Broken (23 page)

"How long do you think she will stay mad at
me?" I asked William.

He shrugged. "You might need to give her more
than flowers this time, I think," he said and took his bowl to the
dishwasher.

Smart kid, I thought to myself and decided to have
Julie buy her something. Sarah handed me William's lunchbox and I put it in his
backpack while William put on his shoes.

"Chocolate?" I asked as I held the door for
him.

He shook his head.

"You were gone for too long; Far.
Gotta
be more than that."

I was dozing in my office
dreaming of
Aiyana
when Jamie Allen called me. Julie
was still a little snappy when she put the call through to me. She was angry
when I got to the office and told me that some of the patients had been
cancelled so many times it had become quite embarrassing for her. I promised
her that this was the last time she had to cancel any appointments. I was back.

"I have your results," Jamie said.
"It’s been really busy so it took awhile. Plus I had to run several
different kinds of tests on it. I did a little experimenting as well. I hope
that was okay with you. I think you should come down and take a look for
yourself. I’m not quite sure what to make of it."

The blood test! I had completely forgotten about that.

"I'll come right over once I’m done with my patients
here."

"See you then."

Chapter 27

"I can't say I
have ever seen anything like this. I don't know whether to raise my hands and
do a little victory dance because it’s such a huge scientific discovery, the
discovery of a century - or to be seriously worried about your health."

Jamie was looking at me from her chair as I entered
her lab. She seemed both concerned and a little startled as well. She looked at
me like she was expecting me to answer, to clarify to her what she had seen.

I stepped closer dripping water on the floor as I
walked. An afternoon thunderstorm had hit just as I arrived and parked the car.
I was soaked from the quick run from my car to the main entrance. My hair was
dripping; the freezing air from the air conditioning caused me to shiver in my
wet clothes.

"Here," she said and threw me a towel. Then
she pulled up a chair and next to hers. She stared into a microscope. I dried
my hair then sat on the chair next to her. She put in a sample and pushed the
microscope towards me. It had been many years since I had studied blood in a
microscope, not since medical school but I quickly recognized this as a sample
of blood, my blood I assumed. I saw a lot of red blood-cells moving around then
some purple almost blue cells that I didn't recognize and to my huge surprise
only one single white one.

"This is a clean sample of your blood. Your
immediate reaction is that this person has to be very seriously ill,
right?" she said behind my back. "I mean there are only a few white
cells left and no one can live without white blood cells. We all know
that."

"A few? I see only one," I said. "A
very small one."

"Wow. Then it is actually less than yesterday
when I last looked at this one," she said with unintended enthusiasm.
"It's like they are speeding up the process. Like they're getting stronger
and stronger. Very interesting. Let me have a look again," she continued
and pushed me aside. She put her eye on the instrument. "You're absolutely
right. At this pace the last white blood-cell will be gone by this time
tomorrow."

"So what do you make of it?" I asked.

She leaned back in her chair. "I don't know.
You're definitely not sick. I have tested for anything and everything and there
is nothing. All results show a healthy young man. I mean you would immediately
think that it might be some kind of blood-cancer affecting the amount of
blood-cells and that was what I thought at first. I thought those purple cells
were some kind of cancer in your blood. Maybe a new kind we had never seen
before. And they
are
the ones affecting your
production of white blood-cells. It's like they have kind of ... taken over. It
seems they are slowly eating your white blood-cells, taking their place and
function in your body."

"But what are they?"

"I don't know. I have never seen them before or
anything remotely like them. I have run all kinds of tests on them and in form
and structure they are very similar to our normal white ones, but they seem to
be a whole lot stronger and resistant to all kinds of diseases. I have infected
your blood with everything from chickenpox to HIV and even cancer cells like
leukemia.
 
Every time the same thing
happens. The purple blood cells attack it ferociously and kill it within
seconds. I have never seen anything like this. It could be the biggest breakthrough
in medical science since the penicillin."

I stared at her, startled, speechless. Then I spoke:
"Are you telling me I am carrying the cure for cancer and HIV?" I
leaned back in my chair. My heart was beating fast. The possibilities this
contained and the problems it carried as well.

"I can't say that for sure. But if I am right
then you carry the cure to all diseases on this planet. You simply can't get
sick."

I got up from my chair and started walking in circles.
My head was spinning. How was this possible? It had to be The Fountain of
Youth. I had received the fountain from
Aiyana
when
she bit me ten years ago. That was what gave me the ability to predict things
and hear people's thoughts. Later on it had turned me into the black jaguar.
When she bit me she had somehow contaminated my blood with these new purple
cells. I had only received a few, only a little saliva from her bite so the
amount of purple cells was very few. Since then they had multiplied and
gradually taken over. Could it have taken them ten years to finally take over
my blood stream? Ten years to make me who I was now? Was that why I hadn't
experienced the transformation until now?

It could very well be.

