Chapter 20: When You Can't Heal the Sick, Try Healing the Healthy

Climbing out of a car clogged with dust once again, Alex took in the quaint little village laid out before him. It was a small community, with small structures built much like they were long ago, with red stones and the old style adobe, as well as a few scattered newer structures which stood out in sharp contrast. There were several people sitting out, including a few young children. One looked up and called out to a friend, watching Alex and his cohorts.

"Look, it's him."

Soon both boys came running to where Alex waited for the others to join him. Gail and Gini were transferring crates from the trunk to a dolly. Alex had offered to help but they told him to forget it. While he may feel it his duty to protect the women around him, they were in better shape than he was and he'd just get in the way. Gini, like Alex's car and her bike, was covered in sand and dirt, leaving a little cloud whenever she moved. She'd parked her motorcycle off to the side so it wouldn't get in anyone's way. Cate was still stretching out the kinks in her legs by the car. It had been a long rough drive from Cedar City through the surrounding country over rough primitive roads into the high desert where they now found themselves.

"Are you him?" the little boy's friend asked Alex.

"I'm sorry, I don't know who you're looking for, but I doubt it. I'm nobody special. I'm just here to see the doctor."

"See, it is him," the first boy crowed. "She said he always say he ain't special." At that he started calling to the other kids in the village, and Alex saw a few additional heads popping up.

Alex immediately had a bad feeling. He knew the boy was referring to Jennifer, and it looked like she'd been busy talking him up, probably promising everyone that he'd be able to help them all, which worried Alex. He knew the people here were very sick, and so far his ability to heal was iffy, sometimes accomplishing amazing things but other times either having no effect or actually making things worse. Jennifer herself was an example of that, though apparently she'd forgotten that fact.

"Is it really him?" a little girl asked. Despite being cute, with the typical dark skin and black hair of a Native American girl, she was fairly heavy set, with puffy cheeks and her own little pot belly. Alex assumed it was because of the cheaper starchy foods they had to eat, seeing it was so expensive getting anything fresh out there.

"Yeah, it is," the first two boys assured her.

An older man using a cane stood up.

"The Doctor is over here, I'll take you to him," he said, effectively rescuing Alex from the kid's questions. Alex glanced back and saw everyone was ready, so he set off after the man, the others following him, including the several kids.

They entered a slightly larger building, one of the newer, more run down ones. Although it used modern materials, they were cheap, and the building was suffering as a result, and it looked like it was barely standing on its own.

There Alex saw two beds laid out with people lying in them, and another two women sitting in chairs waiting to be seen while the doctor worked on a single patient. However, it was Jennifer who saw him first.

"ALEX!" she yelled, running over to throw her arms around him. He noticed she no longer had a cast on her arm. The arm she'd broken as a result of Alex's 'miracle cure'. He'd tried to heal her cancer, or at least minimize it. Instead, he'd weakened the bones in her arms so a simple collision with a food cart in the hospital had fractured it, releasing the cancer embedded in the marrow of her bones into her bloodstream.

"Hey, Jennifer, it's good to see you, too. It's been a long time. I see the arm is better."

"Oh, it's much better," she said as she backed up, trying to look at him but once again being unable to. "Simon took the cast off early, and he told me that not only did the bones heal in record time, but they healed stronger than he'd ever seen bones knit before."

"It's true," the man who'd been examining the women on the beds said as he got up, "I swear, it looks like they might be stronger than they were before."

Alex examined the man and realized he was much older than he'd assumed. He had thinning close cropped receding gray hair, leaving a lot of forehead. His eyebrows were still dark, but that was it. The wrinkles along his forehead and around his eyes were deep set, probably etched much deeper because of his prolonged exposure to the sun here, and his jowls and neck had the characteristic sagging of advancing age.

"Dr. Simon Reinhart, I presume," Alex said.

"And you must be the infamous Alex," he said in kind, giving Alex the once over as well. "Dr. Moore in Carbondale couldn't say enough good things about you, and you're practically all I've heard about since Jennifer got here. Frankly, I hope what they say about you is true, because we can use whatever you've got to offer."

"I find that hard to believe, about Jennifer that is," Alex said. "She fractured her humerus into a bunch of little pieces, and they were worried they'd never fully mend."

