Chapter 10:  A Spiritual Gamble

"Trying To Be Normal"

Previous Chapter

 

Alright, once more I, the biographer, am going to intrude on the normal track of this history, to show Alex’s life from a slightly different perspective. This time, like the last, it contains information that Alex never knew about, although I suspect he eventually figured out a fair amount of it. It’s important because it reveals another aspect of his abilities that hasn’t yet been addressed, and one that everyone was afraid to mention to him, for fear of how he’d respond to it if he knew.

This chapter is divided into two distinct parts. The first, the discussion between Cate, Alex’s girls and his parents concerning Cate and Alex’s changed relationship, as well as a more in depth discussion about what Alex is currently doing that should provide some useful insights into Alex at this point in his life. The second is again told from Alex’s perspective, a description of how Brooke and Rebecca managed to arrange for him to get tested by the Hospital near his home.

They both happened fairly simultaneously, so don’t try to keep track of what was happening when. However, both are significant because they relate to a change in everyone’s understanding of Alex and the coming role he was to play.

---

While Alex was away, gone on whatever it was that Becky wanted him to do at the hospital, Cate took the opportunity to finally have a needed discussion with several people. Alex and Cate’s father, Frank, had been grousing for much of the day about his children’s getting together for an incestuous affair. Cate had finally had enough, and decided she wanted to have it out with him, as well as work some things out for herself. So she gathered everyone into the living room to talk.

“Dad, this has been going on long enough,” Cate told him. “I mean, you knew this has been building between Alex and me for a long time, and it never seemed to bother you before. What’s the big deal now?”

“You weren’t having sex with him then,” he complained. “Back then, you were both dealing with it, and I was proud of you both for maintaining control over your baser instincts. There’s a bit of difference between recognizing an attraction, and having your two youngest kids having sex right in the next room.”

“All right, I understand that,” Cate responded patiently, “but you knew it was only a matter of time before it was going to occur. Maybe it might have taken years, maybe another week, but it was bound to happen. Surely you thought about it beforehand. I can understand it’s being uncomfortable for you, but you should at least have been partially prepared for it.”

“Argh,” he growled in frustration. His wife started to reach out to him, but thought better of it, thinking it would be better for him to get this out in the open. “I really don’t know, OK? I thought I was fine with it. But I was expecting Alex’s exceedingly high morals to get in his way, like it usually does. Plus I figured he would be distracted by all his other women, so that he’d never feel pressured enough to do anything about it.”

“Dad, Alex didn’t feel pressured to do anything. I instigated the whole thing. This thing between Alex and me goes way back. I first started...”

Linda cut her daughter off before she could start reciting her story once again. “Yes, we’re basically familiar with your attraction to him, dear. I think your father’s problem is that he isn’t quite convinced about whether this is all in your best interests or not. I’m afraid he can’t see what the rest of us see when we look at the two of you. He’s simply seeing two kids getting carried away by their own hormones. He’s also worried about the possible repercussions, like if you ever decide you want to have kids. I don’t think he can get past those central issues yet. Until he does, I think you can expect him to be a bit grouchy about it.”

“Humph,” Frank grunted his thoughts on the subject.

“Well, Dad, I hope that Alex and I can show you, given enough time, that we really care for each other. Also, although we haven’t had a chance to talk about it, I have no plans to have his kids or anything. I’m not sure what I’ll do, but I kind of still want my own family and a white picket fence. However, as I’m swept up in more and more of Alex’s world, I can’t honestly see myself very far from him either. I guess we’ll have to work out some sort of compromise. But the important thing right now is that no one can possibly make me feel the way Alex makes me feel, whether we’re fooling around or not. Just like the rest of his girls, I’m so grateful for how he’s always made me feel, that I’m willing to do just about anything for him as a result. If that means giving him up forever, I’d be willing to do that. If it means being chaste, or even surrendering my life, I think I’d be willing to do either of those too. Alex is simply an amazing force in my life, and there’s just no denying the effect he’s had on it.”

Frank closed his eyes, leaned his head back and groaned. “God, I know, I know. I’m well aware of Alex ’s affect on everyone’s life lately. It’s all anyone talks about around here anymore. If this wasn’t so close to me I’d probably be on his bandwagon as well. Lord knows I’ve given him much more freedom than I’ve given any of my other children. In fact the only reason why I’m not more upset is simply because you’re doing it with Alex. If you were having an affair with Becky or Melinda, heaven forbid, you can bet I’d have lost my temper a long time ago!”

“Well, you’ll be glad to know that, because of Alex’s high ideals, we probably won’t get too far,” she conceded. “I’m convinced that Alex fully intends to give up on all of his women, including me, as soon as either Kitty or Chalise say they want to get serious. Geez, if they only had a clue, I can imagine watching the bodies fly as each one raced to get there first.”

“You really think so,” Linda asked her daughter.

“Absolutely,” Shani assured her. “I’ve been with your son long enough to know how he thinks, and he’s serious about his own sense of honor. I think the only reason why he’s still having sex with us is because he thinks it’s part of his responsibility to us. But once either one says ‘yes’, he’ll quit us all without a look back.”

“Well, at least there’s a little hope there,” Frank acknowledged. “I can always count on girls’ basic jealousy.”

