Chapter 16

Now that we were all sated with a great meal, it was time to get moving again. I called everyone to me, and made assignments. Ann Marie and Cecile would stay with Carol and the girls. I really needed to know that Carol and the girls got the rest that they required and didn't over do things, even if I didn't fully trust their new caregivers. The rest of us would head back to Rose, to regroup.

Truth be told, since I really didn't trust Tony's women that much. I planned to do deep scans of all of them.

Adin was still greatly in need of rest. As soon as we were on the road she cuddled up to me and went to sleep. I took that as a hint and cast a sleep spell on Michelle.

"This will make things a little easier," I thought as I began my scan.

By the time that we arrived home, I had completed my scan. However, I was not happy with the results. I can only surmise that the woman's gift was the reason, but I was unable to do a deep diving scan. It was as if there was a wall that stopped me from doing more than a superficial scan.

This fact worried me to no end!

Well, there was nothing to do, now. Once inside Rose, I opened the pull out sofa for Tony and Michelle, while Adin got one of my t-shirts for Michele to sleep in. Once everyone was settled for the night I cast a sleep spell on Tony and his wife and then for extra peace of mind I cast an alarm ward—if either one of them got up during the night, an alarm would sound in my head.

The next morning Adin was still feeling a bit weak, and tried to get me to sleep in.

"I'm sorry, sweetheart, but it's Monday. We have a ten o-clock with Mrs. Phillips."

"Ohhhhh ... Okaaaayyyy," Adin said as she stretched and yawned.

I must confess that we played in the shower a bit before heading to breakfast. I dropped both the ward and the sleep spell from the others as I pulled towels and such from the linen closet for them.

Because we were running late, I had Adin use her new magical skills to prepare our meal. She needed the practice. The woman went wild with excitement, and conjured three different types of eggs, plus flapjacks, sausage, bacon, biscuits, toast, and a huge urn of coffee. There was not a spot of counter that was not covered with something. Once the meal was over, I told Tony to take Michele home. I had decided that I would be using my trike, today.

Thirty minutes later, a nurse was guiding us into Mrs. Phillip's suite of rooms. Her suite occupied the second floor corner on the southern side of the nursing home. What I saw was a study in contrasts. The old woman was obviously very ill. Her skin was like dried wrinkled gray parchment. Her eyes were deeply sunken into her skull but ... and this was a big but ... her eyes themselves showed a sharp intelligence, and a fierce determination.

This woman showed the same spirit that Dylan Thomas penned in the poem for his dying father: "do not go gentle into that good night." The woman was fighting death with her entire being!

There were some other glaring things about Mrs. Phillips' appearance that I should mention. She had facial and body tattoos, and the few teeth she still had, had been filed down to points. She looked like a woman from the Amazonian rainforests!

Seeing our surprise Mrs. Phillips said with a smile, "It's a long story. So how about we get our business out of the way first?" She then turned toward her assistant and asked, "Jean would you please bring us some coffee and scones?"

The young woman disappeared and the old woman turned back to us and said, "Now first things first, may we move to a first name basis? I hate all this formality."

"Of course. This is my wife, Adin, and I'm Kade."

"Good. I'm Annie."

The needed paper signings for the transfer of ownership of the property were completed quickly, and we settled in for a nice visit.

"Now, my dear, how are you faring since your stay in the hospital?"

"I'm all healed up, now, thanks."

"Good! I am so sorry that you were hurt because of that wretched girl and her cohorts. I still blame myself, for not stepping in to correct what my sister was doing," Annie said sadly with the shake of her head.

"I don't think that there was anything that you could have done, Annie. I saw her eyes just before she was killed. She was obviously quite mad," I said seriously.

"Well ... what is done is done! Now, I suppose we should deal with the five hundred pound gorilla in the room," Annie said with a laugh.

For an older person on the verge of death, her voice was strong with a pleasingly lilting quality to it.

"But first, Kade, would you please take this key? Open that chest and bring me the bottle that is in there."

"Of course."

I rose and retrieved the bottle that turned out to be a very good brand of very, very old Brandy.

Annie took the key back and said, "Pour a double shot of Brandy into my coffee, my boy, and then take some for yourselves if you wish."

I did as instructed, and then returned the bottle to the chest. I then settled back into my seat.

"Annie may I ask you a personal question?"

"Ask away, dear boy, but I don't guarantee an answer! Hehehee."

Adin and I chuckled right along with Annie. The woman was a treasure.

"Is it just old age that is your problem or is there some other illness that threatens to take your life?"

