The Physician's Tale

by Ann Benson

  “I don’t think my prospects will be ruined.”

  Janie managed a smile. “Probably not. This might smart a little.” She swabbed the scab on James’s arm with alcohol to clean off the coagulated blood; he winced as the liquid penetrated his skin. She examined the wound closely. “No infection, thank God. I think we can take out the stitches.”

  “Good. It’s really starting to itch.”

  “That’s a good sign. It means it’s healing well.”

  “When can I start to use it again—I mean, for something other than holding a spoon?”

  “Anytime now. But if you’re going to do something strenuous, we should put some sort of a brace on it to hold the seam together. It’s pretty well healed, but if you pull too much on it, it might split. What were you thinking of doing?”

  “I was going to go up on your windmill and see if I can put one of the cells in place.” He paused, and then said, “That’s why we went out there in the first place. It wouldn’t be fitting not to see it through. After what happened to Tom, I mean.”

  For a moment, Janie looked at him without saying anything. Then, “You’re right. It wouldn’t be fitting,” she agreed.

  James rubbed the scar on his wrist and then held out his arm again. “So I guess you better brace me up.”

  Janie, Evan, and Alex stood at the base of the windmill and watched with their hearts in their throats as James attached and positioned one of the cell units. He wired it into the windmill’s power and then made the climb back down, slowly and carefully, favoring his injured arm as he descended.

  Alex stood with his back against his mother’s legs; she could feel him trembling and wondered if he was reliving what happened with Tom.

  He has to live in the world, she told herself. Bad things happen, just like they happened in Alejandro’s first world.

  As James set his foot back on terra firma, there was an audible sigh of relief. Evan took his equipment bag and said, “Mission accomplished?”

  “Yes, sir,” James answered. “At least on this end. Now let’s just hope we can line it up with the one at the end of the lake. I got a pretty good view of it from up there and I think it’s pointed correctly. But we won’t be able to tell until we get the other cells in place.”

  They walked back along the path to the compound. Lany was tightening the string on her bow in the main room when Janie found her.

  “You have a fine son,” Janie said to her. “He’s terrific.” She sat down on the bench. “I don’t know if you noticed, but Kristina seems to think so too. It’s so good for her right now to have someone to talk to.”

  “It’s good for Evan too,” Lany said. She chuckled a little and said, “Maybe we should just arrange a marriage.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” Janie said. “I know you’re joking, but it’s not so far-fetched these days, is it? I’m guessing her father will approve.”

  Lany set down her bow and looked at Janie. “Speaking of which…Evan said he had a pretty serious talk with her the other night.”

  “Oh? About anything in particular?”

  In a calm and even voice, Lany replied, “About how she was, uh, ‘adopted.’”

  Somehow Janie managed to maintain her composure. “Ah. Yes. Adopted.”

  “Quite a story. Almost sounds like it couldn’t be true.”

  Quietly, Janie said, “It does, doesn’t it?” She let out a long breath. “But it’s real, all right.”

  “You repeated yourself to her when you sent her for the sugar test strips. That was so she wouldn’t forget, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “So there were some—ramifications, I guess, with the process.”

  Janie did not speak immediately; she spent a few moments considering Lany’s statement so she could give a completely accurate response. “There might be, but we don’t know that for sure. The one ramification I can be sure about is that every genetic problem the original suffered from, the copy will also suffer. Her original had an aneurysm when she was just a girl—and died in surgery. The same blood-vessel flaw showed up in the second coming. Kristina underwent surgery to correct it before it could become a problem again. It was the surgery—not the process of creating her all over again—that caused her problem. So there may be ramifications, but we haven’t seen them yet.”

  “Hmm,” Lany said. She paused for a second, and then said, almost casually, “She also told him about Alex.”

  Janie felt herself stiffen. Anger at Kristina surged through her but passed when she thought about how it must feel to be different in that way. Evan, and now Lany, were the first ones outside their “family” to know.

  “Were you already pregnant when you got here?”

  “No.”

  “So you did the entire process here?”

  “We did. But please,” she said, “don’t say anything to anyone else. Alex doesn’t know yet.”

  Lany’s eyebrows arched, creating an expression that said Don’t you think it’s about time to tell him? “To have that capability…” She leaned the restrung bow against the table. “Very exciting, but also pretty scary. Lots of responsibility. And lots of possibilities. For instance, why haven’t you cloned one of the cows who lived through DR SAM, or whatever the cow version was?”

  “We’ve talked about it, but you know what—the process is so complicated that with animals it’s just easier to let them do it the natural way.”

  “Too much bother?” Lany said, almost snidely.

  Janie stared at her for a moment. After a while she said, “We haven’t misused it.”

  The look she got back said Oh, haven’t you? The words were less damning. “I won’t say anything. I’m not sure anyone would believe it, anyway.”

  “But you do.”

  “Yes, I do. But only because I can’t imagine why anyone would make up something like that.”

  The night before they were to depart to return to Orange, Evan sought out his mother. He found her in the barn, checking the shoes on one of their horses.

