[ WP ] A machine is created that can tell you how you will die ... but only in the most vague way possible .

*When you are ready*. 
 
 I was twenty-two when I read that slip of paper, and I scoffed as I read it, grinned as I processed what that meant for me, and laughed as I walked away from the machine. 
 
 I was a newlywed, I had my dream job lined up, and apparently I could do as much living as I wanted to do before I would pass on, because I damn sure was n't going to be ready to give up on anything until I'd seen and done as much as I could think of doing. I went home to Helen, told her the news, and we drank to our futures and span castles in the air of the amazing lives we'd lead. 
 
 Yesterday, Helen passed away. She came to visit me at the university, and I was n't paying attention to what I was doing when she visited the lab I worked in. It was set to start in 20 minutes, I had way more time than I needed, we could talk for a while before she'd need to leave the room. 
 
 I lost track of time, and she was still in a room she should definitely not have still been in given how much... ah..skin was available. This was three weeks ago. The doctors very nearly saved her, but the damage done was too extensive, and she was too weak to survive that last infection. 
 
 The only bright side is that we had no children, and the rest of the family is not particularly close. I can fall apart completely, without having to worry about supporting anyone else or looking after them, or anything else that I do n't think I could ever manage while every breath seems to sting in places I did n't even know breath reached. 
 
 The downside, of course, is that I'm going to fall apart completely, and nobody is going to worry about supporting or looking after me. I would drown myself in work, but my work killed the only important person in my life. 
 
 We had that list of plans, those castles in the sky. They'll be lonely empty castles now, left abandoned for other people to find and explore. Not me. Not without Helen. I just ca n't. I'm sorry Helen, I know I promised I'd live my own life, but you were my life. I do n't have anything else to do with it. 
 
 I make one phonecall, so that someone will come check on me before too long passes, and write a note:'My name is Samuel Moore, I am twenty-three years old, and I was ready to die.'
