Sixty-Two Days to Eternity

By Roy D D Perkins

Sixty-Two Days to Eternity is a story of a retired shipyard worker who is diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. He is given two months to live. The two main characters are Aaron Zachary and a talking cat named Harvey that is addicted to Land O’Lakes cheese and has an IQ of 162. Harvey is also a male chauvinist feline. The story reveals how the two of them take care of each other. They literally depend upon each other. While Aaron tends to Harvey’s physical needs, like food, water, shelter, warmth, medical care, and a clean litter box, Harvey is the force that directs Aaron in his quest for his life’s spiritual and physical truth. The writing deals with the heartache and depression of a man who has been given a two-month death sentence. It reveals how the world of doctors and hospitals put roadblocks in his way. To make matters worse, the insurance companies put up their own roadblocks. Aaron soon discovers that the medical world and insurance companies are huge oligopolies of mismanagement, corruption, ineptness, greed, and incompetence. Harvey has told him this all along, but Aaron must discover the truth for himself. Fearing that he might go into eternity lost, he begins to seek some sort of spiritual salvation. He has one disappointment after another. Harvey guides and directs Aaron along his way. Harvey’s mission on earth is to show Aaron the way by giving him hints, direction, and encouragement. Harvey fully realizes that Aaron must find his own way in the end. The story is humorous, tear-jerking, and full of love and reveals a special alliance and dependence between a man and his cat. They take care of each other. They love each other. While Aaron fulfills Harvey’s needs, it’s evident that Harvey is the head of household as he walks Aaron through his death sentence and his spiritual quest.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Page Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781640271319

Book preview

Introduction

This is the story of Aaron Zachary, whose life changes in an instant. Aaron is a retired shipyard worker who lives in a small New England town called Sheldon. The population is about eight thousand or so. Aaron has been a bachelor all his life. He lives a good life as he has his retirement from the shipyard and his Social Security. He wakes up every morning and says to himself, What shall I do today? He is in reasonably good health for someone in his seventies. He sort of sticks to himself, as he doesn’t have anyone he can call a friend. Other than gardening and going to the range, he really doesn’t have too many interests. Sometimes he’ll go to a play in the capital city. Two subjects he never talks about are politics and religion. He figures the former is completely rigged and the latter is just a Sunday social event. He cannot fathom any hereafter, if one actually exists.

Aaron has sisters, brothers, nephews, and nieces in Nevada and Iowa but doesn’t keep in contact with any of them. Aaron has no relatives in New England. He lives with a cat that doesn’t like anyone except him. The cat’s name is Harvey. The two of them get along well. Harvey is unlike any other cat. Harvey can actually communicate with people. Although he cannot verbally speak, he can communicate by way of mental telepathy. He may be the only cat in the world that has telepathic powers. This eliminates a lot of guesswork on Aaron’s part. Harvey usually only speaks to Aaron but can also speak to other people as well when he desires to do so. Harvey’s IQ is 162.

Harvey is the perfect roommate for Aaron. Harvey is an inside cat and is pretty much self-reliant except for food, shelter, heat, a litter box, and medical care. Harvey actually runs the household, as Aaron has to tend to Harvey’s daily needs. Harvey likes only certain brands of wet cat food, a clean litter box every day, and dry treats twice a day and is addicted to American cheese, preferably Land O’Lakes. He’s a tuxedo cat and may be mistaken for a skunk at a distance. He thinks that Aaron’s sole purpose in life is to take care of him. He wants to be petted constantly and sleeps wherever he pleases. Many times in the winter, Harvey will sleep in a plastic chair right in front of the woodstove. In the summertime, he likes to sleep on the carpeted floor in the three-season porch on the back of the house. He sleeps about twenty-three hours a day and utilizes the other one for eating and using the facilities. He is about five pounds overweight but is still a very cute cat. Harvey likes to drink running water, so Aaron sometimes leaves a faucet trickling a few minutes so Harvey can drink from it. Harvey loves life, except when he has to go to the vet. Aaron has to be sneaky when he is about to take Harvey to the vet. Harvey has some sort of sixth sense about going and will go and hide when it’s time to go. Harvey is an emotional high for Aaron.

