Chapter 8
"Boy, the way this weather is changing, I'm glad to be home." I sighed heavily as I parked the car.
"Yeah, I agree. I'm glad we're back in one piece." Andrea said softly. "It's not that your driving isn't good, it's just that the darn snow was starting to worry me."
"Tell me about it. It's getting heavier and starting to drift already." I snorted as we hopped out of the car and hurried inside. "I think I'd better phone Mrs. Lowther and suggest that she try to come to see Lisa-Marie another day."
"If I know her at all, I'd bet she's on the way already, but she drives a jeep, a fairly new one, with snow tires and studs on all wheels. She has to have one like that to be sure she can get to town in the winter. If anyone can get here in this storm, she can do it."
"Well, I'm going try to give her a call anyway."
The wind was howling around the house and I wondered if the phone would even work or if the phone lines would be down since the wind was blowing so hard. However when I dialled everything seemed fine, at least I could hear the sound as Mrs. Lowther's phone rang. However as Andrea had expected, there was no answer.
Somewhat frustrated at not reaching Mrs. Lowther, I went upstairs to check on Lisa-Marie only to find her quietly sleeping. I sat on the edge of the bed, taking her hand in mine for a moment and was still in that position when Andrea peeked in the doorway.
"I was wondering if I should make something for lunch or if I should wait?" She asked quietly.
"I don't know." I shook my head. "Well, Lisa-Marie is asleep and all I really want right at the moment is something to drink, but I suppose we should eat something. What did you have in mind?"
"Since there's a blizzard outside, I was thinking of something warm. Perhaps soup and a sandwich?" She suggested.
"That sounds fine to me." I nodded. "Let's get out of here before we disturb Lisa-Marie. I'd hate to wake her since she's sleeping comfortably now."
Back down on the main floor of the house, Andrea went into the pantry, found some tinned soup and started it heating on the stove. I couldn't seem to settle down and was pacing around slowly from room to room. Finally Andrea stood in front of me, frowning deeply.
"Just what is wrong?" She demanded.
"I'm frustrated." I sighed. "Another couple of hours and both Lisa-Marie and I should be thinking of going. That is if we're planning on being in class tomorrow, but I certainly don't want to start out and then get snowbound somewhere along the way."
"Could Lisa-Marie drive anyway?" Andrea looked very concerned. "It seems to me that since she's loaded with drugs she shouldn't get behind the wheel of a car."
"That's the other half of the problem." I grunted in annoyance. "She has to go thirty-five miles past where I do and I couldn't let her drive on her own. I'd have to drive her there, drop her off first, then head back myself. On top of everything else, we'd probably have an argument because if I drove, she'd be without a car during the week."
"Well, I don't think you have to worry about it today. Just look now." She pointed out the window. "It's getting a lot worse."
The snow was blowing so hard that we were having a whiteout at that moment. The barn was less than a hundred yards from the house and I couldn't see it. Then suddenly a bright red jeep came into view as it pulled into the yard and around behind the house.
"Well, you'd best make enough lunch for Mrs. Lowther too." I said over my shoulder. "It looks like she made it just in time."
I went to the back door, grabbing a coat and stamping on a pair of boots since I was expecting to have to help her carry things inside. Instead she met me on the back porch with a big smile on her face and literally pushed me back inside the house, using the wicker basket she was carrying as a ram.
"Wow. Some weather isn't it." She laughed as she shook off the snow and set the basket on the floor once we were inside.
"You find this funny?" I looked at her as if she was slightly strange.
"Why not? I'm here and safe from the elements and, knowing you even slightly, I doubt if you'd kick me out into the storm. Then too, I know Silas always kept the pantry stocked and firewood for the old airtight stove out back, so we'll be quite comfortable even if the power gets knocked out. " She was grinning at me. "Come on Tom, look at the good side of things. We've got food, good company and a warm house, that should be enough for a few days."
"But the important thing is, how is your girl?" Her face suddenly became serious.
"Well, I checked on her as soon as we got home and she was sleeping quietly." I kicked off my heavy boots and hung up my coat. "Did you want to go up and see her?"
"Yes, please." She nodded, then to my surprise she pulled a pair of slippers out of her coat pocket as she kicked off her boots.
Seeing the surprise on my face, she grinned.
