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Chapter 7 - Air Evacuation

The next day was hectic, even more than the previous two. Jonas was at the airport at the proper time and saw the aircraft. He had seen several variants of the C-130 while on active duty, but the size of the aircraft still impressed him. A ground crew member instructed him to wait in a secured area with a small group of people, whom he learned were also traveling back to the U.S. They watched litters being carried into the craft as one ambulance after another drove up and was unloaded. Then an Air Force sergeant came over and asked to see their papers; Jonas presented his. The sergeant led the waiting group closer to the craft and then he gestured Jonas forward and summoned a ground crew member, who grabbed Jonas’ duffle bags, tagged them, tore off the tag stubs, and handed them to Jonas.

“Are you traveling with any injured family members, sir? We have a couple ambulatory passengers who are,” the crew member asked.

When Jonas replied that his family members were supposed to be on the flight, the crew member called to a medic at the rear loading ramp.

“Got one here, doc!” Then he turned to Jonas. “Go see him, sir,” and pointed.

Jonas went up the ramp and the medic led him past two rows of litters stacked vertically, each with a person lying in it. Most seemed sedated and several nurses and medics were tending to them. Then they came to a section which had gurneys strapped to one side of the aircraft and seating, which looked similar to passenger airline seats, on the other. All the gurneys were occupied, but the two closest ones held the people Jonas wanted most to see.

“Papa!” Fabienne called to him, holding out her arms, and he went over.

“Hi there, precious,” he greeted her. “This is exciting, right? How’s your head feel?”

“It still aches a little, but the nurse said it would be better soon.”

He squeezed her hand and turned to Cassandra and kissed her.

“How are you doing now?” he asked.

“It feels better each day, I think,” she replied. “But this is terribly uncomfortable.”

A passing crewman—Jonas recalled that his insignia meant he was an Air Force med tech—stopped and looked at Cassandra’s restraints.

“These are a bit tight. I can loosen them, but not too much. Don’t want you sliding down the aisle when we lift off,” he smiled.

Then he looked at Fabienne. “Are your straps okay?”

“Uh huh,” she answered.

He smiled at her. “Is this your first ride on a plane?”

She answered that it was, and so did Cassandra.

“Well, it can be exciting and fun to feel us go up when we take off. In the air it might get a little bumpy but everything’s safe. It’s too bad that this bird has no windows so you can’t see out. Hey, I see they’re buttoning up now, so I need to go. We’ll be flying in the air for a bit over two hours—see you when we’re up!”

He patted Fabienne’s hand and she smiled at him. Then he turned to Jonas.

“Grab a seat over there and strap in, sir,” he said as Jonas heard the engines start and felt the massive plane shudder.

The med tech rushed aft and began checking the racks of litters located there. They took off just a few minutes later. When they were in the air and in level flight, Jonas got up and stood beside Cassandra and Fabienne, talking to them. The med tech stopped by several times during the flight to check on them, but it was an uneventful two hours before someone else on the crew came around again, making sure all was secure for landing. Soon they were on the ground with a little bump and a roar of engines, and they felt the vibration of the craft as it taxied to a parking spot. Jonas unbuckled himself and went over to hold Fabienne’s hand. She was wearing an anxious expression.

“It’s okay, precious. The flight’s over and we’re on the ground. Soon we’ll be outside.”

She nodded and gripped his hand tighter.

Then the med tech stopped by them and told Jonas, “You guys need to wait a bit until we get the more critical patients out, okay, sir?”

Jonas watched as a well-organized team quickly unclamped the litters from the racks, set them on gurneys, and wheeled them out using the aft ramp of the aircraft. Meanwhile, a crew member opened the side ramp of the craft and the flight deck crew came out of the cockpit and walked down the ramp; then the ambulatory passengers followed them out. Finally, several corpsmen wheeled most of the gurneys out and Jonas was left with just his family and a woman who was standing next to a gurney which had a man lying on it. A ground crew member came over.

“Okay, they’re ready for you two accompanieds now,” he said, addressing Jonas and the other woman, and began unlatching the remaining gurneys.

Several additional medical personnel arrived and began rolling the three gurneys back to the cargo ramp and Jonas followed. He was met by a crew member, who examined his baggage tickets and handed over his duffle bags. Jonas noticed that the aircraft had been parked on a wide expanse of concrete and off to the east, he could see a large terminal building with aircraft parked all around it. A number of tractor-trailers were lined up near the 130 and forklift trucks were unloading pallets of shrink-wrapped boxes from them.

