The man nodded, “Don’t you worry about that. I done stopped drinking. I looked over my life and decided beer was… causing lots of trouble. Not just like it did here, but at home and at work too. That night here, somehow, I seen the light. It’s like I suddenly understood how miserable I been making everybody around me.” He glanced away as if embarrassed. When he turned back, he didn’t look Daum in the eye. “So, I come to apologize. And I thought maybe I’d have a mug of that chamomile tea you gave me last time. In case, you know, it’s what helped me see the light. You said it was supposed to be calming, right?”
Daum nodded. “That’s what they say. You can get the makings at several stores here in town if you want. Brighton’s, for one.”
“You wouldn’t mind making me a mug tonight?”
“I’ll start it right away. You just sit down and relax.” The huge man nodded and turned away from the bar. Daum turned to send a spark into the little oil burner, thinking about how he needed to tell Kazy to grab Denny and get her back to serving. Kazy should check the big guy out too.
He blinked in startlement as he realized Kazy was standing next to him behind the bar. Embarrassed, he said, “When did you come out here?!”
“Just about the time he started talking to you,” she said. “I’ll tell Denny to come back in, then I’ll take the man his chamomile tea so I can see how he’s doing.”
She read my mind! Daum thought.
“Sorry,” she said. “Only in situations like this where I’m all keyed up. Then it’s almost impossible not to.”
~~~
Denny was back at work and Daum was pouring the tea when Kazy reappeared. She took the tea and started toward the big man, then Daum lost track of her when someone ordered a shot of moonshine. After he’d served the man, he suddenly remembered he should be watching out for Kazy while she checked on the big guy—and realized she was standing right in front of him again.
Kazy shook her head, “It seems like my changes stuck. All those roiling disgusting thoughts he used to have are pretty much gone. His mind’s a lot more pleasant. Near as I can tell, he really did stop drinking.”
“That’s what he said.”
“And, looking through his recent memories, his wife and kids seem a lot happier too.”
“That’s great!”
Kazy looked introspective. “Is it? What if I were to start changing everyone who doesn’t think the way I want them to? What if there’s someone out there like me? Someone who’s changing people for the worse? Or changing them for his own benefit?”
Daum looked at her, thinking her talent was a terrible burden, yet an immense gift. Speaking slowly, he said, “I think what you did for him was a good thing. And as long as you only change people who’re hurting others and only so they follow the golden rule, you’ll be okay.” She’d started to turn away, when he said, “And, bad people with your talent? We’ll have to deal with them if and when we ever encounter them. One day at a time, girl, one day at a time.”
Chapter Three
Since most of their profits came from ongoing contracts to make various dyes, acids, and specialty chemicals, it could be argued that the Geller family was wasting its time keeping the shop open. However, since the shop was seldom busy, mother and grandmother Geller both felt it was an excellent place and opportunity for the young ones to study. At present, Charlotte Geller was studying polymerization of synthetic elastomers, though if anyone from outside the family asked her, she’d say she was “reading the recipe” for it. She hated manning the shop, but all the kids had to rotate doing it. She’d much rather be back in the chemistry, actually making some of the chemicals they sold.
Grandfather Geller also said that when the occasional customer came in, they provided a good opportunity for the young ones to practice their sales skills. After all, he argued, there was little benefit in being an excellent chemist if you couldn’t sell your chemicals at a profit.
A pleasant looking woman came in the door, followed by a teenage girl who… My goodness, Charlotte thought, deciding the mother was bringing her daughter in for cosmetics, she’s beautiful despite those awful clothes and that atrocious haircut. She doesn’t need makeup. What she needs is someone to buy her a nice dress and trim her hair with scissors instead of a rock. Charlotte chided herself, after all, she was wearing pants too. But, in my defense, a dress isn’t appropriate for working back in the chemistry. “Hello,” Charlotte said pleasantly, reminding herself not to presume they were looking for cosmetics. “How may I help you?”
“I’m Eva Hyllis,” the woman said. She motioned to the beautiful girl, “This is my daughter Daussie. We’re looking for Brendan Geller?”