“If I were you, I wouldn’t count on it too far,” Linda warned him.

“You know,” Cate began, subtly trying to shift attention away from this topic, now that she’d gotten her father to admit as much as he had about his own feelings, “I’ve been wondering about Alex’s abilities a bit, lately, in regard to Chalise and Kitty. Their relationship just doesn’t seem right somehow.

“You’d think, with all he’s told them, and especially with the clueless way he keeps expressing himself, that they’d both have taken off for the hills. I know you keep talking about a possible effect Alex is having on the people around him, but I think there’s more to it than that. Or maybe it’s in addition to that. Alex seems to know just what he can say to people, who he can trust, and what he can get away with.

“If anyone else had pulled that stunt with Darrell they’d be ground beef by now. But Alex puts him down to his face, then just walks away happy as a clam. I don’t think it’s necessarily any influence he had over him, after all they’d just met, but I do think he picked up on Darrell’s subtle traits and played them like a fine fiddle.

“He’s like that with Kitty and Chalise, too. He tells them the most outrageous stories, and they just say, ‘Oh, we’d never dream of telling.’ He tells Chalise’s mother he plans on making love to her daughter in his own room, and invites her to come and watch, and she says, ‘OK, I’ll think about it, but go ahead anytime you feel the urge strike you’.

“I’d like to feel each of you out on this topic, because it might also impact on Alex’s and my relationship as well. I’m not sure, but he may be playing to my own weaknesses and strengths too. Maybe, despite his denials, Alex really CAN detect people’s emotions?”

Everyone sat and considered this, largely because the same thoughts had occurred to each of them. This ability Alex demonstrated, repeatedly, of always knowing just what to say, was astounding. Somehow, amazing things didn’t seem to be random around Alex , which only led one to think it had to be due to his abilities somehow. Either that, or maybe God really was watching over him.

“No,” Shani replied, “Alex doesn’t have our ability to detect emotions, at least the way it was before he affected us. I’m sure of that. We discussed it quite a bit, and he repeatedly denied having experienced anything similar. If he’s showing any similar abilities now, then it’s something he’s picked up recently.”

“Do you think maybe it can be passed from one person to another?” Natalie asked, sounding hopeful as she did so.

“No, I’d seriously doubt it,” Cate replied. “Otherwise it would be a lot more widespread. You’d find watchers clustered together if it did. Instead they seemed to be completely statistically random. I couldn’t figure out any commonality among those I observed.”

“Maybe dealing with all of that energy triggered something in him? You’ve said that those with the innate abilities have slightly brighter auras than other people,” Frank suggested, being drawn into the discussion despite his recent sour mood.

“I don’t think so,” Shani said. “I’d guess he’s been carrying that energy for a long time. I doubt it started when he came to New Orleans . I’m thinking he’s been generating that much energy since he was born. Too bad there’s no way to test that, though.”

“Yeah,” Cate agreed, trying to imagine how one could measure the amount of life force someone was accessing.

“So what do you think is doing it, then?” Natalie asked, intrigued by the whole thing, as they all were whenever it involved their favorite subject: Alex.

Anh simply cleared her throat and everyone turned to her, since she was usually so taciturn. When everyone was finally silent, waiting for her to respond, she started speaking and Shani translated for her.

“I think you are putting your horses before your cart,” she began. “It’s not a new ability of Alex’s. It isn’t that he recognizes emotions as much as he recognizes the individuals.”

“Huh?” Cate asked, shaking her head, trying to make sense of what she’d just said.

“It’s simple. Remember my initial theory, about Alex actually having crossed over from the Spirit’s Realm to this one. It takes great power to do such a thing, as it’s very difficult to do. To accomplish it and end up with as much power as Alex has on this side is simply amazing, but not completely unheard of. What I’m suggesting is that Alex may not have been the only one. If Alex was a mighty lord in the spiritual realm, then he would have had many followers, and likely several generals as well.

“I think that, when he decided to cross over, his most loyal followers crossed over with him. Like Alex, in order to prevent doing unintended damage, they were required to forget everything about their origin. However, once here, they’d naturally seek each other out. I keep advising Alex to not think things out, since his conscious self doesn’t know much, whereas his unconscious spirit knows what to do. The same is true here. The rational Alex has no way to know whether to trust someone or not. However, Alex’s spirit would recognize those that it trusts, and would know they could be trusted with anything he told them.”

“So you’re suggesting that Kitty and Chalise are also spirits that have crossed over to the earth?” Frank asked. “If that’s so, then how did they ever find their way here? And how’d they end up in the same grade, in the same school, in the same town as Alex? That’s just too many variables to throw into the mix.”

“Not really,” Anh continued, not having to wait for a verbal translation. “Spirits don’t know about spatial things like geography, but they do recognize power, especially a power that radiates like Alex’s does. More so if it was from a trusted friend. I propose that when they came to the earth, they simply were drawn to where Alex was, regardless of where that was. Even if they were physically born somewhere else, they would have found a reason to migrate to where he lived. I’m sure if they picked a body being born in a nearby hospital, they wouldn’t know where it would eventually be raised. So they’d feel a constant desire or need to move to where he is. Again, their conscious minds would never understand the desire, but their spirits would know they would be more comfortable near their lord.”