"This house used to have need for a maid and had cool floors, so I often carried a pair of these when I came visiting. They kept my feet clean and warm many times." Her eyes danced. "You needn't think I'm going to try to hide the fact that I was Silas' lover, not from you and not in this house. Actually I'm trying to think of you as my nephew, which means I'll probably admit things to you that I wouldn't tell anyone else."
"But I overheard you too, Mrs. Lowther." Andrea spoke quietly. "Of course, I'd never say anything."
"Honey, I didn't think you would. Besides, since this big lummox took you in out of the goodness of his heart when you had a problem, I'm considering you as family too." She laughed softly. "Now can we go see the young woman that I came to try and help?"
"Sure Mrs. Lowther, this way." I gestured.
"I'd better keep an eye on lunch. I don't want the soup to burn." Andrea excused herself as I and Mrs. Lowther turned to go upstairs.
"By the way Tom, my name is Fran." She said quietly. "I'd like it if you all called me that."
Andrea must have heard and turned back to look at us. "Then please call me Andy." She said, then started to giggle. "Tom forgets, but I prefer that to Annndreaaaa."
"Oops. Sorry Andy, I did forget." I apologised. "Lisa-Marie told me and it just slipped my mind."
She just waved and turned toward the kitchen while Fran and I walked upstairs.
Lisa-Marie was still lying in the middle of the big bed, but as we walked into the room, her eyes opened.
"Hi Tom." She said softly, her voice sounding drowsy and slightly slurred. "Who's your friend?"
"Hi Lisa-Marie. This is Mrs. Fran Lowther, the herbalist that Andy was talking about." I smiled as I sat down on the edge of the bed and took her hand. "She thinks she can probably help you."
"Oh, that's good." Lisa-Marie smiled slowly. "Hi Mrs. Fran Lowther. I'm sorry, but I'm feeling sort of woozy right now."
"Hello Lisa-Marie. I don't doubt that you're feeling woozy right now. I think you've been over prescribed on your medications as well as taking medications that are somewhat unsuited to your problems."
"Izzat right?" Her voice slurred deeply. "I thought so too, n'even told the doc, but he said he thought ever'thin' was fine."
"I'd be willing to wager that the doctor didn't see you when you were in this condition." Fran frowned and took Lisa-Marie's hand to check her pulse. "Lisa-Maire, could you look at my hand for a moment? I'm going to hold out one finger and I'd like you to look at the very tip of it as I move it around. Okay?"
"Sure." Lisa-Marie's head moved in an exaggerated nod. "S'no problem at all."
After a few seconds, Fran sighed softly. "All right Lisa-Marie, by any chance did you take more medication today than you were supposed to take?"
"Oh no. Don't do that! Not ever! I always take them when I get up in the mornin' so I don't forget, but the doctor said I was to take more on m' bad days. The prescription s'on the bottle." Lisa-Marie sat up and pointed at the dresser near the bed. "There's one bottle that I take two pills from, but only on the really bad days, not just one pill like on reg'ler days. So I took the one extra one today, jus' like he said I should."
She leaned toward me and seemed to lose her balance. I caught her, holding her gently. Fran got to her feet and moved over to look at the small plastic bottles of pills, then pursed her lips tightly and frowned as she read the instructions printed on them. I could see her lips move, but couldn't make out what she said.
"When did you take the extra pill then?" She asked aloud.
"B'fore I took a bath, n'at was b'fore Tom 'n' Andy went to see you."
"That would be just over two hours ago." I explained.
Fran nodded and came back to the bed, then leaned over and gently stroked Lisa-Marie's arm.
"I think you should lay back down and rest for a while." She said quietly. "We'll check on you later and see if you want anything. Okay?"
"Mmm hmm." Lisa-Marie nodded slowly and then seemed to ooze out of my arms and lay back. "You're n'ice lady. I like you."
I bent over and kissed her on the forehead, making her sigh and smile, then I tucked her in and we left her to rest. I wasn't sure what to make of Fran's look as we left the room, and she didn't speak until we were down on the main floor. Once we were in the kitchen, she turned to me with a light frown on her face.
"Would you say Lisa-Marie suffers from drastic mood swings?"
"No, not really. This is the only time that happens, during the few days around her period. Why?"
"Well, her doctor appears to be treating her for a bipolar disorder. Then to make matters worse, he's adding an extra dose of mood altering drugs that he's allowing her to administer whenever she feels distressed." She was biting her words off as if they offended her. "I don't know if you realise it or not, but I taught at the University and one of the things I taught about was toxicol drug mixes. Her doctor, and I'm using that word loosely, has mixed drugs that should never be combined. In fact I'm thinking of sending the facts of this case to the medical review board."
