“God, mum. I was hurt, badly and she feels responsible. Get your mind out of the gutter. I know you’re worried I won’t find a boyfriend but that’s no reason to always jump to conclusions whenever I spend a little time with someone who isn’t part of my family. And by the way, I don’t know if you’ve realised, but she’s a girl. Emotional upheaval can only make up for so much.”
“So what? The first time I caught your sister…”
“Mum,” Victoria complained from the door, “I thought you promised never to tell?”
“I already knew,” I interrupted them before they got into a fight in the hospital. “Honestly, did you really think I’d buy that studying crap you told me, every time you brought a new girl or boy over?”
“Every time,” my dad echoed. “I thought…” Oops. Oh well…
“Evee! You did that on purpose,” Victoria shrieked and headed for me, arms outstretched as if to strangle me. Yeah, I did. Better you than me. Besides, we were all simply grasping for a piece of normality, weren’t we? Fighting with and embarrassing her seemed much more appealing than thinking about what was happening to me. Especially since I just didn’t expect telling to be the best idea I could come up with. They’d rush me off to see a psychiatrist faster than I could even explain what I had seen…heard…felt…whatever.
At least that’s what I would have done if I had been in their shoes. Or maybe not… hard to say since I wasn’t a parent, but I knew for a fact that I wouldn’t have believed anyone telling me they had suddenly developed psychic abilities. Only if the person in question had offered to read my palm a second layer, for the unbelievably low price of twenty bucks, would I have abstained from calling the closest asylum. The cops, maybe. For now, we’d be much better off, dealing solely with my changed appearance. That was frightening enough all on its own.
I had shrugged out of my hospital gown and was stuck halfway into my top when Victoria slammed into me like a brick wall. So much for her consideration of my supposed brush with death. Within seconds we were on the bed again, rolling back and forth, laughing like maniacs. From the corner of my eyes I saw my parents but the expected consternated expressions they usually wore when we acted like children were nowhere to be found. My dad had slung his arms around my mum, ruining his professional flair, and they were watching us with tears in their eyes, as if our antics were the most precious thing in the world…
Again we were interrupted by old geezer Tom, or rather Dr. Crawford, as his tag suggested, but this time around he didn’t speak up, but instead gesticulated for my parents to follow him outside. As soon as the door closed behind them, my sister and I scrambled off the bed and towards the door. A quick scuffle later, she got to listen through the small gap where the door hadn’t properly closed while I was stuck with pressing my ear against the cold, hard wood.
“… perfectly healthy, as far as I can tell.” That was the good doctor. “Which is… improbable, to say the least. Her skull has mended in 48 hours. I’ve never seen nor heard of anything even remotely similar. The coagulated blood has disappeared, as well. And then, there’s this.” We heard the rustling of papers and then my father’s deep voice with a slight edge to it:
“And what am I supposed to make of this? I’m a consultant without a medical degree. All I can see is a colourful picture of a brain and some random numbers.”
“Gerry,” my mum admonished. “Let him speak. Dr. Crawford, what are you trying to tell us?”
“Your daughter… I don’t have anything to compare the results to, but her brain activity is off the charts. So much so, that she’s burning more calories while sleeping than most people do when they exercise. She’s lost four pounds in two days. That’s not a bad thing, not per se, but you have to make sure she eats enough when she’s at home, otherwise she might very well collapse in the middle of the street one day. Also… you might think about getting her tested. There’s no proven causality between brain activity and capabilities but I’ve never come across a brain that has shown even a fracture of the activity your daughter’s displays.” He paused, allowing his words to sink in.
“And then, of course, there’s the obvious. Her eyes, I mean. We took a small sample… here, those numbers compare the density and make up from a biological perspective to a normal eye. Nothing matches. The tissue is much denser and… crystalline. I don’t have to tell you that shouldn’t be impossible, right? For all intent and purposes, she should be blind and that’s without even mentioning that there’s not a single, valid explanation for how her body could reconstruct parts of itself. She… she’s an anomaly. One that… can I be frank?” There was no response but I assumed my parents nodded.
“There’s a good chance she’s unique and maybe, with a lot of time and even more luck, we could come to understand what has happened to her. I’m sure you can understand the implications of a regenerating brain and self repairing body. Fatal injuries, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s… your daughter might carry the key to cure those illnesses altogether. But…”
“But what,” my mum inquired, her tone dangerously emotionless.