"Ah, but that's just the thing, they did. You can see where they joined, but they seemed to have done so in a unique way, as if the new tissue somehow fused with the older tissue, making a solid joint where you normally wouldn't find one."

Alex arched his eyebrow, trying to determine whether Simon was pulling his leg or not, but he continued on. After all, he still had to disabuse him of a couple of notions.

"Maybe it healed well, but there's no restoring an arm that badly fractured into one piece again. If she ever injures it again..." Alex said, letting everyone draw their own conclusions.

"Still, it was an amazing result, given the state it was in. I don't know anyone else who could have done what you did, with only a few simple treatments. From my own medical experience, I'd qualify it as a bonafide medical miracle."

"Well, if you say so, though I find it hard to believe, but if she talked about me so much, she must have told you why she shattered her arm, and why my approach to helping diminish cancer is so dangerous. Not only did I screw up her arm, but I also took a contained bone cancer and managed to spread it throughout her whole body."

"Again, I beg to differ," the older man contradicted him. "You apparently gave her several treatments after that, telling her you'd have to examine her after some time to try to treat whatever cancer spread. Well, so far I haven't been able to detect any. It seems what you did while it was still in her arm worked well enough to control it. It hasn't spread."

"Cate, introductions please," Alex instructed. "Gail, I need you to examine Jennifer for me." So as Cate introduced Gini, Gail came up beside Alex and looked her over. Finally, she knelt down, examining her nether regions from close up, simply ignoring the intervening clothing.

"Do you need a light?" Simon asked. "The light isn't very good in here." Alex noticed he'd been using a goose necked spot light to examine his patients.

"No, I'm examining the light the body gives off, so I don't need anything that would wash it out," Gail informed him. "By the way, if you could step aside, Alex, it would make this much easier."

"Yeah, that's right. I should have remembered that," Simon responded, reaching over to shake Gini's hand while Gail continued with her examination. Finally Gail turned around and addressed Alex.

"There really isn't much. There's some dark spots, which may be her body trying to fight off the start of something, so you'll probably want to reinforce it so her body can do what it needs to, but beside that..." she said, not needing to finish the thought.

"But won't feeding a potential cancer cause it to grow?" Alex asked.

"A cancer, yes. But this doesn't seem to be a cancer. I'm just guessing when I suggest her body is fighting some new growths, but nothing had developed yet, so it should be safe," she assured him.

Shrugging, Alex took Gail's place as she stood. However, as he did he noticed the kids scurrying around, trying to get a closer look at him staring at Jennifer's crotch. Alex simply turned and glanced up at Dr. Simon.

"Kids, could you give him a little room. He seems to be worried about you. After all, you never know what may happen."

As soon as he said that, the kids rapidly dispersed, but still watched him in apparent fascination.

Gail pointed out the spots she wanted him to work on, but they were too small for him to focus on using his head, so he used his finger instead, even if it wasn't as efficient. It only took a moment and he got back to his feet.

"Amazing," Simon said.

"Hardly, I didn't really do anything, as Gail tells me there isn't anything there. Even so, I'm nervous doing it, since we aren't sure what it may do."

"Well, given your record, I'd be willing to bet it'll work," he replied. "But what was amazing was how simple the treatment was. Anything western medicine would try would be cumbersome, complicated and expensive, but you did your thing in less than a couple seconds."

"That's just 'cause I don't have an expensive office to maintain, like you do," Alex replied.

"Come along, I've got a couple of patients I'd like you to take a look at."

"You'll have to let Gail look at them. I can't see what the Seers can," Alex said, waving Simon off. "They'll tell me if there's anything to be done."

With that, Gail walked up and silently studied the two prone sickly women. Gini walked up behind her, glancing over her shoulder while Jennifer walked up on the other side, apparently speaking to them telepathically, though not a word was uttered aloud. Finally Gail turned to him.

"They've got a few bad areas," she said, getting ready to explain what he needed to do.