I just stared at her for a second before I found any words to speak.
"You're a doctor?" I asked quietly.
"No, not if you mean an MD. I do have a doctorate, but it's in pharmacology, not medicine." She sighed deeply. "However this case is so blatantly misdiagnosed and treated that I'm practically impelled to report it."
She walked slowly over to the sink and ran the water, then opened the cupboard looking for a glass.
"Will Lisa-Marie be okay? Has the doctor that's been treating her, actually damaged her health instead?"
"Oh I don't think she's been physically injured, but she's been taking mood altering drugs and there will be a withdrawal period. I'm afraid someone will need to be with her and . . ."
"I can do that. After all, I've got nothing else to do right now except get fat." Andrea said instantly. "Tom can't, because he still has to finish his course, but then, so does Lisa-Marie."
"Well, I think she may have to miss a week or two of her studies." Fran said in a no nonsense tone. "Taking her off of the drugs will certainly alter her moods which may be a problem. Actually, I'd like to have a qualified doctor involved."
"Fran, I'm not trying to put you or your herbs down, but I'd like a doctor involved too. Not the dork she has been seeing though." I added.
She turned to me and smiled. "I wouldn't expect you to think any differently. Will you let me recommend a doctor though?"
"I can't see why not?" I shrugged my shoulders. "So far you've convinced me that you know what you're talking about."
"Well, thank you." She smiled. "I was thinking of young Dr. Franklin who comes to the clinic in town. He's there Monday's, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. The reason I recommend him is that he's very good and on top of that he's able to keep an open mind to alternate methods of treatment."
"In other words, he works with you, not against you."
"Yes he does." She smiled again. "Now did someone mention lunch? I'm starved."
Over lunch, our conversation changed. First Fran complimented us on the cleanup and changes she noticed around the house, then she opened up a bit about Uncle Silas.
"He was quite a guy." She laughed softly.
"Yup." I tried to imitate Uncle Silas' flat tone, then just grinned.
"Yes Tom, we both know you're a lot like him." Andy laughed. "Silas was always so kind to me that I liked him even if some of the other kids thought he was grouchy. I couldn't see that, he always had a smile for me or for Willy."
"That was more than likely because you didn't automatically assume that he was going to be grouchy. I swear that sometimes he went out of his way to make people believe they were right, often at the same time as proving them wrong." Fran smiled at Andy. "Silas actually reacted to the people around him very readily. If your friends acted obnoxious and disrespectful, Silas would have been obnoxious and disrespectful in return, but if you smiled, he smiled back. He did have a tendency to cut people down if he felt they were being foolish and since young people often enjoy being foolish, he didn't make many younger friends."
Andy grinned and nodded, not saying anything. Fran laughed and reached out to touch her hand.
"You did know him well. Why waste a word when a nod would take its place seemed to be his philosophy alright."
We laughed and chatted about Uncle Silas for a while, then I slipped upstairs to check on Lisa-Marie while the two women cleaned up the dishes and the kitchen. Lisa-Marie seemed to be resting a lot better now. I couldn't have explained how I knew that, but it was obvious to me that now she was sleeping more normally and no longer under as heavy influence of the pills.
After simply watching over her for a few minutes, I moved to the window to look out at the storm and sighed softly. It seemed that even my soft sigh was enough to disturb Lisa-Marie.
"Umm, Hi." She murmured softly, but by the time I'd turned to look at her, she appeared to be sound asleep again.
I moved back over to the bed and spoke to her quietly, but she didn't respond. Instead of disturbing her any more, I thought it was better if I left her alone. When I got downstairs, the two women had made coffee and were talking as they sat at the kitchen table.
"Is she okay? " Andy asked immediately upon seeing me.
"Yeah, I'd say she was resting more naturally now."
Fran glanced at her watch and nodded. "That's along the lines of what we should expect after about three hours. The short term effects of the additional medication will wear off completely inside of another hour or two, then all that we'll see will be the longer term effects. She'll almost appear to be acting in the way she has been in recent times. How that compares to the way she acted prior to going onto this prescription is something only someone like Tom could tell us."
"Hmm, I never thought of that." I sat down and thought back to when Lisa-Marie had seemed to change. "You know, it was after she started to take this course when I noticed a difference. I thought it was just getting away from home, but she did get a new doctor then too. I'll bet she's been on that stuff for about a year and a half."