“But she’d turn into a Guinea Pig. I haven’t shared the results with anyone, yet and I intend to keep it that way. The decision is yours, or rather hers, to make. I… do you imagine she’d be able to live a normal life once this gets out? She won’t, she’ll be under constant surveillance and maybe even carted off to a specialised facility, at least for a good while, depending on how much can actually be learned about her condition. She’d be cared for but at the very least she’d miss a good chunk of her youth. On the other hand… she might be able to help more people than we can even imagine. It’s a tough call. If you want my advice, take her home. Let her rest and talk to her. If she’s willing, we can discuss what we’re going to do when you return for the next check up. If she’s not and there aren’t any severe complications, I’ll destroy the files.”
“I…,” my mum was speechless, something I hadn’t seen before.
“What my wife wants to say is: are you sure? Aren’t you taking an awful risk for a complete stranger?”
“No, I’m just fulfilling my oath. I’ve pledged to care for my patients to the best of my abilities, not the whole world. The way I see it, I’m doing my job, nothing more, nothing less. Besides… my best friend has made me promise to do what I can for the girl, his niece has spent the last two days watching over and I keep my promises. Always.” I swallowed dryly and etched away from the door. I had heard enough and from the looks of it, I was up shit creek without a paddle. Come to think of it, I didn’t even have a canoe.
A spike of fear tore through my insides when imagined what my life might become if I was to turn into an idolised dispenser of bone marrow, eye and brain tissue and I felt sick. So much so that the room began spinning around me and I fell on the bed, as if hit by a club. A second later, warm arms wrapped around my neck and my sister pulled me into her lap.
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“You’re not going,” she whispered into my ear with enough conviction for the both of us. “I don’t care what anyone says, mum, dad, or even the whole god damned world. You’re not going to become a lab rat. Don’t even think about it. If we have to, we’ll go live with granny and gramps for a while, but you’ll be able to live your life however you want to. I promise, Evee, this won’t change a thing.” I buried my face in her neck and breathed in her scent, a mixture of soap and her own smell that always reminded me of strawberries and instantly calmed me down.
“Thanks, Vic,” I snivelled. “You know, I love you, right?”
“You better, I’m the greatest big sister anyone could wish for. Now, wipe the gloom off your face, we don’t want mum and dad to know we’ve been listening in. And then we’ll take you home. In a few days, this whole episode won’t be much more than a strange memory. I’m not going to let anything happen to you. And if you’re curious, we can still do some digging on our own. You know I’ve been taking some college courses, right? I’ve got a friend who might be able to help.”
“A friend… as in,” I echoed my mum’s words in a feeble attempt to lighten the mood. She squeezed my butt in response.
“As in a guy whom I’m friendly with. Honestly, do you think I’m a slut?” Her smile put the lie to her cutting tone. She was playing along to distract me.
“No… but you aren’t a prude, either, are you?”
“You mean in comparison to you? Definitely not. Have you even ever kissed someone you aren’t related to?”
“You know very well. Once, and it was pretty much the most embarrassing moment of my life. I don’t quite feel like trying for an encore. At least not in the immediate future.”
“You made her pay, though, didn’t you? As far as I remember, she scratched her boobs bloody the next day.”
“You know about that?”
“Of course. If you ask me, she still got off too lightly… when we left, I might or might not have stolen her diary and printed the whole thing out to plaster the auditorium with. It’s a pity we weren’t there. From what I heard, she didn’t have the courage to show up again for more than a week.” I chucked weakly.
“You’re a dangerous woman Victoria. Remind to never get on your bad side.”
“I don’t think you even could,” she huffed. “Whom will I cuddle with while watching another rerun of Firefly if we’re fighting? Besides, you’re much to nice to really set me off. I don’t know where you got your patience from, but it sure as hell isn’t a trait we share.”
“No… but you’ve always been explosive enough for the both of us, so why bother? As long as I’ve got you, I won’t have to…” the door creaked open and my parents strode back in, their mien surprisingly chipper, considering what we had overheard. We’d have to see for how long it’d last.
“Are you girls ready,” my mum asked. “Good, I can’t wait to take you home. Hospitals always get under my skin. It’s about time we got out of here.” And that we did.
About an hour later, I leaned my head against the glass wall of my shower, eyes closed while the scorching hot streams of water slowly made me feel more like my usual self. I had already been in there for a while, long enough for my fingers to become all wrinkly, but I hadn’t found the courage yet to face what might turn out to be a rather dreadful conversation.
