Center Game, Heir of Drachma, Book Two - Chapter Six

Here is Chapter Six of Center Game, Heir of Drachma, Book Two. It is a chapter which sets the scene  and introduces characters for much of what is to come in this installment. I would be curious to see what you think.

Chapter Six

Charlie Stephens was not one for waiting. And here he was in in the cluttered little waiting room, in the cancer center attached to Memorial Hospital. He had glanced through the outdated magazines and helped himself to yet another cup of what came out of the pot. He was told that it was coffee, but he couldn’t be sure. Eventually, the coffee did what it always did to him, and so he asked the small gray-haired lady behind the desk the directions to the men’s room.

On his way to the rest room, he noticed a child of about ten years of age, pale, hairless and thin, but strikingly beautiful, being wheeled out of one of the rooms, with an IV in her arm. She looked directly at him and smiled. He smiled back at her.

“Hey, you’re Charlie Stephens, aren’t you?” she asked.

“Well, yes… that’s me.” He answered cautiously.

“My name’s Amanda, and I’m in the fifth grade. And I’ve got leukemia. Do you know anything about leukemia?”

“Why, no, not really.” He spoke guardedly.

“It’s a cancer of the bone marrow – that’s where the cells of the blood are made. And I’ve had it since I was in the third grade. But now they say that mine has come back. That’s why I’m here, and not in school. So they can get some more of my bone marrow, and send it off to get tested. Then they can decide what kind of chemotherapy to give me. They all hope it will work, but I’m not so sure.”

Charlie found himself astonished by this girl. There was her matter of fact telling him, a perfect stranger, about her illness. As if he had every right to know. And there was her striking pale beauty. He looked down at her big, dark eyes, and he swallowed the lump in his throat. He tried to say something but found he couldn’t say a word. So he knelt down by her wheelchair, and he reached into his coat pocket, and pulled out his notebook. He opened it to the picture Janie had drawn of the castle. He showed it to Amanda. 

Eventually, finding his voice, he said, “This was made just today by a woman who also comes here. Isn’t it marvelous?”

She took it into her thin hands, and studied it for a few seconds, then said, “Janie, I know – this is Shepperton Castle, and it’s meant for you to find your way. And when you get there, please tell Alex that we’ll meet again.”

“You… you know about Shepperton? And Alex?” He looked at the attendant who had been pushing her wheelchair, who just smiled. And he looked around, seeing no one else. “And where are your parents?”

“In heaven,” she said in her matter of fact sort of way. “They both died when I was in kindergarten.”

By now Charlie’s emotions were raw. “Oh, I’m so sorry,” was all he could think to say.

“It’s OK. It took a while to get over it. But the folks at St. Olaf’s have been good to me.” Then she took his hand in her two, and looking directly into his eyes, said, “But, Charlie – you be certain to tell Alex what I said. For you’re going to do something more important than you’ve ever done on TV.” Then she reached over and took his neck and kissed him on the cheek, exactly where he had been kissed earlier. His notebook fell to the floor, but he didn’t notice, as his eyes were overflowing.

“So, Charlie, I see you’ve met our little Amanda.” It was Lonnie, who had come down the hall, and noticed the scene. She stooped down, and picked up Charlie’s notebook, and, while handing it back noticed the drawing. “Now, Amanda, you know that Charlie was here, waiting for me, and you’ve gone off and stolen his affection.” She said this with a wink, and then she quickly hugged the little girl.

“Oh, Lonnie, I had no idea that he was waiting to see you. But I had to warn him…”

“Warn him of what, my angel?”

“Oh, Lonnie, I had to tell him where he’s going. It’s all in his notebook.”

With a most puzzled look, Lonnie asked, “Where he’s going? Like you know about this…?”

Amanda nodded. The look of her beautiful face told Lonnie that she wasn’t joking.

“All right, then.” She changed the subject. “I know that you can’t leave the hospital right now. You want us to pick you up something to eat. Charlie was just about to take me out, weren’t you, Charlie?”

Charlie had straightened back up and was dabbing at his eyes with a handkerchief. He nodded, in answer.

“Where are you taking her, Charlie?” Asked Amanda.

“And where would you like us to go? What would you like?” Charlie had his voice back. “What would you like more than anything in the world?”

“Chinese!” Answered Amanda. “What I’d really like would be some Egg Foo Yung!”

“Then that’s where we’ll go. I know a great little spot not far from here. And I’ll be certain to bring you back some Egg Foo Yung, with your own fortune cookie, my little lady.”

