Life Blood --VIII---Page 28

picture on a CRT screen, which showed my insides, a jumble of organs that he seemed to find extremely informative.
        "Look." He pointed. "Those lines there are your Fallopian
tubes, and that's your uterus." He pushed a button to record a digital image. "Seems like whatever was upsetting your stomach is gone. Obviously nothing's wrong here."

"Good," I said, "because I really need to take a few days and think this over."

"You should stay," he said, reaching to touch my hand. "I
think the worst is well behind us. From here on, we can work
together. In fact, what I actually wish you would do is come with
me to my clinic in Central America. It's truly a place of miracles."
        I assumed he was referring to the "special place" he'd
mentioned during our first interview. If Quetzal Manor was on the
exotic side, I thought, what must that place be like? A
documentary that took in the totality of who and what he was
could be—

"In fact," he went on, "I just learned I have to be going there later today. A quick trip to catch up on some things. So this would be an ideal time for you to come. We could go together."

Well, I thought, I'd love to see what else he's up to, but this
whole scene is getting out of control. When I first met Alex
Goddard, we had a power balance, but now he's definitely calling
the shots.

"I don't think I'm ready for that kind of commitment yet."

"As you wish." He smiled with understanding. "But let me just say this. It's not going to be easy, but nothing I've seen so far suggests there's any physical reason why you can't have a child. We just need to get you in touch with the energy centers in your body. Rightness flows from that."

"You really think so?" In spite of myself I felt my hopes rising, even though I had definite mixed feelings about his kind of
"holistic" medicine.

"I'm virtually certain. But whether you want to continue with the program or not is a decision you'll have to make for yourself."
        "Well, maybe when I'm feeling better we can talk some more
about it." I definitely needed to reconsider my game plan. "For now, I think I'd better just get my things and—"

"As you wish." He sighed. "Your clothes are in your room.
There's a closet in the corner by the window."
        I shot a glance at him. "Does my Blue Cross cover this?"

“On the house." A dismissive wave of his hand, and another kindly smile.

I was still feeling shaky as I moved back down the vacant

hallway, but I refused to let either of them help me. Instead I left
him to oversee Ramala as she shut down the equipment.
        Oddly, the place still seemed vacant except for me, though
there was a large white door that appeared to lead to another
wing. What was in there? I wondered. The questions kept piling
up.

It soon turned out I was wrong about the clinic being empty.
When I reached the door to the room where I'd been, I thought I
heard a shuffling sound inside. I pushed it open gingerly and saw
the room was dark. It hadn't been when I left. The shuffling noise—
I realized it was somebody closing the Venetian blinds—
immediately stopped.

I began feeling along the wall for the light switch.

"Please leave it off," said a spacey female voice. "It's nice when it's dark."

As my eyes became accustomed to the eerie half-light, I finally made out a figure. It was a short woman, childlike but probably mid-twenties.

"What are you doing in here?"

"I just wanted to, like, be with you." She'd done her dark hair in multiple braids, with a red glass bead at the end of each.
"You're special. We all know it. That's why he brought you over here, to this building. To be near them."

"What do you mean, 'special'?" I asked, heading for the closet
and my black jeans. Then I wondered. Near who?
        Now she was reaching into a fanny pack she had around her
waist and taking out a baggie filled with plastic vials. "These are
herbs I've started growing here. I picked them for you. If you'll—"
        "Slow down," I said, lifting my jeans off the hanger and
starting to struggle into them. Finally I took the baggie, moved to
the window, and tilted up the blind. Inside it were clear plastic
medicine bottles containing various gray and green powders and
flakes.

My God, what's she trying to give me? And why?

"Listen," she went on, insistent. "Take those. Put two

teaspoons of each in water you've boiled and drink it. Every day for a week. They'll make you strong. Then you'll be—"

"Hey, I'm going to be just fine, really." I set them aside and studied her, still a ghostlike figure in the semi dark. There was a wildness in her eyes that was very disturbing.

At that moment, Alex Goddard appeared in the doorway. He clicked on the light, looking puzzled.

"Couldn't find the switch?" Then he glanced around. "Tara,

did you get lost? I thought you were doing your meditation. It's

Sunday. Afterwards, though, you can weed the north herb boxes if you want."

She nodded silently, then grabbed the baggie and glided out,
her brown eyes filled with both reverence and what seemed like
fear.

"Who was that?" I asked, staring after her, feeling unsettled
by the whole experience. "She seemed pretty intense."
        "Tara's been pretty intense for some time, perhaps for much
of her life," he declared with a note of sadness as he closed the
door behind her. "I've not been able to do anything for her, but I've
let her stay on here since she has nowhere else to go. She loves
the gardens, so I've let her work out there. It seems to improve
her self-esteem, a kind of benign therapy, her own natural path
toward centering."

Well, I thought, she certainly could use some "centering."

"Look, Dr. Goddard, let me get my things, and then I've got to be going. I can't start on anything right now. Not the way I'm
feeling. And visiting your other clinic is completely out of the
question, at least for the moment."

"I have great hopes for you," he said again, placing a gentle
hand on my shoulder. "I'm sorry we can't begin to work together
immediately. But do promise me you'll reconsider and come back
soon."

"Maybe when I'm feeling better." Keep the option open, I told myself. For a lot of reasons.

"In that case, Ramala can show you out. I've arranged for her to give you some herbal extracts from the rain forest that could well start you on the road to motherhood. Whether you decide to come back or not, I know they'll help you."

And he was gone, a wisp of white moving out the doorway. It
was only then that I realized I'd again been too preoccupied to ask
him about Kevin and Rachel, the beautiful siblings born six
months apart. Instead all I had left was a memory of those
penetrating eyes. And the power, the absolute power.