Vesalius’ Notebooks
“The answers were always right here in his notebooks”
“But nothing can ever undo what happened between them that night”
Vesalius’ Notebooks were always right there, just a few pages away from his fingertips. But he could never bring himself to look at them. Not after what happened between him and his wife that night.
They had been arguing again, as they always did lately. Vesalius was always so wrapped up in his work, and she felt like he was neglecting her. But that night, things went too far. And in the heat of the argument, Vesalius grabbed one of his notebooks and threw it across the room. His wife followed it with her eyes, and as she saw the title, her face lit up with understanding.
“You mean this one?” she asked, picking up the notebook and holding it out to him. “The one about human anatomy? You’ve been working on this for years now…and you haven’t shown me a single page!”
She was right of course. He had been working on this book for years now, but he had never shown it to her because he knew how much she hated science. And then something inside him snapped. He didn’t care if she hated science or not. He wanted her to see what he had accomplished, to share in his triumphs. So he grabbed the notebook from her hand and started flipping through the pages…right in front of her eyes.
She was horrified by what she saw: drawings of human bodies dissected open, their muscles and organs exposed for all to see. She turned away from him in disgust and ran out of the room…and Vesalius knew that their marriage was over for good this time.
