I didn’t stay long in the aftermath of the failed nuclear test, leaving before the colonel or any other person could stop me. Things got a little hectic there quickly so I escaped out the back with Jeffery before getting into my car and driving back to my hotel room.

  I don’t know what the army is going to try to do now. Try a bigger, badder nuke? Their options are limited at this point and I bet the higher ups are screaming for results. Realistically, there is only one option left, but I’ll make that tomorrow’s problem.

  At my hotel room my furnishings feel more unfriendly and alien than ever before. I debated just leaving and driving up north to the parents even at this now late hour, but ultimately decided against it, just giving Mom a call before the long nap.

  During the call I tried to be upbeat and positive but she must have heard something in my voice, because she asked me what was wrong almost immediately. Mothers are like that somehow.

  I gave her a sad chuckle and ask, “What isn’t wrong?”

  She is silent on her end for a couple heartbeats before saying, “You should come up and join us, Greg. Seriously, take the rest of the week off.”

  “I’d like to,” I confess, “I’d really like to. But they need me to stay here.”

  “They can’t make you stay,” Mom snaps back at me, “let them figure it out, you gave them all the information you had, it's their problem now. Just come home and rest.”

  I sigh heavily into the phone. Maybe I shouldn't have called. “There are important things I need to do here,” I answer, “I can’t just leave, not now. They need me.”

  “No they don’t,” Mom huffs back, “what could they possibly use a kid like you for?”

…

  “Mom, I’m twenty-eight now, hardly a kid anymore. I’m older than most of the soldiers in my house…”

  “But they are all trained for this,” Mom continues, undeterred, “they signed up for this. You didn’t. They don’t need you, they are just using you.”

  I don’t answer back, wondering what I could say to convince her to drop it. Eventually, I reply, “I can’t tell you what’s going on here, Mom, but they do need me. They will need me, I can’t just leave yet, not until we solve this problem.”

  “Why, what’s going on?” Mom asks sharply.

  “I can’t say…”

  “Is it dangerous? What do they need you for still?”

  “It’s not dangerous,” I lie through my teeth, “Don’t worry about me.”

  I can sense Mom dissatisfied on the other end so I continue forward, “I'll take tomorrow off, I really will. It’s just hard being back, you know, so much has changed. When they weren’t talking about me, everybody at the office was discussing the spheres. It’s all that’s going on, and being in the middle of it is hard. I’d like to go back to the way things were, but it’s just not possible now, you know?”

  There were a few moments of quiet on the line and then Mom says with a sigh, “I understand, Greg. Just, please, let us know if anything is troubling you. As long as it’s not classified, of course,” she adds through gritted teeth. “Keep in contact, call us every night if you can. We are worried about you, Greg. When are you going to get a new phone?”

  “Tomorrow, if I’m taking the day off, I might as well get something accomplished.”

  “Okay,” She replies warily, seemingly not trusting me.

  We talk for a few more minutes before hanging up for the night. In the end, the call didn’t really make me feel better.

  I shower and go to bed, but it’s another fitful night for me. Reality and nightmares keep chasing each other and I wake up with a start every few hours. I suppose that perhaps it’s just instinct now, after having to wake up every few hours while I was in the instance to cleanse in order to survive, my body is probably still caught in that loop. Either that or I’m cursed. I cast cleanse on me once in the middle of the night, but nothing doing. It’s still a hard night.

  The morning greets me with its usual sunshine and I wonder what the army cooked up. Jeffrey offers to get me off of work again and I take him up this time. After a quick continental breakfast again, I text jeffery that I’m going out to the phone store which I then promptly do.

  Two frustrating hours later, I have my new phone in my hand with all my contacts and info. Why it took two hours, I have no idea, but problem after problem came up that I eventually just solved with money. I guess some problems can just be solved with money.

  After stepping out of the store and looking up at the clear blue sky, I wondered just what on earth I was going to do now. Short term and long term.

  I hadn’t a clue for either.

…

  Strike that, it seems the colonel would like to see me now, I just got a text from Jeffrey asking if I was available. Sure I am! I guess the bigger badder nuke plan failed?

…

  I pull up to my house again, local and national news stations have figured out something is going on here, but the army has set up a pretty large perimeter, blocking off access for the indignant crews so that they have no idea what’s actually happening. A few crews with cams have been stationed there in case something does happen, but unless a skeleton breaks free and walks within sight of the cameras, I think they’ll be disappointed.