"Could you tell me what has changed about her actions?" Fran asked.
"Now that's hard." I sighed. "I suppose she's more sober now, less fun, less spontaneous. Well, except for a day or two before her period and then she goes back to almost exactly the same way she was before with hardly any difference."
"So you're saying that she grows calmer during the rest of the month, but when she could stand to be calmer, there is no change?"
"I guess. I don't know." I shrugged my shoulders. "Look, one of the reasons I always loved Lisa-Marie is her sense of fun, her tendency to take me off balance and surprise me. I guess I'm sort of a slow and steady guy who plods along at life. After we started dating, she'd grab me by the ears and haul me along with her when she did something a bit different. We both had fun. I don't really get to see much of that now."
"But she does still have a short manic period just prior to the onset of menses?"
"Oh, yeah. She still gets a bit wild then."
"I noticed a tremendous difference in her actions between the previous week and then this weekend." Andy added. "When I first met her, she was excited and happy about this house, even if it was a bit of a mess, but this weekend, she was . . . well, almost a wild child. I didn't know what was going to happen next. Now, if I noticed it, even when I was so wound up in my own problems . . ." She shrugged as if her meaning should be obvious. "Actually her being like that was probably a good thing for me. She simply did like Tom said, she grabbed me by the ears and hauled me along."
"I'm finding this fascinating." Fran said quietly. "Lisa-Marie's reactions to the medications are certainly atypical. It's almost as if in smaller doses, her body has learned to cope with the drug and allow her to carry on in the same way as she had previously. However the extra medications she took after the advent of menses was enough to trigger a collapse of her body's manner of coping."
She paused then and steepled her hands under her chin as if she was deep in thought, then she nodded.
"I believe there may have been either a mistake on the prescription, or a mistake on communication between the doctor and Lisa-Marie." She looked at me and sighed. "I think the doctor meant for Lisa-Marie to take an additional dose of one medication at the onset of her manic phase, not at the onset of her menses."
"Well, what about the other medications she's taking?"
"As far as I can see, they're all to counteract some reaction she's had to the main medication or in two cases they're simple over-the-counter medications. For instance, one is an overpriced vitamin pill and another is a pill to encourage calcium retention. If she's willing to let me help her, she'll be able to forget those completely. There are natural ways to do a far better job of those things."
"So the only worry is the mood altering drug and the ones that go with it?"
"I don't think even that should be a worry." She smiled slightly. "I was saying earlier that the reason I got involved with herbal remedies was the problems that I had with morning sickness. I've done a lot of research into that and other problems that develop because of a woman's hormonal balance being upset by menses or pregnancy. Since I started with a degree in pharmacology and I specialised in toxic reactions to various drugs, I've been able to develop herbal remedies that have helped many women."
"So you're a natural medicine specialist?"
"No, I don't deal in medicine. I deal in herbs." She smiled wryly. "I don't try to cure medical problems. Instead I suggest methods of letting nature provide a method of prevention, that way the problem no longer develops. It's a matter of definition and don't tell me that I'm trying to weasel out of anything."
"It almost sounds like it to me." I had to grin, knowing I was baiting her. "I hope your confidence is warranted."
"Well, I can't provide guarantees, but then doctors don't do that either. I will say that my methods are easier on the body and in the long run, they may help people to even live longer."
"That's a pretty strong statement. What are you suggesting, that you can cure old age?"
"Nope." She grinned and stood up, turning slowly.
For a middle-aged woman she looked darn healthy, I grinned and even gave a low wolf whistle that made her laugh.
"So guess my age." She chortled.
"Well, Andy told me that when you moved here, you'd already taught at the University . Even if you were brilliant, you'd have to be at least in your mid twenties to do that. Then you told me that your youngest son was conceived after you moved here and since Andy went to school with him, that's another, oh say twenty years." I smiled, proud of remembering the details. "That would make you at least forty-five, even though you don't look it."
"Thank you, that's very complimentary." She chuckled. "Actually, I was several years older than that, in fact I was older than Silas when we met. You see I was thirty-nine when my youngest came along and he will be twenty this August. I'll be fifty-nine in July."
"Wow!" I just looked at her in surprise.
If I was surprised, Andy was astonished. Her mouth was open and she simply stared for several seconds.
"You're bull-shitting me!" She whispered softly when she could speak again. "You look way younger than my Mom, and she just turned forty."
