Still in first person. Max’s POV
My dad knew we wouldn’t be able to go to a gym or run around the neighbourhood, so he moved some of the furniture in the Livingroom and started warming up, I could feel myself run out of breath just by that. Then he started doing some squats which made my legs feel like jelly. Even if I wasn’t the one doing the exercise, I could feel my body scream of pain. Dad continued with some push-ups, and that’s when I knew he was feeling the same thing I did, his body was too heavy for his arms to lift us up and the extra weight of my head counted. He stopped after a couple times and decided to go try on some Sit-ups, I could feel the cold floor with our sweaty back, my he bended his arms behind his head holding mine with his left arm, and he started lifting our torso, it was really painful, like the hardest sit-up I’ve ever done and in the end we stopped after my dad farted.
We were laying on our back looking at the sealing, our faces red and sweating, the hair in may dads chest completely damp. We stretched our arms and legs and dad said
“Guess it is harder than I thought. Let’s just take a small break”
“Agree”
My dad took us to the kitchen where we drank some water, then he used his cell phone to watch videos about exercises for beginners. We sat in a chair and we didn’t had to say it out loud but we pretended that was enough exercise for one day and said we would continue tomorrow. I’m sure there is a word for that, procrastination! That’s what we did with exercise since then.
It wasn’t long till my mother arrived with Kenneth, dad immediately hugged him and I could feel how tiny my brother was, his little body with thin limbs made him look like a doll compared to my dad. Then when my dad wasn’t looking he looked at me with that same face we always used when he wanted to annoy me, then he went running upstairs saying he would be playing with my Xbox.
As always my dad took his side and defended him but when he noticed was pissed, he decided to go upstairs and entered Kennet’s room. He was playing Halo. My dad offered to play with him and Kenneth accepted. For the next two hours my dad tried to learn how to play and died several times against my brother who wasn’t good at all. It was really frustrating seen dad lose all the time, even with me telling him what to do. In the end he mocked at me saying he won against both of us, and that he was better than me.
Then I finally told my dad I wanted to quit because my back was hurting, which wasn’t a lie, we were playing in a very uncomfortable position. We walked out of Kenneth’s room with dad sobbing our back, headed down to dads study and started reading some boring articles about brain cancer. That was boring even more boring than doing my homework because there were a lot of confusing words. I was definitely not going to med school, not that I didn’t know it before, my grades weren’t that good, I hadn’t had an athletic body and I wasn’t even popular with girls. But Kenneth surely had good grades, perfect little Kenneth always going at with his friends assisting to all birthday parties, when I was his age I was never invited to any.
I was so focused on my thought of hatred towards Kennet, the golden boy, the one who probably make dad proud of becoming a doctor… again, I got lost in my thoughts that I didn’t noticed that I started moving my left foot like I usually do when I’m concentrated, lulling my body like a rocking chair.
“Hey Max, are you doing this? Wake up Max”
“What?” I asked disoriented.
“Were you doing something?”
“Me? What could I possibly do? Dad”
“Right now my leg was shaking and I couldn’t stop it, it felt completely out of my control and you were humming, then it stopped. Were you moving my leg?”
It took me some time to realize what I was hearing, I wasn’t able to move a single muscle other than the ones in my face, yet I know dad was right, I knew I was the one moving my leg, his leg. I tried to prove my theory but nothing happened.
“I… don’t know”
“Well we better go and see your mom, if it wasn’t you, then something must be wrong with me”
Again I had the same though as this morning, my dad was sick and something weird was going on. We went straight to my mom’s lab and she simply started doing some tests on us after dad explained what happened.
“Your brain activity seems normal, there is no sign neurologic damage, and you still feel your body numb honey?”
“Yes, just a bit”
My mom then started biting her lip, sign that she was thinking. I was getting worried not knowing what was going on, and if they were hiding it from me, I would never forgive them for not telling me.
“Mom, dad, what’s going on? Are you not telling everything because of me? I can take it, imp grown enough to know, don’t worry about me, I’m fine, I feel fine, in fact I think I’m getting used to feel dads body”
“Oh baby, it’s not that, I’m not hiding anything from you it’s just that…. Wait, did you said you are getting used to feel your dad’s body?”
“Ah yeah, but what do that has to do with dad’s sickness?”
“Amazing, this is something I only considered as a theory but it really is happening…. Gorge tell me when did you exactly started to feel this numbness?”
“Yesterday, right after Max’s friend came by, but…”
“And Max, tell me what do you actually feel”
“ahhh… well everything dad does, I can feel our breathing, the touch of his clothes, his arms and legs moving”
“And tell me, does it feel like it’s your body the one that is moving or isn’t like a distant sensation?”
“I, well I feel like it’s my body moving and everything” I said
“Interesting…” said mom
“Honey could you please tell me what are you thinking?” asked dad
“I don’t need to tell you what I’m thinking, because if I’m right, you probably already know what I’m thinking”
Sometimes my parents had this strange conversations where everyone lost track of what they are saying, just like me at this moment. When I was a kid I loved seeing them completing each other sentences and talking to each other without words but right now, it was completely annoying.
“Can any of you please tell me what is going on?”
“I’m sorry Maxie, I got carried away, but there is nothing to worry about, this is completely normal and part of the healing process you and your dad are having after that long surgery. Like any transplant, the receptor in this case your father, well his body undergoes through a process of ACCEPTING the transplant as his own, in this case you. Usually doctors use immunosuppressants so his body doesn’t reject the transplant, something that usually takes more than a month but we only used them for the first week because of the effect from the serum your dad had been taking. It accelerated the healing process and now his body is considering you as part of him, allowing you to feel everything he does. As for you dad’s paraesthesia, his nervous system it’s just expanding. As I said it’s completely normal and all the weird symptoms like shaking will disappear in no time.”
"Honey, you are the best" dad tried to kiss mom but she rejected him saying that it wluld be a bit inapropiate to have physical contact with her as long as i could feel what dad felt.
I knew things were more complicated than what my mom said but I always thanked her for making things easy to understand. Happy with the answer we got, my dad returned to his study where he kept reading until I feel asleep again.