Startled, it took Charlotte a moment to realize they were looking for her great grandfather. Virtually no one used his first name. “Um, he’s not here.”
“This is Geller’s chemistry, isn’t it?”
“Yes, ma’am. Brendan Geller’s my great grandfather.” She hesitated, then explained, “But he’s almost blind. He can’t work anymore.”
The woman nodded, “Yes, I know. He came to see me about his blindness and I promised to let him know if I had any treatment for it. Also, he said I could buy some crystal violet from your shop?”
Charlotte’s eyes widened, “Oh, you’re Eva Hyllis from the Hyllis Tavern?”
The woman nodded. “Have you eaten there?”
Bobbing a quick nod, Charlotte said, “Your pizza’s… amazing! And my friend Evelyn, you set the bones in her little sister’s wrist and Mazie didn’t even cry!”
Eva Hyllis said, “Mazie’s a very sweet little girl. I was very glad we could help her.”
Charlotte came back to their original conversation when she realized Hyllis was looking at her expectantly. “You wanted to see my great grandfather. Shall I take you to him?”
“That’d be very nice,” Ms. Hyllis said. She didn’t sound impatient, though Charlotte thought she must be.
Getting off her stool, Charlotte said, “Just a minute.” She leaned through the door from the shop to the chemistry and said, “Mama, I’ve got some people here to see Great Grandpa. Shall I just put up the sign while I take them around? Or do you want someone to sub in for me?”
Her mother looked up with a frown. “Can’t you just tell them how to get there? They could hardly get lost.”
Charlotte stepped all the way into the chemistry, letting the door close behind her. “It’s Eva Hyllis from the Hyllis Tavern,” she said, excitedly. “You know, that set Mazie’s arm without even making her cry! She says she has something for Grandpa’s eyes.”
“Oh,” her mother said in a tone that conveyed both suspicion and awe. She stood up while glancing down at her notes, “It won’t hurt if this reacts a little while longer. I’ll take her around myself.”
Charlotte’s heart fell. “Can I come too?” she asked putting all the wistfulness she could into the words.
Her mother snorted, “I don’t care how amazing you think this woman is, I’ll guarantee she can’t cure blindness.” Then, seeing the eagerness in Charlotte’s eyes, her mother said, “Morgan, you man the shop while we’re gone.”
Charlotte’s young cousin’s head whipped around. “What?! That’s not fair! This’s her day in the shop.”
Unaffected by Morgan’s plea, Charlotte’s mother continued on her way toward the door to the shop. “Have you forgotten Charlotte manned the shop when you went to the caravan grounds last week?”
“No, ma’am,” he said sulkily, getting up and following her toward the door.
When they reentered the shop, they found Eva Hyllis and her daughter studying the labels on some of the chemicals that were displayed. Charlotte said, “Ms. Hyllis, this is my mother Rachel Geller. We’ll go with you to see Great-Grandfather.”
As they stepped out the door of the shop, Ms. Hyllis turned to Charlotte’s mother and said, “I’d really like to purify some collagen. Do you have any idea how that could be done?”
Rachel contin
ued walking down the block while she gave Eva a measuring look. “And you know what collagen is?”
Charlotte didn’t know what it was. She didn’t know whether her mother didn’t know and was asking, or did know but doubted Ms. Hyllis understood what she was asking about. Ms. Hyllis didn’t act offended. She just said, “It’s the most common protein in the body and a big component of skin, tendons, and bone. We’re interested in it because it stimulates clotting. We could use it to stop bleeding.” She managed to say all this without implying that she was lecturing someone who didn’t know. She also did it without sounding like she was a student reciting an answer.
“Would you want it in sheets, or as a powder?” Rachel asked without giving away whether she’d known what collagen was beforehand or not.
“A powder would be great.”