“Wow! That’s some theory,” Cate whistled. “As much as I hate to admit it, since it goes against every scientific rationale in my brain, it sure explains a lot. I guess I’ll have to ask them where they were born and how often they moved after that. Man, what a neat theory. I mean it’s neat in that it explains so much, it doesn’t leave any messy unexplained crumbs lying around.”

“Wait,” she asked, suddenly sitting up, her eyes opening wide, “would that also explain Alex and me? I mean, Alex has been affecting me for a long time, but we mostly agree that I don’t have any of the watchers’ abilities.”

“What? What are you saying, Cate?” Frank asked.

“I’ll explain later, Dad. Basically, the girls proposed earlier that I may have been a watcher all along, only it was never noticed since it started so early. They also suggested I never noticed the ability to pick up on emotions, because Alex’s power overwhelmed everyone else’s aura. But that’s not the question on the table, I’m interested if this latest theory could account for Alex’s and my relationship?”

Anh thought about this for a moment before giving her considered reply. “Yes, I’m sure you’d want that to be the case. My initial thought would be to say no, because he doesn’t seem to sense your emotions or personality. Instead he seems to give you some of his energy. The birth order is odd, too, but I guess that Chalise is close to your age as well, and it would make sense that Alex would have had to be the first to cross over.” Cate nodded her head at this newest information. “Well then, I guess it would be possible. Again, it would explain a lot. It would explain why you are so protective of your brother, because your spirit is trying to protect your lord as it always did in the spirit world.”

“It would also explain why she and Alex ended up in bed together,” Allison offered.

“Indeed it would,” Anh agreed. “Your spirits don’t recognize the familial ties the two of you share, so it would be natural for the two of you to gravitate together, just as it would for Kitty and Chalise to naturally gravitate to him, as they have been.”

“Wait, you’re saying that both of my kids snuck into our babies when they were born? What happened to their natural personalities, or souls, or whatever?” Linda suddenly interrupted. She found this newest theory more than a little disturbing. She suddenly didn’t know if her own kids were really hers or not.

“That’s always been an interesting argument,” Anh said. “Whether souls are born or are simply reassigned. The increase in population worldwide would argue that souls are constantly being created. I’m guessing that, in certain circumstances, if a foreign spirit steps in, it simply inhibits the creation of a new spirit that would have inhabited that body otherwise.”

“So, effectively, my current spirit aborted the previous owner of my body and took it over?” Cate asked, a little stunned.

“Well, I wouldn’t go as far as to say, aborted. More likely moved aside in the predetermined order of delivery. I’d also guess that the new souls, if they existed already, would have recognized the importance and power of the two new entities, so they would have likely voluntarily stepped aside, as it were.”

“Man, this all gets stranger and stranger,” Cate whistled.

“You’re not kidding,” Frank echoed his daughter.

“So, this new theory still doesn’t explain how Alex has been transferring his energy to me?” Cate asked, still trying to work out all the permutations of this new theory.

“Not really. Again, there’s no need to transfer energy in this scenario. Though, you’ve seen Alex voluntarily transfer energy to a complete stranger when he revived that man in the New Orleans . Your feelings of security could simply be an early sign of that ability. Maybe that’s why, even though he didn’t know what he was doing, he did it correctly when asked. It’s possible he’d actually been doing it for years and just wasn’t aware of it.”

“Like his spirit knew how to do it, but Alex didn’t,” Natalie said, catching the drift of the conversation. “It had been practicing it for years.”

“Man, why do we scholarly types even bother to come up with theories, when Anh’s old school superstitions explain everything much better than anything we can come up with?” Cate asked no one in particular.

“It’s because you are asking different questions,” Anh replied, via Shani again. “You are addressing who is attracted to Alex. I’m simply answering why Alex may feel so comfortable with people he doesn’t appear to know. For different questions, different approaches work.”

“Wow, so I guess that makes me a warrior princess spirit, then? Man, that’s so cool!”

“You weren’t necessarily a princess, dear,” Anh answered her. “Spirits aren’t necessarily tied to a particular sex. They trade identities like suits of clothing. That’s an old world explanation for what you call transsexuals, or even gays and lesbians. They are simply spirits which feel more of an affinity for one sex than the other, but who simply chose the first available body.”

“Man, she just keeps going. She stays silent all week, then suddenly she starts spouting ideas like there’s no tomorrow,” Cate said, grinning in pride at her new mentor.

“I’m just glad that you are all willing to accept the feeble offerings of an old woman,” Anh humbly stated. Everyone instantly objected.

“You are definitely not old,” Allison stated. “You’re still young enough to teach this old pro some new tricks. And you’ve clearly been teaching the young amateurs several tricks as well,” she teased.

Frank groaned, which they all ignored. Linda turned to him, however, “Don’t forget, dear, you’re still scheduled for your cunnilingus lesson soon.”

Frank really groaned at that news, just trying to picture trying to learn new bedroom tricks from his son and his entourage of sexy followers.

