War Aeternus 4: Harbinger of Ash, page 25
“Ah . . .” Lee sighed inwardly. Another woman reminding me I used to be a good person. “I guess we did more charity back when we started dating.”
Masha nodded. “Before you started spending more of your free time with my father.”
“Hey! How’s spending time with him a bad thing? Didn’t you just drag me to a brunch or a lunch or something with him the other day?”
Masha nodded. “Mmm . . . I’m just worried that after that . . . You know . . . It’s . . . You’re acting more and more like him. I love my father, but I don’t want to date him.”
Lee raised a left eyebrow at that. “I’ve been acting more like him?”
“You’ve been . . . quiet. And you have that look on your face all the time like you’re here, but you’re not. When we were at lunch the other day, I thought you were looking at me, but when I started talking to you, you didn’t seem to even notice. You just kept staring off like I wasn’t there. He does that sometimes too, but he will never tell me or my mother what he is thinking about . . .” She trailed off, probably giving Lee a chance to speak for himself, but she continued when he didn’t. “I know you’re right here, but you’re really distant. I don’t want to say anything because I know what you’re feeling too. I feel it as well. Everything keeps replaying through my mind, and . . . if . . . if you weren’t there . . . or here . . . I think I’d have broken down by now. I’m doing everything I can not to just start crying right now. I know how heavy it must weigh on you, Lee. I’m here for you. I really am. I promise. I’ll give you all the support until you recover and whatever else I can, but I don’t want you to end up like my father because of it. He’s just a wall of quiet that’s hard to deal with sometimes.”
“Yeah . . . I understand.” He only spoke up when she was finished so that she wouldn’t misinterpret his silence as something more than it was and carry on even further. You’re this broken up by just one encounter. What would the other world do to you? It wasn’t a fair question, and he knew it, but it was one that he couldn’t help but ask. If any of the girls had been-- He firmly shook his head, absolutely refusing to follow that train of thought to its conclusion.
“So, healing people?” Lee asked, changing the topic.
“Yes! Even if you don’t want to admit it, I know you have those amazing abilities. Why don’t you use them? You could easily make a real impact in the world. We could travel to a war-torn or impoverished country, and you would be able to help hundreds if not thousands of people! You would make sure that they are actually alive tomorrow with that power of yours!”
“I mean, not to discount the idea of healing people, but why do I need to travel?” He didn’t mind using his powers, but leaving the luxuries of his own home seemed like a pain. As things stood in the other world, he had to deal with enough traveling in awful conditions.
“Because . . . Well, because they need your help more,” she asserted.
“So, no one in this town needs to be healed? That seems odd. I could have sworn that we have four hospitals that are always struggling to find enough beds for everyone.” He didn’t mean to sound combative--it was a good idea that was wrapped up and delivered with the best of intentions--but the tribalism he had picked up in the other world as he fought tooth and nail to defend the people of Satterfield had changed his way of thinking.
“I mean, there are people that need to be healed here too, but they have doctors here. And medical supplies and treatments and--”
“And bills and cancer and untreatable diseases,” Lee quickly countered. Then, just as quickly, he swiftly kicked himself mentally. She’s just trying to be nice. Stop it. “I’m sorry,” he apologized, knowing he was a little in the wrong. “Your idea is great. I just don’t see why I would ever need to go overseas or leave the country when there are people suffering right in our own town.”
“Of course,” she conceded, her eyes flicking down to the floor. “Alright. Then let’s do it.”
“What?” Lee asked.
“Your holiness, mister paladin, will lay on hands.” She stood up and extended a hand as if she intended to pull him to his feet. “Let’s go heal some people. You said there are those in this town that need help, so let’s go help them.”
“You’re not worried that someone will kidnap me or shoot me or blackmail me once they realize what I can do? I mean, worst-case scenario, someone might even try to dissect me to figure out how to do it.” Or come after you as a way of getting to me. “There’s a reason superheroes have secret identities, you know.”
“If someone messes with my man, then I’ll just have to ask dad to stop them, and he’ll fix it. It’s that simple. Now, let’s go.”
Lee took her hand and allowed her to help him up, but he pulled her to him almost as quickly as he was on his feet. He gave her a quick kiss and playfully asked, “Don’t you think we should at least put some pants on first?”
-----
Lee wasn’t sure what got into her as she dragged him out of the apartment and to the closest hospital. “How am I supposed to make money off this?” he asked as they walked inside. “I mean, if we just heal people, then won’t I still need to get a job?”
“Part of being human is having enough faith that people will return the favor if you do enough good things,” she stated.
“Meaning?” Lee wondered.
“Donations. You’ve got a BillBuddy, right?”
BillBuddy was a program that people used to send and receive money, whether it was gifts and donations between friends or payments made directly to companies and service providers. “Yeah, I guess. I’ve got an account. Haven’t really used it for much, but it’s hooked to my bank. Why?”
“Well, then we’ll just use that!” she exclaimed as she walked into the waiting room and went up to the receptionist.