  Once the crews station there realized I was being let in through the barrier, they starting really becoming indignant, shouting things at me like, “What’s going on in there?”, “Is there a third sphere?”, and “The american people deserve to know what’s happening!”.

  Geeze, if they do their homework, they'll figure out who own what houses down this street and start interrogating them and their family members. If the army already hasn’t, I should call my parents and let them know what’s coming.

  Jeffrey meets me once again after I park my car on the packed lawn. With a sigh, I let him lead me back into my house and into my kitchen where the colonel is waiting for me at my dining room table.

  Compared to yesterday, the place is much different, only a few people are scattered around on the various desks.

  The colonel looks like he hadn’t gotten much sleep either, his grey head looking worn and tired.

…

  Good, misery loves company.

  After morning greetings, I decide to get straight to the point.

  “The nuclear testing failed?” I ask, already knowing the answer.

  The colonel nods at me. “Yes, we did an additional test early this morning with a significantly more powerful device, but the results were inconclusive. Spirit still stands.”

  I knew it.

  “Have you learned anything from the research front?” I ask, indicating the vault still covered in white tarps.

  The colonel gave a chuckle at that question. “Much, if you ask the research team. They have gigs and gigs of new knowledge on it, their passion for the subject is like nothing I have ever seen.”

  “But nothing readily useful,” I add with a knowing look.

  The colonel shrugs, “not yet at least. Some of the stuff is interesting, but not immediately helpful.”

  Silence falls over the table and the colonel seems to just study me. Uncomfortable with it, I was about to say something when the colonel cut in again, “I’d like to thank you for healing Private Johnson.”

  I give him a soft scowl. “You’re welcome. Did you bring him in to test me?”

  “No,” The colonel replied, “He was already here, I just adjusted his schedule so that there was a good chance you two would meet. I am very happy that you chose to heal him. As for his sister, we’ll turn a blind eye if you two keep it under wraps, do you understand?”

  I nod but say bitterly, “You could have just asked me, there was no need to go through that kind of manipulation. If you have anybody on base here who needs healing let me know and I’ll help.”

  At my words, the colonel let’s out a sigh, surprising me. “I’ll let them know. But Greg, you are too careless with your powers. You can’t just willy nilly heal everybody you see, it will cause chaos and leave you in danger. I need you to be more conservative with it.”

  “I have the ability to help people,” I say as forcefuly as I can muster in front of a hard colonel, “I understand the risks involved, but I can’t sit back and watch people suffer when I can help.”

  The colonel gives me a scowl, “You’ve never shown this level of magnaminty before. Why change now?”

  Now I give him a scowl, “I never had unlimited resources before.”

  That gave him a pause. Ha, eat that!

  “My mana regenerates at a consistent rate before capping out. It only takes a half an hour to fully regenerate. Think about it, wherever this mana comes from, whether I get it through the air or its self generating in my body, I have an unlimited amount of it. I can’t hog that kind of resource all to myself, not when it can be so beneficial to so many people.”

  The colonel studies me with a frown, crossing his arms now. I let him stew on my words and eventually he sighs again and rubs his weary head. “We can discuss this issue later. For now, can you promise me you’ll make no radical waves for us to take care of? Not while the spheres are still a threat at least. Once all of this is over, we can decide the best way to handle the healing abilities.”

  I don’t like the sound of that.

  “I understand the need for discretion,” I say firmly, “And I’ll keep this quiet for my sake as much as yours. But in the end, these are my abilities and I will have the final say in how they are used.”

  There, I said it. One step closer down the path to crucifixion. Great.

…

  Thankfully the colonel doesn’t decide to call in the guards to escort me to the experimentation lab. Instead, he waives off my words like they are no big deal. “We’ll deal with that issue after this is all over, we don't have time to argue about this. Right now, the immediate problems are threatening to swallow us up and your issues are just going to have to take a backseat.”

  I swallow hard and ask, “How bad is it?”

