Chapter 11: Healing Elise

When Elise and I woke up in the morning, we felt that everything seemed much too quiet for six people to be living here. We were right. Stuck to the netting of the main cave, our notice board as it were, was a brief message telling us that Wilbur, Sabreena, Alfred and Lexa had gone back already to let us do the healing and whatever else we felt like doing in privacy.

"Thank you both for a splendid time. Let us know when you are back home. We will meet again. Soon."

Signed with lots of crosses. Lexa's doing I presumed.

"Are you sure, Berthold? This might just be one of Wilbur's parting jests."

No matter, really. We would enjoy our undisturbed time here — and missed them already.

"Elise, we could do your healing today. It is early enough for that, and we haven't yet eaten. Would you like that?"

However, she would not be rushed. She wanted to have a quiet day at the island, do some walking, swim bay or lake, more exploring, go to bed early and be ready in the morning, allowing that she felt strong misgivings once more.

"Lexa told me she isn't ready for the healing either, claiming that to her it looked like you chaps were interfering with God's work. Even though I don't follow her line of thought all the way, there is a lot of truth in it. Aren't you scared? Was Alfred?"

Thinking back to our healings I realised what was different.

"Elise, the shape we were in, the utter urgency in Alfred's case, made our healing a necessity besides which everything else became irrelevant. It was even worse for Alfred, though, because he knew exactly what lay ahead of him whereas I was new to the game and just had to take it as well as I could. It should not be all that painful for you. I think your healing will be more along the lines of Wilbur's tour. Some pain, sure, but nothing excessive. Our jokes notwithstanding, we do take this business very serious. Alfred has taught me well to check everything closely and I will certainly do a complete scan first. Tomorrow I will be your doctor first and you must trust me with that."

Elise sighed deeply and went off at a different tack altogether.

"What are you going to do about Lexa?"

"What about Lexa? Alfred will heal her in good time, if it is necessary at all."

"I don't mean that, silly. It should be obvious even to you that she sees more in you than just a friend..."

"Wait, who is being silly now? The two of them are so much in sync, love if you insist, that any thought along those lines is ridiculous. They are made for each other. Don't you see it?"

"Of course I see it, but you obviously don't. She is still very insecure and she is looking towards you as a father figure, that much became clear last night in the way she spoke up for you. I think she is very much overwhelmed, by this 'adventure' as much as by the personae Alfred and Wilbur. Combined, they do have this effect, don't you agree?"

"Again, Elise, there is not the slightest trace of malice in either of them. She will soon be at ease. And Alfred will spend a lot of time here with her. And be very gentle with it. If you are right, then I will just have to play it by ear. Maybe a few more evenings together, nothing so hectic and ribald as yesterday, will be all that is needed. Come, let's kick off into the day."

We loaded our packs, including the health potions of course, and went downhill. The day was clear with only a few scattered clouds. Elise did want a slight breeze — so she got that and the walk turned out to be very pleasant indeed. Again she marvelled at how well everything was thought out. I had to give all credits to Alfred, telling her that I had a very hard time in finding out what he was up to.

"It's this confounded 'social skills' business. If he had taken the time to tell me a little bit more about it before we started, we could have accomplished things much quicker and smoother. Mind you, I am not sure I would have believed him. Only when healing him I really became aware of his bleak future. He was well entitled to kick my butt into gear.

"But look over there. His ostriches. They fit in very well. I think they are breeding already, so let's not get too close. He was right to worry about a sound ecology. This micro-cosmos took a lot of hard thinking. Yet he did very well with everything."

While we explored almost every nook and cranny we took time out to watch the eagles soar and glide and sat for a long time just looking out over the endless sea on the cliffs in the south of the island.

"Berthold, don't you ever feel spooked here? How much more lonesome could one get? There is never a ship to be seen, no boats, no airplanes to be heard. I don't think I would be able to live here on my own for any length of time. A few hours of it would be too much already. And yesterday, when we were all together, the time was so intense that I was just as overwhelmed as Lexa must have been. I enjoyed all your antics, the pranks you played on each other but felt at the same time that only here could we get away with it. So is this world unreal? Or is it 'our' world which is too restricted and trivial at the same time? Am I losing my mind over this? Do I need the healing or will it drive me over the edge? Berthold, I am scared as I have never been before. You must have patience with me, please."

What could I say to that? This wasn't the time for silly jokes about some silly doctor nor could I tell her about my own misgivings earlier on. I would be gentle on her, help her through it as well as I could, at the same time wishing that Alfred could take this task from me.

"Let me catch a fish or two, Elise. We need some lunch. Afterwards, we will read a bit or laze the day away at the waterfall. You will find the sounds of the water soothing, the silence less oppressive."

Since I had proven my mettle as fisherman before I was full of confidence. Yet it was Elise who caught our food while I struggled with tangled lines and managed to stick hooks in most of my clumsy fingers. At least my ham-fistedness managed to lift her depression. And her thought of me making like a chef and what I did to the fish had her in stitches.

"Don't worry, Berthold. I will do the cooking, but you may serve me a glass of wine. On this island it seems to be drinks time all the time, doesn't it?"

Morning came finally after a long night of unrest and much tossing and heaving. Out of sympathy I forsook breakfast as well, just having a cup of coffee to start me. As an afterthought I prepared 'my' special drink for Elise.

"Look, dear, we don't rightly know what to expect. But this drink helped Wilbur through and calmed him down pretty well. Have a couple of sips now."

Elise gave me a weak smile.

"Drinks so early in the morning? If you insist."

With what I made look like routine I set up and booted the computer and had her put on the harness.

"Don't worry, it's unisex. One size fits all. Come now, love, let's do it. You won't regret it."

First of all I stuck on all the electrodes to make a complete scan of her body. No great surprises there, thank God, nothing especially nasty. To be sure, many things needed to be taken care of, high blood pressure, a minor malfunctioning of the gall bladder, quite a few varicose veins as she shared my weak connective tissues. Would it ever become necessary to heal our children too, I wondered? Hereditable diseases most likely. Damn.

I disconnected the scanner, happy in the knowledge that healing would not be the torture Alfred and I had had to endure.

"Right, dear, this is what we are up against. Nothing serious and nothing you didn't know about, except the gall bladder, since you took medication for all of this. Back home, we will trash our entire medicine cabinet. Shall we?"

Elise swallowed heavily and let me lead her towards the pond, the harness quite snug around her and fastened securely to my wrists too.

"One step at a time, now. Or stop for a while whenever you need to. We have all the time in the world."

Bravely she stepped into the water — and stopped short immediately, her face twisted into a gargoyle-like grimace. I knew of course that this was to be expected.

"Some arthritis here, soon to be gone. Hold yourself tough, dear."

The look of relief on her face was unmistakable. She shook her head and took another step just as I realised that I had forgotten to prepare her in the second pool. Damn, too late for it now. I did hold her back though, slowing her down as much as possible and at the same time warning her of what came up on my screen.

"Varicose veins. Shouldn't be too bad. Go slowly."

One more step, and another. Deeper still.

"Hold a while. Have another drink. Your female parts need some fixing."

Elise did very well and I told her so. Soon she nodded to me. We could go on.

"Some harmless polyps in your intestines. — Good, very good. They are gone."

My talking her through it seemed to help her a lot, even though I couldn't take the pain away from her. But she appeared to get stronger and more confident as we went along.