Lee’s grand plan for this world had only been to open a brewery, get a liquor license, and sell the divine nectar he created, so he hadn’t ever actually considered the healing route at all. The game world had turned him into one of the best world-class alcohol salesmen on the planet, but it hadn’t prepared him for how to raise funds as a doctor, so he decided to let Masha take the lead. Masha said something about visiting a relative to the young woman working there and then grabbed Lee’s hand and pulled him toward the hospital’s second floor, where the recovering patients were being kept.
The two of them walked into the very first room on the floor after exiting the elevator. There they found an elderly man whose laceration on his right arm and gash on his forehead looked like they had just been patched up earlier in the day. There were still ugly spots of fresh bruising visible around the wound.
“How ya doin’, son,” the old man said when he saw Lee enter the room with Masha. “Is it time for some food? I could really use some jello or maybe even a few cups of pudding if y’all are feelin’ a bit fanciful.”
Lee looked over at Masha. “So, just go ahead and do it?”
The man looked over at Lee and Masha quizzically. “Do what? I was told I’d be okay in a few weeks. I just need to recover, and they’ll send me home.”
“Yeah, do it,” Masha urged.
“Is the something you’re going to be doing bringing me some bacon and cheese?” the old man asked. “Unless this is some sort of community service, you should probably go. I need to get some rest.”
Lee said nothing as he walked over and put his hand on the man’s arm, immediately channeling his spirit into him. He felt out the wound the same way he had when he used his energy in Jade’s blood to feel out the bi-corn’s and Brigid’s brains. The wound began to close up, and two or three other problems the man probably wasn’t even aware of also were cured within the span of a few seconds.
“There,” Lee said, turning to look at Masha. “Now what?”
“What, what did you do? What did you do?!”
The man became frantic as Lee finished, and the previously-frail patient was clawing at his bandages with a surprising strength and spryness that belied his age.
“Now, write your BillBuddy info on a card and leave it with him,” Masha instructed.
“Fine. Got it.” Lee grabbed a notepad and pen that were conveniently waiting on the bedside table. “I hope you don’t mind me borrowing this . . .” he muttered as he wrote out his information and slid it over to the elderly gentleman.
“It’s . . . It’s healed! It’s healed!” Stunned, the old man prodded at the sites of his former injuries as if he didn’t believe his own eyes. He began patting himself in various places, touching and feeling around his body as if he were attempting to find out what else might have been changed or determine whether or not he was dreaming. Lee hadn’t just healed the serious laceration and bruising: His magic had summarily fixed everything that had been wrong with the man, alleviating even the most minor affliction. Even the man’s paper-thin skin had recovered, no longer showing the bright-blue veins hidden beneath. Everything about him had been improved, and it showed. “It’s healed! I’m healed! This a miracle. A miracle! This is a miracle, and I've been healed! Thank you! Thank you so much! ”
“Feel free to donate to that address in the future if you feel like thanking him for your help,” Masha chimed in, using a voice that was so polite and perky that Lee would have mistaken her for an airline stewardess if he didn’t already know better.
“Right, right,” Lee said, “but this man still needs his rest, so”--he turned back toward the patient, who was now sitting fully upright in the bed and watching them as if they were the strangest sight in the world--“have a nice day.” He turned and swiftly left the room, ushering Masha out ahead of him to a chorus of thank-yous that followed them out.
Masha stopped beside the next room and looked between Lee and the door expectantly. “Same as last time?” he asked. He had the general idea of her plan now--it was rather simple, after all--but he didn't want to take away the feeling of control she had. Her smile was brighter than he had seen in two days, and she was clearly feeling better and not thinking about the incident, and he didn’t want to take that away from her. He understood that this was important to her and that she needed to feel like she was in control of something right now. This is just her way of coping after witnessing such awful death and destruction and having her life threatened: She is making the world a better place, Lee thought, Although, in all fairness, her attackers dying probably also made the world a better place, maybe even having a larger impact than healing these people will have . . .
-----
Lee managed to heal four people under Masha’s insistence before two nurses stopped him as they were leaving a room. The oldest of the nurses, a somewhat large woman who spoke in a respectful but incredibly-forceful tone, said, “Sir, ma’am, if you don’t have family up here, then you need to leave.”
Lee looked at the woman as he considered the situation and then looked over at Masha. “Any ideas?” he asked
Masha just shook her head and shrugged, slightly lifting her hands in the universal sign for ‘I don’t know.’
The nurse moved to block Lee and Masha from potentially entering the fifth room, leveling a gaze at them that made it clear she wasn’t going to back down. “Sir, ma’am, you really need to go. These people need rest, and you’re disturbing them.”
Lee then remembered something that his friend Chet, one of the members of his guild from when he used to play MMOs, had told him a long time ago about nurses: They usually have back problems. Chet had complained about it all the time, arguing that you practically had to be a weightlifter in order to be a nurse since he kept getting older but his patients kept getting heavier.
