Chapter 34: Strange medical readings

[April/May2374AD – POV Timotheus Mellark]

In early April, one week after the Easter holidays, Rue had had her confirmation service, where she had been also baptized. After all, her own family had not had any specific religious affiliation, and only once she had arrived in our district had she been influenced by her grandparents and the Mellark family to turn towards Christian believe. Now, she was a full member of the Lutheran church, like I was and my entire family was, too.

A couple of weeks later we had another checkup with Dr. Aurelius, and same as last time, I was asked to attend again. This time the doctor focused on the readings from the device Rue had worn for the last few months. He transferred the recorded readings to his own computer, and after few minutes the software needed to evaluate the data, a graph was shown on the screen. The doctor explained:

"This is a simplified graph showing a combination of readings compressed into a single line; basically, the higher the value for a specific time, the better Rue is doing and the lower the risk of her special brain activity to do any damage. This is also color coded; green is great and red is dangerous, while yellow is in between. We can also zoom in on single days and look at the distribution over the day. Now, Rue, would you mind getting your diary out, so that we can compare the readings with what you did on specific days, please?"

The girl did that, and for the monthly graphs we could some kind of regular variation showing the school days and the farm days. School days had lower readings, and farm days had higher ones; this was easily understandable. Zooming into some of the school days we could also distinguish between days where Rue had had to take the bus and others, like when she had been with us and had been able to walk; the bus rides had lower readings. So far, the values peaked and showed all dark green when Rue had been on the farm and I had been there as well; the weekends with me being on the farm had much more greenish readings than the weekends without me being there. I did know that Rue appreciated my company, but seeing that represented in a graph on a computer screen was something I had not expected.

"So, Rue, those weekends on the farm with Timotheus here present as well, were those the times you also enjoyed the most?"

The little girl just nodded, while not looking directly at me. When we got to the last month, we again could see a very significant difference between the Easter days, with medium to slightly low readings, the hike when Rue and I had been away from everybody, with almost peaking – positive – readings, and the confirmation weekend, with lower readings again. Above and beyond that, just when looking at the long term trend, Dr. Aurelius pointed out indications and conclusions we had not seen right away:

"Look, here is a period of time with daily readings getting lower and lower, recovering over the weekend, but getting even lower in the next week, and the same again, staying yellow and partially red most of the time. Only after this one weekend there the readings get back to normal, if there is anything normal here at all. Same again one month later. Can we compare this with your diary, please, Rue?"

Rue got the details from her diary, and the weeks with lower readings turned out to be ones where she had not seen me, not even on the weekends. My job did not always allow me to spend the weekend on the farm, and sometimes, even when she had spent a few days in Appacolia, we had not had a chance to spend much time with each other. This got me curious:

"Now, how is this possible? How can those readings show when I had been close to her for some time?"

"The readings do not directly indicate that, but they represent Rue's happiness and well-being, which seems to be more or less correlated to activity level in some brain sectors. I know that there have been some research activities into the interaction between brains of people who are very close to each other, but this is a field where we have many gaps in our knowledge. Some reports show similar dependencies between people who have been close for a real long time, like after decades of being married, but I have not yet heard something even remotely similar for people who just met for the first time a year ago. Lacking a better term, it looks like two soul mates have found each other and their brains harmonize almost perfectly. Not all colleagues working in this field would agree with me on that, but I am sure that brains can communicate at least on the basic empathic level; I'd bet my reputation on that – your two brains and hearts can somehow tell about the other."

"How is this possible?"

"Young man, I do not know, and it worries me more than just a little bit that I don't know. However, at this time I care mostly on the effect that has on Rue's well being, and there is an obvious dependence, to some extent maybe in both directions, but very clearly making Rue's brain kind of benefiting from your closeness. I would like to continue seeing those readings for at least a few more months, but so far it clearly appears that you, Timotheus Mellark, spending time with Rue Madison on a regular basis, contribute a lot to her staying healthy. Others, like her grandparents and Ruth, also help, but way less than you do."

Me spending time with her contributed to her health? I needed to digest that, but there was even more to come:

"It's not only that, but look at the patterns during the nights, when Rue is asleep."

We did so, and it was apparent that some nights had much more and consistent 'green' readings than others.

"Wait a second" I said, while trying to correlate the patterns with the calendar, "what is different about those nights?"

Rue checked her diary once more, and then she told us:

"It looks like the 'green' nights are those when you stayed on the farm with me, Tim, and also the ones when I stayed at your family's home, specifically when I went to sleep with you in your bed instead of the pull-out bed with Ruth."

She had a tendency to do this when she stayed with us; rather than using the additional bed in my sisters' room, she seemed to prefer to sleep with me, and I did not mind that at all. My whole family had accepted this as normal, which was somewhat surprising for me. I wanted to make sure that I understood this right and thus asked:

"Let me get this straight: When we sleep together and share a bed, your sleep is more healthy than when you sleep alone?"

"It does appear like that, yes" the psychologist nodded. "Not only a little bit more healthy, but very significantly so."

"Again – how is this possible?"

