“Our
heart is truly a magnificent machine,” Mrs. Enriquez declared, “It is
responsible for the perpetual movement of the blood which transports vital
nutrition from the food we eat and distributes it to various parts of our body.
The blood is also responsible for carrying the crucially needed oxygen to our
individual cells. It also delivers waste out of our system. Without the heart,
the blood would not serve its function. It is unlike any other muscle in the
body. It doesn’t stop beating, because if it did, we would die.
“Now, what causes the heart
to stop?” she asked rhetorically, “Different kinds of heart disease is one of the
main causes,” she professed while raising her forefinger, “In some cases, when
fatty tissues build up and clog one of the arteries feeding oxygen to the heart,
it would literally suffocate it and the patient would experience what is
commonly known as a heart attack. But that event doesn’t necessarily stop the
heart dead on. Sometimes it would still continue to beat faintly but if left
untreated for a long period of time, cells of the heart that was deprived of
oxygen would die and may cause the entire organ to fail.
“There are also a number of external factors that could cause the
heart to stop,” she continued, “One obviously is when you get shot straight
through the heart,” she expressed flippantly just to break the ice because the
class seemed to slip away farther and farther every second. It made the class
chuckle for a little while and then vanished when she carried on with her
discussion.
“Another is when a person is electrocuted.
When the electric current is strong enough, it will cause the heart muscles to
fibrillate or in other words—individual muscle fibers will twitch uncontrollably, acting without coordination from each other.
This would ultimately lead to cardiac arrest.
“Another external factor that
would cause the heart to stop is when air bubbles somehow enter the
bloodstream. This condition is medically known as an air embolism. There are a
number of ways for air bubbles to find its way into the bloodstream. One of the
most common is when scuba divers experience decompression sickness.
“Scuba divers breathe
pressurized air which is normally mostly nitrogen. In high pressure
environments, such as underwater, nitrogen is absorbed by the body instead of
exhaling it. This is actually just fine unless when the diver’s ascent to the
surface is too fast. The pressure drops rapidly and the nitrogen begins to form
back into its gaseous state and creates bubbles in the bloodstream. It’s kind
of like when you shake a bottle of coke. The air inside the bottle is
pressurized so gas bubbles won’t form, but when you open the cap and release
the pressure, we all know what will happen. These bubbles will then find its way
to various parts of the body and cause different kinds of complications—clogging
vital arteries, including arteries supporting the heart. In most cases, these
bubbles will find its way to the brain and deprive its supply of blood.
“But the most bizarre
external factor in my opinion that could stop a heart would be when air enters
the bloodstream through a syringe. If
the air bubble is big enough, it would lodge itself to the heart—stopping the
normal blood flow. Similar to a vapor lock in a car’s engine, and it would
eventually stop the heart from beating.” The bell rang right after she said the
last word.
“So class, I hope you will
have a nice weekend and don’t forget that the project is due this Monday,” she
said persistently with a forced smile while some of the students were packing
their things and the rest were already leaving the room one at a time.
In the past few days, Henry
had kept on asking Ian to use his ability to do some pranks. Especially pranks
involving pretty girls with short skirts. One of the most absurd was to touch Henry’s partner, the one that was
sitting at the back wearing short skirts on the first day of school, in her
most private parts without physically doing it. But Ian kept his head and refused
to every one of Henry’s perverted requests.
When the both of them finally
got outside, Henry went on ahead for his next class. Ian waited for Ava. But
after several minutes passed and no one seemed to be coming out of the room
anymore, Ian began to wonder where she was. He looked inside the room and it
was empty. Strange—he thought, maybe
he just didn’t notice her go out. He took a few steps backward and decided to
look for her elsewhere. He turned around and the sight of beautiful Ava
startled him.
“Looking for me?” she asked simply.
“Yes I was,” his voice tense,
“we need to finish our project.”
She smiled, “Come over to my
house tomorrow. I’m going to be busy later this afternoon so I cannot help you
with the project today.”
It was unusual and he felt
surprised, never has any boy been invited to her house, except in special
occasions or in special matters wherein her mother would have visitors or something.
For all he knew, only her friends, who were all girls, were the only people
personally invited by her inside the house. Though this was for an important
project, it was the first time that she had invited a boy in. It was definitely
something that was worth writing down on his imaginary list of peculiar things
that Ava has been doing lately.
“I’m not exactly sure where
your house is,” he said even though he knew exactly where it was. It was some
stupid statement that slipped out of his tongue as a result of his astonishment.
Her smile widened, “It’s near
the Parish Church, beside the house with the great big black gate.”
“Oh I see, I see,” he nodded
his head hastily.
Ian felt uneasy as he walked
with his eyes to his feet. He was excited but nervous at the same time.
Carefully, he plotted out in his mind how he should behave inside the house.
The fact that he knew that her mother would most definitely be there didn’t
help him calm down.
He was nearing her house as
he continued to tread on the sidewalk. It was a nice day. The wind was blowing
gently and to his right was the Parish Church. Large trees concealed most of
the majestic structure. But he traced in his mind the shape of the building.
The trees waved softly, as if dancing in concert with the wind. The top of the
structure showed the silhouette of the white cross erected on the edge of the
rooftop. Behind it was a clear blue afternoon sky with the sun a bit farther to
the right.
He looked on ahead and noticed
a bit of a commotion in front of a mini-convenience store. Five intoxicated
adults were having a drink at that time of day and Ian saw that they were
picking on some girl trying to buy something from the store. It was Ava.
The Mover Episodes
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