Doctor Noonan-Martin, Miracle Worker? - 2. Better Days Ahead?

And you ask me what I want this year
And I try to make this kind and clear
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days
'Cause I don't need boxes wrapped in strings
And desire and love and empty things
Just a chance that maybe we'll find better days

Goo Goo Dolls - 2006

4

The following Saturday, Lindy and Mads were on their way to the Martin's.

"I think you should let me start the conversation with Mrs. Martin, Mads. It might get tricky."

"Yeah, I'm not sure what I'd say, and I’d probably end up looking like the freak that I am."

"You're not a freak. You just have an unusual talent. Like being a piano prodigy."

"My fingers cure, rather than play music?"

"You can look at it like that."

"Okay."

Mads thought, 'I'm still a freak, no matter what you think, mom. It's just a good thing the whole world doesn't know.'

When they arrived, Emma welcomed them, "It's so nice to see you again, but this is definitely unexpected. I'm worried that the something important you needed to talk about in person isn't good."

"No, I can assure you it's nothing bad. Is Jonas here?"

"Yes."

"He should hear this too."

"Now I'm even more nervous, but I'll go get him."

"Bring Colin, and even Erik too, if you wish. This concerns the whole family."

A minute later, Emma returned with the rest of the family in tow, all with concerned looks on their faces.

"I figured you'd all share this at some point, so that's why I feel it's okay to tell you all. But first, I have to get you to promise that you won't tell anyone about this until I say it's okay."

They all agreed.

Lindy continued, "When we first met on the beach that day, I indicated I thought something was wrong with Colin. Do you remember that?"

Emma replied, "Like it was yesterday."

"Well, I didn't think there was something wrong with him, I knew. Or rather, Madeline knew. We obviously didn't know exactly what until you told me, but what I'm going to tell you made sense knowing his diagnosis."

She waited for any feedback. Not getting any, she tossed the bomb as lightly as she could, "Mads was able to see Colin's skeleton."

Erik thought this was cool, "Like x-ray vision?"

"Not exactly, but similar, I guess. For your edification, if you didn't know, Erik, Leukemia is a disease related to the bone marrow."

"Yeah, mom and dad have mentioned that."

"So, Mads being able to see Colin's skeleton- indicated to us that she was able to see that he had Leukemia."

Jonas joined the conversation- "I'm guessing there's more. While that's unusual, we already knew Colin had it."

"Right. But something happened when you were at our house last week. Mads felt an odd sensation when she focused intently on Colin. She touched his thigh. He said it felt like her hand was burning him, but it didn't. Afterward, Mads saw that his femur was a lighter purple. She held his shin, knee, and hip. Before you left, she could no longer see the bones in his leg."

Jonas was shocked, "Wait. Are you saying what I think you're saying?"

"Yes. We think she began healing him."

Emma wasn't quite so calm, almost crying "Oh, my Lord. You can't be serious. This would be the miracle we've been praying for. This is all true?"

"Yes. Colin, would you mind maybe changing into shorts, or a bathing suit?"

"I have boxer briefs on. It'd be like being in a bathing suit."

Colin undressed down to his underpants.

"Is there any change, Mads?"

"A little. The purple is gone up to the top of his hip on the right side. But no changes anywhere else."

Colin sat down with his hands in his lap, trying to avoid being caught in an embarrassing situation. His brother didn't let him get away with it. Fortunately, he only whispered to him, "Colin's got a boner."

Colin reacted, "Shut up!"

Jonas spoke up again, "I'm sorry, but I'm finding this hard to believe. She can perform miracles?"

"I prefer to think of it as she has an unusual psychic ability."

"Psychotic is more like it. I'd like you to leave. You come in here with these crazy ideas and try to give us false hope that our son can be cured when the best doctors say he can't?"

"Stop it dad!" Colin nearly screamed. "What's wrong with hope? What if she really is curing me? Don't you want that to happen, no matter how crazy the method sounds?"

"But- Colin..."

"But nothing. It's my life. I want her to touch my arms, legs, chest, everywhere she sees purple. I have a doctor's appointment Tuesday. We'll know very soon if this is real or not. If it isn't real, what harm can it do? If it is, isn't that something great?"

"Well, yes, but it's so hard to believe."

Lindy stepped in, "Maybe this will help and maybe it won't, but both her father and I have some psychic ability. Nothing like what she can do, but we can both do something most everyone else can't."

Madeline looked at her mother like she'd just grown a second head, "Really?"

"Yes. We'll talk more later."

Emma's maternal instincts took over, "I, for one, will be happy to let Madeline touch the rest of Colin's bones..."

Erik giggled.

"Grow up, Erik. This is serious. If Colin wants it, who are we to say ‘no? Like he said, what harm can it do? Haven't we all been hoping, even praying for a miracle? We have one possibly smacking us in the face, and we're going to turn it down?"

"I never said we should turn it down, honey."

"What did you think 'I think you should leave' would be doing?"

"I, um..."

"Right. Madeline, Colin, go ahead and do this. If it burns too much, Colin, take breaks. If it takes all weekend to get through it, then that's what we'll do."