In the back of the Peking House sat Lonnie and Charlie. They had just ordered, and up until now, their conversation had just been superficial. But then Charlie turned to Lonnie and said, “All right, now you’ve got to tell me about this little, bitty force of nature called Amanda, who just succeeded in tearing my world to shreds. And then after that, I’ll tell you about my day so far. And then, I’ll tell you why I called you in the first place.”

“All right, Charlie. You’ve got it. And to tell you the truth, I’ve never seen Amanda so smitten with a guy. She’s one of the orphan students at St. Olaf’s. Apparently, she was brought there some years ago after her parents died. Now, I don’t know this for certain, but apparently her father had mental problems, and kind of came and went from their home. But one day, he apparently snapped, and he killed Amada’s mother, then he turned the gun on himself. Anyway, when Amanda’s day care didn’t hear from her mother, they called the cops. And when the cops got to the apartment with Amanda – well you can imagine.

“Anyway, her mother had always been a parishioner at St. Olaf’s, and so the Sisters of the Poor decided that they should bring her up as one of their own. She was always regarded as special – a child of extremely high intelligence, but something more. She was diagnosed with AML (that’s acute myelogenous leukemia) a couple of years back. She went through her treatments like a little trooper. She did have a complete remission but has been followed by our pediatric hematology folks regularly. But just these past few months, she has developed new findings which suggest that her leukemia has come back with a vengeance, and so far has not shown signs of responding to the additional chemo treatments. And all of us are just devastated. 

“Now, Amanda has always been very stoic, but also, she has been outgoing with the women she has been around. But around men, she has always been somewhat more shy and just a bit distant. And that’s why I was so surprised at her interaction with you.”

“Hmm.” Muttered Charlie. “And can you tell me if she has had any interaction with Janie?”

“I can’t really say for certain, but the adult and pediatric patients don’t typically mix, and they’ve got different places in the cancer center that they go. Now, mind you, I don’t know for sure, but what I can say is that neither one has mentioned the other…”

“Very strange indeed.” Charlie thought for a moment, then spoke again, “It’s just that she seemed to know Janie.”

Their soup arrived. And as the waitress laid down their bowls, Charlie told the waitress about Amanda, and how she would like some Egg Foo Yung to go, and with a fortune cookie. When she left, Lonnie asked Charlie to elaborate. In answer, Charlie reached into his jacket pocket, and pulled out his tattered notebook, and turned to the page with Janie’s drawing, which he handed across the table to Lonnie. She looked at it, at the very careful lines, and the incredible detail.

“My goodness, Charlie, I really didn’t know you were an artist as well as a skilled TV reporter. This is a remarkable little drawing.”

“That isn’t mine, and that’s the point. It was drawn just this morning by Janie. I showed it to Amanda, I don’t know why. And she immediately identified it as coming from Janie. And she said it was Shepperton Castle. Further, she noted that it was meant for me to find my way.”

“Now, wait just a minute, Mr. Ace Reporter… Just what are you trying to tell me? You’re not going away, too… No, Charlie, that would be just too much. I think that you’d better back up just a bit here and tell me what happened with Janie.”

“All right. Just this morning I was trying to put all these weird things that have happened in my life into something that made some sense. How this whole thing got started four years ago, when Dr. Gilsen and Judy Morrison went missing. And then all these other things happened, and now, with the disappearance of Marilyn. None of it made any real sense – not to me, anyhow. Well I decided to go investigate in my own intrepid way (after all, it was what I promised Marilyn that I would do), and I decided to start out with Janie. But as I was about to call her, the strangest thing happened…. or at least I believe it happened… When I picked up the phone, it was if I were suddenly in an ancient forest, with its sounds and smells, and out of the forest there came this voice which said, “That which you seek is great, but your search even greater”. Now, I had to sit down right away, and gather my thoughts, before I actually called Janie.”

“Oh, do go on, Charlie, for once again you’ve captivated me, and swept me off my feet! And why do I get the feeling that this whole thing is going to get even more confusing?”

Charlie smiled sheepishly. He then proceeded to tell her about his visit with Janie, and how she had made her little drawing for him, and how she had chosen him to go to Shepperton. He also told her of Janie’s revelations, and how this person called Drachma seemed to have all the answers, but also how Drachma had insinuated himself into their lives here in the twentieth century. 

“Yeah, I’m beginning to see. And now it’s come down to you, hasn’t it? You of the skeptical and curious disposition, huh?”