"Ahh ... Well ... I have brain cancer. However, for some strange reason that the doctors can't seem to understand, my mind just keeps getting sharper and sharper. Normally, brain cancer of the type I have causes dementia and great pain. I have no pain. This, to coin a phrase used by young people today, is freaking them out. They made my life a living hell with all of their tests and experiments. I finally had to leave the hospital DAMA (discharged against medical advise.) Though I have no pain, and have increased mental faculties, the rest of my bodily functions are failing. My new doctor says that the cancer is now systemic and estimates that I only have a few weeks to a few months left. Is that enough of an answer?"

"Yes, thank you, and I am sorry."

"Oh, don't concern yourself, Kade. I have lived more in my life than any five people today."

"Funny, when most people say that to me I take it as hyperbole, but ... when you say it, I tend to believe you. I just sense an adventurous soul in you."

Adin nodded in agreement.

"Hahaha ... and I'll bet that my teeth and ink work confirm your assessment!"

I smiled self-consciously, and Adin blushed furiously.

"Oh, don't let it bother the two of you, any. I've had these body modifications for most of my life. You see my father was an archeologist and my mother was an anthropologist. They never stopped working and, therefore, I was born in the field, in the mountains of Peru. I spent my first six years there as my parents worked a dig. Unfortunately the sponsors of that particular excavation decided that six years of poor returns were enough, and pulled the plug. So, Dad packed us all up and we flew out of Peru, headed for a job in the 'Valley of the Kings', in Egypt. Along the way he planned to stop for a little vacation in Rio.

"We never made it to Rio. Our plane ran into a terrible storm over the Amazon basin, and went down killing all on board except for my mother and me.

"I found out years later that the plane had been blown so far off course that we were hundreds of miles from the search area. A local tribe found the wreckage and dug us out. My mother and I were pretty broken up, but the medicine woman was remarkably good and patched us up. During our months of healing we learned the language and most of the customs of our rescuers. Women were considered the property of their father or mate and only allowed to care for the children, gather plants and very small animals that they could kill with their digging stick and they were also the ones to dress and cook the larger animals that the men hunted. The responsibility of the men was to do the building, hunting and to protect the tribe in times of animal attack or of war. There was, however, one exception to the subservience of women, and that was the Medicine woman. She had a status equal to that of the lead man.

"Once we were able to move around it was made very clear to my mother that she either worked at the women's work and accept the mate assigned to her by the head man, or she would be forced out into the jungle. Either way I was to be given to the medicine woman as payment for all of the time spent on healing us. Mother knew that to leave was a death sentence, so she accepted the mate that she was given to, and we were assimilated into the tribe. Mom's mate was the lowest ranked man in the tribe because he stuttered. He was not able to barter for a mate due to his affliction. He loved my mother and treated her exceptionally well until the day she was killed by a fer-de-lance {author's note: here I am using the older name for the American lance-headed viper}. Because of his acceptance of my mother's knowledge, her mate eventually ended up as the leader of that group.

"In the mean time I was adopted by the medicine woman and taught all that she knew. When I was ten I was mated to the son of the medicine woman so that I could stay at her hearth. Children mature very early, there, and start their menses as early as ten years of age. I think, because I was having regular sex, mine started in my eleventh year. I had my first child late that year."

Here Annie paused and got a dreamy look on her face as she thought back. Then she continued, "Akkauechuah had the biggest eyes and the longest eyelashes that I had ever seen. She had the sweetest disposition, too. I eventually had five children and became a very accomplished medicine woman."

Annie swept her hand up and down her body as she said, "What you see here are the makings of the highest ranking medicine woman in the four tribes area. At that time though, I wasn't THE FIRST but I was right up there with her as the Second. As long as my mother lived she taught me of the things of the modern world, sure that someday people would come from that outside world. It didn't happen for eighteen years but ... sadly she was right. A group of botanists from Harvard came looking for new medicinal plants, and two of them had colds!"

The sadness that filled Annie's face almost made me cry and did, in fact, cause Adin to weep softly in empathy with the obvious grief filling Annie—we waited for at least ten minutes as the old woman wept with body shaking sobs. Finally, Adin could take no more, and went to comfort the old woman. They hugged and bent their foreheads together for another five minutes of weeping before things calmed down. My first instinct had been to cast a calming spell but then something inside of me "told" me that this was the first time that Ann had let herself grieve without jamming it back down into her core and she needed this release.

Annie finally gathered herself again and tidied herself up when Adin offered the tissue box. After taking a gulp of coffee the old woman grimaced and muttered, "Cold! I hate cold coffee... < heavy sigh >" then in a stronger voice, she said, "Well, to continue ... I don't know if you are aware that to us the common cold is a nuisance, but to that sweet, sweet group of people it was a death sentence. They had no resistance, you see! I tried to save them! Really, I did! But, in the end, they all died. It only took a week... < sigh, sniff, sniff. > The outsiders helped me bury my people. Then, filled with grief with what they had caused, they decided to shut the expedition down.