The Once-Dead Girl

by Laer Carroll

  Just after dinner she got an email from her math teacher.

  I salute your willingness to catch up on your studies. However, given your past performance, I would urge you to focus on getting well rather than studying. In fact, repeating a semester might be the best course for you. Perhaps going over the work you’ve done so far would make it clearer to you.

  Heat grew in Bethany’s body as she read. She immediately began an email back which began Listen you sanctimonious son-of-a-bitch...

  She deleted that one before she went further. Her next email she completed. It was icily superior, citing his numerous limitations as a teacher. She deleted that one too.

  Better to cool for a while.

  Then came visiting hour. Because of the number of her visitors they were allowed to use the nurse’s lounge for the floor. This included Lihua and two other bestys, part of Beth’s fireteam as her former-Marine brother called them.

  There were also a couple of her other cheer mates and other friends, including her gay boy friend, Gerard, the fifth member of the fireteam. Gay boy friends for girls were a rage this year, but Beth had known Jerry since kindergarten. For the sake of the oldsters in the visit he’d toned down his act, even leaving off his eye shadow.

  “Ooh,” Beth murmured in his ear. “What a great sacrifice. Next you’ll be loaning me your makeup. Does your love know no bounds?!”

  “Yes, dearie. Leaving darling Stevie to your predatory feminine wiles.”

  Steve was an absurdly handsome tall blond senior who was dedicated to his studies. He was determined to go to an Ivy League college and make a big swath in the world. He didn’t date, though there was a rumor that he had college girlfriends. Beth and Steve had mooned over him for months.

  She laughed and passed on to greet another friend from school.

  ·

  Her current reading for World History, Culture, and Geography was on the Middle Ages. It included the waves of invasion of Russia and Eastern Europe by the Mongols.

  Shortly after beginning this section Bethany put down the book and stared off into emptiness. She was remembering...

  Maelgyreyt the demon came down amidst a group of horsemen. They stabbed her with long spears and rode close to strike with short swords. Her armor was impervious to points and edges. Her two long arms and the longer swords made butchery of all about her. Bodies were hacked in two, heads rolled....

  The heads had Oriental faces. Mongol faces.

  Beth began to skim, then to skip, then to fan the pages of the book. She passed what she sought and had to page back to it: a sidebar box with a pale blue background labeled Legends Surrounding the Invasion .

  It had three short sections, one each on the vampire Dracul, werewolf Maksim, and demon Malgur. The last was taller than a mounted horseman and had foot-long claws. For almost two centuries whenever the Mongols invaded its section of Hungary it appeared until the hordes quit invading Hungary altogether.

  Could she have come across this section before her accident and made up Malgur/Maelgyreyt fantasies?

  No. The memories were too clear, too detailed.

  Her phone vibrated. It was Helen. She was going to arrive tomorrow, Friday, and stay the weekend.

  ·

  Bethany woke at what she thought was about 3:00 in the morning. If so, she’d had four hours of sleep, since her official lights-out was 11:00 in the evening and she’d had no trouble getting to sleep. Or staying asleep. Until now.

  She turned onto her back and stared at the ceiling, thinking back over her day and the days before.

  Something very strange had happened to her. Everyone now believed that the first reports of her accident had been mistaken. She had NOT died, her spine had NOT been broken at her neck. The magnetic scan a few days ago had revealed her spine to be in perfect condition. But Beth believed she had died for real, and her body had cured her broken neck. It had just taken three weeks to do so. Job done, her body had then woken her.

  And the dreams?

  They didn’t act like dreams. None, even the earliest, had faded quickly when she’d become awake as most dreams did, fading so much after an hour she could not even remember she’d had them.

  The earliest HAD faded. But the way memories normally did. She still remembered her first aliens: the electronic ghost, the balloon-like stingray, the cat-like blue centaur, and all the others. Some of the visual memories remained vivid, such as the two moons rising in a violet and chartreuse sky perhaps an hour after sundown, with a giant striped planet filling half the sky below the moons. None of the sci-fi movies her brother Kendall had dragged her to had ever had any of those images.