"No Andy, I'm not bull-shitting you. That's really how old I am, but then I've always taken care of my health. I'm careful what I eat. I'm careful how I exercise. I make sure I rest well at night. I don't drink to excess. I don't smoke. I don't use any drugs. I simply live a healthy and very boring lifestyle, at least it would seem boring to most people. Silas was the only really exciting thing in my life the last few years. Well, that and finding preventative treatments for a lot of medical problems."
I was grinning widely and she frowned at me.
"I suppose you're finding the idea of Silas being exciting quite funny do you?"
"I'm sorry Fran." I couldn't help chuckling aloud. "He probably was, but the idea of the man that I always thought of as a lonely old bachelor being your love partner and you finding him exciting is just too much. I'm laughing at my own preconceptions as much as anything else."
"Well, you can take it from me that he was an extremely virile man who also treated me well. What I liked best about him was that while he was attentive to my needs and wants, he also appreciated equal treatment." She smiled. "The only thing I wish is that we'd had a child, but since we didn't, I hope you don't mind if I treat you as my nephew, almost as if Silas and I had married."
"I don't mind, I could even call you Aunty, if you want me to?"
"Oh, I think we can dispense with that." She chuckled. "You know, before Lisa-Marie gets up, perhaps you and I could discuss business for a moment?"
"Oh, and what sort of business would that be?" I frowned to express my curiosity.
"Well, down along the creek that cuts through the corner of you property is a few acres of land that is still raw prairie. It's all fenced off from your neighbours and it's even fenced off from this side, so your own cattle can't get in there unless they're let in intentionally."
"I've seen it." I smiled. "Remember I looked after the farm for a few months when Uncle Silas fell and was laid up a couple of years ago. I thought we had a few head of cattle in there then though."
"Two years ago, you would have had some cattle grazing in there." She smiled. "For the last twenty years, I've been managing that piece of land and I've tried to keep the usage of it as much like it would have been when this whole area was bald prairie. I asked Silas to put cattle in to graze the land every five years because I think that the buffalo used to graze over different areas of the landscape every year, so that explains the five-year pattern. I also use fire to control the intrusion of the snowberry and willow bushes. Otherwise, they'd spread and eventually cover the area. Two or three years after the cattle have grazed it off, I go in and set fire to the dry grass in the late fall."
"Is that natural too?"
"Oh yes, prairie fires were quite common on the prairies before the white man got here, partially they were caused by lightning, but the native Indians set them too. The native plants seem to be inured to a fast burning fire and come back just as healthy as ever the next year, in fact they come back healthier than before. I was told that fire was natures way of tilling the soil of the prairies by removing the old and diseased plants and allowing the nutrients to go back into the soil. I'm careful when I burn and by the time of the year when I set the fire, I've already gathered the herbs from the area."
"So have you burned it this year?"
"Yes I did and I won't be burning it off for another five years. That is if I can arrange to lease the area from you. I rather doubt that you'd be interested in the lease agreement I had with Silas." She grinned at me. "I think the Lisa-Marie might have something to say about that."
"Yeah, she might." I broke into laughter as Andy giggled.
"So, do you think we can come to some sort of agreement?"
"Oh I think so." I was still grinning. "Mostly I think you'll enjoy the price I'm thinking of setting though."
"Yes?" She raised an eyebrow. "And just what price would that be?"
"Well, cash wise, I think I should get the amount that the raw acreage costs me in taxes and you should pay for the upkeep of the fences. In addition, I'd like you to teach me about the medicinal plants and herbs that you use and particularly the ones that grow naturally on my land."
"That's it?" She looked at me in surprise. "Don't you want to know how much money I make from the herbs that grow there and have a share of that?"
"Did Uncle Silas ask for a share?" I grinned, knowing that if he had it hadn't shown up on the farm records.
"Well, no, but that was a totally different situation." She actually blushed. "I mean it wasn't really fair for him, but he insisted and I . . ."
"Well, I can understand how he felt in a way." I looked at her seriously. "I think Uncle Silas looked on you as his woman and letting you make money from that little corner of his land was simply providing his woman with support. You were there to satisfy his basic hunger for love and companionship and he probably felt that you gave far more than he did in the relationship. Now in my case, I'm asking you to satisfy a completely different hunger, the hunger for knowledge. I'd say you're actually going to have to use more of your teaching skills to accomplish a far less pleasurable task."
