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I stared at the tiny yellow glob of what I assumed was fat or cholesterol or whatever the heck it was that blocked blood vessels "That? But, it’s so small!"

He nodded then set the heart down on the white plastic cutting board in front of hi that looks so uy like a stone He never had a chance"

I stepped back as Dr Leblanc finished his examination of the heart And if I’d died fro all of this to h it had nothing to do with anything I was seeing or s If I’d died it would be me naked on the cold metal table, sliced open fro I kneas going on Highly recoed so that I could get a little ed to screw up so well Work in a h stupid rehab Now that was a scenario that ly, stupidly pleased that I’d figured it out That’s cool I can play this ga than rehab A month of this and then I’d be ho job

I watched as Dr Leblanc reh and examine them Is he in on it? I wondered idly Did he knoas really a pill-head loser? He probably doesn’t, I decided There’s no way he’d be so nice to me if he knew

Dr Leblanc dropped a fist-sized kidney-shaped thing into a large plastic bag between the dead guy’s legs then picked up a towel and wiped his gloved hands "Alave a nod to Nick "You can do the head now"

Nick stepped up to the table "At least this body has one We cut two yesterday and neither had a head First one was that lance at me "You heard about that one?"

I responded with only a nod I wasn’t about to let him know that I’d been questioned about it

"And then we had one come in who’d been in an MVA--led it took our guys half an hour to find the head, and when they did, it had apparently been squished by a passing car They ended up bringing the pieces of skull back in a plastic bag" He gave a snort of amusement, and I si so so awful?

"Now pay attention," he ordered e to flip him off, I watched in sickly fascinated horror as he took a scalpel and made a cut from ear to ear over the top of the corpse’s head Once the cut was ers between scalp and skull to peel the scalp back on top and botto the entire top of the skull

And I still didn’t have even a whisper of nausea

Unbelievable

Next he pulled a mask and a face shield on "You probably want to put a ed in what I suddenly realized was a bone saw "This kicks up a lot of bone dust, and you don’t want to breathe it in"

I hurriedly yanked athat Nick hadn’t been exaggerating By the ti a cut around the top of the head there was a fine fil the area around him I tried not to think about the fact that I probably had bone dust inan epic shower after this day was done

He set the saw aside and picked up a T-shaped tool with a chiseled bottorin that was alod, that’s their official na" He jaave the skullcracker a sharp twist to pry the cut wider I cringed involuntarily at the sound of breaking bone as the tool lived up to its naap and pulled The top of the skull ca sound, and suddenly there before rey and pink convolutions of a brain

"There ya go," he said with a silly little flourish as he pulled hisa real live brain" Then he sniggered "Real dead brain, that is"

I followed his lead and pulled my mask off, then froze All of a sudden it seeross way, but as if soumbo to let the aroma fill the room And I kneas the brain that sle cell ofwith an to water and h for the others to hear Both of theh "Okay, you’re officially the toughest ry during an autopsy!"