  Strangest of all, she still remembered having six limbs, cuddling her two kits on each side of her with her middle arms while running one of her top hands over her husband’s round fuzzy skull, her chest full of the warmth of love.

  Another fullness aroused her now, to go to the bathroom. She slithered lithely out of bed to pee. There wasn’t much to get rid of, but it had been something to do.

  Then she was hungry. Damn it, she had hours to go before she got food!

  And the inner ache vanished.

  Bethany blinked.

  Hmm.

  One sensation gone, she felt another: a need to stretch her legs.

  She wrapped her robe around her body and slid her feet into her bedroom slippers, both brought to her on her second day awake. Then stealthily she peered around the corner of the open door of her room.

  To her left was a door leading to a stairwell. The dimly glowing red EXIT sign above it her tempted her, but the door was alarmed. Unless she was making a getaway she’d have to be satisfied with the hallway to her right. There was a full forty feet of darkness before the night-time glow of the nurse’s station.

  She made a half dozen satisfying laps between her room and almost to the nurse’s station before she got too close to the station at the wrong moment and one of the nurses saw her.

  “Miss Rossiter, did you need something? ”

  “Just more water.”

  “Well, get back to your room and I’ll bring you more.”

  “OK.”

  Back in her room and in her bed, with a new plastic thermos of chilled water by her bedside, Beth decided to go to sleep. And instantly did.

  ·

  Breakfast was larger than the day before, as per the doctor’s instructions. She was still hungry at its end. She decided to go scavenging.

  She judged the sickest patients to more likely have left-over food. The first was too sick, across the hall from her, newly arrived and still sleeping. The second, closer to the nurse’s station and across from her, was eating heartily. Bethany said a cheery Hi! and crossed the hall again.

  Jackpot! The third woman was just picking at her food but was alert enough to smile wanly at Beth.

  “Hi! I’m right next door. I’m Beth.”

  “Hello, dear.”

  Bethany walked across the room and extended a hand to shake. And got a shock.

  She could see inside the woman. A liver cancer had been operated upon. But some remnants remained. The cancer would come back.

  A part of her reached out and killed the cancer. A part which came from Maelgyreyt, she knew without a doubt.

  It all happened inside a single second. But that was long enough for the woman to stare at her.

  Beth dropped her hand and gave her brightest smile. “Mind some company?”

  “Not at all. What happened to you, dear?”

  “Oh, they’re not sure.” She sat. “They first thought I’d had a broken neck. But that was wrong. I’m fine now. Except for being hungry. The food here! It’s not enough.”

  “I have the opposite problem. Too much food for my appetite. You’re welcome to my apple. It’s just too much trouble to chew.”

  Bethany nipped the apple, dropped it into her robe pocket, and briefly laid a hand on the woman’s arm. Her Mael memories sent a command into the woman’s body to increase her appetite.<
br />
  “Well, thanks! But you really must finish the rest of your food. Got to get well, you know.”

  “Do you know, I think I will? You must be a good influence.”

  “Oh, it’s this cheery disposition of mine in mornings. It drives my brother Ken crazy!”

  “Why don’t you sit and talk a bit?”

  “I don’t want to tire you out. But I’ll be back later. Eat up now!”

  That set the tone for the rest of the early morning, some wins, some strike outs as far as food went. About halfway down the hall breakfast hour was over and nurses’ aides began to clean up. Bethany scored a couple more apples with some quick slight-of-hand. She was very fast when she wanted to be now. Almost a super power, she thought with a smile.

  However, she kept visiting until she’d met everyone on the floor. Two more people needed her esoteric healing powers, but most people were on their way to health without her help.

  Beth thanked Heaven for that. Being a super healer could take up a lot of her time!

  She was back in her room and had hidden away her contraband when her doctor showed up. As expected. Which was the reason Beth was hiding her food instead of eating it.

