Last December
“Hey, can I talk to you a minute?” Mitch was off duty. He should’ve left an hour ago instead of lurking around so he could ambush me in the hallway.
“Can it wait ten minutes? I’m almost off shift.” Which Mitch would know.
“Sure. I’ll meet you in the locker room.”
I wrapped up my duties and reported to Shelly, the charge nurse.
She didn’t have anything else for me, so I headed to the lockers.
Fuck, I hoped whatever Mitch wanted wouldn’t take long.
Today was my last shift before my three days off, and I needed it.
Last weekend I’d spent mostly with Mamá, since she’d been so down over Thanksgiving.
I hoped she and Eloise patched things up soon.
If Mamá missed her this much, hopefully she’d be motivated to find a solution to whatever the issue between them was.
Mitch was alone in the locker room, sitting on one of the benches and typing on his phone. “Hey.”
“Hey. So what’s up?” I went to my locker to get my backpack. I wasn’t planning on changing clothes. I just wanted to go home.
He put his phone on the bench beside him and rubbed his hands up and down his thighs. “A friend of mine from when we were kids, he’s a magic carrier. No special powers or anything. His whole family is really nice.”
I shut my locker and set my backpack down on the bench across from him. “Okay?”
“Yeah, so his little brother—I mean, he’s seventeen, not that little—he’s here in the hospital.”
“Oh, yeah? Not in Pediatrics?” I was sensing where this was going. Fuck, I was tired, but I hadn’t used my magic in a while. Plus I could sleep all day tomorrow.
“Nah. Oncology. He’s got leukemia. It’s bad.” He crossed his arms. “Acute myeloid, and it’s in his spinal fluid.”
“Oh, fuck.” At his age, survival rates weren’t high. I looked at my watch. The oncology ward would be busy at this hour, and if I went in my cartoon-character scrubs, I’d be noticed. “Let me change clothes and you can take me to see him.” I hesitated. “Is he likely to have family with him?”
“Yeah. My buddy Paul is there with their parents. I promise I haven’t told them I’m bringing you, and I’ve never told anyone what you can do.
” Though he and I both knew several Wonders on the staff had guessed, given how I tended to get random requests for my assistance when we had magic-carrier patients.
Up to now I’d done all my healing on the sly, just interacting with the patients and swearing them to secrecy.
If word got out about my abilities, I’d never have a moment’s peace.
“Okay, but no names. If I don’t think I can heal him, I’ll tell you I’ll wait in the hall.
If I can do it, the whole family has to promise to keep it quiet. ”
“That’ll work. Thanks, Manny.”
Grant Chernoff was in bad shape. He was ghostly pale, thin with deep circles under his eyes. He hadn’t woken when Mitch and I entered.
The other occupants of the room were an older man and woman, no doubt Grant’s parents, and a guy in his late twenties who stood up to hug Mitch. “Thanks for coming by.”
“Of course. I hope you don’t mind, I brought a friend along.” He waved me forward. “This is Paul, and his parents Grace and Howard Chernoff. Grant’s the one in the bed, of course.”
“Nice to meet you.” I waved. They appeared confused as to why I was here, but no one asked my name. They were distracted examining my magic. I ignored this and turned to the patient in the bed.
His magic wheel spun very slowly. I was never sure if people’s magic tried to fight off illness or not, but Grant’s seemed to be struggling with the effort to just keep going.
My own magic wanted to heal him in the worst way. But it also told me healing Paul would take more than a few hairs from my head and probably multiple sessions.
I nodded and turned back to Grant’s family. “I’ll need Grant to agree, but I can heal him, only not here in the hospital.” I grabbed a brochure—for hospice services, ugh—from the counter by the sink, then I dug around in my backpack for a pen.
Paul was the first to speak. “What do you mean, heal him?”
Mitch turned to the others. “You had to have seen his magic is different from ours. Long story, but it gave him the ability to heal magic carriers. I’ve seen it work, and if he says he can heal Grant, he will.”
I studied each of them, their faces filled with hope and skepticism in equal amounts. “If you decide you want me to do this, I need three things from you. First, I need you to wake Grant up so I can ask his permission to heal him. I can’t do it without his participation.”
Paul, after a glance at Mitch, nodded. “Agreed.”
“Second, you’ll need to check him out of the hospital against medical advice. I can’t do the healing here. He needs more than one session, and they’re going to knock me on my ass.”
Howard frowned. “But what will we tell the doctors?”
“Tell them Grant wants to stop treatment and spend his last days at home.” Mitch winced at their expressions. “Sorry, but it’s the excuse that’ll get you the least pushback.”
I held up a finger. “And the third thing I need from you is complete confidentiality. You tell no one about me or what I can do. If word gets out that I can heal people, I’ll have to go into hiding, and then I can’t help anyone.
” Each of them gave me their agreement, but Howard crossed his arms. “What about payment?”
Oh. I shook my head. “I don’t charge.” His mouth dropped open in shock, and I reconsidered. “If you want to bring a couple of pizzas, that would be appreciated. Meat lovers. All the calories.”
He sputtered until he could get the words out. “Young man, healing people, especially if it impacts your own health and magic, is a service you should charge for.”
I held up my hand. “That’s not how I want to live my life. If you feel the need, make a donation to this hospital or another organization.” He was still frowning, but I gestured at Grant. “Can someone wake him, please?”
Paul did the honors, putting a hand on Grant’s arm and giving him a gentle shake. “Hey, doofus, wake up.”
Grant startled awake, blinking and scrunching his face at his brother. “Paul? Hey, what time is it?” His eyes scanned the room. “Hey, Mitch. Uh, hi, whoever you are.”
I moved to stand next to Paul. “Hi, Grant. Can you do me a favor and look at my magic, please?” I’d discovered that people tended to believe I could heal them when they saw I wasn’t like anyone else they’d ever met before.
“Huh. Wow, that’s weird.” His eyes flew to mine, widening in horror. “Uh, sorry.”
I chuckled. “Trust me, it’s weird to me as well. Grant, this is top secret, like you can’t tell anyone, okay?”
“Uh, okay. Not sure who I’d tell, and I’m pretty much gonna be dead soon, so...” He lifted a shoulder.
Behind me, Grace gasped, “Grant!”
He shot her a sympathetic look. “Sorry, Mom.”
I smiled at him. “About my weird magic...” I explained my healing ability, that he’d have to check out of the hospital and keep what I’d done a secret forever. He was nodding even before I’d finished talking.
“Yes. All the yeses. Even if it doesn’t work, or if it only gives me a little more time, it’ll be better than staying here with all these drugs that make me feel like shit.” He rolled his head on the pillow to look at his parents. “We’re doing this, right?”
They nodded. “Yes.” Howard’s voice was full of emotion. “We’re doing this.”
I walked over and handed Grace the brochure I’d written my address on. “Bring him here this afternoon, say, 4:00 p.m. Use Mitch as a go-between if you need to change the time.”
Grace stood, taking my hand in both of hers. “Thank you. I can’t tell you what this means to us.”
I shrugged awkwardly. “I like helping people.”