Aaron’s day consists of going to the gym in the morning, coming home and tending to his cat, getting done whatever chore has to be done, and watching the grass grow or shoveling snow, whichever is applicable at the time. Aaron doesn’t know his neighbors and would like to keep it that way. He doesn’t even know their names. He’s had a couple of run-ins with one neighbor who is a hoarder. He’s a total slob. The town officials can’t be bothered as there are a great many slobs in town. There should be a town ordinance that all slobs must live next door to the town’s first selectman. Then the problem would be addressed. The town is run by country bumpkins, who just want the tax revenue.

He has some trouble keeping up with the outside chores, so he occasionally will hire a teenager from the local high school. He doesn’t have much use for today’s teenagers as they apparently just want to stand around and text on their wireless phones. The teenagers from the high school are overweight and lazy. They would just as soon sit behind a computer and play video games. Physical labor is not in their vocabulary. When teenagers are texting, they are totally oblivious to their surroundings. The world is not like it used to be. Aaron’s world is the gym, the post office, the sportsman club, and Harvey. Aaron and Harvey are good for each other.

Aaron especially loves his Harvey. He found him in the local dump. He was an infant when someone threw him away. At that time, he gave the cat to someone else who he thought could better take care of the cat. However, this person was moving away and could not take the animal with him. So Aaron got the cat back. Lo and behold, he discovered that this person had pulled out the cat’s fingernails. This cat was still only a toddler. Now, the cat is with Aaron and is being spoiled rotten. This cat gets the best food and care, and all he has to do is sleep and meander around the house. He likes to throw up on the floor too. Aaron keeps the cat inside unless he can go outside with him and watch him. There are many predators outside. Harvey won’t stand a chance with any of them. Since he’s been with Aaron, he’s been pampered and loved to the superlative. In Aaron’s eyes, Harvey can do no wrong. He is precious. Aaron always has a protective eye out for Harvey.

Although Aaron has Medicare and supplemental insurance, he doesn’t think very much of the medical system. Every year he pays more and more for less and less. The costs keep going up while the quality of care keeps going down. Aaron avoids doctors and hospitals whenever he can, especially the ones in town, who are about a century behind those outside town. Aaron believes that the whole Social Security and Medicare system is eventually going to implode due to the tremendous costs to run the systems.

Aaron says that with the prices that doctors and hospitals charge, they should apologize to Jesse James. Recently, he saw someone’s hospital outpatient bill for over forty thousand dollars. The patient was home in five hours. That’s eight thousand dollars per hour. Aaron figures that one cannot create any medical bills if one doesn’t go to the doctors and hospitals in the first place. Aaron figures it’s time to look outside the box for medical repairs on his body. Find another source of pain relief or endure the pain. He keeps acetaminophen, naproxen, and ibuprofen on hand.

Aaron really only goes to two doctors, which are his eye doctor and his primary care physician. He says that blindness is worse than death. Once a year, he gets a physical for free. He makes sure he makes that date. Aaron knows that it is in his best interests to go but is not thrilled about going because it’s too invasive. He thinks that physicians should stay out of the cavities of the body, especially the anus.

During the physical, the doctor will check for hernias by manipulating the testicles and telling Aaron to cough. This is not a good experience. Aaron doesn’t like to be touched there by male doctors. There should be limits where physicians can go on one’s body. Even worse is the rectal exam. The doctor sticks his index finger up into the rectum and pushes hard. This is a prostate check. If this is the case, what is the PSA blood test for? Sometimes the doctor puts a glove on his hand. This procedure alone stops a lot of men from having annual physicals. It’s no wonder that annual physicals are free. Imagine having to pay someone to stick his finger up your rectum. One can only imagine that the doctor is having too much fun performing these rectal exams.

Aaron says that one should not reveal too much information at the doctor’s office because the doctor might want to give you a prescription for drugs to get rid of the ailment. That’s just more money down the drain. So only reveal the ailments that really count. Headaches and sore muscles are okay to reveal, but stuff like neurological pain should be kept to oneself. Aaron just doesn’t trust anyone in the medical field. Doctor and hospital visits should be a last resort. Years ago, a doctor sent one of his few friends to a neurologist, who had the State take away the guy’s driver’s license. The moral of this story is to always tell the doctor that you are happy and feel great. Never reveal too much information. Aaron’s annual physical is coming up soon, so Aaron has to put on his happy face. He wants to keep his driver’s license.