  After an exam and a consult of her chart the tiny Vietnamese woman said, “You are recovering very fast. Keep this up and we’ll let you out soon.”

  “It can’t be soon enough for me!” Beth gave her a brilliant smile. “I can’t wait for some good unhealthy extra fat and salt!”

  The doctor took up Beth’s computerized chart and made a notation on the slate’s electronic face. “I think we can safely increase your fat and salt intake a bit.”

  Hah! Good old Little Bit, Kendall’s private nickname for the doctor. Of course, at 6’3” and massive just about everybody was “little bit” to Ken.

  Bethany wished she could grow a bit taller. And felt some process deep within her start up.

  She blinked and focused her thoughts inward. Darned if her body wasn’t starting a growth spurt!

  Beth thought of that for a moment. Then she shrugged. Her super-healthy body was doing well by her so far. But she must be alert for any problems with extra height and use the Mael part of her to fix them.

  Then it was time for the morning visits. The hour only consisted of her grandparents. Which wasn’t the happiest of combinations. Her “MGparents” were kind of starchy; it had taken Beth’s mother a long time to recover from their overly conservative ways. Her “PGparents” were loosey-goosey. Naturally the two men didn’t get along, though their wives were able to mellow them out a bit.

  Even more unhappy a visitor was one of her older cousins. He was a groper. More than once he’d gotten his hands on Bethany’s boobs or bottom. She’d solved that by avoiding him.

  But no more. When he tried it this time, while her gparents were momentarily diverted, she leaned over and whispered in his ear.

  “Touch me and I’ll break your fucking hand. ”

  He got a shocked look on his face and left the room. Though he was twice her size, she’d put all the fierceness of her Maelgyreyt warrior self into her face and body, and he could have had no doubt she meant to at least try it.

  The warrior part of her also showed up in her morning physical therapy class. She insisted on walking to it, though the nurse’s aide trailed along with her wheelchair to insure she was available if Bethany needed it. Then in the gym Beth did three times ten of each exercise and asked the therapist for more exercises. She (the black man of the previous day was busy with someone else) agreed to let Beth do a few more and stayed close to monitor the girl’s progress.

  During lunch Bethany did more scavenging. She was less successful; mid-day people apparently had better appetites than early-day people. But the appetites might also have been because Beth was tweaking their health.

  Nevertheless, she did well enough she only had to dip into her contraband for the more perishable items she’d liberated that morning. The apples and oranges and packages of nuts stayed hidden for deep-of-night snacking.

  Then she studied her history after lunch. She’d always enjoyed it, but it was more interesting than usual. Her memories of Maelgyreyt’s world made what she read more real.

  At afternoon visiting hour only Ken and Miguel showed up. Everyone else were apparently waiting for the evening.

  Beth got a short rundown of their latest work, bodyguarding a celebrity the night before at a movie premier. She teased them about the horror of wearing suits, something neither of the men enjoyed. Even though both showed up to great advantage; her relatives were good-looking men, she’d always thought with pride.

  She told them what she’d said to her gropey cousin .

  Ken stood up from the guest chair, furious. “I’LL break his fucking hand! And his fucking head.”

  “Hey, cool it, Ken Doll. I already took care of him.”

  Mike looked at Beth thoughtfully, then at Ken looming over the two of them. “I think she’s right, Ken. I know the ass-hole. He won’t risk it again. But...”

  He shifted his gaze to her. “I think we should give you some martial arts training after you get well enough for it. You can’t go making threats like that unless you’re ready to back them up.”

  Ken sat down. “Well, maybe. Maybe some aikido.”

  Bethany was delighted, or maybe the martial Maelgyreyt part of her was. “I want to learn karate!”

  Mike said, “No. That doesn’t suit your body type or the situations you’re likely to be in.”

  Maybe he was right. But not for the reason he thought. If Beth’s body continued to improve or adapt the way she remembered Mael’s body doing, she might punch her fist all the way through someone.