  “You tell me.” the colonel replies forcefully, leaning forward. “We’ve tried everything we can think of, even putting in our goddamn nukes into the things to no apparent effect. They continue to grow to an even pace and Spook is threatening the structural integrity of the street and buildings nearby. While the president managed to put together some measure of calmness on the situation with his claim we have the answers, the truth is that we have practically nothing right now. The public and the world is screaming for answers that we can’t give. Maybe, given time, we’ll think of something else, but you tell me, can we risk waiting that long?”

…

  No. We can’t.

...

  “No,” I say with resignation, “We can’t afford to wait. As much as I’d like to not believe it, until we can get inside the spheres and study them closely, our hands are tied. The time dilation is terrifying me. I spent a week in the sphere, and in that time the average levels of all the monsters in it rose by ten while no more than an hour of time passed on earth. I don’t know how the time dilation works, but if the levels of the monsters grow by ten every hour then we are screwed. We have no time, we need to go in as soon as possible.”

  The colonel nods but doesn’t say anything so I add, “You’ll need to assemble a team.”

  “We already have teams,” the colonel scoffs, “Our elite special forces will be going in.”

  “When?”

  The colonel doesn’t answer, but just stares at me expectantly.

…

  This bastard.

  “Are you going to make me say it?”

  “I can’t and won’t order you do join them,” the colonel says flatly, “and I won’t ask you to either. Judging from your story, it’s a hell we are very reluctant to send our best trained soldiers in, much less a civilian. But, judging from your story too, it will most certainly fail without your help. That’s assuming there really is a world inside and not a one way ticket to the middle of a black hole. Nobody is going to go in there without you giving assurance in the matter.”

  Meaning unless I put my money where my mouth is, there not going to take my word on this.

  That’s fair I suppose. Even I don't know for certain what’s behind the grey walls.

…

  Well, Mom is going to kill me. At least this time I’ll have back up. I can leave all the heavy lifting to those guys.

  “Then consider this me volunteering.”

  The colonel gives me a wide grin. “The president has promised some medals for this, whether you return or not.”

  Great, I’ll present them to Peter at the gates of heaven.

  “How many people do you think you can support.” the colonel asks suddenly, getting down to business.

  “Support?”

  The colonel waves his hand at me. “Consider worst case scenario. How many people could you keep alive with your skills?”

  Harsh.

  After a moment I say, “No more than five. Anymore than that and we risk too much if I can’t cleanse or heal them in time.”

  The colonel jotts that down before asking, “Do you think they will be able to acquire classes and or skills inside?”

  The world is going nuts.

  “Maybe, yeah,” I say with exasperation, “I think so. Everything inside had levels and classes, so I assume they would be able to acquire some as well. What kind, I have no clue. Listen, we’re going to be bringing in tanks and stuff, right?”

  “Depends on the nature of the mission.” the colonel replies sardonically, “You’ll be flown out to LA late tonight and you’ll be meeting with your team and command out there to devise a plan. If said plans calls for a quick insert and destroy mission, then no, a loud and highly visible tank will not do.”

…

  Blast! I really wanted that tank!

  We talked for a few minutes more, mostly nailing down my travel details and my itinerary for tomorrow. The colonel will not be going to LA, but will remain here so my new boss is a different colonel over in LA when I arrive. Jeffrey will be coming with me too, which was actually a relief, the dependable silent guy was starting to grow on me.

  I didn’t have to ask for my spear back either, they were already transporting it for my use in LA. The current plan was an insertion into Spook Thursday morning with my new special forces team. Get in and save the world from the moderately paced encroaching spheres.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  Hoorah.

  My flight wasn’t until eight so I had until 6:30 to do whatever the hell I wanted. It’s just that, I still had no idea what that would be.

  I mean, besides informing my family I was leaving and could potentially die on a mission that my mother expressly believes that I shouldn't be involved in.

..

  After standing outside my car in a daze, I decided to procrastinate and go visit Bill and see how he was holding up.

  Bill and his wife of whom I still don’t know her name invite me in warmly. I don’t know them that well anyway so we just had some pleasantries before I asked if they were okay with the military hanging around so much.

  “It gets noisy sometimes,” the wife complains good naturedly. I honestly think their presence helps sooth her stress. Nothing like a dependable army to keep things under control.

  “We decided not to bully our daughter back here.” Bill grumbles to me, “She’s got her own life in LA and her own decision to make. Any more pushing on our end will not help.”

