The Beauty of this Age

Matthew Reed woke up to a usual morning that day, without knowing that the next ones would be far from that. He pinched his swollen face a bit, making the conclusion that he overslept. His short, yellow hair was a bit messy. He tidied it up. His sky blue eyes were tired because of all that reading the previous night. He didn’t need to look at his watch to see if he was late for his work. He could never be. He owned everything.

He chose the navy blue shirt over the gray one. He wondered why he always went for blue. He made the conclusion that it was his comfort color.

“Juno!” he said in an exaggerated voice when he heard his dog’s paw steps. The dog also looked sleepy. She jumped on the bed and demanded affection. Mornings like this were Matthew’s favorite. He played with the dog until she got bored and wanted to go out.

“Do you want breakfast, Matthew?” said Oksana, his maid. She was holding a pillow in her hands and was flapping it with her strong hands.

“I’d rather not, Oksana. I’m still full thanks to your lasagna from last night.”

“You’re making me angry,” she said playfully and left. She had a lot of cleaning to do that day. She didn’t forget to open the windows while leaving to get fresh air in the room.

He flinched when his phone started ringing. It was Cathy. Reed Real Estate's Senior Manager with 30 years of experience. But her job didn't only cover the clients, meetings and business deals; it also included Matthew.

“Good morning to my beautiful Cathy! Please don’t tell me I missed a meeting.”

“You wish. But you should definitely come by today. There are some papers to sign.”

“Of course. When did I break your sweet, blood-pumping heart?”

“Shut up!” the woman said flirtingly. “And good morning to you too!” she added.

After half an hour, he was in front of his company’s building. He opened the car door and took a deep breath. He thought he liked the fresh morning air better. In the afternoon, air only could smell like smoke.

“Good morning Matthew! Can I take the keys?” said Bruno, the valet. Matthew remembered the time when he asked him to address him by his name. Prefixes always made him a bit anxious. He couldn’t make peace with them. Those prefixes would make him feel like a person he wasn't. A serious and distant man.

Because of his father, people started calling him Mr. Reed when he was 18 and he rejected those serious tags from the beginning. And all those years he made lots of sincere friends because of his down-to-earth behavior.

“Sandra! My fellow New Yorker! How are you?”

“Oh, I’m never not fine! Did you finish the book?” The receptionist was Matthew’s favorite. They always shared book recommendations. Sandra was a woman with good taste and a tragic past. She didn’t give up on work after losing her husband to cancer. Matthew covered her expenses and gave the time she needed. She was always grateful for him.

Matthew opened his eyes wide. “You can tell I did.” They laughed. “How’s Joy?” he added serious, genuinely interested in her daughter.

“Ah, she’s another horse. Sometimes I can’t understand her. But you can’t push a college girl to do anything, so.”

“Wasn’t her field Communication? Let’s give her a couple projects and keep her busy. At least you would know what she’s doing.”

“Yeah, that could be. First let me check if she already has more than she can handle. I’ll let you know.”

“Great!”

He met Cathy upstairs and had a quick meeting about the new company they had to buy.

“So now we also have a cereal company? Cathy, is this a joke?” Matthew burst into laughter. Cathy patiently waited until he finished.

“Look, we did research and this is a nice, profitable market. It brings no loss, it will just rest in there.”

“Okay,” he said, wiping the tears caused by his laughter. “But admit it, it’s funny.”

“Well, yeah. Go ahead.” She laughed a bit.

At that moment, Mr. Surkin, Matthew’s attorney, entered the room.

“Playboy? Thought you would come tomorrow!” He said while having a hard time sitting on the low couch due to his weight.

“Oh, come on. Don’t call me that!” complained Matthew.

“You know, I’m actually being sarcastic. Because I’ve never seen you with a lucky lady.”

“Well, I guess she is lucky but I’m not.” They all laughed.

“You will be fine! You are young as a puppy!” said Cathy carelessly.

“A puppy? Really?” Matthew threw his hands up like he couldn’t believe what he just heard.

“Exactly!” She flipped her brown hair. Matthew sometimes wondered how Cathy was good at everything related to business. Matthew couldn’t picture this company, or his life without her and he would trust her by all means.

Matthew's father’s absence left a huge wound in him. He lost his father 8 years after losing his mother, during an appendicitis surgery. His humor, will to live and strong character made him the person he was. When he was thanked for everything he did for his friends, workers and relatives, he would shy away. But he would always make sure that his loved ones were fine.

Matthew came home, petted his precious Golden dog and started watching an average movie. Suddenly, he felt really hot. He got nauseous and his eyes got blurry. Everything was happening at once. He tried to get up but he couldn’t move. His hands started shaking while he was trying to take deep breaths. He started to get really scared. What was happening?

The day his father died, he was informed by the doctors that some illnesses might have been running in the family. But he wasn’t in the position to think about himself that day. But the words stuck with him since then. And they resurfaced, when Matthew suddenly lost his sight and muscle strength. He couldn’t talk. When his maid Oksana came and found him fainted, Matthew was still thinking about the doctor’s words and realized that he was actually right.

He opened his eyes days later.

Cathy was holding his hand. The first thing Matthew saw was how red her eyes were. Mr. Sulkin was sitting on the chair and whispering on the phone.

“Hi, sweetie,” said Cathy with a cracking voice.

Matthew tried to talk but his voice was very deep. He didn’t realize he was sleeping for a really long time.

“Oksana found you. You had an attack but now you’re fine. Doctors said it was encephalitis. An infection in the brain. But you will be fine.”

She repeated the last words many times. Matthew realized that she was trying to convince herself, not speaking facts.

“Mr. Reed, hello. Let me check your reflexes quickly,” she checked his mouth and eyes. “Do you know where you are?”

“A hospital.” Matthew sounded very tired and lifeless.

“Do you remember what happened that evening?”

“I was sitting.”

“And?”

“I couldn’t see.”

“What else?”

“I couldn’t move.”

“Okay. Mr. Reed, this is a severe illness. And it possibly runs in the family.”

“When will I get better?”

“You have to stay here for a while. You’ve been in the intensive care unit for 3 days.”

“Will I get better?”

He carefully looked at the doctor’s face. She was hesitant.

“No?” he asked with a crackling voice. He was scared.

The doctor waited a while. Matthew checked on Cathy, she was crying.

“Mr. Reed, I have to say that your situation is lethal,” said the doctor with a deep voice. She touched Matthew's shoulder and left.

He immediately thought about his life. The missing parts. Family and partner. At that moment, those dreams seemed so away. He still wanted to have them, right then and there. But for those things, he had to take the largest journey. Now it felt like he didn’t have a choice. In one of the darkest days of his life, it seemed unlikely to have one. But one thing was definite, he deserved to have that choice.