"I'll tell you what, rather than risk making something bad worse, I think I've got a better approach," Alex said as he stepped up, bypassing Gail. Glancing at Jennifer he positioned his hands against the first woman's neck. "I'm looking for the thyroid glands, so tell me when I'm near them." When she nodded, he gave them both a quick burst, using his forehead this time, since he wanted to make sure they got a good dosage.

"That should boost their immune system, so hopefully it'll stabilize them before I try anything further. I'll let them rest for now and put off any specific treatments until tomorrow," he said as he walked around to the other woman and did the same thing to her.

"Amazing," Simon said, watching Alex finish with both women in only a few seconds. "How do you feel, Poongatse?"

"I ... I..." she said as she seemed to take a moment to consider. "Actually, I seem to feel better."

"It's only the placebo effect, they wouldn't feel any effects this soon," Alex assured them, waving her observations off. "We'll check to see if she's any better in the morning." There were a couple of audible gasps from the back of the room, although none of the adults said anything.

"Are they going to be following me all over?" Alex asked, motioning towards the kids.

"I don't think you could chase them away with a stick, at this point," Jennifer told him with a smile.

"Yeah, she's also mentioned your way with the ladies," Simon said, grinning at him.

"It's not me, it's just that the people respond the strongest to my energy all women," Alex assured him, even though he didn't completely believe it himself.

"I'll tell you what, you stay here with Gini, and I'll send several people in to see you. I'm sure she can show you how to find their thyroid," Simon suggested. "In the meantime, I'd like to have Gail examine the women in a separate room, with Jennifer discussing what she's noticed about them. That way we should be able to get through quite a few people before we break for dinner."

Alex agreed it made sense, so the two women got up, not saying anything but moving very gingerly and slowly, while Cate got her cooler of food set so she'd have it ready if and when Alex needed it. Soon there was a steady stream of people filing into the small cabin. Simon just stood back, reassuring the various people as Alex did his magic. He'd gone through several when a younger man came up and whispered something to Simon. Alex stopped what he was doing and watched them for a second. He noticed the man would occasionally touch his side.

'Gini, check out that man's side and tell me what you see.'

'Frankly, I don't see much, but then again, I'm not very experienced at this kind of thing, ' she admitted.

"GAIL, could you come in here for a second," Alex called out. As soon as he did the two men stopped talking and watched him, wondering what he was interested in. It took her a few moments to reach them, but when she did, Alex asked her the same thing. She simply pulled the young man away from Simon and examined his hip briefly.

'I don't really see anything, ' she said. 'It's not as healthy as it should be, but it looks fine. He does have a couple of small tumors in his chest, hip and thigh, though, but they're small and don't look too serious yet.'

"Why do you keep holding your hip like that?" Alex asked, as Gail moved back.

"I'm not really sure," he said. "It keeps itching. Just a small niggle, nothing else. I haven't been able to figure out what it is, though. Dr. Reinhart told me it's nothing."

Alex, though, walked up to him and got to his knees in front of him. When the man started to back up Alex grabbed him by his hips and held him steady. He communicated briefly with Gail to ensure he located the right organ, then leaned into the man, resting his head against his side. However, this time he kept it there.

"What's going on?" the man asked.

"Yeah, I'm curious as well," Simon admitted. However no one answered them. Finally Cate spoke up.

"Alex, it's clear you're doing more than you've done with anyone else. If you're doing something major, we need to know. We'll need to have more food ready for you."

"I'll be done in a second," he assured her, "and then I'll eat something, but I want to finish first."

So everyone stood around and watched him resting his head against the man's hip. The kids, though, kept bringing more and more people in to watch, even though there was nothing for them to see. Finally Jennifer came in and began shooing them out.

"There, I'm not sure what that'll do, but I'm sure that's enough for whatever it was," Alex announced, as he backed up and hesitantly rose to his feet.

"What did you do?" Simon asked.

"Frankly, I have no idea, and I can't even tell you why I did it. But what I did is to give his liver a heavy dose of energy. Again, I can't tell you why I thought it was necessary, but I just felt it was. I really had no reason for deciding to, though. However, he should be processing the toxins out of his blood like mad, now."

'Honestly, Alex, I can't see it made any difference, ' Gail advised him. 'When you spent that much time doing virtually the same thing with Jennifer in New Orleans, she regrew much of her damaged kidney. I mean, his liver is glowing brightly now, but I can't see it having had any impact on it.'