I’m glad it’s autumn now and not hot here. It’s much cooler than home, Jonas thought. When I lived here, this time of the year Miami was mid-70s to low-80s. We’re gonna need jackets for the winter; they won’t be used to low 60s.

A white panel van with green crosses on its sides pulled up and its doors opened. It was a medical transport vehicle and Jonas saw that it had space for four gurneys and there were several passenger seats inside too. The vehicle’s driver came over to Jonas as the gurneys were being loaded, motioning to the woman to also come over.

“If they didn’t tell you, this is Miami International, but we’re not going the regular passenger route through Customs and Immigration. You still need to be cleared, so we’re stopping by the general aviation terminal’s FBO office and there’s a Customs agent there to handle the private traffic. The agent will come out to the van, so please have your papers ready. You can board the van now.”

“Ah, what’s FBO? Not that it matters,” Jonas asked.

“Fixed Base Operator. That’s just the name for the outfit that manages the general aviation terminal. All set? Let’s go.”

They drove for a few minutes and then stopped; soon a man in a light grey uniform with a CBP patch boarded. He spoke to the woman and her husband first.

“Passports, please?”

She handed them over and he looked at them, then scanned them with a device he was carrying and nodded.

“Do you have your baggage?”

“No,” she said softly. “All of our luggage was lost in the quake in Haiti. We were lucky to get out of the hotel alive.” She squeezed her husband’s hand.

“Sorry to hear that, ma’am. So you have nothing to declare on your persons? No? Okay, better luck in the future, I hope.”

She nodded and the agent went to Jonas, who handed the agent their black-covered passports.

The agent’s eyebrows went up. “Diplomatic, I see. Baggage?”

Jonas pointed to the duffels and his backpack.

“I don’t need to examine your property but I have to ask if you have anything to declare... oh, you have a 6059B. May I?”

Jonas handed the Customs document over and remarked, “We’re relocating to the U.S. from Haiti. We lost everything in the earthquake and our only possessions are in those bags. At the embassy I was told we didn’t have to value our personal items.”

The agent nodded, said, “That’s correct,” and then scanned their passports; then he put the 6059B declaration and the scanner into his pouch.

He looked up. “It’s okay; you’re cleared. Welcome to the United States and to Miami, folks,” and then he left.

Jonas was mostly happy but also just a tiny bit disappointed that he didn’t have to use his State Department authorization letter.

Another man poked his head into the van, looked around, and went to Jonas.

“You are Jonas Bernard? I’m FBI Special Agent John Norris from the Miami field office and want to welcome you to Miami.”

He flashed his badge.

He continued, “They’re taking your family and the other two people to the VA hospital and we’ll have someone meet you at admitting to let you know what’ll be happening now. And thank you for your service and congrats on your military honors.”

He shook Jonas’ hand and left the van.

Cassandra looked up at Jonas. “What was that all about?”

“Long story, honey, lots happened in the last few days and I’ll catch you up when it’s quiet and we’re alone.”

Veterans Affairs Hospital, Miami, Florida

After Jonas finished with the admitting routine at the VA hospital, a man and a woman approached him. The man gave him a business card.

“We’re FBI special agents. I’m Andrew Johnson and this is Sarah Wilkins, on special assignment from D.C. The card has my contact number. When you get settled here, call me. Everyone is interested in talking with you—the Justice Department, which we represent, State, DoD, and even the CIA.”

“Why all the attention?” Jonas asked, concerned.

“First, your Medal of Honor, and congrats on that. Then the threats against your family. Your status with the State Department. And the CIA wants more information about the Haiti situation you found yourselves in.”

Jonas nodded and headed for the room where the staff had taken Cassandra. Fabienne was now in Pediatrics and her surgery was scheduled for tomorrow. He checked in with Cassandra first.

“I hate you’re in different rooms now,” he told her. “Maybe there’s a way for you to be together after her operation. I’m gonna go see her now; then I’ll be back.”

When he went to Fabienne’s room, he found that she had a roommate, another ten-year-old girl, and the two of them were talking animatedly. He interrupted them.

“Hi, sweetheart, just checking on you,” he said.

“Hi, Papa, this is Noreen and she has to have neck surgery. I was telling her about the earthquake.”