  Lany recognized the look on his face instantly. “You want to talk about something?” she said.

  “Yeah. But promise you won’t get upset.”

  “I can’t promise that until you say what you have to say.”

  “Well, at least try.”

  “Out with it, Evan.”

  He complied. “I think I should stay here for a while.” On seeing her sharp look, he added, “You know, to help them until they get used to Tom’s situation.”

  Lany set down the horse’s foot. “That’s very admirable.”

  “You can get by without me for a while in Orange, right?”

  “Of course we can, but everyone else will have to pick up some of your responsibilities. And I’ll miss you. How long were you thinking of staying here?”

  “I don’t know. I guess I could just see how things go.”

  “It might be a long time until everything falls into place, son. Things will probably never be the same here again.”

  She set down her shoeing hammer and faced her son full-on with her arms crossed in front of her. “This is about Kristina, isn’t it?”

  He lowered his gaze and nodded. “I really like her, Mom. I want to spend more time with her. I never had a real girlfriend.”

  “How does she feel about you?”

  “The same, I think.”

  Lany faced her son—a man, all of a sudden. “You know something?” she said. “Before we moved east I used to worry about girls—they always seemed to be all over you, you’re so cute and smart and nice. I was so afraid some girl would entice you and I’d be a grandmother before my time. But since we came to Orange, well…I worried that you’d never find someone at all, because there just wasn’t anyone available. I think it’s really sweet that you like each other so much.”

  He beamed. “It really makes me feel good to be around her.”

  “That’s great. That’s just how it should start.”

  She slipped her arm i
nside his and led him out into the starry night. “But I need to say something, before you get too involved. Take it really slow, for both of your sakes. Back in the world before, it was a lot easier to get into and out of a relationship, because we didn’t have to depend on continuity as much as we do now. Things were much more mutable then. If someone went out of your life, it was painful for a while, but no big deal in the long run—there were other people to depend on, other prospects for romance. Just think for a minute about how much everyone here depended on Tom. His injury leaves a big hole. If you enter into a relationship with Kristina, you’re essentially forming an alliance with her, and that implies interdependence. It’s a big responsibility, especially in view of what she’s been through recently.”

  “I know that.”

  “I’m just saying don’t do anything like this lightly.”

  He stopped walking and turned to her. “Mom, I don’t think I’ll ever do anything lightly again.”

  It made Lany sad to hear that. She took Evan’s blunt statement of his truth as her cue to say nothing more.

  They all met the next morning in the main room over a breakfast of bacon, eggs, and flat bread.

  “Well,” Michael said, “it’s been quite a visit, I should say. Not what you expected when you agreed to this exchange, I’m guessing.”

  “To tell you the truth, we had no idea what to expect,” Lany said. “But we really hope that when you come to see us, things will go a little smoother.”

  “Amen to that,” Janie said. She put her arm around Alex’s shoulder and pulled him closer, then glanced at Lany. “I can’t thank you enough for the way you took care of Tom.”

  “I wish I could have done better.”

  “You did as well as anyone could have.”

  Everyone was quiet for a moment. James finally broke the melancholy. “So,” he said, “when should we expect you?”

  Janie hesitated at first. “Two weeks or thereabouts,” she said finally. “That’ll give us some time to reorganize things around here so Tom can be without me while I’m there.” She looked at Evan and smiled. “Having Evan is going to help a lot.”

  “That timing should work out well,” James said. “It’ll give me a chance to get out to the other cell tower at the end of the lake after we get back. I’ll make the adjustments in the positioning and try to get a small network up and running between us and that tower.”

  “Be careful,” Janie said.

  “I will, I promise. Now, I don’t want to get anyone’s hopes up too much, but you should probably set up your computer and leave it on all the time. Make sure the wireless receiver is enabled. We have an old server; I’ll set it up as orangecommunity.net. What do you want for your e-mail name?”

  She thought for a moment. “How about doc@orangecommunity.net?”

  “You got it. Set up your e-mail client for that address and for automatic receiving. Once in a while you should check it to see if a message has come in.”

  “I’ll set it to chime.”

  “Perfect.”

  “You really think this can work?”

  James smiled. “Send out your most hopeful vibes. Maybe that’s all it’ll take.” He pushed away from the table and stood. “Well, we should head out.”

  “I’ll be right along,” Lany said. Everyone else drifted out of the room, leaving Janie and Lany alone together.

  “I don’t suppose you happen to have any condoms here,” Lany said.

  “Fresh out.”

  “Damn.”

  “I could probably put together something that would act like a diaphragm, but I don’t know how effective it would be. I did tops, not bottoms, in my practice. But I’ll have the talk with Kristina, and I’ll make sure she starts taking her temperature, so she’ll at least have an idea of when she’s fertile.”

  The two women sat quietly for a few moments, each one experiencing her private concerns.

  Kristina isn’t even my own daughter. But she’s Tom’s daughter, and I’m Tom’s wife. There was a sacred trust, one she would never willingly violate.