Rachel nodded, “I think the easiest way to do that would be to collect sawdust from bone so you’d already have a powder. Soft materials like tendon and skin are hard to fragment that small. Then we could wash it several times in soaps to remove the fats, demineralize it in acid, and extract other soluble components with solvents.” She glanced at Ms. Hyllis, “It’d be mostly collagen but not completely pure. The ancients would’ve been able to fully purify it, but they’d have used technologies we don’t have available.”
Ms. Hyllis produced a delighted smile. “That sounds wonderful. I’d be concerned that some antigens would remain. They might produce a reaction if a patient had to be treated a second time after they’d developed some immunity to the antigens from their first treatment, but, since we hope to only use it in lifesaving situations, the chances of a patient needing it twice would be slim.”
Charlotte had no idea what antigens were and only vague ideas about immunity. Her mother didn’t let on whether she understood them either. They’d arrived at the family home and she was opening the door. “Grandpa,” she called out, “we’ve brought visitors. Eva Hyllis and her daughter.”
When they stepped into the room, Charlotte’s great-grandfather was sitting in the light from the window, his lens in one hand and one of their handwritten “recipes” in the other. Charlotte had no doubt that he’d been laboriously reading one of their ancient printed books a few moments ago. Her mother calling out was a warning that she was bringing strangers into the house. That would’ve given him time to hide the book and bring out the “recipe.”
Great Grandpa had his face turned toward the door with a big smile on it. “Ms. Hyllis, I would’ve been happy to come to your tavern if I’d known.” He waved to the other chair and said, “Please, sit. May I offer you some tea?”
As soon as Ms. Hyllis nodded, Charlotte eagerly said, “I can get the tea, Grandpa.” Charlotte started around the corner to their stove, anxious to make herself useful enough that she wouldn’t get sent back to the shop.
The others sat while Charlotte quietly stoked the stove up a little to heat the tea. She tried not to make a sound so as not to block any words of conversation.
Ms. Hyllis began by saying, “We have a gift for you, Mr. Geller.” She nodded to her daughter who reached in her bag and pulled out a cloth wrapped object. She unwrapped it and handed it to Charlotte’s great-grandfather. Charlotte leaned back to look. She could see it was made of glass and seemed to distort light like the lens her great-grandfather used during his struggles to read. However, it was much larger than his broken lens fragment. Also, it looked new. In fact, from across the room, it looked absolutely perfect. Charlotte thought that surely, if she got a close look at it, it’d prove to have as many scratches as any of the glass objects that had come down from the ancients.
Her great-grandfather was holding it up and Charlotte realized it had a stem of glass extending from it that was serving as a handle. He said, “Is it a lens? It seems far too big to have ever been in someone’s spectacles.”
Ms. Hyllis nodded, saying, “It is much bigger. Big lenses like this were called ‘magnifying glasses,’ in olden times. I’m hoping that, even if you don’t choose to have us treat your cataracts, it might help you read a little better than your old lens.”
“Treat my cataracts?”
“Yes. After considerable study of what we’ve recently learned about cataracts, we believe we might have a treatment.”
Charlotte stopped dipping water into the pot so she could look around the corner. She was in time to see the surprise registering on both her mother’s and her Great Grandpa’s faces. The expression on her mother’s face immediately clouded with suspicion. She pointedly asked, “And just where have you been studying this?”
Great Grandpa turned his face towards his granddaughter and spoke in a reverent tone, “Rachel, they have some of the ancients’ books!”
This rocked Charlotte’s mother back in her chair.
Ms. Hyllis turned to her daughter while saying, “In fact, we have a gift for you.”
The daughter reached in the bag she’d been carrying and carefully lifted out a rectangular package wrapped in cloth…
A book! Charlotte thought, as soon as she saw the rectangular outline. Unable to stay away, Charlotte set down the dipper and drifted silently across the room. The cover was green and its bold title said, “Milton’s Biochemistry.”
Charlotte had goosebumps. The Gellers only owned one book on biochemistry and it wasn’t very comprehensive. The thickness of this one promised significantly more detail.
The beautiful young girl gently placed the book in her great-grandfather’s hands.
