[ WP ] A world much like ours , but each person is able to see the exact date of everyone else 's death , except for their own .

The nurse today was a large coloured lady. She had an accent I could n't quite place, whenever I asked her she would tell me, `` I'm from London.'' I did n't want to pry so I would leave it at that. Back when I was a young lad it was a rarity to see a coloured person, now they're everywhere. When I look out the window in the day room, when I could get to the day room, every other person was coloured. 
 Today though she checked me over for bed sores, changed my sheets, checked the IV lines, I did n't say much it left me exhasted doing almost anything these days, so I just watched her. Slowly a vaguely ethereal number appeared just in front of her forehead; *36M*. Thirty-six Million minutes of life to go assuming she does n't get hit by a bus of course, how lovely, I thought. 
 I looked at my hands, one badly bruised from the last IV line they took out, the other going to be bruised when they take that IV out. `` Nurse,'' I said, `` What's my number?'' 
 She smiled, big lips revealing bigger teeth, it was an infections smile, `` You know we're not supposed to even look, let alone tell you.'' 
 `` Oh go on,'' I pleaded jovially, `` I wo n't tell anyone.'' 
 `` I do n't care, I'm not telling.'' She said back equally childishly. 
 She smiled at me, still checking my bed linen, and her gaze shifted almost imperceptibly. Her face fell and she walked out loudly whispering for a doctor from the other end of the hallway. Oh my, I thought, I wonder what it is, gone down to the hundreds maybe. Just time for the family to come over one last time. I'll just close my eyes whilst the doctor gets down here.
