Chapter 4

"This isn't so much fun anymore." Roger had tired of reading Wingate's thoughts. The unicorns had only changed colors in the commander's fantasy, from pink to yellow to blue. Presently, they were purple. "I sure hope Jeannie gets better fast."

"Yes, mother."

"Mother? Tony, this is your buddy Roger!" Major Healy pointed to himself, then took a good look at his friend. Tony definitely wasn't looking too good.

"Sorry, mother. Where am I?" Tony asked.

"You're in a capsule on its way to the moon and we wouldn't have been in this mess if you'd never picked up that bottle with Jeannie in it on the beach when you crashed all those years ago!" Roger replied crossly.

"Jeannie…where's Jeannie?" Tony asked, closing his eyes. "Jeannie!" He cried.

"Quiet! You'll wake Commander Wingate up!" Roger scratched one of his blue spots and looked worriedly over at the commander. He knew it was only a matter of time before he too would be as far gone as his friend. Then they'd really be in trouble. "Especially since Sleeping Beauty doesn't look like waking up anytime soon," he muttered.

-

Unknown to Jeannie, her mother had decided to pay a visit to NASA. She didn't know about her daughter's illness. She had come on an entirely different tack. The last time she had visited her daughter, she had fallen in love with Dr. Bellows. Just as her daughters were persistent in their pursuit of Tony Nelson, she was equally adamant in her infatuation with the old doctor.

"I just don't understand it," Dr. Bellows murmured, pondering over his coffee-stained reports. "This is simply astounding. I've never seen anything like this in my twenty one years as a doctor."

The reports indicated a completely new virus, one with unbelievable properties. It attacked the host cell ruthlessly, taking over and replicating at an alarming rate. It seemed to hold some sort of ability to trigger senility in its victims, though the young girl in his care did not show any signs of delirium. Strangely enough, she seemed to be fading!

"How will I ever go about treating it?" He pondered aloud. "This virus seems well ahead of modern medicine." He sat up abruptly. "I may get the Nobel Prize for this discovery!"

Jeannie's mother, who had been watching him from behind a screen, smiled and blinked the prize on his desk.

Looking at it incredulously, Dr. Bellows slowly picked it up. "The Nobel Prize…'awarded to Alfred Bellows'?" He read from the plaque slowly. He set it down. "Now I must be seeing things!"

Jeannie's mother laughed. Before Dr. Bellows looked up, she blinked the two of them back to her home in Baghdad.

"Look here, what's the meaning of this?" Dr. Bellows looked up at the cage that trapped him. "Where am I?"

"Home with me," Jeannie's mother replied, dancing happily about outside his cage.

"My name is Colonel Alfred Bellows and I'm on detached duty from NASA. I demand my release immediately!" Dr. Bellows cried.

"Nothing doing, Colonel." Jeannie's mother smiled. "I'm going to make you a sultan!"

-

"Alfred? Where are you?" Amanda Bellows roamed the base, searching for the lost doctor. She stopped a staff sergeant in the hall. "Excuse me, have you seen my husband?"

The sergeant glanced at her security badge before nodding. "Last I saw him, he was going over some reports in his office, Mrs. Bellows."

"But I already checked his office and he wasn't there!" Amanda insisted. "And I need his help in picking out our new wallpaper." She held up some samples she'd brought along.

"Oh, I don't think Dr. Bellows will want to be bothered with that right now," the sergeant replied. "From what I've heard, he's just discovered a new virus. You might want to check mission control. He's also monitoring the moon flight right now."

"Thank you," Mrs. Bellows replied, heading for the control room.

"You really aren't going to seek him out just for his opinion on wallpaper?"

Mrs. Bellows stopped. "Sergeant, don't forget that I can tell you what to do. I am a Colonel's wife."

-

Who are you? I demand my release immediately!" Dr. Bellows exclaimed haughtily. "I don't want to be a sultan!"

Jeannie's mother smiled. "But I will give you anything you want. Wouldn't you like that?"

"Ma'am, I am a married man! Now, please, let me out! There is a girl very ill back at the base that's depending on me!" Bellows cried. "I have to find a cure!"

"Cure? What cure?" Jeannie's mother stopped short.

"The one for the virus Miss Jeannie has." Dr. Bellows stopped. "At least, I think that's her name."

"Jeannie?" Jeannie's mother looked interested. "What does she look like?"

"I don't know…she's blonde, really rather pretty for a young girl. And she has a lot of blue spots. Now, I must go and try to do something for her directly!"

"Jeannie!" Her mother cried. "She has Haji Syndrome! Oh, my poor girl! I knew she never should have gotten involved with that astronaut!"

"What on earth are you talking about?" Dr. Bellows looked at her in confusion.

Jeannie's mother held up a finger. "Just one minute, doctor. I'll give you what you need." She turned around, beginning some sort of Arabic chant. She pulled some spices and herbs from her cluttered shelves, combining them in a cup. Within a few minutes, she had concocted the antidote.

"Here is what you desire. Please give it to Jeannie with my best regards." Jeannie's mother handed him the vial.

"Who shall I say sends them?" Bellows asked, studying the vial.

"Her mother."

Dr. Bellows collapsed on the floor in a dead faint.

-

"Alfred? Goodness, this is getting ridiculous!" Mrs. Bellows exclaimed, wandering around mission control. Her husband wasn't here, either. She sat down at one of the controls and spoke into the headset. "Hello? Is anyone there?"

The screen in front of her flickered before she could see a camera image of the interior of the space capsule.

"Mrs. Bellows! Mrs. Bellows, thank goodness! You've got to help us!" Roger's face appeared on the screen.

Mrs. Bellows screamed. "You're blue!"

"About that…Mrs. Bellows?"

Amanda had already fled the room.

-

Dr. Bellows woke up in his office, still holding the vial. He shook his head. What a vivid and utterly strange dream! He stood up and glanced at the vial in his hand. How did that get there? He shrugged. He had nothing to lose by trying it on his sick patient.

"Miss Jeannie? Are you all right?" He entered her room and stopped short. "Good heavens!"

By this point, Jeannie's whole lower body was completely gone, and the rest of her was fading quickly.

"Dr. Bellows! You have the antidote! Oh, I'm so glad you came!" Jeannie smiled weakly.

"Now, I'm not going to promise anything, but we'll see if this does anything for you." Dr. Bellows emptied some of the strange potion into a syringe and struggled to find her fading arm before finally injecting it.

All of a sudden, Jeannie's color returned. The rest of her body reappeared. She jumped up happily and hugged the doctor. "Oh, thank you, Doctor! You have saved me and my master!"

Before Dr. Bellows could react, she took the vial from his hand and smiled. "If you don't mind, I will take this." She got up and strolled out of the room. Once outside the door, she blinked herself into the capsule.

Dr. Bellows stared at the door before shaking his head. "I think I'll go lie down…this has been a very strange day…" He murmured.

"Alfred! Thank heavens I found you!" Amanda Bellows exclaimed, running into the room. "I just saw the most terrible thing!"

"Not as terrible as what I have seen!" Bellows cried.

"Blue spots!" She shouted.

"Yes, exactly!" Dr. Bellows nodded in agreement.

"We must tell General Schaffer!"

"Tell General Schaffer what?" The general stood in the doorway, looking at them expectantly.

Dr. Bellows jumped to his feet. "General, there was a girl…"

"Major Healy…"

"Blue spots all over her and in the room, I'd never seen anything like it…"

"They were all over his face, it was awful…"

"Hold it, now. I'm taking you both to a doctor and it's going to be all right." General Schaffer took them both by the arm and escorted them away. "Now, how long have you two been seeing blue spots, exactly?"