He let out a little moan as his hands discerned what he held. “What kind of book is it?” he asked in a quietly reverential tone
“Biochemistry,” Charlotte’s mother said, sounding awed. Her hands unconsciously extended toward the book, then dropped back. “How much do you want for it?”
Ms. Hyllis said, “It’s a gift. Perhaps you could give us a good price on some crystal violet? I know you make that. I’d also like a stain called safranin, if you know how to make it.”
“Stain?”
“Ah, perhaps you might call it a dye. I want it because safranin and crystal violet are important for staining bacteria in order to determine which kind it is that’s causing an infection.”
“Bacter…?” Charlotte stumbled on the unfamiliar word.
Her mother turned toward Charlotte to quickly whisper, “One of the classes of germs that make people sick.” She turned back to Ms. Hyllis, “I hope you’re aware that owning books is against the law here in Clancy Vail… same as it is in most other places.”
Hyllis nodded slowly, “We’re very careful.” She nodded at Charlotte’s great-grandfather, “I wouldn’t have brought it here, except that Mr. Geller and I had already come to somewhat of an understanding about ancient books. I… assumed you’d feel the same about them.”
“Oh, I do,” Rachel said emphatically. “I just wanted to be sure you understood the danger.” She hesitated for a moment, “Are you saying that you have one of the ancients’ books that tells you how to treat cataracts?”
Hyllis nodded again, “We do.”
“Is it a medication we can help you make?”
Hyllis slowly shook her head but didn’t elaborate.
“If it’s not a medication, what is it?” Rachel asked, sounding mildly irritated and unable to keep the suspicion out of her voice.
Charlotte, about to step back into the kitchen to put the tea leaves in the hot water, paused in the doorway to look at Ms. Hyllis. She had a calm look on her face as she said, “I’m sure, in your business, you have some secrets, right?”
Charlotte’s mother nodded, looking unhappy about where she thought the conversation might go.
“So do we. I’m afraid I can’t tell you how we perform this treatment. Also, we aren’t sure how well it’ll work.”
Charlotte was in the kitchen quietly scooping the tea into the pot so she was able to hear her mother say, “And how much are you going to charge for this treatment you won’t explain and that might not work?”
“If it doesn’t work, nothing. If it does, we’ll ask you to pay according to your conscience. Pay us what it’s worth to you.”
Rachel’s eyes widened at this business model. After a long pause, she narrowed her eyes and said, “And are you going to attempt this… treatment right now?”
“Oh, no. Mr. Geller would have to come to the tavern some afternoon. It’d take about half an hour, unless we were busy caring for sicker patients.”
~~~
From then on, they carried on a pleasant conversation over tea. Rachel tried unsuccessfully to feel out Ms. Hyllis regarding the possibility that there might be other chemistry books that could be copied. Ms. Hyllis said, “I think we should see how we get on before we make such commitments. Perhaps you could consider whether we might be able to copy any of your books that might be of interest to people who study the healing arts.”
After the Hyllises left, Charlotte’s mother and great-grandfather got into a heated argument over whether he should let them attempt treatment of his cataracts. Finally, to Charlotte’s surprise he said, “Rachel, I’m completely blind in my right eye. It’s useless to me as it is, so it doesn’t matter if they screw it up. Besides, I’d rather die trying to get my blindness treated, than keep living the way I am. Therefore, I am going to have them try their treatment on that eye, whether you like it or not.”
~~~
Back on duty in the shop, Charlotte mused over the fact that she’d never heard her usually jovial great-grandfather put his foot down like that.
***
The lunch rush in the tavern hadn’t been quite as heavy as usual. Of course, the rush fluctuated from day to day. Sometimes they were so busy there were lines out the door and down the street. Other times they were merely crowded. Though she told herself she shouldn’t worry, Grace always felt anxious when the lines were short. She worried it might be the beginning of a decline in business. After all, Mr. Hyllis frequently told them how new restaurants went through a busy period when they were the new thing in town. Then things slowed down to a steady state, but sometimes they slowed too much.
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