Wuthering Dormice (aka Bike) Part 736 by Angharad

I phoned Marguerite that evening, and much to my delight she was in and actually remembered who I was. I hadn’t spoken to her for more than a year, so it was rather nice to talk again.

“I’m astonished that you remember me,” I said glowing.

“To be brutally honest, Cathy, I don’t have that many transsexual aristocrats to confuse you with.”

“I suppose not.”

“Sorry to disillusion you, but I’d rather be honest, though honesty in your mind would mean I was still selling deception and fairy tales, wouldn’t it?”

“Depends on your motives, in your case I’d give you the benefit of the doubt.”

“Where’s the fearless scientist I met last time? That answer was based on pure emotion, because you don’t want to upset me in case I refuse to marry you, or is that why you’re calling, you’ve already got someone else to do it?”

“No I’d still very much like you to do it, but that isn’t why I’m calling.”

The next morning I arrived at the vicarage with Trish and Livvie, they were introduced to Marguerite’s children and happily went off to play together in the garden. I had a change of clothing with us in the car if it became necessary. Marguerite and I wandered down to the church.

“What was it you wanted to discuss?” she asked me as we settled in the seats at the back of the church.

“Do you believe people can heal each other?” I asked her.

“Of course, doctors and nurses plus loads of other health professionals do it all the time.”

“No, I meant heal, not treat.”

“Sort of spiritual healing?”

“Yeah, but I’m not spiritual, am I?”

“You do talk yourself down, don’t you?” She paused and looked at me, “You have the gift, don’t you?”

“I think so, no, yes I do, but I think curse could be a better descriptor.”

“Oh, and why is that?”

“Well to start with, look at the guy you worship, didn’t do him a lot of good did it?”

“I take it you mean Jesus?”

“Yes.”

“He was cursed insofar as he was prophesied to die.”

“We’re all going to die, Marguerite.”

“Ah, but some will live again through the efforts of the Master.”

“Sorry, I don’t believe that.”

“That’s your prerogative.”

“Yes I know, and sometimes I feel a fraud asking you to marry me because of it.”

“At least you’re an honest agnostic, Cathy, many aren’t and so far we only have got as far as outline planning permission; I’m still waiting to meet Simon and get some more detail – such as a date and where you want to marry.”

“I’ll get back to you on that, Marguerite, but for the moment I’d like to talk about this healing business.”

“Okay, so who have you healed?”

“Several people, ranging from one of the girls you see with me, to my sister-in-law to be, premature child and two very sick people, plus one I couldn’t save.”

“Why do you think you healed them, was this a conscious thing?”

“Not at first, I healed two of the girls I look after, my foster children – I didn’t realise it was me, they just got better. Then when I went to see Stella’s baby, she had post-natal depression, big time; others said she perked up when I went to see her, which I thought was just her feeling better for someone loving her.”

“Which I’m sure is also true,” Marguerite said, nodding to emphasise the point.

“Yeah, well that’s what I thought until one day I had Trish with me, and she saw a blue light moving from me to the baby.”

“Okay, so is she an imaginative child?”

“Yes, but she’s also extremely honest, so if she said she saw it, she saw it.”

“I see, continue.”

“Well the baby got better, then others seemed to get better if I was near and a doctor asked me to try on a child who was going to die.”

“His medicine wasn’t good enough, so he called on our agnostic saint?”

“He’d done all he could and it still wasn’t working. I owed him dozens of favours, so I agreed to help. Instead of dying, the child went home a day or two later, apparently well.”

“You mentioned one who didn’t.”

“Yes, I knew what was wrong with him before the doctors told me, and I thought I’d done what was required; sadly it wasn’t and he died. It was quite a shock.”

“Yes, maybe it happened to stop you becoming arrogant or even complacent about your gift.”

“I hadn’t thought of it like that, but why not punish me, not some poor kid who wasn’t involved except as a victim.”

“It might have been his time to go.”

“You don’t honestly believe all that sort of stuff, do you?”

“Stranger things have happened.”

I gave her an old-fashioned look, that was a cop-out if ever there was one. “Since then, I’ve given it my all when I try to heal.”

“Why was that, there’s something you’re not telling me?”

“Okay, one of my foster kids, the youngest one, Mima, drowned and was pronounced dead at the scene by the paramedics. I refused to accept it and just blasted her with energy and love, and did CPR. She revived.”

“I’m really glad, so you raise the dead as well?”

“No, I don’t think so, I believe that small children can survive for periods without oxygen, they go into a sort of torpor from which they can be resuscitated.”

“You don’t think the paramedics could know more about this than you?”

“Usually yes, but not that day. I knew I had to save her.”

“And you pushed love and healing into her?”

“Yes.”

“There’s your answer, love is a wonderful power, it can do many wonderful things, including save lives.”

“Okay, so that might be the answer there, what about the others? I didn’t love them.”

“Didn’t you? Didn’t Jesus tell us to love one another as ourselves?”

“Probably, but it seems wasted on Christians.”

“Nothing is wasted which comes from God.”

“I think I might disagree with that statement.”

“Your prerogative.”

I explained my theory of healing which she accepted as a possible explanation of the method, not the reason. “What do you mean, reason?”

“So you whack electromagnetic energy into a sick body through some sort of energy gradient, and they get better? That’s the how, what’s the why?”

“I dunno, because it’s what I want to happen?”

“Ah, so it’s all an ego trip is it?”

“No, that isn’t what I mean. If I have control of the power, then don’t I decide on who to use it?”

“Cathy, I hate to say it but you’re beginning to sound god-like, and I don’t like it very much.”

“I didn’t mean it to come out like that. I’m sorry.”

“That’s okay, I didn’t for a moment think you’d meant it that way. Look if this mysterious power is so good, would you give me a demonstration of it.”

“What do you mean?”

“I have someone who is much in need of it and even if it doesn’t restore her to health, if it works at all, could help to ease her passing.”

“I don’t know, I mean…”

“Come and meet her and see what you think, if you don’t want to do it, that’s fine.” She took my hand and led me out of the church and towards the village. “I was promised a miracle, maybe you’re it.”