  I pause and give Bill a look. “If nothing changes after thursday,” I say after a moment, “I advise you to do whatever you can to get her back here, away from LA.”

  “Why, what’s happening on Thursday?” Bill asks anxiously.

  “I can’t say much, but something is going down.”

  “Are you going in again?” Bill’s wife asks, surprising me.

  With a chuckle I reply, “I really can’t talk about it.”

  “Are you going to be okay?”

…

  I really don’t know. The deep look of concern on the face of the woman I don’t even know her name is throwing me off.

  “I’ll be fine,” I stress.

  After shrugging off more concern and well wishes I escape from the house and decide to take a trip to the nature preserve to check out my old buddies. As soon as I enter the military compound again Jeffrey joins me as if he was waiting for me to return. Wordlessly, we trudge back through now beaten paths to the lake. Once this is over the DNR will be screaming at us for the damages here.

  I only spend a few minutes looking out over the lake, but there is no hide nor hair nor bone of the skeletons in there. At least, I hope there are in there still. They had better be in there.

  After that useless time I head back to my car to leave. Jeffrey stops me and speaks for like the first time that day.

  “What are you going to do today?”

  After giving him an eye I shrug. “I have no idea.”

  “Take my advice and make time for your family. You’ll regret it if you don’t.”

  Of course, thanks.

  “See you at six,” I reply back, entering my car and driving away.

  On the way back to my room, I seriously consider getting drunk for the first time in my life. I’ve always wondered what kind of drunk I would be. I even made it to the local grocery store before realizing that would be an extremely irresponsible decision to make.

  Curse my upbringing! I can’t even indulge in vices in times like these.

  I end up grabbing a bag of clementines and head to the check out. Will I be able to eat the whole bag by this evening? Unlikely. Will I try? You bet I will. Those clementines are going down.

  In front of me in the check out lane there is a woman with a familiar silhouette. A petite girl with long red/brown hair pulled back in a ponytail. Jeans with a regular green t-shirt on.

…

  Holy crap, its my ex, Rachel.

  I knew she lives nearby, she still lives at her parents only a few miles away from my house. In fact, I bought my house just before we broke up with the intention of being closer to her. And I knew that she frequents this grocery which is why I have been going to the other one for a year and a half now.

  I haven’t seen her since I broke up with her.

…

  To be honest, I have fantasized a lot about what I would say and how she would respond if I ever saw her again. Did she regret dumping me? Did she ever find somebody else? Was she happy?

  Now that I am seeing her unexpectedly I freeze and my pulse jumps to 150 beats per minute. My first instinct is to run while she doesn’t see me.

…

  I freeze for too long and she notices me as she turns to grab another item off her cart.

  “Greg!” she says in surprise and I nearly jump at her word. She is not nearly as stunned as I am.

  I try to give her a smile and I say automatically, “How are you doing, Rachel? You are not at school today?”

  “Its summer,” she points out flatly.

  Oh, duh. Teachers have most of the summer off.

  I try to laugh off my idiocracy and look to the side as I scratch my head. What am I supposed to say again? All my pre-formed words are gone and useless!

  After a frantic moment, I just sigh and look at her for real. “So, how have you been?”

  To be honest I still have some affection for Rachel, and I know she was going through some hard times when we broke up.

  Rachel offers me a weak smile and adds some items to the belt. “Oh, just fine. And you?”

…

  I feel like we are still at the place we were at when we were dating. I never did feel like we got past the masks we put over ourselves. Each of us trying to be the model boyfriend or girlfriend without ever seeing each other.

  “I’m fine too.” I reply, shaking my head at the lie. I look away.

  The cashier doesn’t say anything, sensing the obvious tension in the air. The beeping sounds of Rachel’s items are loud and clear.

…

  And that’s that. Rachel doesn’t say anymore and I can’t blame her. Its too hard to talk to each other again. I should have picked a different aisle.

…

  In the end I can’t let it go.

  “How is Tim doing?” I finally ask. Tim is Rachel’s father and was a man I admired. But he had health issues last I saw him.

  Rachel stiffens at my words but keeps scanning her items. At first I think she’s not going to reply at all but then she looks me in the eyes and says with the same weak smile. “Not good.”