“Don’t worry, Dad, you and I can learn together. If I’m going to join with the rest of Alex’s girls, I’ll have to learn to fit in myself,” Cate answered. At this latest news Frank simply stood up and left the room, to great effect amongst all the women remaining.

“So just how far could this go,” Natalie asked. “What about Bulldozer, er, I mean Darrell. Would that mean that he’s also one of Alex’s spirit friends, since Alex seemed to play him off like an easy football pass?”

“I’d suspect so, although we’d have to see, based upon his actions in the future. If he gets pissed when he’s dumped by Kitty, then I’d say no. If he ends up spending all his time here, then I would venture to say yes,” Anh replied.

“How many of these spirits might Alex have brought with him?” Natalie asked.

“There’s no telling, although, again, it would require a great amount of energy to carry them across. It must have substantially weakened Alex on this side when he did so.”

“So you’re saying that Alex had more energy when he was a spirit?” Allison asked.

“I’d assume so, although I’m not completely sure. I’m uncertain where he gets his energy from here. I think he’s pulling it in, instead of it simply being left over from when he transferred here. That may explain why he was able to carry so many over with him, and why he has so much power now.”

“Where would he be pulling it from? Could he be pulling it from his home world?” Linda asked.

“That’s one area where I don’t have a clue,” Anh answered. “I think he managed to figure out how to access a tremendous amount of energy. It was that source of energy which likely allowed him to cross over, to bring so many of his loyal followers across with him, and which accounts for what he’s able to do now. I’d be willing to guess that he could do much more with it, but his intelligent mind is holding him back.”

“What about us, the ones he’s activated?” Allison asked. “Could we all be fellow spirits as well? Would that be why we’re the only ones receptive to his powers?”

“Again, I can’t be sure, but I would doubt it. I think your ability to sense emotions, which seems to make you receptive to Alex’s powers, exists separately from Alex. You could sense emotions from others who were clearly not fellow spirits of Alex’s. There’s also the simple matter of numbers. For all of us to be fellow spirits, then he would have had to have brought over tens of thousands of followers. That is just too many to seriously consider.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” Allison reluctantly acknowledged, “Although it would have helped explain why we feel no jealousy over Alex.”

“Then again,” Anh laughed, “I could just be a confused old lady with a lot of silly idea brought over from a country that no longer accepts them. I might be wrong about everything.” She smiled as everyone looked confused by this last comment.

“Well,” announced Shani, finally tiring of being restricted from the conversation due to her providing the translation for Cate and her parents, “I think we all have a lot to consider here. I think we should all think about this before we wear ourselves out. We can talk about it later.”

“What about Alex? Should we tell him all this new information?” Natalie asked, feeling bound to always help him in any way she could.

“I wouldn’t think so,” Shani said. “It may affect his behavior, and we can’t be sure it’s true anyway. The last thing we need is to tell him he’s infallible with certain people and then have him fail in his relationships. We should watch how those relationships develop. Maybe we can tell him later, but I suspect we should simply remain silent regarding these little details.”

“Man, that’s going to be hard,” Natalie stated. “I haven’t had to lie to Alex yet.” All the women agreed with her on that front.

---

I managed to get to the hospital in decent time, luckily there wasn’t much traffic around there that time of day. Carbondale Memorial was hardly the closest hospital to me, but it was both bigger and busier than the others and it was closer to the Amtrak station that Brooke and Rebecca used to travel here. Cate managed to get a ride home with Susan Siegel, Vicky’s sister, so I didn’t have to worry about her before coming here. As I was getting out of my car I saw Becky also getting out of her car, so I hurried over to join her.

“Hey, I’m glad you got here. I couldn’t see doing this without you being here,” I told her.

“Yeah, I’m anxious, too,” she said, giving me a quick hug hello. “I’m hoping we can get a decent look at what’s going on inside your head, although you led me to believe it isn’t a done deal yet?”

“No, the girls mentioned we still have to convince the guy in charge, but they told me to just play along with whatever happens and they have it all planned out. Somehow that makes me even more nervous.”

Becky laughed, “Yeah, your women keep you guessing, but isn’t that the whole reason guys keep us women around?”

“Well, the girls are telling us to hurry, they’re inside waiting for us at the moment,” I told her, so we both rushed inside.

When we entered, they were impossible to miss. Both Brooke and Rebecca stood beside a balding man of average height in a white doctor’s coat, bearing the formality of someone in charge. He also had an assistant with a clipboard beside him, so I assumed he was in charge of the decision making process.

As we walked up, my two girls didn’t even look around, as they were busy talking to the head doctor. I’m sure it was for effect, but they were reacting as if they didn’t know I was here. Just as I got to them they said, “... as you’ll see. But now that Alex is here, we can begin.” And with that they both turned and greeted me warmly. The man they were speaking to regarded me and held out his hand.

“I’m glad to meet you, Alex; these two have told me a great deal about you.” It was another statement that made me nervous. “My name is Ryan Moore , and I’m the administrator for this hospital. I’m the guy you’ve got to convince to get access to the tests you all seem so anxious for.” He smiled at this to show he wasn’t necessarily against the idea, but I could tell he was far from convinced yet.