Aaron has had a sinus cough for about fifty years now. For decades, he went to internists, lung doctors, and allergists, to no avail. For years, it was diagnosed as bronchitis, until the physicians realized that the antibiotics did not work. Finally, it was diagnosed as allergies of unknown origin. However, Aaron passed all the allergy tests. Traditional Western medicine doesn’t know everything. Western doctors will give one of three alternatives: surgery, drugs, or leaving it alone. If one can live with it, the best alternative is to leave it alone. Fifty years of shelling out money to physicians and pharmacies was all for naught. Finally, Aaron went to someone who cleared it up (about 90 percent) in twelve hours. Acupuncture and Chinese herbs resolved the problem. However, insurance will not pay for acupuncture or the Chinese herbs. They haven’t been approved by the FDA yet—and probably never will. There’s not too much gray matter in the FDA. The FDA should climb out of the box and look around. The FDA still doesn’t recognize massage therapy as a medical procedure, yet physical therapy is always approved. If one takes away the physical exercises, then there is nothing left to physical therapy except heavy applications of Biofreeze. Aaron says one should only go to physical therapy to find out how to do all the exercises. Then never go again.

After he’s been butchered by lab techs to get a vial of blood for testing, the day for the physical has arrived. The chest x-ray doesn’t hurt. After arriving at the doctor’s office, Aaron must first answer a bunch of questions, which he’s answered at least a hundred times before. What is your name? When were you born? What drugs do you take? And are you happy? Always say you are happy. Never tell the truth. He fills out forms with information that is already on file. Maybe they don’t look at their own paperwork. Sometimes he puts down different information. Sometimes he puts down a different middle initial. Sometimes he writes that he’s taking a lot of drugs, while he writes that he isn’t taking any drugs on other occasions. After that, it’s a wait for forty-five minutes. Physicians are famous for overbooking. It’s imperative that they squeeze every dollar they can out of the patient and the insurance company.

Then Aaron is sent to the bathroom to give a urine sample. He’s been tempted to bring in someone else’s urine just to see what will happen. There’s quite a variety of samples in the bathrooms at Walmart. Is that considered stealing? In the next waiting room, a twelve-year-old girl takes his blood pressure. She then asks such questions as Are you feeling well today? When were you born? Do you want a flu shot? Do you need any refills? And Would you spell your last name? After she leaves, it’s another twenty-minute wait.

Then the doctor sends another girl in to take an EKG. Another twenty minutes go by. The doctor comes in and performs a couple of invasive procedures. He says the blood work is all within normal limits. However, he says that he has some rather bad news. The x-ray shows that Aaron is in the advanced stages of lung cancer. Naturally, the doctor says he will consult with specialists in the field. He will get back to Aaron in a couple of days. Now this has to be some sort of mistake. Aaron was feeling great till he came to the doctor’s office. One would think that there would be some debilitating symptoms to go along with lung cancer.

A few days later, Aaron is called back to the office. The physicians all agree that Aaron is terminal. The room is filled with second- and third-opinion doctors. Chemotherapy and radiation will do no good. They also talk about tumors, infections, complications, hemorrhage, and embolisms. But it’s all Greek to Aaron. Finally, Aaron asks the question How long do I have?

One physician responds, Two months.

Right now, Aaron is an emotional disaster. He’s never smoked a day in his life and is dying of lung cancer. The doctor hands him a bunch of prescriptions, which Aaron never does get filled.

At the checkout desk, the girl asks Aaron for his copay. He just keeps on going. He gets in his truck and goes home. There should have been someone with Aaron, because all he can remember is Two months to live. His first thought is, Who is going to take care of my cat? This cat has had the life of Riley and is used to the aristocratic way of life. Aaron figures, since July and August both have thirty-one days, he has actually sixty-two days left. He’s drowning and reaching for straws.

Aaron has already decided not to spend hour after hour in hospital waiting rooms. Why spend five or six hours in a hospital to have a treatment that’s not going to work? These are precious hours out of his sixty-two days left on earth. So Aaron stays away from more doctors, more hospitals, and throws away all the prescriptions. He tears them up into little pieces.

Before he leaves the office, he is told about what he can expect. He will endure fatigue, pain, loss of appetite, and difficulty in breathing. He could stand to lose a few pounds, anyway. So far, he doesn’t have any of these symptoms. Perhaps he’s so emotionally wound up that he doesn’t notice them. Perhaps these PhD guys have made a mistake. Not much chance of that. In sixty-two days, Aaron will be history. He must immediately make plans for Harvey. But who will take him and treat him like the Queen of Sheba?