…

  Dang. Tim had prostate cancer ten years ago that was beaten into submission. Then it returned with a vengeance, I understood, needing intense radiation therapy. They were just getting into that when I left and I regretted not being able to follow how that turned out.

  I swallow and ask, “How bad is it?” She probably doesn’t want to talk about it, but too bad! I want to know.

  After another few moments Rachel speaks again, “He’s home now.”

…

  Hmmm? Home? As in with Jesus in Heaven?

  Before my thoughts can go further down that line, Rachel adds, “Mom’s looking after him right now.”

  I see. That is bad, it sounds like treatment was unsuccessful and, judging by Rachel’s body language, I believe Tim is on the road to death

…

  That really sucks.

  A few introspective moments later Rachel is done and is getting ready to move away without another word. I don’t blame her, but I call out to her before she can get away.

  “Rachel, wait! I’d like to speak with you for a moment, can you wait a sec?”

  Rachel pauses and then gives me a resigned look, noding back unhappily and steering her cart off to the side.

  Tim has an important role in Rachel’s household. Rachel’s older brother moved away and married years ago and her older sister Elena is mentally disabled. Elena is a grumpy sweetheart of whom Rachel and Tim are the primary caregivers to. If Tim dies it leaves a big hole in the family, additional strain on taking care of Elena, Rachel’s uncertain future of being voluntarily shackled to Elena, and the mom as the primary breadwinner.

  When I was dating Rachel I new that Elena would enter my life one way or another. With Tim’s diagnosis during the last month of our dating I was preparing for that day to come sooner rather than later.

…

  I still can’t believe Rachel didn’t want to be with me.

…

  A hasty minute later where I speed scanned my items and paid, I caught up to Rachel who was giving her attention to her phone. She looked up at when I approached with my single bag of clementines, looking tired. She waits for me to speak.

  “Hey!” I say, suddenly unsure how to go about this.

  Rachel looks at me expectantly and I look around quickly. We are pretty off to the side here and it's not a busy day.

  I lean in and uphold my right hand so that only she can see it. She stares at it in confusion before I light it up with flare.

  Rachel blinks at the light and I say quickly, “Listen, I’ve got a healing ability. You know those spheres? One of those appeared at my house this last weekend and I can’t give you the details, but I got a healing skill from it. I’d like to try and heal Tim.”

…

  To her credit, she doesn’t slap me in the face. I’d like to think that its because I’m a very trustworthy guy who’d never prank her on something like this, too.

  She doesn't say anything but stares at me with a stupefied expression.

  “I’m serious, here, take my hand.”

  I am pleased to see that she takes my glowing hand into hers without hesitation and I switch over to cleanse, letting the warm magic diffuse over her arm. I see her shiver slightly at the feeling.

  We just kind of stare at each other for a few moments before I add, “I’m going away tonight, but I’d like to help.”

…

  Still, she doesn’t say anything, but I can feel her gripping my hand more tightly. What is she thinking? I can never tell.

  I say as sternly as I can, “I can heal Tim.”

  Eventually I hear her whisper back, “Don’t you joke with me about this, Greg. It’s not funny.”

  I give her the best smile I can muster and ask, “Trust me. When have I ever lied to you?” Honestly, I can’t think of a time where I ever did.

  A few more tense moments later she nods at me and says in a voice barely above a whisper, “kay.”

  I cough awkwardly and say, “Can I meet you over at your house, then?”

  She just nods and lets go of my hand. There is a severe look in her eye and I know that if I end this up as a joke, she’ll never forgive me.

  That’s fine with me.

  I briefly consider walking her back to her car and helping her unload her groceries, but decide better of it. I was always super awkward before, trying to do gentlemanly things for her, it would only be so much more so now. I’ll let her stew on my words in the meanwhile.

  Her house in only five minutes away by car and I beat her to it. I study the all too familiar home, noting how much it hasn't changed. I park on the side of the road and wait only a minute before she comes into view. I get out as she pulls her car in the driveway and step over to her. She jumps out and slams the door with a furiouse look on her face.

…

  I’ve never seen that face before.

  She yells at me, “You had better not be playing around, Greg, or I swear to God I’ll never forgive you!”

  I already got that message, thanks. Looks like her time alone only increased her doubt.

  I put my hands up in surrender. “I only want to help.”

  She scowls at me before turning to her house and opening up the front door. Her groceries remain unattended to in her car.