Dr. Ryan Moore was an older man, obviously, since he was leading a hospital, who appeared to be in good shape despite showing quite a few gray hairs. He was thin but well toned, with hard definite angular lines to his face which gave him a sort of accessibility, instead of putting one off. I think his honest smile helped him pull his sharp features off, as it and his in depth glance made you regard him positively.

“This must be your sister, Becky?” he continued, “I hear she’s involved in some kind of genetic research facility?”

I made the necessary introductions, before addressing part of what he’d said. “And, just so I don’t contradict anything they’ve said, just what have they told you about me?”

“Oh, that’s right, they told me you weren’t aware of their machinations. Well, as you may know, they both are looking for work here. Although the hiring for the EMTs is done by a private contractor, I’ve got some input in the decision making process. Rebecca here called me and started shooting the breeze. During our discussion, she asked me if I’m a betting man. When I admitted I was, she told me she figured I was also the type of man who liked to capitalize on a good thing, and that I probably liked to take advantage of new ideas. I was intrigued by her roundabout approach to whatever she was asking, so I asked her to continue.”

“I told him that we were looking to make a deal,” Rebecca said, continuing with the story. “In exchange for access to his MRI machine for some informal tests, we’d make a bet. We’d put up both of our job offers if he’d consider the MRI request.”

“And just what was the actual bet?” I asked, already dreading the answer.

“That’s quite simple,” replied the smiling Dr. Moore . “They bet me that, after showing you my most baffling cases in the hospital, that you’d provide at least one bona fide medical miracle.”

Rebecca was quick to jump in, trying to reassure me. “It’s really very simple, he’s going to show us several cases, all you’ve got to do is look at them and see if maybe you can do something. We know you aren’t medically trained, but with Brooke to guide you, and Ryan’s and my medical knowledge, we should be to tell you what’s achievable and how you could do it.”

“All you’d need to do,” Brooke continued, “is just what you did before. Just supply energy to where we instruct you. We don’t expect you to cure everyone, but we’ll just see what effect it has.”

I turned and examined Dr. Moore again. “And you just agreed to allow a random teenager to enter your hospital and experiment on your patients?”

He had the grace to laugh, “No, no, they told me what you’d done in New Orleans . Wanting to make sure they weren’t inventing things, I called around. When I did, everyone at the hospital down there started talking about ‘the Angel of New Orleans’. It seems you’ve got quite a loyal following down there.”

“Let me tell you, it’s thoroughly undeserved, as I never professed any of the things they claim I was responsible for,” I insisted.

“Oh, yes, they all told me that would be your response. They also said you’d made a point of repeatedly denying you were responsible for your various achievements, but that the entire police force and the emergency room staff would beg to differ with you. So being the betting man they assumed I’d be, I decided I’d take a small chance. I figured I’d either further the wild claims I’d heard, or I’d save the hospital a few dollars for a couple of overqualified candidates.”

“Uh, I hate to ask this, but could I possibly ask you whether you can keep a secret? I’m not actually anxious for any of this to get out into the public yet. I’m still trying to stay under the radar, at least until I finish with high school.”

He laughed again, rubbing his belly in his mirth.

“Yes, they told me that’d be your response. It’s good to see you’re the unassuming young lad they described, instead of the publicity hound I’d feared. Yes, I’ll keep whatever I learn to myself, though I’ll be as anxious as they are to see if the MRI scan shows us anything interesting.”

“By the way,” I asked, following up, “When you were checking up on me, you didn’t mention who I was and where I was from, did you?”

“Oh, no. Both Brooke and Rebecca warned me about that. I just told them I was doing a follow up on a related patient. I think they bought it, but they were so anxious to talk about this new phenomenon that’s become so popular down there, they were willing to tell me quite a bit.” I simply groaned at this, knowing that nothing had dissipated yet.

“We also suggested he should add a quick trip through the emergency room,” Brooke added, getting us off the topic that always bothered me. “We won’t know what we might expect, but it may provide a more dramatic case than those that the medical establishment has already thrown its hand up over.”

“So, if you’re ready, we can begin. I’m anxious to see what you can accomplish,” Ryan said, practically rubbing his hand together in glee, whether in hopes I’d fail or succeed, I didn’t know.

“You don’t have a problem with me touching the patients?” I said, a little unbelieving, as we headed in a direction the signs signified was the Emergency Treatment Area.

“No, Rebecca explained that all you’d need was to touch them to achieve what you needed to, and that it had something to do with energy. I’m assuming it’s like reiki, or like the idea of Chi in traditional Chinese medicine?” he responded, clearly interested in theories I didn’t have concerning it.

“I explained you’d only touch them lightly with your fingertips at the most, Alex,” Rebecca told me. I simply nodded to her, not wanting to be distracted from Dr. Moore ’s question.

“Well, to be honest, we really don’t understand it yet, but I seem to be dealing with a form of energy no one has ever noticed before. I don’t think it’s related to either of those approaches, so no, it’s not like either of them.”

“Fascinating, if you can convince me this is all legit, we’ll all have to sit down for a drink and talk about where you think this ‘new form of energy’ originates from.”

I could see Becky getting ready to say something, but I shot her a quick glance and it was enough to keep her quiet. I’d already revealed enough about us, we didn’t need to compound our problems as it was.