She looked at me for a minute, then broke into delighted laughter. She was still laughing when I saw Lisa-Marie coming down the stairs. She looked much better than she had in the morning or even a short while ago.
"I thought I heard a strange voice." Lisa-Marie looked at Fran who had been sitting faced away from the stairs. "I'm sorry I wasn't down here to greet you when you came, but I haven't been feeling too well today."
Before Andy or I could say anything, Fran was rising to her feet and turning to face Lisa-Marie. "The fact that you aren't feeling well is the reason I'm here Lisa-Marie. My name is Fran Lowther and I'm an herbalist who specialises in helping women with their bodily problems."
"Oh, I do remember Tom and Andy talking about you before." Lisa-Marie smiled. "But do you mean that you came to see me in this storm? That was very nice of you."
Andy was staring at Lisa-Marie and turned to me with a quizzical look on her face. I knew that she was thinking Lisa-Marie didn't sound like herself. I could only shrug, Lisa-Marie didn't sound like herself to me either, but I suppose that wasn't a surprise. Lisa-Marie had always wanted to be alone when she was feeling so rough and this was the first time I'd seen her like this myself.
I got to my feet and pulled back a chair for her to sit and Lisa-Marie smiled at me and nodded very politely before sitting down.
"I was going to make myself something to eat." She said quietly.
"You just tell me what you want." Andy almost leapt to her feet. "We had cream of mushroom soup for lunch and I made too much. There's still some in the fridge, I could microwave that to start with."
"Oh, that would be nice." Lisa-Marie nodded and smiled. "Could I have a toasted cheese sandwich too, and a cup of tea? I really don't feel like standing and if you fixed it for me, I'd be forever grateful to you."
"No problem at all." Andy smiled. "You sit. I'll cook. We already had that deal, remember?"
"Oh, I didn't remember that either." Lisa-Marie smiled "Thank you."
Fran noticed the puzzled look that passed between Andy and me, simply frowning slightly and shaking her head a tiny bit in a negative manner, warning us not to say anything about Lisa-Marie's behaviour. Then she turned to Lisa-Marie.
"Lisa-Marie, I'd like you to call me Fran. I'm a pharmacist and I've studied medications very thoroughly. I think your doctor may be prescribing dosages that are too strong for you, just from the way you've been acting since I came to see you."
"Oh, I think I agree with you and I've told my doctor that, but he thinks I'm doing fine. He doesn't listen to me very well." Lisa-Marie shrugged her shoulders. "Have you been here long? I don't remember talking to you before."
"I did speak to you before, well over an hour ago, and at that time you said you were rather groggy, so we suggested that you sleep. How do you feel now?"
"I don't think I feel right yet." Lisa-Marie tried to smile, but it was weak. "I am hungry though and that means I'm going to be okay later. If I eat and drink something and then have another sleep, I almost always feel much better."
"Well, would you like me to make you a cup of tea that will help you to relax so you can sleep? I could do that you know."
"Would that help me instead of the drugs the doctor is giving me? I really don't like taking all those pills all that much."
"Not really, not yet. Since you already have drugs in your system, I have to be very careful about what you use for herbs. For instance, one of the things you're using is an antidepressant and another pill has some codeine in it, we can't give you some of the herbs that really help easy menstrual pain and discomfort, because they would give you a very bad reaction. You'd have to stop taking those medications and then take some time to get the residue they leave behind out of your system before you could start on those herbs. What I can do is make it easier for you to sleep and relax, so the discomfort will be easier to handle. On top of that, I can give you a tea that will reduce even that discomfort."
"If I stop taking the pills, can you help me then? I'd much rather do without the pills even if it takes some time and effort to do it."
"I'd like to do that. In fact, I'd like to do that very much. I'm not sure if you'll go along with my idea, but what I'd like to do is spend the next week or two here with you and Andy. We could be here to help you manage your discomfort, then you could just relax and get all of the residues from the drugs out of your system." Fran smiled at her. "One thing I'd like to do is have you talk to a different doctor. He might think getting you off the pills is a very good idea."
"Oh, but what about school? I've already missed a week to mourn Uncle Silas. I couldn't really miss any more and still expect to complete the course properly."
"Well, I think if we speak to the doctor about that, he might be willing to send an explanation to your school, then perhaps I could make a trip to collect your course materials and speak to your teachers about having you study here for a week or two. I really do think you need to do this for the sake of your future health." Fran said quietly.
