Tale Spinster

EP 14: BRUISES WITHIN

Claire's mother was not well. That was obvious. She was heaving quite strenuously.

"Do you have any oxygen we can use?" I asked Meister.

"There's an oxygen tank we can use in my bag," he said. His 'bag' was an old worn-out leather bag filled with messy equipment. I took out what looked like an oxygen tank; a transparent bottle half-filled with water with a mask attached to it.

"Um, how do I turn this on?"

"You just put the mask on her and it will be automatically on by magic," Meister said in a slight grumble, "How come you don't even know such a basic thing?"

I rolled my eyes. Incompetent or troubled people love to project their frustration of inability to others. It wasn't common for a person without any form of medical training to know how these 'basic' equipment should work. But I bit down my protest and reminded myself again to be more understanding.

He was hard on others because he was harder on himself, because of his Alzheimer's condition. He must have scolded himself a lot for forgetting how to operate some equipment. When I thought of him this way, it got easier to just let things slide.

I put on the oxygen mask on Claire's mother, Theresa. Just like Meister said, the oxygen mask worked automatically with magic as the water bubbled to produce oxygen and to maintain the right pressure before entering the breathing mask. I rolled the small knob at the side of the bottle to number four, adjusting the liters per minute the mask should bring oxygen to Theresa. Meister observed my movement and kept quiet which meant he approved what I was doing.

"Is it better now?" I asked Theresa.

Theresa nodded weakly.

Smiling in a friendly manner, Meister said, "Now, please tell me about your condition. We'll start with: since when you have been having a hard time breathing."

I readied a pocket book I found in Meister's bag and Van Dich gave me a pen to write. My three unseemly musketeers sat behind me, intently watching me help a healer that has been losing his mind.

***

Meister gave Theresa's prescription to Claire. The little girl would need to buy the required drugs in the city before the day ends. So I told Paul to drive Claire and made sure she gets whatever she needed and since Meister forgot how poor Claire's family was, I quietly told Paul to use the money I left in the car. Paul loved children so he accepted the task gladly. We waited for Claire in Meister's house.

"I know it looks shady," Meister suddenly said, "But you can all freshen up in a room upstairs. I promise that things are neater and cleaner there."

"Thank you, Sir Meister," I said curtly. I suppose he was waiting for me to protest as how a spoiled princess would and was surprised to see that I didn't make any fuss.

"After you freshen up, meet me in my office. We can um... talk about Lady Mirala," he said while entering the only room on the first floor. He closed it before we could say anything.

Margeritha, Van Dich, and I would have gone upstairs as Meister instructed. Except that there was no upstairs. Meister got confused and we didn't correct him.

Van Dich sat on the couch. "Well, it'll take around two hours before Paul can be back here."

I ignored Paul and took out Meister's diary. The old man might have forgotten, so I wrote the event of the day for him. He would need to check up on Theresa in three days to make sure the drugs were effective. I also found some sticky notes so I decided to create a reminder program for Meister. It turned out that the sticky notes were imbued with magic and could change into whatever color we want –which was super cool!