“For this first case, you probably don’t want to actually touch the patient,” he advised me. “I’m hoping gloves won’t block this energy flow you need. If it does maybe we can work out something else, as I’m anxious if you can help in this case.”

He took us to a very high tech area, where we saw a few patients sitting in rooms with glass doors, and he had us all put on masks, gowns and gloves.

“This young lady has a problem common in modern hospitals, a case of a MRSA infection. We’ve tried several methods of treating it, most haven’t been very successful. Before we begin the last batch of possible treatments, I thought I’d give you a chance at her. Be careful, as I’m sure none of you want to contract this yourselves.”

As we entered the room, I saw a very sickly looking young woman who looked beseechingly at us.

“Don’t worry, Mary, there’s no medical treatments just yet. I just wanted these people to view your case. They seem to have some unique ideas about a possible treatment.” She gasped a few times, before she finally managed to choke out a response.

“Can... can you help... help me?” she asked, looking at Brooke, who was the oldest one among us, aside from our host.

“Well, I can’t do anything myself, but we are hoping this young man might have a new approach,” she said, indicating me. I wasn’t sure this was a good idea, giving this poor woman false hope, but I kept my mouth shut. Brooke looked her over.

“Uh, I hate to say this,” I said, “but I don’t think this would be a good case for us. This is an infection, meaning that it’s a living process inside other living flesh, both of which would feed off of anything I could provide here.”

“How’s the patient’s general health?” Rebecca asked Ryan. He glanced kindly at Mary before replying.

“She hasn’t been doing well. She’s very weak, she hasn’t been able to eat much and many of her processes are blocked, including her bladder, kidneys and liver.”

Rebecca turned to me, “What about those, Alex? If we can’t do anything about the infection, maybe we could help her retain her health so she’d strong enough to stand up to more treatments?”

Grudgingly I replied, “I guess. Brooke, any ideas?”

“Yeah,” she replied, “Mary, if you could roll over a little. Alex, could you place your hands where I’m directing you. Just put a bit of energy here and here. Not much, but again, keep it steady until I tell you to stop.” I tried it but she stopped me just after I started.

“Nothing’s happening. There’s something wrong,” she announced.

“Maybe it’s those gloves,” Rebecca suggested. “Brooke told me about the little experiments that Becky did, and she said that your energy seems to hold to organic tissue better than it does to artificial matter.”

“That’s a good idea,” I said and immediately began taking my gloves off.

“Now that’s NOT a very good idea,” Ryan told me pointedly. “You are exposing yourself to a whole host of potentially untreatable infections if you touch her or even get too close,” he warned.

“Then I’ll accept the risk,” I told him. “Besides, I don’t plan on actually touching her. I think I can do it from a little distance away, only without anything blocking what I’m doing.” He looked doubtful about the prospect.

“You managed to push your energy into your heart attack victim’s chest and brain without any difficulty. I don’t think pushing it through some air will be any different,” Brooke assured me so I proceeded to do so, just as she’d previously instructed me to. Then she had me do the same to a few other areas on her, all to no avail that I could see.

“Wow, what did you do?” asked the patient, speaking in complete sentences again. “I haven’t felt like this for quite a few days now.”

“He simply tried to strengthen the organs that were having problems,” Brooke explained. “We don’t know if it’ll have any effect, though, so don’t get your hopes up too much. Doctor, I’d suggest you have her examined in another hour or so and see how she’s doing, then maybe try your new course of treatment then?” Ryan gave some instructions to the assistant that had been following him around and he led us out.

I turned and waved at the poor girl as we left, and she smiled and waved back, a single tear leaking down her cheek. I hope we hadn’t made her case any worse, but I couldn’t see as how that would be possible. Still, I figured any improvement she thought we’d achieved were simply due to the placebo effect, since we hadn’t actually done anything long enough for it to make any real difference.

Outside, we quickly stripped off all of our protective gear. We walked around a corner into the ER itself. Ryan looked around and called over a nurse, asking about the available cases. He listened to them without speaking to any of us. I hated getting in the way, thinking there wasn’t much I could do beside simply stay clear of everyone. Finally he waved us on.

We entered a small curtained room where a nurse was starting to wrap a young man’s arm in those bandages that harden into a cast.

“This young man apparently had a skateboard injury and broke his arm,” Ryan announced.

“Hold on, Miss,” Brooke instructed the nurse, ignoring the fact she had no standing in the hospital at all. The nurse looked past us at the administrator, who simply nodded, so she backed off.

“All right, I wanted to do this before she could apply the cast because I don’t know if it would interfere or not. I wanted to try something like this. I want you to apply energy to the break in the bone, Alex.” She looked at the X-ray that was on the wall and spoke briefly with the doctor, before returning. “OK, apply the energy where I’m showing you. I’m showing you the break, so you’ll be able to know just how deep to apply the energy.”

“How can she...” Ryan started to ask, but Rebecca quickly hushed him.

“All right, I understand what you want, but I’m not sure how to adjust what I do to reach a specific depth?”

