Member-only story
The Connection III
On May 10, 2024, the people of Sweden were unaware that more than sixty percent of their more than ten million citizens weren’t in the country.
Stockholm, Sweden, May 10, 2024, 3:33 A.M. Jonatan Svensson bolted up from his nightmare with a grunt, shaking Clara, his wife of more than thirty years, awake. She groaned, then asked, without opening her eyes or moving, “Honey, what’s wrong?”
He breathes in and out, then elaborates, swaying his head left to right, his left eye catching the time on the digital clock on the nightstand beside him, “I just dreamed that someone stole the Kidney that was supposed to be transplanted in me.”
Clara bolted up, took his right hand resting on the bed, then reassured, “he is brain dead, honey. The hospital is keeping him alive just for you. No one will be able to cut him open and steal your kidney without someone knowing. That kidney is yours.”
He smiled, scratching his left forehead, and relented, even though he felt heaviness and fear taking over…