“I guess it has. But let me ask you a question. Do you have any idea what I could do for Judy? You see, Janie implied that Judy was in some trouble – off in this other time and place, without any prenatal care, or any of the sophisticated diagnostic things that pregnant women have nowadays. As an ER nurse all those years, what do you think we could do to treat any complications of pregnancy? Now here I am sounding like I even know things which I don’t.”

“I’ll tell you, Charlie, there are only a few life-threatening complications of pregnancy which made us worry in the ER. The first one is preeclampsia or eclampsia, and I can’t even imagine that you’d be able to treat or even diagnose any such a condition in the fifteenth century – I mean, how would you even diagnose hypertension without a blood pressure cuff? And that is the common thread of those two ailments. And next would be the complications related to physical positioning of the baby and the umbilical cord. These could be diagnosed I suppose, but what would you do about them? I couldn’t even imagine the risks of attempting to do a c-section without anesthesia.

“But I’ll tell you what. There is a complication of childbirth that even you could do something about.”

“Me?” Charlie became somewhat pale. “Oh, I couldn’t even be in a room where a woman is delivering a baby.”

“Do you mean you couldn’t – or that you wouldn’t want to be? Two very different things.”

After a moment of silence, Charlie said, “I guess what I mean is I’ve never been, and the thought makes me squeamish.”

“Well, then, after we deliver this fine meal to our little Amanda, I would ask that you accompany me to the ER, and I’ll equip you with something to take to my old friend, Judy, in her time of need.

“But now, I’ve got to ask you. When you go, and you come back (and for now I’m going to believe that you will), what will you do with all that information?”

“By all that information – do you mean what really happened to Dr. Gilsen, to Judy Morrison, and to Marilyn?”

“Uh huh. That’s exactly what I mean.” There was both a question and a challenge in her eyes.

“To tell the truth, I’ve got to say that until today I thought that I’d prepare some kind of TV special – you know, a last send-off, because I can’t see me doing this much longer. But also ‘til today, I thought that I’d have no first-hand experience to draw on. But now I’m not sure at all. Because I’m not sure of several things. The first is that I’m going at all. I mean look at the reality of things – how would you expect anyone to believe that he’s going to another time? I know that Janie believes I’m going, and Amanda does, and now apparently you do. But do I? I don’t really know. And the other thing is, if I do go, no one but you has indicated that I’m coming back. From my standpoint it looks like a one-way ticket. I mean, look at Dr. Gilsen, Judy and now Marilyn – they’re all gone, and none of them are back, are they? I mean, it’s kind of like a criminal on death row, with his execution date set – does he really believe that he is going to die, even with all the evidence?”

“Oh, Charlie.” Lonnie’s voice came out as a sigh. “Until I got to know Janie, I was also a skeptical, hard-nosed woman. But Janie has changed my world view in ways that really matter. And you, too…”

“Me?”

“Yes, you. I’m sure that you haven’t forgotten our first meeting. And it was you who transported me to places and times unknown. Yes, it was you, the hard-bitten, skeptical TV reporter. You found that soft place in my heart, which I had shut off from the experiences that truly mattered. So, yes, I truly believe that you are going, and I really believe that you are coming back.”

The waitress came back with their check, their fortune cookies and their to-go order. Charlie looked inside and saw a fortune cookie, along with the Egg Foo Yung inside. He then handed their two fortune cookies to Lonnie, and said, “Here, you choose.” Lonnie took one of the fortune cookies, and broke it open.

“Well, now, I’m curious to see what your fortune says,” he smiled.

Lonnie looked at her fortune, and immediately choked up. Charlie reached over and picked up the sliver of paper. On it were the words, “It shall be as you say.”

“All right, now I don’t usually believe in fortune cookies, but this is too much. And did you notice the handwriting?”

Charlie looked down again at the small piece of paper and was struck like a lightning bolt by the fact that he recognized the script, noticed that it was handwritten in ink, with that now familiar slant to the left.

“My God, this can’t be!” He breathed. “I do recognize this handwriting – it is Drachma’s own!”

“Well, then, my friend, it seems as if we need to look at your fortune as well.”

Charlie opened his own fortune cookie and took out the slip of paper. He peered at it, and the slightest smile appeared on his face as he read, “It shall be soon. Be ready.” Yet there was something else. The paper of both fortune cookies was different from the usual stuff. The paper was slightly beige in color, and stiffer than normal, and there were slight irregularities of the border.

“Here, let me try this,” he said. And he took the two pieces of paper, and was able to fit them, one on top of the other, so that the irregularities matched. “So now we know that this is no coincidence.”

“No, Charlie – this is… certainly no coincidence.”

