Lourdes, France
"So, you think this 'magic water' will be the answer?" Linka asks.
"You sound skeptical."
"Do I?" She says, trying to control her eye roll.
"I thought you'd want to explore all your options…"
"All my realistic, scientific options."
"Oh…sorry…I just thought it would be worth a shot…since we were this close and all. And for what it's worth, there is proof that it works. People have come here sick and left cured…there are medical records that document it."
"So, what am I supposed to do? Bathe in it? Drink it?"
"Either. Both. Neither…it's up to you…it's not gonna work if you don't believe," another tourist pipes in.
Linka turns around and is about to tell the eavesdropper to mind their own business but immediately closes her mouth when she sees a middle-aged woman with very sparse, almost bald, hair.
Sensing that Linka has gotten herself in an awkward position, Wheeler steps in and asks,
"You came here from America?"
"Yes, this was my last chance according to my doctor."
"Your doctor told you to come here?" Linka asks.
"Not exactly. My doctor told me there was nothing more he could do…so I came here to see if there is someone else who can do something."
"How did you find out about this place? If you don't mind my asking?" Wheeler inquires.
"Someone else who was being treated at the same facility as me was talking about it one day. I overheard her telling her husband about it while in the waiting room. He seemed skeptical but told her he'd be willing to try anything. She had a brain tumor that was not getting any smaller. In fact, it had grown to the point where it was pressing on her optical nerve, and she had lost vision in one eye. She went on her trip, during an off week for her treatment, and when she came back, she said that she thought she was starting to be able to see a little bit of light out of her blind eye…just light though, no movement. The doctor said that could be a sign that the tumor was shrinking, or it grew and was just pressing on a different part of the nerve. She had a scan done to see if it had spread. When her results came back, the clinic actually had to call the company that made the scanner to come do a service call to make sure it was functioning correctly. The tumor was half the size that it was the previous scan."
"Wow, that's awesome!" Wheeler exclaims. "It's like a miracle."
"Yes, I thought so too. And when I had a scan that didn't provide any good news, in fact, the news was pretty grim…I thought, 'what the hell? I've got nothing to lose.' So, I planned this trip and came six months ago in search for my own miracle."
"So did it work?" Wheeler asks.
"Wheeler!" Linka admonishes his forwardness. "I am sorry, sometimes he speaks before he thinks. You would not be here again if it had."
"Actually, it did work. I've been in remission for 4 months."
"That's great!" Wheeler says.
"Wonderful news," Linka adds, trying to hide her shock and disbelief.
"I'm here because someone else who was getting treatment had made arrangements to come here, but unfortunately, he's too ill to travel now. I am going to take some water back to him."
"Hopefully it works for him too."
"Hopefully. Terri, the first lady that came here, she is very religious. She told me when I did this that I needed to pray too, that I couldn't just expect a miracle without asking for it. I think Jim, the guy I'm here for, only agreed to it because his wife wanted him to try every option. I'm afraid it will not work for him if he isn't willing to believe it will. I hope whatever you have come here for, you get good results, but it's really imperative that you believe that it will work."
Linka smiles and nods.
"Good talkin' to ya. Glad it worked for you," Wheeler says.
"Thank you. Good luck."
Once she is out of ear shot, Wheeler turns to Linka.
"It's ok if you don't believe. I'll believe enough for both of us."
"Hearing from someone who has actually experienced having it work and knows someone else who it worked for is encouraging."
"So, you'll go check it out?"
"Might as well. We came all this way."
Linka and Wheeler donned their swimsuits and entered the pools of healing water. While Wheeler did not need healing, he wanted to show solidarity with Linka.
"So do we ease in or cannon ball?" Wheeler asks as they stand at the edge of one of the healing pools.
"You are the expert on this place…you tell me."
He looks around and decides that this is not the place for fun and games. He steps in first, deciding that the water is quite comfortable, and holds his hand out to Linka to help her.
"Soooo…I guess we just stand here? Or sit? Soak? But for how long?" She asks.
"Umm…yes," is his response.
"Thank you so much Wheeler, that was helpful," she replies as she splashes him.
He turns his body away from the splash and retaliates with a splash of his own, his bigger hands creating a bigger spray of water. Their less than subdued behavior earns them some stern looks from others in the pool. Wheeler kneels down so that he is in the water up to his shoulders. When Linka tries to do that, the water level is over her shoulders and up to her mouth, making it impossible for her to maintain the same position. Noticing her predicament, Wheeler moves to one knee, creating a place for her to sit.
"C'mere," he says, holding his hand out to her.
Once she gets close enough, he puts his arm around her, his hand on her hip, and guides her down to sit on his knee, the water level now coming to her shoulders as well.
"Better?" He asks.
"Da. Spasiba."
After observing what others were doing, fully submerging themselves, and having already been mostly underwater and gotten her long ponytail wet, Linka holds her nose and leans back. Wheeler supports her with one hand behind her back and holds her other hand to pull her back up.
"I guess that is it," she says, wiping the water from her eyes. "Now what?"
"Gift shop!"
"Bozhe moy…even 'miracles' cannot avoid capitalism!"
"I figured we'd pick up some bottles to take back home…next time I'm not feeling well, I'll drink it instead of Ma-Ti's nasty cures!"
"Ah! Good idea!" She says with a laugh, causing Wheeler to join her.
Back at the hotel, Linka is checking out more travel destinations while Wheeler flips through the tv channels. She's trying hard to focus on her laptop instead of her shirtless companion. She doesn't expect him to change his usual sleep attire for her sake, but she's struggling to not be caught sneaking an appreciative peek.
"Everything is in French," he grumbles as he shuts off the TV and tosses the remote aside on his bed.