“Hello, Noreen. I hope you get better quick,” Jonas told her as the two began chattering again, ignoring him.

Figuring that he wasn’t needed, Jonas returned to Cassandra’s room. She was alone in it, and Jonas was happy about that because he had a lot of questions about the almost-dream of the previous night.

“Hi, sweetie. Fabienne’s okay; she’s got a new friend in her room and they’re talking up a storm. How are you doing now?”

“My burns are really starting to itch now,” she commented.

“I think that’s a good sign. The skin must be healing and the nerves are starting to work.”

“Can you tell me what I’ve missed? I think you must have gotten a lot of things done because everything’s happening so quickly.”

Jonas was about to begin when there was a tap at the door frame and a doctor walked in.

“Good,” he said, “they told me that both of you were here now. I’m Doctor Walter Beauford, a neurosurgeon at the Miller Medical School at U-Miami and on the consulting staff here. My friend, Doug Haskins, referred your daughter. I’ve reviewed her chart from the Comfort, and she’s going to our imaging department to get a CT scan right now.

“Here’s what we have, and stop me if you need anything explained. Her EEG from the ship shows a high amplitude activity; that’s unusual but there’s nothing that has an epileptic appearance. It’s an unusually strong activity but it follows the normal profile, so that simply means, most likely, that her brain’s activity is at a higher-than-normal level, but still within the normal range. The tracings show no sign of epilepsy, a tumor, having an ischemic event caused by a blocked vessel, or any other neurological condition, other than the bleeding she experienced under her dura mater, but that blood pocket is quite small now, some blood’s already been absorbed.

“She has what’s called a subdural hematoma, a pocket of blood under the skull, caused by the depressed skull fracture she incurred in the earthquake. She needs surgery to remove the blood there, check to be sure all the blood vessels in the region are intact, and repair the fractured area of her skull. It’s in an area of her brain which controls the left leg, which showed weakness during my exam. The MRI and CT from the ship didn’t show any detached bone fragments but we look for them anyway. It’s about a two-hour procedure using computer-assisted surgery and has little risk, given her current condition, and that she’s alert, not in a lot of pain, responds well to a neurological exam, and is otherwise very healthy.

“Also, I want to look at the blood flow in her brain with fMRI; her elevated mental activity looks intriguing and I’m curious. It will also help me to visualize the blood flow around the injured area. It’s just like a regular MRI but takes a bit longer. I assume you’re okay with my doing that?

“You didn’t stop me so I assume you followed all that?”

Cassandra replied, “My English is not the best, but, yes, I followed you. The doctor on the ship said many of the same things, so nothing was new. Thank you.”

Jonas agreed to the fMRI, and then asked, “So the prognosis is good? And post-surgery treatment?”

“Well, we’re obviously not gods here, but given her condition and the fact that I’ve treated several hundred similar cases, I’d say that she’ll do well. For recovery and afterward, she’ll need to protect her head from bumps while the area heals. We use helmets, but there’s a new lighter weight shield available that’s held in place by a beanie. That’s much more comfortable for the patient, especially a kid. All okay? I’ll talk to you again tomorrow after I see her latest CT and the fMRI that I’ll order.”

He left and then Jonas returned to bringing Cassandra up to date on the events of the past few days.

“First, though,” Jonas said, “I need to tell you what happened last night after I left you. My discovering that Papa Legba was really communicating with you shook me up, but I was even more shaken by what happened later. I was falling asleep when that comforting sensation washed over me again and, in my thoughts, came the words, ‘Tamara’s spirit calls to Emily.’

Cassandra gasped.

Jonas said, “Tamara’s your mom but who’s ‘Emily’? What does that mean?”

Cassandra picked up her talisman and stroked it. “Manman must be communicating to Fabienne through her doll somehow. Fabienne named her doll ‘Emily.’ No wonder Fabienne is so perceptive about some things I didn’t think she’d know about.”

“There’s more,” Jonas went on. “I was wondering about that first thought when this one came: ‘Fabienne must become Tamara.’”

Cassandra clutched the talisman and whispered some Kreyòl to it. “Jonas, we need to change Fabienne’s name! It’s urgent! Vanessa will try to find her using her name because she doesn’t believe we really died!”

Jonas went on, “So that explains the next thought I had. ‘Cassandra becomes Nadine.’ That was my mom’s name—are you to change your name too?”