"Unfortunately, again, I do not know. However, it appears to be certain that your proximity to Rue, Mr. Mellark, is a critical factor for her well-being, and the two of you share a bond which is very rare between people and has never, as far as I know, been observed in such an extreme way."

"So, just to understand that, would that also imply if I decided, for instance and just in theory, to move away from the area and we would not see each other for years, she might get real unhappy and sick?"

"About the 'unhappy' part, this is something Rue might want to say for herself, but yes, not seeing you for an extended period of time at least significantly increases the chance of the dangerous brain waves getting out of control and doing permanent damage to her brain and body, likely eventually killing her. For that to happen, a separation time of only a month or two might actually suffice, as I have to admit, although the margin likely depends on other factors, too."

I shook my head, because I did not understand how something like that was possible. Sure, people might become unhappy or even desperate when they were forced to be separated from loved ones, but this was a little girl; I was not related to her, and despite all feelings I had for her, I sure was not her lover. How could my presence keep her healthy, and could a potential separation potentially even endanger her life? I did not get it, but probably neither did the good doctor. Rue was apparently getting really worried now, and this showed on her face:

"Tim, do you really want to move away?"

"No, I do not, not at all, I was just speculating to understand the implications; don't worry."

Her face clearly revealed how relieved she was by hearing me say that. And, of course, while I did not have any legal obligations towards her, my mind was set to help her as much as I could. At this time at least, with her going to school in Appacolia and me having my job here, we'd frequently see each other anyway.

We had some time to talk after we had left Dr. Aurelius' office, and when the four of us – Rue, her grandparents and I – sat together in a restaurant for lunch, in a separated corner booth, Rue told me:

"Tim, I feel bad about that. You certainly have plans for your life, and by making you aware of the huge impact your presence has on my health, you may feel obliged to change your own plans for my benefit."

"Rue, please don't worry about that. My current plans call for staying in this region anyway, and I do not have specific long term plans."

This was not entirely true, as I had to admit if I was honest to myself. I had a vague idea of moving to Rainbow Valley in District Sixteen at some time in the future, as I loved real mountains, and the area there was stunningly beautiful, based on my own view and preferences, at least. For the time being, though, I was not willing to leave my family and specifically Rue behind, and Rainbow Valley could certainly wait. Now, Mrs. Jones also mentioned the concerns she and her husband had:

"I really wish that we knew what happens here and why our granddaughter is like she is. Rue, you are the best granddaughter we could ever wish to have, but we are worried; there is something going on which we cannot understand. Of course, we will help as much as we can, but it does appear that this young man here can help you much better than we can. Mr. Mellark, please don't leave us and specifically her!"

"Absolutely; if further readings confirm what we just learned, we will just make plans together, and I am sure that we can arrange something which allows us to meet frequently and spend some time together on a more or less regular basis."

As a matter of fact, I liked Rue enough to want more than just seeing her from time to time, but I could not really impose on the girl, who I considered like a little sister. And, of course, there would be the issue of her bodily development. As soon as she started puberty, I could foresee that my current view might change, and I would become at least very confused about my feelings for her. Would I be able to see her body slowly changing from girl to woman and still be happy with her like a sister? Would my own body betray me and would my hormones drive me to see her as more, specifically with the continuous lack of a girlfriend? Or would my feelings for her change from 'little girl – cute' to 'older girl – awkward' or something like this? Maybe I should enforce my efforts to actually find a girlfriend? But this could not be enforced, and I did not know what to do. So far, fortunately, Rue's body did not show any signs of puberty, and she still had all of her baby teeth. Time would tell, I guess, and we would have to see. Sooner or later I'd have to think more about long term plans, though, but whom to discuss them with?

After the most recent session with Dr. Aurelius I was feeling increasingly uneasy. Not only Rue's state of health bothered me, but also the outlook on the future for her and me. I really enjoyed being with her and spending a lot of time with her; she was one of my favorite human beings to be around with, and she and I understood each other without many words. From my point of view that could go on for a long time, but what would happen once her bodily development and her puberty started? Not only was this going to be an end to being allowed in bed with here, I did not trust my own body to not react to her changes. A Rue with developing female curves might arouse feelings and reactions in me which were entirely inappropriate to have for a young teenage girl, specifically one who looked like she was still in elementary school. She liked me like a big brother and I considered her like a very dear little sister, and I had no intention to violate that trustful relation. I had no idea how this might work out in future, but on the other hand I could not abandon her either, as her well-being depended on me a lot, as we had learned. Nobody understood how this was possible, but the facts were clear. In order to keep her healthy, I was supposed to spend time with her on a regular basis, preferably also sleeping together, but once her puberty started, this would no longer be easily possible for obvious reasons. What to do about that? For now, I had no idea, but I knew that those thoughts would worry me a lot in the future.