"Why are you being so nice to me?" Lisa-Marie looked at Fran with such an innocent look of curiosity on her face that she seemed to me to look about ten years old again.
"That's an easy question to answer." Fran moved over and bent to hug her gently. "You see I was Tom's uncle's lover for years and I would like to think of Tom as my nephew, even though I and Silas were never officially married. Since you're marrying my nephew, I want you to live a long and happy life with him."
"Oh, that's very nice of you."
I was looking at Lisa-Marie, and seeing her sitting there, but it didn't seem to be her in so many ways. Although she was polite and pleasant, it was as if she were peaking mechanically and her emotions seemed so distant. I'd never seen her like this and I found it creepy.
I found myself walking away, moving into the living room and looking out the big window there, quietly staring at the blowing snow in the yard. At least from a distance, Lisa-Maries voice was so quiet that I could hear it was her and yet I couldn't hear her words and I couldn't catch the discrepancy that I was sensing in her personality.
I sighed to myself, knowing that I had to go back and I had to support her. If this was hard on me, what must it be like for her? I couldn't allow her to see how this was affecting me. I had to be with her, after all I loved her. I frowned and saw my face reflected in the window, that frown worried me. I couldn't go back to see my lover frowning like that. Wiping the frown from my face, I turned and walked back to the kitchen
Lisa-Marie was eating with Andy sitting nearby, chattering away quietly and Fran was at the counter in the kitchen. As I looked at her, she signalled for me to come closer with a toss of her head.
"She'll be fine Tom." Fran whispered softly. "What's happening to her is only a mild reaction in comparison to what it could be. By this time tomorrow, you'll have very close to your old Lisa-Marie back."
I reached out and wrapped an arm around her waist, hugging her close. "Thank you."
"Hmm, I like being your aunty." She chuckled and snuggled against me for a moment. "But will Lisa-Marie mind my getting hugs?"
"Hey Lisa-Marie, can I hug my new Aunty Fran." I called, not really thinking about how the drugs might make her react.
To my surprise, I could see her look up, then see her mouth slowly widen into a grin.
"Only if I get equal time . . . from both of you." She answered, yet her voice still sounded different than it should have. "But, don't disturb her too much right now, please. I am getting rather thirsty."
"It will only be a moment or two." Fran smiled, gently stirring each of four different cups.
"Four cups?" I asked.
"One for each of us." Fran smiled. "Chamomile, anise seed, and mint for Lisa-Marie so she will go to sleep easily and rest peacefully. Basil and lemon balm for you and Andy, to calm you a bit because both of you are feeling slightly stressed. And lastly, anise seed and mint for me, but mine is far weaker because I'm just drinking it to enjoy the taste."
"So I'm on the herb wagon too, am I?" I smiled.
"Yep, you want to learn about them. I'm going to teach you about them and part of that teaching is to learn the taste and effects of each and every one I sell." She laughed softly. "Now, take those two cups on the end, one is for you and one is for Andy. I have Lisa-Marie's and mine right here."
As we sat together at the table for the next half hour, Fran began our education in herbal remedies, starting by explaining what each of us was drinking and why she had included each herb into each cup. Toward the end of her explanation, Lisa-Marie was already yawning.
"Oh, I'm sorry Fran, but I think I need to go to bed." Lisa-Marie stifled another yawn. "Your tea really works."
"Well Honey, that's what it was meant to do." Fran arose at the same time Lisa-Marie did and wrapped her into a hug. "We'll get Tom to go upstairs with you and tuck you into bed then. You go have a good rest."
After Lisa-Marie had gotten a hug from Andy as well, she and I climbed the stairs. Minutes later, I was sitting at her side as she lay in the bed, her eyes barely open.
"Goodnight Love." She sighed softly, pursing her lips in expectation of a kiss.
By the time I lifted my head from a gentle peck on her lips, her breathing was deep and even.
"Sleep well." I whispered, gently tucking the blankets around her.
Her hand snaked out of the blanket and held mine. That was when I knew she was improving, this morning she had hardly let me touch her, but now she was seeking contact. I sighed, then decided that with the wind blowing so hard outside and nothing really needing to be done inside, I wanted all the contact she'd allow. I lay down at her side, atop the blankets and rested an arm around her.
Her soft sigh of contentment and her snuggling motion against me told me I was doing the right thing. I closed my eyes and relaxed, gently holding my lover.