5

Madeline had Colin lie down on the couch. His embarrassing situation hadn't gone away, but he would put up with everyone seeing the outline of his erection if it meant he could be cured. He even offered to lie there naked, which Emma rejected, saying if parts closer to his genitals needed to be touched, that could be done with either Jonas or Erik observing. Erik quickly refused that offer.

She placed her hand on Colin's right foot- since it hadn't yet lost its purplish hue. Colin suffered the burning feeling for about thirty seconds. Mads stopped for a minute to let him recover, held each toe, then moved to his left foot. The alternating touching and resting continued up to his left thigh until he needed a longer break. Emma prepared lunch for everyone and Erik retired to his bedroom after eating. He loved his brother but watching him essentially get felt up by a girl, well, if he wasn't wearing relaxed fit jeans, he'd be competing with Colin in the erection department, wishing it was he being touched and not his little brother.

After lunch, Mads continued, restarting with Colin's upper hips. After touching his ribs, it seemed that opening her hand to touch more ribs at once wasn't working. Colin needed longer breaks after just a few ribs being touched. The same occurred with his back. Each vertebra would need to be touched in small groups. By dinner time, Mads had touched every uncovered part of Colin's skin up to his sternum. Colin couldn't take it anymore, so they decided to stop for the night. Lindy had planned for this eventuality and packed a bag for the two of them.

After dinner, they all watched some television together until Colin started falling asleep in his chair. Lindy and Mads retired to the Martin's guest room, saying goodnight to everyone.

"Is the purple disappearing as you're going along, Mads?"

"Yeah. A few minutes after I touch each bone, the rest of it, um, yeah, disappears. At first it's just where I touch, but while Colin is resting, the un-purple spreads."

"And you really believe this is curing his Leukemia?"

"I have to, mom. What else could it mean? Maybe if he didn't feel the burning it would be harder for me to believe. But I have to think that's like, I don't know, the cancer cells dying or something."

"Have you ever seen anything in either of your brothers?"

"No. Why, are they sick or something?"

"No, just a mother's paranoia."

"You and dad really have some psychic ability?"

"Yes. It's not important right now, although you probably won't be completely surprised when I tell you mine. Dad's is a little harder to believe, and I think we should wait before we get into that."

"Okay, I guess. I'll be curious now, you know."

"I know. But when the time is right, we'll share."

Lindy now suspected that perhaps Avery Junior's illness wouldn't be cancer. Apparently, Madeline's ability was limited to the one type of cancer that drives Leukemia, since AJ's illness was indeed later determined to be thyroid cancer.

More of the same happened after breakfast on Sunday. First, Mads, Jonas, and Colin went into Colin's bedroom so Colin could remove his underpants. Mads started with his buttocks, trying hard not to massage them, focusing on the bones. It got a little tricky when it came to touching Colin's pubic bone, but again, Mads avoided any direct contact with his genitals as much as possible. A couple inadvertent touches with the back of her hand were unavoidable, due to his erection. Colin put up with the embarrassment of Mads and his father seeing his erect penis, keeping the end game in mind. The embarrassment would be worth it if he really was getting cured. If this wasn't curing him, he at least would have had the opportunity to have a girl touch him down there, even if it wasn't in a sexual way.

By mid-afternoon on Sunday, Mads had touched all of the bones in Colin's body that she could. The inability to touch the bones in his ears wouldn't become an issue. In infancy the head of the malleus and body of the incus normally contain bone marrow, which is gradually replaced by bone and converted into vascular channels with age. (2) Mads said they weren't purple that she could see, so they felt pretty good about the overall procedure.

6

Colin called Mads later that evening after she got home.

"Thanks for this weekend, Mads. It hurt, but it will be worth it if I'm really cured. Or even if I'm just in remission. If you need to do that again, would you?"

"Oh, God, Colin. Of course. I'd help you as often as it was required to keep you alive."

"Thanks. And, um, I'm sorry about, well, having a boner a lot of the time."

"You're a teen aged boy. Isn't that pretty much a constant thing?"

"Well, not constant, but it does happen a lot, yeah."

"Besides, I liked looking at it. Maybe someday I'll be able to get a closer look, without your father being in the room."

"Mads, if you cure me, you can see it any time you want. Hehe."

"Pervert."

"Me? You're the one who said she liked looking at it. If I'm a pervert, so are you."

"Okay. That's fair. I like you a lot, Colin. I really, really hope that this is curing you. Even if it's a yearly thing I'll do whatever I can to keep you alive."

"I like you too, Mads. Heh, I guess that was obvious this weekend. But maybe, if everything turns out okay, we could go out once in a while?"

"I'd like that. I'll keep my fingers crossed until Tuesday. You'll let me know what the doctor finds, won't you?"

"Definitely.… as soon as I'm out of his office.… that is, if it doesn't take days to get any results. It's usually at least a day before he knows what my white blood cell count is."

"Well, whenever you know anything, good, bad, or indifferent."

"You got it. Well, goodnight, Mads. Thanks again."

"My pleasure. Goodnight."

Tuesday would be a critical day in both Colin and Madeline's lives.