"Well, we are in FRANCE," Linka points out.
"Find anything good?" He asks, coming over to sit on the bed next to her.
Is he doing this on purpose? She wonders as she continues to focus her attention on her screen.
"Maybe…I was thinking of going to see the Aurora Borealis. How well do you tolerate the cold?"
"Love it. Especially if it leads to cuddling to keep you warm," he teases.
"Ha! I will be fine. I was worried about you and whether or not your body was too acclimated to the warm tropical weather of Hope Island."
"I appreciate your concern for my body, but I'll be fine. I've got all these muscles to keep me warm," he demonstrates by flexing for her. He wiggles his eyebrows at her and asks, "Wanna feel?"
As tempting as the offer is, she's not sure she has the strength to not linger just a little too long, or let her hand caress further up his arm and over his equally toned chest and down over his sculpted abs.
Instead, she reaches out with one hand and squeezes his mouth so that his lips pucker.
"Da, I can see how much exercise your mouth gets. Always running."
"As much as you get…runnin' through my mind all day," he says through his still puckered lips as she continues to squeeze.
"Bozhe moy," she grumbles as she releases him and lightly pats his cheek several times. "Do guys actually think those lame lines work?"
"Nah…any girl worth havin' would be too smart to fall for it," he says with a wink.
She rolls her eyes and laughs.
"Speaking of lines, I've been meaning to ask…on the train when we were trying to get that vulture to leave me alone…you said something in French. What did you say? She didn't seem like the type to shock easily but whatever you said did the trick."
"Oh, umm…I do not remember," she lies.
"Well, let me refresh your memory. I took a year of French in high school and one thing I remember most is the swear words that I took it upon myself to learn. But in class, I remember learning basics. So, the words I heard were 'I want to' 'fuck you' 'on the' 'in every' and 'from Russia to France.' There were only two words that I didn't understand…but I think I can fill in the blanks. Ringin' any bells?"
"Nyet," she blushes.
"Did 'Little Miss Prim and Proper Linka' talk dirty and say she wanted to fuck me on the train in every country from Russia to France?" He begins laughing hard when her shocked look confirms what he thought.
"I thought you took Spanish in high school?!"
"I tried French freshman year because Jenny Ekberg was taking it. Then switched to Spanish my sophomore year because I started dating Trish at the end of Freshman year, and she wanted me as far away from Jenny as possible, but it was in the middle of that year when I joined the Planeteers, so my Spanish is even worse than my French."
"Of course, you'd plan your academics around chasing girls," she huffs.
"From the ages of 14 to 16, yeah. And I was a scrawny little ginger that no one paid attention to, so it didn't do me any good anyway."
"Obviously Trish saw something that she liked."
Wheeler shrugs.
"That was kid's stuff. She and I had been friends since we were kids, and she was the first girl to pay any attention to me. I just started dating her before anyone else could, so I didn't end up the odd man out. It was like we were together by default. We grew up together, lived by each other, had the same group of friends..."
"Hmm, that sounds familiar."
"Nooo," he hurries to clarify now that he realizes what she's implying. "It's completely different. Now, I could have my pick of any Planeteer groupie who would throw herself at me if I was that desperate. But I don't want something meaningless. There weren't feelings involved when I was with Trish. It was convenience. If I'd wanted convenience, I'd have taken Gi up on her offer."
Her eyes widen at his confession.
"What?! Gi…offered?"
"To be clear, she was drunk. But she seemed pretty serious about her 'mutually beneficial, casual, no strings attached' proposition."
"When was this?" Linka asks curiously.
"About two years after we'd joined the Planeteers. Remember that mission in Japan where Plunder and Blight were killing whales and claiming it was part of a 'whale repellant' experiment?"
"Da."
"Gi was pretty upset by the whole thing; the fact that killing the whales was completely legal there. She was drowning her sorrows, and I was trying to tell her that alcohol wasn't going to fix anything…knowing how it messed up my Dad...my point was, 'actions would be more helpful'…like advocating for changes to the laws. Well, she misunderstood and thought I was offering other ways to take her mind off things."
"Oh."
"I totally wasn't. Never even considered anything EVER with Gi. Even if I'd been just as drunk as her…there's just no interest there for me. Of course, I'd never put it so bluntly and hurt her feelings. Actually, it was kinda offensive that she thought that's the kinda guy that I was. And obviously she knew where my interests were. I mean, you and I had just had that moment in Venice…I was still holding onto hope after that. And here I am, ten years later, still holding out hope."
"I am surprised that Gi did that. Especially since…never mind."
"Since?"
"Nothing."
"Since you'd told her about our 'moments?' Not just Venice, but Thailand. The ones they all saw in San Francisco and the Galapagos…and the countless others that kept my hopes up? She brought those up. Said if you wouldn't give me what I wanted, she could…thinking that I only wanted one thing, which was never the case."
"You know now why I have never allowed anything more."
"I do…but Gi doesn't, so don't be too upset with her. I didn't understand then what your reasons were and neither did she…and like I said, she was drunk. She apologized the next day. I told her I'd forget all about it…the only reason I brought it up now was to make a point to you…it's not about convenience for me. It wasn't when I was 18 and it's not now. You've been it for me for over ten years now. Telling me to give up just because you think you know what's best for me isn't going to be that simple."
She stays silent. It looks like she's contemplating something. Does she have something she wants to say? He prompts her.
"Linka?"
"Better get some sleep, Yankee. We must leave early if we are going to make it to northern Sweden in time to see the Aurora Borealis."
"Yeah," he says solemnly as he gets up from her bed and moves to his. He's more determined than ever to either change her mind or find a solution to her condition.
To Be Continued…