Fred smiled today. For 20 years, the nerve endings and muscles in his face refused to communicate with the neuro-emotion signals from his brain.

One morning, his eyes slowly opened as he drifted into consciousness. The corners of his mouth curled upward. A flood of emotions invigorated and made him shiver with the postmodern excitement one only reads about in apocalyptic books about an obscure author's 10-year-old dream originally scribbled down on a napkin so he wouldnt forget.

Fred took a deep breath. He had refused to give up. He always believed in the human will to feel. And now his long wait was over.

He felt alive.