  Alejandro had taken on someone else’s daughter and raised her brilliantly in times that were just as hostile, if not more so.

  Janie looked at Lany and said, “Who knows, we may end up being related.”

  Lany smiled. “Hey, we already rhyme, so why not?” She stood and gave Janie a surprising hug. “Take good care of my son, will you?”

  “Count on it.”

  That afternoon Janie set her e-mail client for the recipient doc@orangecommunity.net. It seemed an exercise in futility. I suppose we can all dream, she thought sadly.

  It was four nights before Evan made his way into Kristina’s bed. Janie went to sleep that night wondering how Tom would feel about such an event when he learned. She did not allow herself to consider that if Tom hadn’t been injured, Evan would not be here and there would be no issue about a young man sharing his daughter. The people of Orange would have left days ago, Evan among them, to await the exchange visit from Janie and Kristina. But things had not worked out that way.

  She floated in and out of thin sleep, trying as she did every night but failing as always to adjust to sleeping on the small cot while Tom’s stump healed. Her husband was morose, which was only to be expected, but his withdrawal still stung her torn heart like the alcohol she’d poured on James’s wrist. The sanctuary of their shared bed seemed so distant; in its place was a cold void, a teasing reminder of what had been. She dreamed, half awake, half asleep, of eagles in perfect soaring flight, of nests silhouetted against a dark and angry sky. What if Tom had turned in time to see the bird approach and had managed to climb down, maybe only a few feet, so the bird hadn’t felt so threatened….

  What if, what if, what if…

  She was interrupted in mid-dream by the sound of a chime.

  To: doc@orangecommunity.net

  From: cop@orangecommunity.net

  This is a test. Greetings from the People’s Republic of Orange. And when you see my handsome son, tell him his mother loves him.

  Janie turned around and saw everyone in the compound assembled at the door of the lab. They’d all awakened at the beloved and sorely missed electronic sound. Janie smiled at everyone, then looked at Evan and said, “Your mother loves you.”

  Michael was the first to step forward. He stood behind Janie and looked at the computer screen in disbelief. “Bloody hell,” he said. “Is that really an e-mail message?”

  “Unless we’re all dreaming,” Janie said.

  She wanted to go wake Tom and say, See? You did it.

  “Can we send one back?” Caroline asked.

  “I don’t see why not,” Janie said. “That’s the whole point.”

  She opened a new message window and typed in the address. “Wow, this feels so good…. I forgot what it was like to do this. What do you all want to say?”

  No one said anything for a moment, until Alex said, “Tell them we can’t wait to visit them.”

  Janie dutifully typed his sentiment. “Anyone else?”

  Caroline said, “Ask them if we can borrow that book about cheese that Michael told me about.”

  Janie’s fingers clicked away. “Done.”

  Evan said, “Tell my mother I love her too.”

  The text was many lines long by the time they’d all made their contributions. Janie queued the message and then clicked Send. In an instant, the message disappeared. A small window came up on the screen:

  Message sent successfully.

  Everyone cheered. Over the next few days, jokes and recipes climbed down and around the mountain as if e-mail had never been interrupted. Aches and pains were described, to prepare the traveling doctor for the patients she would see when she arrived in Orange. A new rhythm took hold in their lives; the pace seemed to quicken.

  Now and again, an e-mail came from an unknown address. When Janie dared to open them, they all seemed to contain one version or another of the same basic message:

 
Is anyone out there? We’re friendly.

  There was no doubt about it, humanity was reorganizing after the plague. These random messages from would-be allies became the subject of heated dinner-table debates. Michael was all for going out into the world to explore. Carolyn wanted to hunker down in the safety of their compound. Terry and Elaine were eager to see if anyone had any remedies for the Alzheimer’s disease that had so ravaged her mother, so they were all for reaching out.

  But Janie wasn’t ready for anything beyond Orange until Tom was up and around and beginning to function again. Michael had made him a good pair of crutches, and he was doing well with them, but it would be a very long time before she would feel comfortable leaving him for more than the few days of her “rotation.”

  So she threw herself into Alex’s medical education, much in the way that Alejandro had thrown himself into a translation of the alchemy manuscript while he was separated from Kate the first time. It passed the time productively as the day of their departure for Orange approached. One afternoon, as they were going over a section on the skeleton in Gray’s Anatomy, the chime sounded.

  Alex looked up from the text. “Can I open it, Mom?”

  The excitement in his voice was heartening.

  “Go ahead,” she said.

  He ran off, smiling, and came back very shortly with his report. “It’s from Lany,” he told his mother. “It’s pretty long.”

  Janie got up from her seat and went into the lab.

  If you can think of any questions you need to ask before you visit, please let us know. You know what medicines we have….

  The rest of the message was filled with administrative minutiae, until the last line:

  And, Janie, remember to tell Alex how special he is!

  Innocent enough; even Alex could read it without understanding the meaning behind it.

  She sat back in the chair and considered what she ought to do.

  Tom always maintained that Alex should be older before they told him of how he came about. It would be a strange conversation at best, perhaps quite difficult, depending on his reaction.