.

She was raven haired, impossibly tall, and quite gorgeous if Bill used an objective eye to judge her looks.

As he looked over at his new mother, he thought to himself. He was obviously happy with his better mobility, but the most substantial changes since the day he had come to this room it was mostly inside his own head.

This wasn’t the route he thought his life would take; he had wanted so much to see his wife in heaven that after the initial shock of his situation wore off, he had nearly cursed God for it.

Fundamentally he was confused on why it was him. He had a lot of practical knowledge. At least practical knowledge for a working man living in middle America. Bill knew he had always been a responsible enough man, who worked hard from a young age and lived more-or-less an upright lifestyle. However, he knew his shortcomings, which were many, and couldn’t see how someone as mundane as himself would be better than anyone else.

At the end of all this, he had come to shake his head and just accept it, although he didn’t know anything about his current situation, he believed he must have had a role to fulfill.

While it was not immediately evident, God would show him one way or another. This is what he decided to believe.

Reaffirmed, Bill began to truly clear his head for the first time since he had woken up in this place. He thanked his former parents and those people who had an impact on his past life. He swore to them that he would live as upright as he could in this new life. He swore to himself that he would recognize his wife if she had also been reborn and they would live together again, and if he never found her, Bill stumbled: ‘… We’ll just have to wait a little longer’.

As his soul accepted its peace and he accepted his new reality the door to the hospital room cracked open.

Looking away from his mother Bill saw an older man walk in, surrounded by three armed men who were dressed in white coats, blue pants, and white ball caps.

Bill: “Eooohh?”

Unintentionally, he had made a sound. Besides the unexpected intrusion of a few random men walking into his nursing room, there were two completely unexpected things. Firstly, each of the men were carrying either a musket or a broadsword. Secondly, each of their hats had the word ‘MARINE’ written on it.

The combination of the two betrayed his expectations and so short-circuited his ability for an immediate response.

After making his unintentional sound, and before he could reason any further. The old man dressed in a white lab coat, stripped shirt, and wearing golden exam gloves turned his focus on Bill and walked over to his crib.

As he walked to Bills crib, he stopped several steps away and held an inquisitive look on his face, which was returned in kind. Looking up at the old man, Bills mind raced a mile a minute wondering who this could be.

‘He must be important; there’s no way normal security could walk in a hospital with weapons like those. They couldn’t be jailers either since this man isn’t being restrained’.

As he was forming his opinions of the strange old man, the man’s face turned from being inquisitive to an amused smile. After taking two more steps over to Bill, who assumed he would be picked up, the old man suddenly stopped as the air seemed to turn to static.

Confused, but not yet worried, Bill wobbled his head back and forth around the room. At first, he only glanced at the ceiling and noticed that looking at the tiles had become fuzzy. It looked like he was looking through a heat mirage.

After moving his head back and forth at the unexpected sight, Bill instinctively turned his head over to look at his mother, who for the first time since he had met her, was sitting straight up in her bed and staring, with a light in her eye Bill had never seen, into the old man who had seemingly taken a step away from Bill as a result.

Babies and children will always look to their parents’ reaction as an indicator on how they should react. Despite having more than ninety years under his belt, Bill was also influenced by this evolutionary trait and he instinctive did not like the look she was giving the golden-gloved old man. He instinctively did not like this situation, at all.

‘Should I scream? Will help come? I don’t think my mother can speak… if these people do anything what can I do in response…’

Immediately his mind was racing, and he came to his next action in a flash.

Taking a deep breadth Bill let loose:

“WWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHG!”

Suddenly, the static-like air vanished, and the smile was erased from the old man’s face. Bill’s mother changed her line of sight and looked at him, who was still rolled onto his belly with his head sticking up.

The old man’s line of sight changed too, from looking at the woman on the bed he turned his head back to Bill before smiling even wider. However, this time instead of approaching the baby he threw his hands up and laughed and looked back at Bill’s mother.

?: “**************************W*****m*D***.”

Speaking in the same language as the nurse, in a language Bill couldn’t understand, the old man gestured to Bill in an exaggerated way before grinning ear-to-ear.

As if suddenly motivated by something else, the old man didn’t spare Bill another glance. Immediately clapping his hands, the door opened again and in walked a half of dozen men who, strangely, each looked just like Albert Einstein carrying various oddly shaped devices.

As a flurry of activity was taking place in the room, Bill couldn’t notice anything due to his vantage point being low. He could tell that these weird men were here for a reason, and that was somehow both comforting and startling.

Straining his neck as high as it could go, he looked back and forth. His mother once again had a zoned-out expression, but other than that there was nothing apparent to him.

After what could have only been a minute the Bill saw the usual nurse come into the room and give him a smile, she turned her head and spoke to his mother, and picked him up.

Looking into the room as he was carried out, Bill was struck that the instruments being brought in each looked like fake cartoon science equipment.

Bill: “huh...”