The Lovesick Cure by Pamela Morsi

Author:Pamela Morsi
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub, pdf
Publisher: MIRA
Published: 2012-10-04T22:00:00+00:00

22

Jesse paced the confines of Onery Cabin until Piney finally tiptoed out of the old woman’s room as she slept. He crossed to the fireplace where she was standing in front of a crackling blaze. She couldn’t resist walking into his arms. He held her tightly as if he couldn’t bear to let her go. She buried her forehead in his neck and willed his embrace not to loosen. She felt safe here. Secure and safe. An inexplicable response to a person with whom she was merely starting a fun, lighthearted, great-sex-only affair.

With that reality in the back of her mind, it was Jesse herself who finally stepped back. His arms slid from around her waist to clasp her fingers.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

Jesse nodded. “Is it…like Alzheimer’s disease?”

“No.”

“Well, thank God for that,” she said. Then she noticed that Piney didn’t share her relief.

“What is it?”

“Aunt Will has asked me to give you the news. But she’s promised me that she’ll talk to you about it herself tomorrow. I want you to hold her to it.”

“Will she be able to tell me? This…this mental break—is it like a stroke?”

“No, it’s not a stroke,” he said. “And it’s not so much a break as it is a…a fogginess. More than likely, she’ll be much better in the morning.”

Jesse nodded. She felt relieved. Knowing was much better than not knowing, she was sure of that.

“Let’s sit,” Piney said.

He moved the chairs closer together in front of the fire. They were angled so that they almost faced each other. It felt intimate, but Jesse could almost see him donning his professional demeanor.

“Your aunt Will has liver failure,” he said.

“Liver failure?”

He nodded. “Cirrhosis. It’s irreparable scarring of liver tissues. The liver becomes so damaged that it can’t function.”

Jesse couldn’t believe it. “Cirrhosis is what alcoholics get,” she said. “Aunt Will doesn’t drink. She doesn’t even approve of drinking.”

Piney agreed. “Alcoholics aren’t the only people who can get cirrhosis,” he told her. “So do people with hepatitis. And it can show up as an adjunct to other problems like diabetes or autoimmune disorders. Sometimes it’s idiopathic. It simply develops and we can’t point to a cause.”

“Is that what happened to Aunt Will? Is hers idiopathic?”

“No, I think her pathology is probably pretty obvious,” Piney said. He gestured around the room. “She’s spent her whole life grinding, processing, dispensing and basically living with medicinal plants and herbs.”

Jesse looked around the interior of the cabin with new eyes. The shelves were laden with dusty jars, bunches of drying herbs hung from the ceiling rafters. Crocks and tins of salves and oils were a part of the granny woman’s stock and trade.

“Roots and herbs can damage the liver?”

“These can be very potent substances,” Piney pointed out. “To affect human health, they’d have to be. Exposure to them is not going to be risk-free.”

“Do you think she tested them on herself?” Jesse asked. “Was she her own guinea pig?”

“Maybe,” Piney replied. “But even if she didn’t, minute amounts would have been inhaled or absorbed through the skin.

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