“Wait,” Cassandra told him. “I know that you must have heard other things too, am I right?”

“Yes. Just before I fell asleep, I had this wonderful peaceful feeling, along with the thought, ‘Tamara is Ayizan Velekete’s.’

Cassandra began crying. “Ayizan is... was... Manman’s patron. She will be Fabienne’s and Fabienne will be Tamara. Manman’s spirit will watch over her granddaughter. This news is a wonderful gift you bring to us, Jonas. Ayizan is Papa Legba’s consort and is the lwa of the manbo. She offers protective energy to her followers to keep them safe. She is also the guardian of human morality, and she’s chosen Fabienne. This happened without her even being kanzo. I have Manman’s talisman here; it’s the other one from Africa that Henri saved. When we are all together again, I must talk with Fabi... Tamara about this and her Emily. Emily is sacred now. Jonas, we have to start thinking of our daughter with her new name. It’s important!”

“Okay, I’ll look into seeing how to legally change her name—yours too, and... mine too? I guess that’s part of our disappearing too. Okay, so lots happened this week so I’ll start from when you got to the ship. Do you remember the ride in the bird?”

“The helicopter? Yes, but I was really groggy then and hurt all over.”

Jonas told her about his reconnecting with Master Chief Bronson, then learning about the Medal of Honor (that brought a gasp), the fate of her Aubry congregation (that brought tears), the funeral arrangements (that brought a nod), saving her artifacts (that brought a smile), and finding Tamara’s books (that brought chuckles). He told her that they’d get to go to Washington to meet the president and that brought an “Oh, my!”

He had to elaborate a fair amount on the Medal of Honor part for her.

Jonas looked at her. “Did they tell you anything about your treatment yet?”

“Just the nurse spoke to me. They want an x-ray to make sure the bone is in place after all the traveling and make sure the cast is proper. They need to change the dressings, be sure there’s no infection and clean any dead skin. In a way, the fallen beam kept the fire away from the broken leg so it escaped from being badly burned.”

“That’s good. I need to arrange a meeting with the FBI people and the others who want to see me. Fab... Tamara’s surgery is tomorrow, so I’ll tell them I can meet on Monday. And I need to look for an apartment nearby where we can stay during Tamara’s recovery. I’ll do that on Saturday.”

“I feel bad that I’m not able to be with her,” Cassandra sighed.

“I’ll tell her that. Hey, visiting hours are almost over and I want to tell her good night,” Jonas said. “I’ll send a kiss from you.”

He kissed her good night and hurried to Tamara’s room. Her roommate was asleep but Tamara was awake and whispering to her doll.

“Hello, sugar,” Jonas said. “Manman sends a kiss and her love.”

“Hi, Papa. Yes, I could feel it even this far. Emily says I need a new name.”

Once again, Jonas had to catch himself to keep from falling.

“She told you that? When?”

“Last night. I was falling asleep, hugging her, and she whispered it to me. I like Granmanman’s name—Manman’s manman. It’s Tamara. Can you and Manman call me that? It’s a pretty name.”

Jonas pinched himself. This was verging on the supernatural... no, this was really super-natural. Even though he had been brought up learning his mother’s traditions, Jonas had a sound U.S. educational background which emphasized the sciences and western philosophy. What he was seeing in the last two days violated almost everything he thought he knew.

“Yes honey, Manman and I spoke about that. She told me that Papa Legba agrees with that name. So, yes, from now on, we’ll call you Tamara. But it will take a little time for the people here to hear about your new name. Is that okay? If they say it wrong, please don’t be sad.”

“Papa, I won’t be sad. I think they will know my right name.”

Hmmm, Jonas mused. Interesting times ahead, I think.

Aloud, he said, “Tomorrow morning is when they will do the surgery to heal your head. I’ll be here early to be with you before you go see the doc. Please don’t be afraid tonight. The doctor is good and he knows how to help you heal.”

She nodded. “Emily says she’ll watch over me to keep me safe, Papa. Will you hold her when I go to the surgery?”

“I would be delighted to, sweetie.”

“Good. She wants you to be safe too, also Manman.”

The nurse stuck her head in. “Five minutes, sir.”

“I’m honored by her care for our whole family. Tell Emily that we’re grateful. And I need to go, so good night, my dear,” Jonas said softly, then kissed her.

