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SUMMARY: ...The next 2 chapters...

Molly put her arms around Ben. "No I'm not lost- I'm right here."
In a flood it all came back.

Chapter 4

Molly didn't want to go to the doctor when her joints started aching. She hated doctors. When Molly was 12 she went to a doctor who'd misdiagnosed a pain in her belly as a stomach ache instead of what it was- appendicitis. Her appendix ended up rupturing and she nearly died. The event soured her on the medical profession and ever since she put off her doctor's visits as long as she could. Molly and Ben were lucky. They both had steady jobs as teachers- with health benefits. Millions of others weren't so lucky. But still, Molly never went unless she deemed a visit absolutely necessary.
She was only 33. No reason to think a little joint pain was anything but that, a little joint pain.
But it didn't go away- it got worse.
After two weeks of increasingly painful symptoms Molly found she was willing, if not eager, to go to the doctor. Ben, knowing such trips were traumatic for her, took the day off from work and went along. Molly's fear was that she was developing arthritis. Her grandmother had suffered mightily from the disease and the idea that she would've inherited it didn't seem outlandish.
Neither of them had given a thought to the possibility of the illness the doctor informed them was almost certain.
Molly had bone cancer. Bad. The doctor said he thought it was fairly advanced.
It turned out Molly had an unusually high pain threshold.
"Most people," the doctor told her, "wouldn't even be able to walk at this point."
Driving back from the doctor's office in a terribly awkward silence they heard a commercial for the new "Middle Class Package" from Reincarnation Industries. Although the company had been in operation for a few years- the highly controversial service was hitherto only available to the ultra-rich. An intelligent sounding voice told them the "deceased will find themselves returned to the flesh, while actually existing only within cyberspace. This way you never have to be without your spouse- even in death." There was a pause while soothing music played, and then came the tag line, "Together forever really means something- with Reincarnation Industries."
That night, after tearfully making love in the bed they'd shared for nearly a decade- Ben and Molly decided to call Reincarnation Industries and make an appointment. They told themselves that they weren't really deciding anything- they were just going to find out the details of what such a thing would cost. But in reality, lying there in each other's arms, they both knew they were going to sign Molly up if it was even remotely feasible to do so. There probably wasn't anything they wouldn't do to keep death from tearing them apart.
Molly and Ben's love was true. It wasn't built on infatuation and circumstance but on a mutual love- tested through hardship and celebrated by good times. Molly and Ben's love might not jump out at people as romantic- not in the traditional sense.