"Alex, you'd better eat," Cate insisted, guiding him to the nearby bed and getting him to sit while she began feeding him.

"Wait, you just inundated a single organ with a bunch of 'energy' for no reason?" Simon asked.

"Yeah, I know it makes no sense, but like he said, I had this little niggling sensation it would be beneficial, but I have no idea why, or even what it's supposed to accomplish," Alex tried unsuccessfully to explain.

"Sometimes Alex does fairly odd things with little apparent reason," Gail explained. "He doesn't always have a good reason for doing it, other than his supposed intuition or his picking up subtle clues, but they tend to bear out over time. We like to talk about his being guided by either God or some random spirits, but he seems to choose the right things to do. Although, this is probably the strangest one he's pulled."

"What's your name?" Alex asked around a mouthful of cookie.

"It's Stubborn Bear," the man answered, "but you can just call me Stu." The man actually looked to Alex to be more Hispanic than Native American, but then again, Alex certainly wasn't very good at spotting ethnic differences between people. He had a broad nose, clear eyes, somewhat puffy cheeks and a very thin mustache over his upper lip. He also wore a headband over his forehead.

"Well, Stu, I have no idea whether what I did will have any effect, but I'll be curious to see if anything develops over time."

"Was there anything wrong with him?" Simon asked, still confused.

"Nothing," Alex answered.

"Well, not quite," Gail corrected him. "He's got a couple of minor growths you should be aware of, but nothing which would require surgery for many years."

"Well, we'll keep an eye on him for you," Simon told Alex. "I'm interested in what this might be about as well. While Stu has lived here for most of his life, he's only here to take care of his family, since he works construction in the city."

"I think we'd better take a break and let Alex recover," Cate cautioned them. "How about we see if we can take that dinner a little early?"

Simon grinned at Alex, opening his arms wide in a welcoming gesture. "So, Alex, as anxious as I am to hear about what miraculous things you've done since leaving home, I'm sure you've more than a few questions for me." They sat at a crowded table eating a variety of dishes which Alex didn't recognize. The supposedly native dishes looked a lot like basic Mexican food with a few soggy weeds thrown in. However, they were interesting, if not quite on the same scale of the food he'd eaten in New Orleans. Yet, he didn't feel compelled about identifying each item. After all, he'd eaten cooked cactus and eggs with Gini in the desert, so this couldn't be much worse.

Alex waved his fork after spearing what appeared to be a small cactus heart. "Yeah, I'm curious about a number of things, but let's start with what brings you here? What is it about you that drives you to spend your waning years—when most people would be at home with their grandkids—looking for a nonexistent cheap cure for cancer?"

Simon laughed. "You certainly get right to the point, don't you? But just so we're clear, I'm not really looking for cures, since I really don't think such a thing exists. I'm just looking for treatments. There are millions of people across the world with cancers, most of whom can't afford expensive treatments like chemotherapy, and whom drug makers and scientists just don't care about because they can't afford to commission studies. I'm just one man who's decided to try to even out the playing field a little. I guess time will tell how successful I am at it.

"But as for myself, I was an idealist when I was young and fresh from medical school. Rather than taking a job at a major medical practice, or doing research work, I decided I'd rather serve overseas in the International Medical Corps. I'd been fascinated with cancer early on, since my father had died from pancreatic cancer, and I'd had several friends suffer from several other cancers. However, I found that while the IMC does good work in poor countries, they basically just throw in the towel when it comes to cancers. Sure, they treat the people, hoping to make them feel better, but there really wasn't much they could do, since so many people in remote areas simply couldn't afford expensive treatments.

"That was when I started researching harder to find, more extreme treatments. I flew all over the world looking for alternative treatments, but sadly, most of them did no better than what was already being done. Everyone claimed their own amazing successes, but those happen all the time in cancer treatments. It's called 'spontaneous recovery' and most doctors just accept it as something which happens. However patients always attribute it to their own faith in God, as if everyone who doesn't get better simply didn't believe hard enough, and the alternate medicine people used the same thing as evidence that their treatments, which usually had little medical science to back them up, were successful.