He left, wondering if his world would ever be the same as it was last week.

Jonas checked at the information desk for lodging and discovered that the nearby VA Fisher House had a room reserved for him while his family was being treated at the hospital. He had missed that piece of information when he was completing all the admission paperwork. Someone on the hospital ship had been very thorough. He got directions to the building, got his room, and prepared to go to sleep. Thankfully, there were no dreams that night.

~~~~

Early the next morning, Jonas got breakfast and went to Tamara’s room. She wasn’t there, but he was startled when he noticed that the name on the room’s nameplate read “Tamara Bernard.” A nurse, passing by and seeing his puzzled expression, asked if he was looking for someone.

“My daughter,” he said, pointing at the room.

“Oh. Tamara went to pre-op. That’s in room A-022. Second bank of elevators, then get off at the bottom level.”

“Um, this says ‘Tamara’ but we checked in as ‘Fabienne.’”

“Huh. That was on the afternoon shift. I’m morning. Let’s check on what happened.”

They went to the nurses’ station and the nurse spoke to someone, who came over to Jonas.

“Hi, I’m the charge nurse. Your daughter’s record somehow got the name wrong, but that’s okay. We got it all fixed up so all of her records agree. Even the referral had the wrong name. It’s strange how that happens sometimes, isn’t it?”

Jonas agreed, but his mind was awhirl. What kind of black hole did I fall into, anyway? How did Fab... Tamara get that done? I’d better check her passport. If the name’s changed there too, I’m in deep shit.

He hurried to get to the pre-op ward, checked in, and someone showed him to Tamara’s bed. She greeted him with a complaint.

“They didn’t let me have breakfast and I’m hungry, Papa. But Emily said I shouldn’t eat so I won’t,” she grumped.

“And a good morning to you too, sugar,” Jonas grinned. “How’s your head?”

“A little hurting still and it itches!”

“Ah. Must be from the bandages. Listen, sweetie, they might need to shave some of your pretty hair, but it will grow back. And you’ll have a cute cap, a beanie, to wear as your head heals afterwards. I saw some pictures, and you get to pick out the beanie you like best.”

Just as Jonas finished explaining the need for shaving, a nurse came with some shaving supplies and explained the whole thing again while Tamara rolled her eyes.

She’s getting pretty good at that, Jonas mused. Getting good practice for being a teenager.

Then came the parade of medical people, vital signs, surgical permissions, nursing questions, IV-line check, BP cuff, monitoring wires, anesthesiologist, and finally the surgeon appeared. He picked up Tamara’s paper chart, did a double-take, logged into the computer and read the screen; then he checked her wristband. Shaking his head, he turned to look at Jonas who was valiantly trying to maintain a poker face.

“Mr Bernard, Tamara... I’m certain that wasn’t her name when I saw her yesterday... I can’t really recall what it was but I’m certain it wasn’t Tamara...”

Tamara piped up, “Tamara’s my name, Doctor. Maybe you were thinking of someone else.”

“Hmmm. Probably. Well, Tamara, your imaging from yesterday looks like it hasn’t changed from when they did it on the ship and that’s really good. There’s no more bleeding, so the surgery should be simple. We just need to get the extra blood out of there to relieve the pressure, fix the bone that cracked a little, make sure no little pieces are left behind, and check that the tiny blood vessels in there aren’t broken anywhere. We use a tiny microscope to look through some little holes I’ll make, check you out, stick some scotch tape and glue on it, and we’re done! Okay?” He grinned at her and wiggled his eyebrows.

Tamara giggled. “I followed you till you got to the tape and glue part,” she chuckled. “I’m sure that isn’t part of the current medical standards of care, is it? I thought they used band-aids with rubber bands now. Work better.”

Beauford barked a laugh. “Just how old are you anyway, young lady? That was really funny. There’s nothing wrong with your head that a little fixin’ of the headbone won’t hurt. I’ll see you inside, but you might not remember, ‘cause you’ll be close to being asleep. You’ll be fine, dear.”

He grinned at Jonas and shook his hand warmly. “She’s a delight,” he whispered. “But watch out when she’s older!”

Jonas nodded.

“I heard that!” Tamara piped up.

“Hearing’s fine too,” Beauford laughed.

A few minutes later, a nurse came in, read the monitors, disconnected some cables, and pulled out a syringe.

“This’ll make you a little sleepy, honey. It might tingle a little in your hand at first, but it won’t hurt.”

She slowly injected the anesthetic into the IV port.

“Okay, time to give the dolly to your dad. She can wait for you with him.”

Tamara kissed the doll and handed it to Jonas.