The prospect of possibly carrying the cure to all the
diseases on this earth frightened me. I remembered what my father in law, Dr.
Kirk had said when he examined my eyes. I could end my life in a lab as an
experiment. A lab rat for doctors from all over the world to examine, my blood
used to cure diseases all over the world. I was a dangerous weapon in the wrong
hands. But I also contained the cure for people in need, people dying. I could
save someone's mother. I could be the one arriving in the last minute as an
answer to some child's prayer and cure her, like I had dreamed would have
happened to my mother. But it never did.

Oh my gosh
! I could cure
Heather! Could I possibly save William's mother from dying?

I stared at Jamie. She looked at the samples taking
each little glass up and studying it closely. "We need to run a lot more
tests to be sure that I am right, but I really think we are on to
something," she said.

When I heard her call my name I was already out of the
front door.

It was
still raining heavily as I started the engine and left the parking lot in front
of the lab. With the wiper's hypnotic rhythm in front of my eyes I drove around
the streets of St. Augustine. I had no idea where I was going. I wanted to find
Heather and tell her everything. But how could I? I didn't know where she was.
And what about the secret? Could I reveal
Aiyana's
secret? Would she let me reveal it if I told her what was at stake? Would she
let me reveal her family's long kept ancient secret? The secret they protected
for thousands of years. And with good reason. They knew it would cause more trouble
if they revealed it than if they didn't. Could this world cope with such a
discovery now? Was it even ready for it? And even if
Aiyana
said no would I do it anyway? Or would that be too selfish of me? Could I be
that selfish? Could I defy my beloved like that just to save my wife from
certain death? Even if I could, just how was I supposed to save Heather? By
biting her? By giving her a transfusion of my blood? And then wouldn't that
mean that she would become what I was? Wouldn't she also become a jaguar? Did
she want that? Did she have a choice?

I hit my hand hard in the steering wheel when I
stopped for a red light. Damn it! She would have to do it. For William's sake!

A loud thunder roared outside. The sky above me was
pitch-black. I drove downtown and passed the Spanish fort - The Castillo de San
Marcos - with cannons on the roof overlooking the bay on one side and the old
historic town on the other with its closed off streets only for pedestrians
that always reminded me of my home country. Denmark’s cities all had streets
only for pedestrians. Flocks of tourists ran to avoid the rain. I took a turn
without even knowing why and was led past the old buildings of Flagler College.
I had always adored its Spanish Renaissance architecture. It was the first
major poured-in-place concrete building in the United States also known as
Ponce de Leon Hall and is a National Historic Landmark. I had grown to love
this city and its historic diversity, but right now I wanted out. I wanted to
drive far away from this human anthill of tourists. I wanted to go home to
William and hug him for a long time.

So that's exactly what I did.

Chapter 28

I
spent the entire
afternoon with William, drinking hot
chocolate playing his favorite game RISK on the small table in the living room
sitting on the thick carpet while the rain slowly wore off outside. I wasn't
paying much attention to the game and it didn't take long before William
noticed.

"Far. You're not even listening," he said.

"I'm sorry buddy. Is it my turn?"

"Yes. I just took Africa from you. You're
losing."

I chuckled. "So I am."

William paused. Then he looked at me. "Were you
thinking about Mommy?" He asked with a small gentle voice.

I smiled. "Yes, I was."

He nodded. "Me too." He placed a small
figure on the board. "I do it all the time."

I sighed deeply. Then I pulled him close. I stroked
his hair and held him in my arms. "It's okay, buddy. It's okay to be
thinking about her."

"Do you think she is okay?"

"Hey. Of course she is. She’s with the dwarves,
remember? What are their names again? Sleepy ... Dumpy, Humpty?"

William chuckled. "
No,Far
.
It's
Sneezy
, Sleepy, Dopey, Doc, Happy, Bashful and
Grumpy." He paused and looked away. "But I know she’s not really with
them."

I exhaled deeply. Then I pulled him tighter.

"So where do you think she is?" he asked.
"Cause I have a lot I need to tell her. She doesn't even know I can ride
my bike without training wheels. She hasn't seen how much I’ve grown. I can't
even fit in any of my shoes anymore. Sarah says that I'll outgrow all of you in
a couple of weeks if I keep up this pace. And I'll probably have my first loose
tooth soon cause Bradley from my class just had his first and soon it will fall
out and the tooth-fairy will come. And I'm going to have one too. Soon. I can almost
wiggle mine now. And she is going to miss all that." William took a deep
breath, fighting back tears. "Do you think she is still sick, Far? Doesn't
she want us to take care of her anymore? Don't you think she needs us?"

I hugged William tighter. "I don't know, buddy. I
really don't know."

"I thought you knew everything," William
said and broke out of my arms. Then he ran towards the stairs while yelling:
"I thought parents were supposed to know everything! I thought mothers
were supposed to be with their kids!"

I felt like dissolving into tears as he disappeared up
the stairs while still yelling at me.

Later that evening when
William had calmed down and I had comforted him while putting him to bed by
reading Snow White once again, I ran as fast as I could towards the swamps. It
was a Friday night and lots of tourists were in the streets of St. Augustine
even in the outer areas where I used to run. At one point I had to stop in
order to not be seen and jump onto a tall building to try and sneak past them
before I could jump back on the street again and run towards my goal. I never
made it that far before someone behind me screamed.