The funny thing: I fully expected my parents to keep the lid on what my doctor had told them. They’d probably make sure my files were deleted behind my back. Crap, I should never have listened at the door… now, I had to seriously ask myself whether or not I was willing to ignore the possibility my blood might help save an uncounted number of people I’d most likely never meet. The longer I thought about it, the more I came to realise that it basically boiled down to a simple question: did I believe it’d work? And the truth of the matter was, I didn’t.
I know how it sounds, but in the end… I knew a bit about biology and crystallised eyes simply weren’t something that occurred in nature. It just didn’t. And I had checked, I still had feeling in my eyes, but they were hard and rigid, like polished marble. Except for the black, contracting pupils, they could as well have truly been sparkling amethyst gems, for all I knew. I didn’t have to blink anymore and I could even stare directly into the sun without an issue. One thing was for certain, if I didn’t want to become famous, I’d have to wear sunglasses much more regularly.
Which brought me to my actual worries… I had read enough books and watched more than enough flics in which my condition wouldn’t have been too far out of the norm. Did I think I had somehow returned from death with a part of an ancient soul stuck to me, allowing me to pierce the veil of the mundane world and become a sorceress? No, I wasn’t crazy. But I was inclined to believe that the reason was quite esoteric, none the less. It wasn’t necessary to throw science out of the window and still believe in miracles. It was simply harder to make them fit into our world.
I had never bothered with metaphysics overly much, but I knew enough to come up with a handful of explanations. The most likely, if still utter lunacy, was, that I had truly touched a realm beyond, which had altered my perception. Hence the changed eyes and my ability to hear other’s thoughts. It could also explain the enhanced brain activity Dr. Crawford had attested. God, I sounded like a complete nut job, even to myself. But I couldn’t help it, I just didn’t think I had been hallucinating, I had quite literally read people’s minds.
In the end, it’d only matter if I acted on anything I was going to pick up. Right then and there I promised myself that I’d be unbelievably careful and thorough, whenever I’d come to even toy with the idea of following through with one of those impulses. Or maybe I could test it first. I’d have to validate the truth of what I had heard. I wouldn’t be able to do much about Dr. Crawford, except maybe ask him if he usually referred to himself as an old geezer, but I might be able to tease the truth out of Katie. Unfortunately, the idea struck me as rather cruel.
If she truly had feelings for me, I’d have to make sure to have an answer before I was going to confront her. My first impulse was to laugh it off, but after last night… I had never before been able to open up to a stranger to that extent. The hours we had spent talking had felt like a sleepover in my sister’s room… except for the few moments when I had caught myself staring at her ass, her legs, her lips… I groaned. That was about the last thing I wanted to deal with and I had quite the impressive selection of scary options at my disposal. A second later I started smiling, then giggling and soon, I was laughing wholeheartedly.
What was I even thinking about? I had possibly turned into a psychic with gemstone eyes! A real one! I could star in any fantasy production without a mask, I might be able to hear the thoughts and see through the eyes of others, possibly even animals and I had come back from death! Winning the lottery was a joke in comparison. And there was a cute girl, who’d be coming over tonight who might be interested in me. And not only because my parents could probably buy a good chunk of Manhattan in one go. Even if I was going to become the unluckiest person in the world from now on, it’d still be worth it. I was rudely interrupted when I heard faint knocking and my sister’s urgent voice, muffled by two doors and running water.
“Evee… drown yourself? Dad… half an hour… Hurry up!” She had practically screamed the last part. “Coming,” I called back and turned off the shower. Drying my hair would have to wait. A few minutes later I was rushing down the stairs of our duplex apartment, towel still in hand, and nearly fell down the last few steps.
Victoria and I had our rooms on the upper floor but I usually kept my curtains closed and thus hadn’t been able to take in the view when I had blearily rushed to the shower. The living room, where the stairs ended, sported a massive window front towards Central Park. But it wasn’t the same maze of tress, streets and water I had gotten used to. A golden haze covered the scene and underneath, the flora glimmered colourfully, as if enchanted. Motes of light blinked into existence and vanished again but extraordinary as it was, it paled in comparison to the towering oak that rose at the very centre. A tree, mighty enough to even dwarf the smaller skyscrapers around it.