Meanwhile, Mr. Jones was getting increasingly curious about the old mine which had been cleared and where we had found lots of machinery, many kilometers of underground passages and a group of locked-in miners. Police had concluded their investigations, and they had gained information from the criminals they had caught. It was obvious that the people had considered the mine to be good enough to exploit further, and they had not only operated it illegally, as it was fully on the premises of the Evergreen farm; they had also used forced labor, akin to slavery. It was up to Mr. and Mrs. Jones, who owned the ground and consequently the mine on it, to decide what to do about it now, and I suggested:

"Look, I know a family with a mining expert. What about asking him if he can find some time to investigate the mine in more detail?"

I was thinking about the Hawthornes; I had learned earlier that Robert Hawthorne was a mining expert, and he might know what to do, although I did not know if the Jones could actually afford to hire and pay an expert for an extended period of time.

The Jones agreed to the idea of having an expert investigate, but were worried about cost; for now, I was going to check with the expert at least.

A few days later I stopped by at the Hawthorne farm on my way home from work and asked if Robert, the youngest of the three brothers, had some time to talk. It happened that he was home, and when he learned that I wanted to talk to him, he invited me to dinner right away. As I had seen before, all of the Hawthornes and the few hands they had shared a huge table in a large dining room, and some of them, in particular little Lucy, the girl Ben and I had rescued from fire a few years ago, were very happy to see me. Lucy insisted to sit next to me, and she managed to talk almost all of the time about this and that, which I did not mind at all. She was a real chatterbox, and one of the adult women reminded her a few times not to talk all of the time, but I confirmed that I did not mind listening to her. To be honest, with her talking most of the time, I did not get a chance to talk much, and this was just fine for me.

Once we had eaten, Robert Hawthorne and I stepped outside, and I asked how busy his job kept him. He said that we was working as a freelance mining advisor and did not have fixed work hours. Sometimes he was working very hard on a specific project, and sometimes he did not have much to do for some weeks. In our district, there were activities to investigate places where mines had been in pre-war times, and the government wanted to find out where valuable minerals might be still available and accessible in the ground. Lots of documentation on those places had been lost, and thus mining experts were needed to check.

"I will have a mine exploration coming up next week, lasting for a month or two" Robert explained. "For that time, I will have to be away from home, as it is going to be a few hours out."

"Does it bother you to work far from home at times?"

"Yes, it does, but at least it's a job which pays good money. I'd rather stay home, but the farm is not large and profitable enough to support all of us. Mine exploration is all right, specifically during the holidays when I can take Rory, my oldest son, with me."

"Rory likes that?"

"He not only likes it, he seems to have a special and quite rare gift for it. He has already been able to kind of smell or sense areas with interesting mineral deposits, and he has certainly found his future occupation. We Hawthornes aren't stubborn and expect all of our kids to also be farmers, and how could we, with having one of the founders of the District Rangers as ancestor."

"So, after this job, what's next?"

"I don't know yet; something will come up sooner or later, I guess; it usually does, although offers aren't always lucrative."

I told him about the mine in the hills and asked:

"So, the Jones will not be able to pay a lot, but they wonder if you could spend a week or two to provide some initial estimations on what's still down there in the ground."

"Hm, I am not sure about that. Are you aware of the feud between the Hawthornes and the Jones?"

"What? A feud? Are you serious?"

"Well, feud is probably too strong a word, and I do not know all of the details, but Ma mentioned a few times that the Jones sided with her brother in a kind of family twist, and that had, like fifty years ago, caused some unrest on our side."

"So that's the reason that you don't really have much contact with your neighbors on that side? They are your neighbors, right?"

"Yes, they are our direct neighbors, even at some distance, and yes, that's the reason, but on our side nobody else but Ma is old enough to know the real story. Personally, I do not have a reason not to work for the Jones."

"Thank you for telling me about this. But, for now, let's please get back to the technical aspects, if you don't mind."

"Right, sure. So, you mentioned lithium sources, didn't you?"

"Indeed, one of the miners I met said something about 'pegmatites with a high lithium content', if I remember correctly."

"Now, if this is really true, there may be a chance to get a government contract. We still need lots of lithium for batteries, and additional sources are always welcome, although some of the more advanced batteries use different materials. If we can confirm that there is enough of that mineral available, we should be able to secure a deal with the government. They'd provide some initial money for a very detailed survey, and they'd have first rights to buy whatever is mined."

"Really? That seems to make sense. What would we need to do?"

"Look, if you want to work with me, I'd actually like that; the Evergreen farm is not far from here, so that I could stay close to home. You could hire me, let's say, for a month, and I would provide an initial survey. Of course I cannot guarantee that it will be good enough for a government contract, but we shall see. Best time would be second half of July and August, and during that time I could take Rory with me – school holiday time. I'd suggest to have me take not less than a month; those investigations need time."

"What is your rate going to be?"

"I need to take some instruments with me, and I have to admit that it's not going to be cheap."

He mentioned an amount of money which was not very much on my scale, but might be for the Jones; I'd better think about a way to make this affordable for them, and I was already prepared to cover part of the cost. Naturally, I'd be honest with Rue about all that.

[Author's Notes: Strange readings shown by Dr. Aurelius, indeed; more details on that will be shown in later chapters.]