Four beginnings ~ as they wake up, again

And Again ~ by Jessica Chiarella, 2016, fiction

1. Hannah (p. 3):  Maybe it's like being born.  I don't know.  It's impossible to compare it to something I cannot remember.  When I finally come back to myself, it takes me a moment to realize I haven't died.

2. David (p. 17):  Within an hour of waking up, all I want is a shave and a cigarette.

3. Linda (p. 23):  It amazes me, sometimes, how small a world can be.  Not the world as a whole, from horizon to horizon, but the world as it exists for a single person.

4. Connie (p. 26):  Nobody comes to visit me in the hospital that first week.  And that's fine because nobody was really around for the past five years when I was sick, either.

What would you do if you had a second chance at life?  These four beginnings represent people waking up to new lives.  They have been given genetically perfect bodies as part of a pilot program.  Their new bodies are exact replicas of their old selves, but without the deadly illnesses they suffered from.  Scars and blemishes are gone, and their vision is impeccable.  But without their old bodies, their new physical identities have no memories.  How much of who you are rests not just in your mind, but in your heart and in your body?

1. Hannah, an artistic prodigy, has to relearn how to hold a brush.

2. David, a Congressman, grapples with his old destructive habits.

3. Linda, who spent eight years paralyzed after a car accident, now struggles to reconnect with a family that seems to have built a new life without her.

4. Connie, an actress whose stunning looks are restored after a protracted illness, tries to navigate an industry obsessed with physical beauty.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.  Click here for today's Mister Linky.