“Emily will take care of you now, Papa.”

Jonas could barely keep his eyes from tearing up.

“Say ‘bye now,” an orderly told Tamara as he unlocked the bed’s wheels and rolled it out into the corridor.

Jonas kissed her and the nurse told him, “The doctor should be finished about 10:15, but check the monitor in surgical waiting. He’ll talk to you in a consultation room near the waiting area.”

Jonas had an idea; perhaps he could get Cassandra in there too. He went up to her floor, found the nurses’ station, and asked if Cassandra could be allowed to go for the brief post-surgical meeting. After some consultation and a phone call, they agreed. Cassandra was delighted when Jonas told her.

“Gotta tell you something, but first, I need to call the FBI office.”

He made the call and got a Monday afternoon appointment. The field office was in Miramar, so they agreed to send a car to pick him up.

Then he turned to Cassandra. “She gave Emily to me to protect me and somehow I know she’s not joking about it,” Jonas said, handing her the doll.

Cassandra took it and gasped. “Mezanmi! There is power—spirit power—here!”

She pressed the doll in a few places and a carefully folded piece of fabric slipped out from between two seams. Cassandra unrolled it to reveal a small amulet, intricately shaped, on a silver chain.

“Bon Dieu!” she exclaimed again, “this was Manman’s. I forgot all about this one. I gave it to Fab... Tamara when she was five and told her it was precious and magic, that she must carefully take care of it. I must restore it just like it was.”

She got it folded up in the fabric again and pushed the little packet back between the seams in the doll.

“That explains a number of things about our precious daughter,” Cassandra said. “She is being guided, probably by the spirit of Manman. But maybe even by Ayizan. Oooo, I can’t wait to set up our own ounfò so I can make proper inquiries.”

Jonas grinned. “She never fails to surprise. Another huge surprise is that somehow all of the hospital records here seem to have her name as Tamara now. Even the surgeon was confused when he examined her before she went to the OR.”

“Really?”

“Yup. She told me last night, when I visited her. First, she said, ‘Emily says I need a new name.’ Then she told me, ‘I like Granmanman’s name—Manman’s manman. It’s Tamara.’ She wants us to call her that.”

“Oh my goodness...”

“Or goddess. Sorry. But even more, when I told Tamara that not everyone would call her Tamara at first and that she shouldn’t let that make her sad, she said, ‘Papa, I won’t be sad. I think they will know my right name.’

“Well, this morning when I went to her ward, her name on every record had been changed. The charge nurse apologized to me for it being wrong; she said mistakes like that were very rare.”

Cassandra chuckled wryly. “Jonas, this is a sign of things to come. What she does is simply another extension of her aura abilities. She’s following in Manman’s very footsteps and has her as a guide too, it would appear.”

Soon it was time to head to surgical waiting. They sent Cassandra in a wheelchair with an orderly, apparently not trusting Jonas to push her. They didn’t have to wait long; at fifteen minutes earlier than the projected two-hour surgery time, a volunteer called them to go to a consultation room.

The surgeon came in beaming. “Hello, Bernards. Your daughter is a piece of work. No sooner than we stopped the anesthetic, she began to awaken, and then kept the recovery room staff in stitches with her snarky comments. And she’s only ten? God bless. She’s smart as a whip.

“Anyway, excellent news; there was no brain damage shown in either imaging or by gross examination. We cleared the hematoma; it was well encapsulated in the membranes. There’s no trace of capillary leakage. The fracture itself was an easy reduction. No trace of any bone fragments. There was ... um... bruising, you could say, but more like a compressed area on the brain itself right where the hematoma was, but that’s normal in such cases and it self-corrects now that the blood pocket is gone. That area enervates the motor nerves for her left leg, so she’ll need PT for maybe six weeks, depending on her recovery response.

“Now to something interesting. The fMRI—that’s a functional MRI, looking at the brain while it’s doing some defined activity as opposed to just getting a scan of the organ in its resting state, indeed showed no structural abnormalities anywhere but it did suggest very unusual blood-flow activity in her mid-brain. That indicates a very high level of neurological activity.

“I’ve read about this before and it shows up in people who appear to have extraordinary empathic abilities and in people who are highly charismatic too. This is fascinating to me because it suggests that the empathic people are receiving some kind of emotional signal from others while charismatic folks are projecting something, perhaps an emotion, to others. In your daughter’s case, her brain activity at that location is at the highest level reported in the literature.