Lee stepped forward without any hesitation, moving with the quickness he usually only deployed inside the game world, and placed a hand on the woman’s shoulder. Then, before she had a chance to react, he channeled his spirit into her. One of the benefits of being in the real world versus the game was that people had basically zero health. He could fully heal someone for less than half of a percentage point of mana, so he didn’t have to worry at all as he flooded the nurse with his spirit. Yup, back problems . . . Not just that . . . Ankles are swollen from walking too much, left foot has a blister, knees are aching . . . This one was having a rough day.
“Sir!” The nurse initially protested when Lee touched her, but then she faltered. “Sir . . .” This time, she spoke with some hesitancy as if she were reticent to speak again with the same force she had used when she was shooing them off. It was obvious that she had been in a lot of discomfort, and the moment that Lee had touched her, it had all faded away.
He wondered himself how she would process that as he looked at her. “Okay,” he said cheerfully. “Please continue to work hard!”
He stepped around her and went into the next room, leaving her to stare after him.
He didn’t think much of it as he went from patient to patient, but by the time he had finished with everyone on the floor, leaving his BillBuddy info with each person, he realized that he was smiling for some reason. It was as if the grin that Masha wore while guiding him from room to room were infectious. And it wasn’t just the smile: It was his entire outlook. He felt lighter, as if a thousand-pound burden had been pulled off his shoulders.
“I’m going to regret this tomorrow,” Lee muttered when as he realized how good of a mood he was in.
“Why would you?” Masha asked.
Lee shrugged. It was just a feeling that wasn’t based in logic. “You know, someone might abduct me, abuse me, use me for special purposes . . . or, worse yet . . . They might make me work all day, every day.”
“Would that really be so bad?” Masha asked. “You always worked hard when we did charity projects together, and this is just as important.”
Is it though? a part of Lee wondered. He was definitely helping people, and that was nice, but something was off about the whole thing. He just couldn't put his finger on what it was.
“Alright,” Masha sighed. “If you're gonna be lazy, that's fine. We can hit another hospital tomorrow then.”
Lee bumped against her shoulder with his and then entwined his fingers in hers as they made their way out of the hospital. “You're really getting into this, aren't you?”
“Yeah, just a bit,” she answered. “It's nice to finally feel like we’re making a real difference and saving or improving lives. It feels nice, even if my only contribution is dragging you around.”
“Well, let's not forget exactly how important that part is. After all, I could be happily typing away my tenth TPS report right now.”
Masha didn't say anything else, but she leaned against him, prompting him to wrap his arm around her as they exited the building together. They barely made it through the sliding double doors, however, before one of the two nurses who had stopped him earlier came running up behind him.
“Sir!” she gasped, clearly out of breath from her run. It was the nurse he had healed earlier. “I'm sorry to ask this, but we've got a patient who just came in with several gunshot wounds. The doctor is operating right now, but it doesn't look good. Can you please do . . . whatever it is you do? Can you help him?”
Lee felt a pang of annoyance. It’s the same everywhere I go: They can’t survive without me. There will always be people who need me to be their pillar. No matter how much he helped others, there would always be someone else waiting for a handout, demanding something from him. The thought melted away the smile from earlier along with the warm glow he felt from working with Masha. “Fine,” he answered with a slight chill in his voice. “I’ll help you out. Lead me to him.”
-----
After being pushed and pulled from room to room and coerced into helping roughly a dozen more patients, Lee and Masha finally escaped. They were on their way back to his apartment, thinking everything was going to be peachy-dory, when a limousine pulled up beside them. It slid up next to the curb, and a driver promptly stepped out, walked around the car, and opened one of the rear doors, looking at them expectantly.
“If you would be so kind, young master,” the chauffeur said.
Lee took a quick glance at Masha, questioning whether this was some effort on the part of her father, but her startled expression instantly told him that it wasn’t. After everything that had happened to her, she was still rightfully cautious. He felt his annoyance grow, and he had to stop himself from grinding his teeth together. This was exactly what he had predicted and exactly what he hated most about the whole idea. I’ve only been at this for a single day, and I’m already having to deal with this? This trickle of people demanding help has already reached the wealthy. Once that happens, the flood of demands will never stop.
“I’d rather not,” he answered, taking a step away from the solid-black vehicle.
“I’ll call my dad,” Masha whispered, backing up even further and positioning herself behind Lee.
“That won’t be necessary, little girl,” a gentle voice called out from within the limousine. “I’m just an old lady who has come to visit her grandchild.”
“Old lady? Grandchild?” Lee faltered as his brain scrambled to figure out how a voice that sounded like a twenty-year-old woman somehow belonged to his grandmother. “Grandma Angelica isn’t even in the states right now, and I know my other grandmother well enough to know that you aren’t her.”
“If you don’t believe me, you can ask that good-for-nothing, arrogant fool of a father of yours,” the woman said sweetly. “Go ahead. I don’t mind waiting for him to arrive. I’m sure he’s already panicking right now. Just know that you’ll have a lot more to explain to that lovely woman you’re with other than how young your grandmother looks.”
“My father? He’s just a regular salary worker. Masha knows that.”