“That’s fine, just try focusing on that specific depth. I don’t think it’ll hurt the surrounding tissue if you give it a boost as well, but I especially want it at that area, OK?” I agreed, and lightly touched his arm where she showed his broken bone to be. It was only a light fracture, so I tried to direct some imaginary energy to that area, though I had no way of knowing if I was doing anything or not, but Brooke seemed pleased by what I was doing.

“OK, that should be fine. Now, Ryan,” she addressed Dr. Moore , “I know you’ll probably never see this patient in the ER again, but see if someone can arrange for a follow up. I’d like to see whether this heals any faster than normal. Of course, since we don’t know much about it, it’s always possible it could overgrow a bit, so I’m sure he’d want to have it checked. Beyond that there’s not much we can do.”

Ryan simply nodded and looked at the nurse. She nodded, told him, “Yes, sir”, and we left without another word.

Next we went into one of the large rooms where they treat people. I was immediately hit with a nasty, acrid smell. There were several people working on an older man who had large raw areas on his arms and legs. Standing back, Ryan explained, “This gentleman has substantial third degree burns on his arms and legs. Do you think there’s anything you may be able to do for him? The people here have been cleaning the wounds, trying to prevent any scabs or infections from forming.”

The three of us moved forward, leaving Becky standing beside Ryan while we approached the burn victim and examined him.

“I think we can do something here,” Rebecca stated. “Just apply an overall bath with your energy, Alex, but try to keep it very superficial. We want as much energy in a very thin layer, over as wide an area as possible.” I nodded that I understood, and held my hands near his skin, not wanting to risk actually touching it. I began applying some energy to it, still not knowing how I could do it, when suddenly he began thrashing around and crying out. I immediately backed up a couple of steps.

“Don’t worry, Alex,” Rebecca assured me, “you’re triggering the nerve impulses along with the skin. It’ll hurt, but it’s better to hurt now and heal, then still hurt and not.” So I stepped forward again and did the same thing, trying to ignore it as I saw the pain I was inflicting on the man. Brooke intently watched what I was doing, just to be sure I covered everywhere I needed to. Part way through, the guy passed out, so the rest was much easier to finish. We were done only after a few moments.

“Again, I doubt you’ll notice anything right away, but have someone check back in a few hours and again tomorrow, and compare the healing against the expected results. We’re not sure how effective it was, but we’re hopeful,” Rebecca told Dr. Moore . He simply nodded and escorted us out again, after his assistant made a few more notes.

Finally we walked into where a crew was working on a knifing victim. There was blood everywhere, the knife was still sticking out of his side, as they prepared him before taking it out. Ryan simply nodded to us, announcing to his people to let us get close enough to watch. Brooke examined him briefly but Becky spoke up.

“I don’t think this will work,” she explained. “I tried a little experiment. It seems when he applies energy to a cut, it causes the bleeding to increase. I don’t know if it actually thins the blood or not, but I doubt it. However, applying it now would only cause him to lose even more blood.”

Brooke and Rebecca glanced back at Ryan, who simply nodded, beckoning us back again.

“It still may have helped,” Rebecca explained. “I expect it would have increased his healing rate, but the risk of further bleeding was just....”

“I understand completely,” Ryan assured us, as he steered us towards the nearby elevators. “You’ve never really tried any of this before, and you are experimenting on injured patients.” That hardly assured me. Instead, it left me feeling like a real heartless heel, but we were soon on another floor, heading into another room.

In this one we saw a young woman, maybe 30ish, who looked a bit pale.

“This is Jennifer Pickford . She’s suffering from a serious bone cancer that isn’t treatable with chemotherapy. There isn’t much we can really do, rather than bathe her entire body in chemo. Do you think you can do anything here?”

The woman turned as he began speaking. She seemed frail, but as she turned she seemed to notice me right away and locked eyes with me and, bam, she reacted just like the others. Her eyes flared, she jerked back and her gaze lost its focus.

“What just happened? Did you do something?” Dr. Moore asked us.

“No,” Brooke answered simply, waving him off. “Not yet. This is part of what Alex does. She’ll now have the ability to see the energy in people like I do. It shouldn’t really impact her one way or the other, but her life will never be the same. Now she’ll have a definite purpose to her life, however long she happens to live.”

We all approached her and I tried to reassure her. As I did, I examined her briefly. She was cute, despite her sickness. Her skin was still nice, she wore a colorful head wrap to cover her hair loss, and she was dressed nicely. It certainly didn’t look like she’d let her illness cast a pallor over her life.

“Jennifer? My name is Alex. I’m sure you don’t know what just happened, but I also know you can feel how much you can trust what I tell you. If you look around you’ll notice that everyone looks different. I can’t really explain much now, but I’ll have somebody stop by in the morning to discuss these changes with you. Right now we’re here to see if we can help with this cancer that’s affecting you. OK?”

She quickly nodded her assent, only glancing hurriedly at anyone else. She tried to look at me, but found it very difficult, although she didn’t quite have the energy required to shield her eyes from my glare. Brooke stepped up.

“Jennifer, look at your arm,” she instructed. When she did Brooke continued. “You’ll notice, amongst the various new colors, there is an oddly colored area near the center that’s duller than the surrounding tissue. That’s the location of your tumor. You’ll also notice two smaller areas that look similar in the bones further down your arm; those are two additional smaller tumors.”