  “So what’s aikido?”

  It was a sort of super-judo, more of a defensive art than an offensive one. It depended a lot on using a stronger opponent’s strength against him and used lots of circular motions.

  At her puzzled frown Ken jumped up. “Here. We’ll show you. Mike, stand up. I’ll be attacker, you defender.”

  Miguel looked to the heavens for patience, then stood. Ken threw a slow punch and Mike slid just as slowly to the side. His arm nearest to her brother moved up and turned in a circular motion which pushed Ken’s arm to the side.

  They then showed a couple more movements. She began to see how it worked. Instead of using equal but opposite force to stop a large force, they used much smaller force to redirect an attack away from oneself .

  Or, in another action, help the attacker’s motion along to send them off balance.

  The men sat down as Miguel said, “An important part of this is seeing just what the bad guy is doing and going to do. Being watchful, and keeping calm enough so your emotions don’t get in the way of understanding the situation.

  “And being faster than he is. That’s where being small is an advantage: your nerve paths are shorter so your reaction times are shorter.”

  “You make it so clear.”

  Ken said, pride in his voice, “That’s why he’s a sensei . Not just a master doer but a master teacher.”

  “You’ve got to teach me!”

  “Our hours are too irregular. But you’re in luck. There’s a dojo just a couple of miles away which has a good teacher. You’ll also have a variety of other students to practice against. That’ll teach you to adapt to very different attackers.”

  ·

  Dinner that night was satisfying; she had hidden away a good deal of food which she could add to it. Better, she had enough to eat something during the night after lights out.

  Also satisfying was the visiting hour. Helen had just gotten in from San Diego and come directly to the hospital. Bethany and she hung onto each other and wept a bit.

  Then she read till lights out, devouring two bags of nuts to quell her hunger.

  ·

  She woke at 3:00 or so in the morning. She’d had enough sleep. And she was hungry. A couple of apples and an orange fixed that.

  As she ate she remembered he
r math teacher’s email. She opened her laptop and re-read it.

  Her emotions cool, she was able to admit he’d had some justice in his attitude. She’d never enjoyed math and had never applied herself.

  But he was still being an ass-hole. Warmth grew inside her again, threatened to turn hot.

  Not a good idea!

  And suddenly she was perfectly calm.

  Hmm.

  This body of hers was so changeable, so responsive to her wishes! Which could have minuses as well as plusses. Beth knew enough psychology to know repressing emotions could have bad side-effects. For one, if she was perfectly successful she might make herself into a zombie like that robot in one of the sci-fi movies Ken coaxed her to see with him.

  She pulled her math textbook from its slot among her other textbooks, got back into her bed, and opened it to the lesson she’d been on just before she died. A few paragraphs in she was lost; she’d sloughed over some groundwork at the beginning of the section.

  She turned back to that beginning and very slowly and carefully began to read, not skimming as she usually did but letting each part sink in before she went beyond it.

  Why, this stuff was beautiful!

  It was like that old clock she’d once seen opened up and running, dozens of precisely machined gleaming gears turning in a symphony of motion. All parts sharp-edged and shining.

  An electric shock went through her. This wasn’t her memory!

  She let the book flop closed and stared into the dimly lit hall before her. But she wasn’t seeing the hall. She was seeing across time and space at a clock she’d seen when and where she was a...teen-aged boy? Who was an apprentice to a—clockmaker? In—Switzerland?

  She opened the book again to where she’d kept a finger saving her place. Read slowly and carefully.

  The black text against the white paper seemed somehow blacker than black. The simple figure curving up and down seemed cut into the page with a razor. It was like a painting by a master artist, somehow. Everything balanced, everything related to everything else.

  Faster she read, then faster still. But not gobbling. Drinking it in.

  The end of the section, four chapters, came to an end. She’d done the last of the exercises, chewing on them like candy. She didn’t bother to check her answers in the back of the book. She knew she’d done everything right.