  There is an odd smell in the air when I step in the house, the smell of chemicals and medicine. It’s a far stretch from the usual pleasant fragrance the house once had. Rachel’s mother Kelly steps into view to greet her daughter but she pulls up as she notices me. Her eyebrows shoot up in surprise.

  Actually, I had a good relationship with all of Rachel’s family. Kelly scared me a bit because I knew her from years ago when she directed a theatrical program I was a part of at church where she was a stern leader, but actually getting to know her she is quite nice.

  I think I was pretty charming myself.

  “I met him at the store,” Rachel says, answering her Mom’s unspoken question while taking off her shoes, “he’s here to see Dad.”

  Kelly gives me a warm smile at that and gives me a hug as if the last year and a half didn’t happen, “I’m happy you’ve come. Tim will be happy to see you too.”

  I can feel Rachel scowl from the corner. I always wondered what Kelly and Tim had to say to Rachel about our breakup. It’s probably just my own ego, but I bet they thought it was a mistake.

  She releases her hug on me and I spot Elena in the kitchen on a stool, munching on a cookie and staring at me as if wondering what I am doing there. I give her a friendly wave which she doesn’t return.

  I wonder if she remembers me.

  I turn and look Kelly in the eyes. “I hear Tim is not doing well?”

  With a sigh, Kelly replies, “No, it was a good fight, but the occurrence this time was too aggressive. We have him home for now at least.”

…

  Wow, strong woman. She’s taking it rather well, much better than Rachel is at least.

  After a few more pleasantries with Kelly as Rachel hoveres off to the side, I was lead quietly to the living room where Tim was laid back on the lazy boy sofa. He was asleep with a game replaying on the TV.

  Tim looked worse than ever, the pleasantly plump and strong man was nowhere to be found, now a thin waxy person had taken his place. I stare it him in pity as Kelly moves over, waking Tim up. He awoke with a start, smacking his dry lips before noticing me.

  “Hey, Greg!” He says surprised and happy, if not weakly, “What are you doing here?”

  “Checking up on you,” I say, taking a knee next to him. Kelly and Rachel stay back. “I hear you are fighting the good fight?”

Tim snorts back, “Sure, like the Lions playing the Packers last thanksgiving, aye?”

  Ouch, these blasted Green Bay fans. I’m pretty sure the Lions got crushed that game, too.

  “Right,” I say, wanting to get this over with, “Listen, I’d like to heal you, are you okay with that?”

  “Hah!” Tim laughs without missing a beat. “Please do!”

  “Great,” I say, taking his hand before he can give it more reasonable thought. “This may feel a little weird like alternating dipping your arm in warm and then ice water, but bear with it and you’ll be better in no time.”

  Tim gives me a curious glance before his eyes bulge out as the cleansing feeling washes over him.

  I decided that healing Tim should be a mixture of cleanse and heal, cleansing to get rid of the cancerous cells and heal to take care of the damage. I’m not a doctor, so maybe I should have researched this a bit more before trying it out, but I’m here now. I hope that this works the way I think it will.

  I ignore everybody’s attention and focus as best as I can on the task at hand.

  After a minute, a silver grey sheen starts appearing on the outer skin of Tim and a second later he starts coughing.

  Alarmed, I look back at Rachel and say, “A bowl please? Quickly!”

  Thankfully, Rachel does as I instruct, both of us ignoring Kelly’s upset questions. We get the bowl in front of Tim in time for dark grey sludge to be coughed up, splashing inside the ceramic bowl.

…

  Ewwww. Something to consider in future healing.

  A few more coughing fits later and a little more sludge seems like the last of it. An exhausted Tim leans back, closing his eyes as I tap out my mana, feeling that the job is complete. If nothing else, he should be good for another ten years.

  Kelly is staring at me with shock and outrage, but Rachel comes up close to Tim with a wet cloth and starts dabbing at his face, cleaning off the silver dust.

  “How do you feel Dad?” she asks worriedly.

  “Like I’ve had my insides twisted around.” Tim growls back, not opening his eyes.

  I stand up, taking the disgusting bowl with me.

  My work here is done.

  “What was that, what did you do to him?” Kelly demands, her eyes flashing. Then she looks at the bowl I was holding and asks in horror. “That was inside him?”