“What?” cried Ryan, hurrying up to stand beside us. “We didn’t detect anything else. Are you sure?”

“Definitely,” Brooke insisted, looking over the rest of her to be sure of her diagnosis. “There’s also another in the collarbone right here,” she said, pointing to exactly where she saw it.

“Damn, that means it’s spreading somehow. You don’t see anything else anywhere, do you?”

“No, just in those locations,” Brooke told him. “I guess that means it hasn’t so much spread, as there must be something causing her bones to develop cancers themselves.”

“Hmm,” Ryan said, considering what she’d told him as if assuming it was fact. “There’s no telling what may have caused it, but we’ll consider that later. Right now we need to figure out how to treat her.”

“Right,” Brooke agreed, “Alex , this time, let’s try something different. There’s a new thought in the cancer community, that blood flow promotes cancer growth. I think we should try the reverse in this case. I want you to focus on the cancer, exactly where I’m showing you, and drain the energy that’s feeding it.” I thought about it, and figured pulling out energy I couldn’t feel would be as easy as feeding it in, so we got started.

We were only at it a moment when Brooke started to get excited. “It’s working! I can see it, they’re actually changing color. It isn’t quite a cure, as it’ll probably take a while to have a full effect. It’ll probably simply reduce the tumors rather than eliminating them, but you’re doing it!”

“I... I can see it myself,” Jennifer told us, sounding clearly amazed. “It’s getting better. You’re healing me.”

“We’ll have to do another biopsy and pull a bone plug,” Ryan announced, getting over his shock enough to sound authoritative once again. His assistant quickly took a note. “We’ll see soon enough just how successful it was. While we’re at it, we’ll have to examine the other areas where you’ve detected the other tumors. I hope you’re correct, as those additional tests are painful, but if you’re right, we’ll have to figure out a treatment based on the results.”

“Oh, no,” I said, backing up, raising my hands as if to ward such thoughts away. “I’m not signing on to do any more of this. I don’t feel comfortable doing it. I can’t tell what I’m doing, I have no control over it, and I can’t see what damage I may be doing. I’m doing this so we can figure out what may be causing these abilities, but I’m not going to endanger anyone else until we have a better idea of what I’m doing, and we find a better way of doing it.”

Jennifer’s face fell. “How can you say that? You did it. You went in and reduced the tumor with hardly any effort at all. You very well may have saved my life. You can’t stop now!”

Rebecca turned to me, speaking seriously. “She’s got a point, Alex, besides, Brooke’s idea of showing you what she sees as you’re doing it seems to be successful. Isn’t that a better alternative?”

“Besides,” Becky spoke up, for once taking a stance in the discussions. “We know you. You wouldn’t let Jennifer suffer unnecessarily if you could help it. You may not want to help other patients you haven’t met yet, but you’re already tied to Jennifer. You know you’ll be back.”

“Besides, we still need to wait to see how all these patients develop before we know whether you’ve won the bet yet. So it’ll be a while before you can have your test,” Ryan told me. I snorted and started out before he called after me. “Wait, before you leave, I have one more patient for you to see. I’m anxious to see what you can do with him.”

I stopped and considered this, and while I was waiting, everyone seemed to assume I’d acquiesced, so they all followed Ryan as he passed me and headed back to the elevator. I meekly waved at Jennifer as we left, telling her someone would be by to see her in the morning, and followed as well.

This time the elevator took us down to a lower level, to a very quiet floor, and into a room where there was only a single bed filled with a solitary sleeping man.

“This is another patient. I won’t bother with the name, as he’s currently not using it. He’s in a persistent vegetative state, that is, he’s a long term coma patient. We know there’s brain activity, so we can’t pull the plug, but we have no idea why he isn’t awake. We have no idea what to do with him, so I’m open to any options available.”

We all gathered around and examined him. We didn’t say anything for a while so Ryan began to get nervous.

“Well, any...”

“Shh,” Rebecca insisted, quieting him. “They’re discussing it.”

Ryan looked confused, since he could clearly see us all simply standing around the inert body, making no motions or sounds.

“How...”

“They’ll tell you when they’re ready to do something,” Rebecca insisted.

“You’ll get used to it,” Becky assured him. “That is, if Alex allows you into his life. It’s really weird, but most things in my brother’s life are at this point.”

“OK,” Brooke said as we finally started to move again. “I want you to put your fingers here, here and here. When I say go, I want you to give a gentle but steady feed to these sites. When I call out a number, increase the strength. If I yell a number, cease it to that area. All right, go NOW.”

Ryan and the rest simply stood there, watching as I did apparently nothing besides holding a couple of fingers to the man’s head. Brooke occasionally named a couple of numbers in seemingly random order, many times not even verbally. Finally she took my hand, moved it to a separate area, and said “Now give a big but short pulse, right here.”

I did so, and the man opened his eyes, looking around in confusion. When he did, I simply turned around and addressed Ryan.

“OK, that’s taken care of now. We’ll leave you to deal with him. I think we’re done here. We’ll wait for you to get back to us. If you need to contact us, someone will be by to visit with Jennifer in the morning,” and with that I simply walked out, all the women falling in behind me. We never looked back as we left the hospital.

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