Aaron has to face up to the fact that he won’t be around long, and he has to make some big decisions rather quickly. His sister in Iowa says she will come out and take the cat and will treat him like royalty. She’s a lady of her word, so that’s some sort of relief. Aaron is really concerned about Harvey being taken care of. Aaron eventually makes out a will that leaves all his possessions to his brothers and sisters. After the property is sold and the money divided, his sister is to get an extra share for taking care of Harvey. No one is more important than Harvey.

During that afternoon, Aaron’s mind is off in all sorts of directions. Fortunately, Aaron has no pain and no symptoms of the disease. Perhaps the Creator of the universe is going to take it easy with him. Finally, Aaron starts thinking about the hereafter. He does not know what to do or whom to talk to. He is now a little at ease with the disposition of his cat and his possessions. The only thing left is what’s going to happen after he takes his last breath. He decides to inquire about the afterlife. He has no idea where to start. He doesn’t even know if there is an afterlife. He should have done this years ago, when he was healthy and had plenty of time.

Chapter One

Aaron has had a friend for about sixty years. His name is Paul Simpson. Paul is a devout atheist. Aaron and Paul get together for a long talk. Aaron tells Paul Simpson about his death sentence. Paul is flabbergasted. During their get-together, Paul reveals to Aaron what he believes about God and the universe. Paul says, "Aaron, it’s like this. When you’re dead, you’re just meat for the worms. There is no hereafter. The idea of God was made up to keep people in line. Without the threat of punishment for sins down the line, there would be outright chaos. The only truth about creation is that it started off with a big bang. Microorganisms evolved into what is on the planet today. What you see is what you get. Deities and the Bible make no logical sense. There are so many religions out there that no one knows what to believe. The Bible was written to control the bulk of the people. If there were an all-loving deity, would he allow all this pain and suffering to go on in the world? Would I even be talking to you right now?

"The greatest animal on the planet is the human. Mankind needs a deity to look up to and to worship. However, he doesn’t exist. Religion is a man-made philosophy. Look at the Roman and Greek myths of gods and goddesses. Mankind needs a deity who is all-knowing and all-powerful so he can feel safe and believe in better times ahead. Believing in a good and loving deity makes one feel good, but that’s all. There is nothing more.

"Aaron, if those medical quacks are right, then in a couple of months, you will expire and become dust in the ground. You will be void of life. You will decay to nothing, and you will be nothing. The problem with theology is that one cannot prove anything. Theology and the Bible is a host of handed-down fairy tales designed to placate the masses of people. There have been thousands of made-up gods and goddesses from the dawn of time. They weren’t true then, and they aren’t true now. Aaron, we all take our turns at dying. Your turn is coming up in two months. Make the best of what you’ve got left. Go and do things that make you happy. We’re all blips on the computer screen. One minute we’re here, the next minute we’re gone. Nothing lasts forever, including us.

"The earth is about four and a half billion years old. Humans have been around for a couple hundred thousand years. The Bible says that people just arrived on the earth a little over six thousand years ago. That doesn’t make sense. Carbon dating has revealed tools that people used over fifty thousand years ago. Mankind has been around a lot longer than six thousand years. The Bible tells of miracles performed, which are simply not true. These miracles are either coincidence or just didn’t happen. Mankind evolved from the ape. He just didn’t suddenly appear on the scene. From the ape, the Neanderthal and Cro-Magnon came on the scene. Science has already proven that we all have some Neanderthal DNA in us. Adam just didn’t magically appear while Eve was created from a rib. Every living thing evolved from a single organism, the amoeba. We all started out as one-cell creatures, and now we’re a whole bunch of cells.

"There was never a fall in the garden due to disobedience. From day 1 mankind was a conniving, manipulating evil animal, just like all the others. Animals kill to survive. Mankind is no different. Unlike animals, humans are rotten to the core. No deity is going to change them. Humans don’t deserve to walk this planet. Serpents don’t talk and walk. They are no damn good either. Angels don’t guard the garden, because they don’t exist. If there were a deity, and if he wanted to be worshipped, he should have created a race of robots. There would have been a lot less trouble. Everyone knows that giving free will to bad people is just another way to cause trouble. One cannot give free will to an animal, especially mankind, and expect him to have angelic behavior. If mankind has a choice, he usually does evil. Also, don’t believe that anyone lived to be nine hundred or a thousand years old. The body was not made to last that long. After eighty to one hundred years, nothing works anymore. We’re only in our seventies and we feel like crap right now.

"If the access to heaven is based upon acceptance of a divine Savior who is not physically accessible to the public, most will go the other way. Very few will have