“We showed her a series of pictures with varying emotional content. One, where a baby was crying, her brain activity reached an incredible level. Other sad scenes caused a similar response. When we showed her a slide of a math problem and asked her to solve it in her head, areas in her prefrontal cortex fired and again, there was an unexpected surge of neurologic activity.

“In short, what I’m saying is that your daughter may very well be at the highest level of intellectual abilities. Her brain is ... well ... supercharged. Looking at how quickly the anesthetic was cleared from her brain is an indication of that elevated blood flow, too. I would love to work with Tamara on mapping the areas of brain function since her fMRI results are so sharply defined. Knowing what the parts of the brain do will have an enormous impact on treating neurologic health conditions. I have a grant to study brain function and we’ll be getting a new superconducting MRI with innovating coil assemblies. The coils are made with superconducting circuits, not only the magnets themselves. This allows extremely high resolution and makes the exams go faster too. This device was developed by a team of engineers working out of Johns Hopkins and we’re excited to try the device.”

“We’ve noticed that Tamara has unusual abilities,” Jonas told him as Cassandra nodded. “She’s reading college texts now, and... Cass, what did the school say her reading level was?”

Cassandra thought for a few seconds. “In French, grade 12, but in English it’s university level. All the science books she gets come from our local college, and they’re all in English.”

Jonas thought for a moment. “When she was eight, I noticed her using an 11^th grade physics textbook and she was doing the problems in it.”

“Well, that fits with what the fMRI shows. A very high cognition level,” Beauford told them. “If we can work with her, we’ll take care of her medical costs and monitor her recovery from the fracture. We’ll cover the cost of her physical therapy and get tutoring for her as well. This would all be through the University of Miami. The med school is here and the university is in Coral Gables, maybe eight miles south of here. Of course we’d never publish her identity. That’s against federal HIPAA laws.”

Cassandra asked him, “Can we think about this? We’d like to discuss it with Tamara too.”

“Absolutely. She has to be willing to help, of course. Here’s my card. You can call anytime and a secretary can get me a message if I’m in surgery or whatever. Oh, right. Please go back to the waiting room and check in; the volunteer will tell you when Tamara will be out of recovery and in her room. I hope to hear from you guys. Working with Tamara would be a joy. Bye for now.”

They shook hands and he left.

Cassandra sighed. “I suppose I need to return to my room now; this excursion exhausted me. I guess I have a way to go.”

“You’re getting there, though, honey. Let me call the patient transport person for you. I have strict orders. I won’t bring up Tamara working with him till we’re all together. Oops, I need Emily back.”

He called, and as Cassandra was wheeled off, he gave her a kiss; then went back to surgical waiting. An hour later, he was back at Tamara’s room where he heard her voice; she had a new roommate. Jonas waited outside, out of sight, until there was a lull in the chatter a minute later; then he heard her voice.

“Papa, you can come in. You don’t have to wait outside.”

Jonas shook his head. Damn.

“Emily missed you,” he said as he returned the doll.

She was wearing a little helmet.

“No, silly, she was watching over you and Manman. She knew I was safe.”

She whispered to the doll.

“Oh, I see that Manman found Emily’s amulet. She touched it so now I can feel her closer.”

Jonas thought, This is getting deeper and deeper. I need to change my frame of mind to understand this better. As he formulated that thought, a wave of satisfaction washed over him. Huh. I guess the lwa approve.

“Many of the spirits do, Papa. Just open your heart.”

“I’m learning, sugar. I’ll keep trying.”

“Good.”

“How does your head feel now?”

“The achy throb I had before is gone, I think, but the nurse told me I’d know better after six hours, when the anes... thetic all wears off. It feels strange when I move my head. The bandages feel itchy and this hard cap I need to wear is clunky.”

“I’m sure, now that your surgery is done, that you’ll start feeling much better soon. And you’ll get a much more comfortable cap to wear. It’ll look nicer too.”

They chatted for a few minutes longer, then Jonas told her he needed to get back to Cassandra. They kissed and he left, still wondering about the rabbit hole he had fallen into.

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