  I hold up the bowl for her to see and say matter of factly. “I healed him. This is the remains of his cancer cells, I cleared them up from his body. Its just non-toxic gray dust now, it won’t be a problem. I also healed the damage caused by the cancer and the treatment, so he should feel great after a moment.”

  Kelly looks at me indignantly, but I just say with a smile, “Where can we dispose of this?”

  With a huff, Kelly takes the gross bowl away from me and I turn to see Elena staring at me again.

…

  Yeah, I’m not anywhere near prepared to even think about what it would take and mean to try to “heal” somebody like Elena much less deal with the repercussions. Ethics and morality get pretty gray there, no pun intended.

  I look back at Tim and smile. “How are you feeling Tim? You are all healed up, cancer free!”

  Tim cracks and eye at me and Rachel looks up at me in amazement. “Really?!”

  I just nod and I see Rachel bury her face in Tim’s chest. Tim cradles her head in his left arm.

  I ask after the touching moment, “How are you feeling Tim, really?”

  Tim ponders, his face taking on a confused look, before replying, “good actually. Very good, I haven’t felt like this in over a year. What did you do?”

  I roll my eyes. How many times do I have to say it?

  “I healed you and got rid of your cancer.”

  Tim considers that, still clutching Rachel to his side. Then he abruptly sits up, undoing the reclining chair and standing up. Rachel gets up with him, her eyes red.

  Rachel and I study him as he stretches, feeling out his body. He is still thin, but he looks so much healthier already, even with the sheen of silver dust clinging to him. He’ll want to take a shower.

  Tim turns to me, and I can see the fantasy finally settling in. “How did you do that?”

  “Classified,” I say as if I had practiced ease, “But its related to the spheres. You’ll know more about it in a week, but for now I need you to keep your healing a secret. If this leaks out the colonel will have my head. Do you understand?”

  At my sudden stern words, Rachel and Tim flinch and fisheye me, as if waiting for me to say that it was a joke. It wasn’t and I didn’t.

  Kelly walks back in the room and sees Tim standing, holding Rachel at his side. “Honey, are you okay?” she gushes, “should you be standing?”

  Really, that’s insulting to me, you know.

  Tim looks at his wife as if not understanding her words. He says after a moment, “I'm think I’m healed, Kelly.”

  The next several minutes were pretty chaotic. Struggling between disbelief and unbridled joy, the trio seemed unable to comprehend what happened. I gotta say, I should have healed in a much more showy manner, like Jesus. I really needed Tim to jump up and shout, “I’m cured, I’m cured!” but he did not, and instead I just talked in circles with them.

  Eventually, I got so annoyed I went to their kitchen and grabbed one of their big fancy cutting knives and sliced my left arm open, over the sink so the blood wouldn’t get everywhere. Honestly, that first bit didn’t really help my credibility much, but seeing their stunned faces as they watched the wound close with an unearthly pale glow allowed me to put my smug face on.

  That will teach you to doubt me.

  After securing their promises of silence, entertaining heartfelt gratitude and awe, declining their dinner invites, and collecting my stuff, I was exhausted. Dealing with them afterwards was ten times harder than actually healing the poor guy. I have no idea what he is going to tell his doctors and friends and family, but that’s their problem. They are religious people, perhaps they’ll just say it was a miracle, which, I suppose, it kinda was.

  Rachel saw me off, characteristically quiet, making conversation difficult with her. She always had me start these things and I never know what to say. Last time she saw me off at this door it was our breakup and I ended it with, “I’ll see you around, Rachel.” That was a dumb thing to say.

  “Thanks for healing Dad.” Rachel said as I put on my shoes, surprising me.

  I give her a smile and say, “You are welcome. I’m glad I saw you today.”

  She fidgeted for a second before saying, “I’m sorry things didn’t work out between us.”

…

  What, you are sorry you didn’t love me? As that how that works?

…

  I guess I am still upset inside. I shrug off her words and pretend it doesn't matter anymore.

  “What are you going to do now?”

  That's a good question.

  “I’ve got five hours until I have to catch a flight.” I say with a smile. I open the door and walk out, “Until then, I’ve got a score of people to try to heal.”

  “Why the rush?”

  I just give her a glance and shake my head as I move to my car. What can I say?

…

  “Winter is coming.”