The drive back to Memorial Hospital was marked by silence. But it was not the silence of a lovers’ quarrel, but rather it was the silence of two persons who had just experienced a shared encounter with the numinous.

After parking, they both got out, and Lonnie said, “Well, I don’t know about you, but that experience was a bit too close for comfort. I just hope that today’s not got any more surprises in it. Let’s get this up to our little angel on the fourth floor.”

Charlie silently agreed, and they walked up to the cancer center, and took the elevator to the fourth floor. Lonnie led the way down the hall to room 427, where they were met by the cheerfully smiling Amanda.

“Oh, goody!” She beamed. “The food isn’t bad here, but you’ve just made my day. Oh, thank you so much!”

“So glad we could make your day a little brighter.” Lonnie smiled. “Eat up while it’s still somewhat warm.”

And so, they both watched for a while, as Amanda happily devoured her Chinese meal. After she had eaten, and Charlie and Lonnie were about to take their leave, Amanda stopped them with a word. She wanted them to wait, while she opened her fortune cookie. Lonnie and Charlie looked at each other. Their own apprehension was evident.

“What’s the matter, you two? Don’t you want to know what my fortune cookie says?”

“Amanda, please go ahead and open your cookie,” said Charlie, “and then we’ll explain.”

“OK, then – here goes!” 

As Lonnie and Charlie watched, Amanda broke open her fortune cookie, and very carefully slid out the small piece of paper. Charlie immediately noted its color as being the same beige color as the previous two. On her paper there were four words, written in the same hand as Lonnie’s. The words were “You also are precious.”

“So, even across the chasm of time, Drachma knows.” Lonnie’s voice, though quiet, was commanding. “And you still have your paper, and here’s mine. Let’s see if they were from the same sheet.”

On her tray, they very carefully put down the three small bits of paper, and the irregularities fit, so there was no doubt that they came from the same unusual paper, with Lonnie’s on top, then Charlie’s in the middle, and Amanda’s on the bottom.

“So, you guys played some kind of trick with my fortune cookie, huh?”

“Oh, no,” said Charlie. “It wasn’t us who played any tricks, but I do believe I’m getting to know the one who did. And his tricks, if you can call them that, have to be taken quite seriously. And they’re getting scary.”

With an intuition that was beyond her years, Amanda noted, “Oh, Charlie, don’t be scared, for it even says that you too are precious.”

“But mine didn’t say that.”

“Yes, but just think about it for a second, ‘cause mine said that I was also precious, and that tells me that someone else is precious too.”

As they left the cancer center, and walked to the Emergency Room, Charlie and Lonnie were quiet again. It seemed to Charlie that his world had shifted, and what was once stable footing, had become treacherous. He no longer trusted his own instincts, but what else did he have? If he couldn’t trust his instincts as an investigative reporter, just what and who was out there to believe in?

“If you don’t mind me asking you, Charlie, just what is it you’re going to do after we go to the ER?”

“No, I don’t mind a bit. I figure I’d go pay a visit to my friend, the earl of Shepperton. After all, it’s his old domain that I appear to be walking into. And I was going to go see him and Carol anyway, as part of my investigation. But it now looks as if I’ve got even more reason to do so.”

“I don’t mean to intrude, but could you use some company? After all, we do seem to be in this whole mystical thing together. And I’d also like to see my old friend Carol. It’s been some time since I’ve seen her.”

“Are you sure you want to? It’s me who is apparently going…”

“And it’s me who’s staying back here. And don’t you think it appropriate that I get a chance to see this earl, and get some of the lowdown on what you’re walking into? You know, Charlie, in the very brief time that I’ve gotten to know you, you’ve managed to get over, under and through my defenses. And doggone it, Charlie, I’ve come to care about you.”

And just like that, Charlie realized the answer to his previous question of whom he could believe.

“Well, then, Alonza, I would be honored by your presence, and I am certain that the earl and Carol would also welcome you, too.”

“Why, thank you.”

When they arrived at the ER, Lonnie had him stay in the waiting room, while she went back into her old environment. Charlie sat, and contemplated his shifting world. And he thought, with some trepidation about just what he was now stepping into.

When Lonnie came back, she found Charlie deep in contemplation, slumped over in his chair, with his head in his hands. She let him alone for the moment. As he regained his focus, she smiled at her friend, who looked suddenly quite fragile.

“Here, Charlie,” she said. “This is what you’re taking with you to Shepperton, with Judy to guide you.”

“What’s in the bag?”

“Just come on. I’ll explain it as we go to the earl’s house.”