CHAPTER TEN – Namanda and Tracy
Van approached the navy blue Ford Excursion. After shaking hands with Sheriff Kane, he introduced himself. “Hello, my name is Jamison Vance, but people call me Van. I’m a guest here just out for a stroll.”
Tracy Dobblelaere, a voluptuous blonde of incredible facial beauty, extended her hand. “I am Tracy, and this is Namanda Mehra.”
Jamison looked at Namanda but the teenager looked away while extending her hand. She, too, was a beautiful young girl, with a face of olive brown skin framed by lustrous coal-black long hair. He had expected typical Indian garb, a sari perhaps, but the fourteen year old wore a white tee with Mickey Mouse smiling over her emerging bosom. The blue jeans looked like a recent purchase. Namanda made no verbal response to Jamison’s hello.
“This is so like the area where I grew up. It’s uncanny.”
“Where was that, Tracy?”
“In Belgium, in the Ardennes, close to the French and Luxembourg borders.”
“You speak English fluently.”
“I should, since I teach it,” she said with a grin. “French is my native tongue and I also had to learn Hindi.”
Tracy possessed a winsome smile, and the smattering of braided hair flattered her. Jamison was reminded of Bo Derek with the high cheek bones and fair complexion, and, of course, the braids.
“See the hills that surround us? Below the far sides of them is a river that surrounds the hills.”
“That is also like my original home. The Semois River wraps around where my parents live to this day.”
Autry interrupted. “We need to get their things unloaded. I will need to leave before too long.”
Both women had one travel bag each, but there was also a violin and sketch pad that Namanda had brought along. Once the items were deposited in the cottage, the four made their way to the barn.
Namanda inhaled a gasp when she saw the interior, both hands pressed against her lips. With wild eyes she took in every plant, nook, and cranny, then………….she saw Joshua. Her knees locked together, then buckled. She bent over, her arms wrapped around her chest while looking at the floor like she was attempting to cover her nakedness. She moaned in an escalating “Ohhhhhh.” Namanda then stood erect and ran to Joshua, embracing him with her head firmly pressed against his chest.
“Namanda and her family are of the Christian faith,” Tracy volunteered. “I think the image startled her. It’s rare to see her make physical contact with someone, especially a stranger.”
Joshua shook hands with Tracy while holding Namanda, then turned the youngster to introduce both guests to Adele, who said, “Come on, you two, there is something to eat laid out over here. Are you hungry?”
“Yes, we should eat. We haven’t eaten since breakfast at the Orlando airport. Autry was waiting for us when we stepped off the plane in Knoxville; so yes, a spot of food sounds lovely. Adele, you hinted at what we would see here, but this is considerably more than I had envisioned. It’s lovely.”
“There’s some quartered tomatoes, cottage cheese, lettuce, tuna salad, blackberries, brie, and some crackers. Help yourself, there’s paper plates and napkins over there.”
Autry interrupted before the gathering became comfortable. “I need to go, folks, real nice meeting you ladies. Joshua and Adele, I need to tell you something. Walk with me out to my car.” They did. “Listen, I got a call from my dispatcher that a woman from over in Bowling Green was desperate to talk to me, so I called her. She says she’s a nurse at a hospital and that her nephew is terrible sick with cancer. Said that she ran out of the NIL someone from over here gave her and she wants to know how to get more. What do you think we should do?”
“Did you check her out?” Adele was all too familiar with her husband’s detective work.
“Well, I called the hospital she said she worked at and I asked to speak with her. They said she wasn’t due in until four o’clock. So it’s true she is a nurse at a hospital. I had the office run her and she came up clean.”
“Call her and tell her we’ll send a sixteen ounce jar, but it will cost twenty dollars; that anyone outside of McCreary is not in the test market and not eligible for a freebie.”
Joshua objected. “I think we should send her a free jar, then see if she is interested in distributing. If so she would have to come here to be screened. If she checks out, we’ll give her five more free jars. She is a nurse, so it could be that she has far-reaching contacts, but more than that, access to sick people. That’s what I want to do, so call her, get her address and mail one right away. Adele, let’s not let a couple of dollars cloud our thinking. It’s healing and a testimonial base we are after.”
“Ok, I guess, but Autry, don’t you dare tell her that the NIL can heal anything, even a hangnail. We can’t make that claim, especially to someone in the medical profession, you hear?”
“Consider it done. You folks have a grand old time. I gotta git.”
While they sat and ate of the light fare, the conversations were about India, the University of Delhi, Disney World, and tuna salad, which neither Tracy nor Namanda had ever heard of before, let alone consumed. Van was often distracted by the overhead blue lighting which reflected from the luminous strands of Namanda’s jet black hair as if neon-lit in a flickering dance. He was unobtrusively watching for the signs of high-functioning autism; and, as of yet, there was not much there, other than her lack of eye contact with all but Joshua. Adele asked Namanda how she was doing in school. The reply, without eye contact, was “Fine.”
Tracy then said that Namanda would be fifteen in August and would start her junior year at the University. “She’ll be in one of my English classes, though she doesn’t need it, she’s quite fluent already.”
“My, fifteen years old and a junior in college?”
“Yes, she’s jet-streaming right through our curriculum, but it’s a waste of time really. She is not challenged by anything we can offer her. Her understanding of complicated issues, like algorithms, the atomic chart, quantum-mechanics; there’s been nothing she hasn’t grasped beyond her teacher’s or text’s abilities.”
Suddenly Namanda rolled her head back and rather loudly emitted, “haHA.” Joshua also laughed out loud.
Van noticed the first tell-tale sign of an autistic emission, but then Joshua explained the situation with a wide grin.
“Namanda and I have been communicating while you have been making small talk. I asked her the atomic symbol of Xanthium, which made her laugh because there isn’t a xanthium element; it’s a plant, highly toxic by the way.”
Van looked at Adele to see if she heard the same thing he just heard. Adele asked Joshua for an explanation.
“This is a first for me too. Usually there are only one-way impulses. She is absolutely incredible. Let me see, I’ll think of something she couldn’t possibly know and we’ll see if she can repeat it.” Joshua contemplated, then, “Ok, I’ve got it. Namanda, speak out loud the words I silently give to you, ok?” She nodded affirmatively.
“Take,” she repeated, apparently an echo of Joshua’s thought.
“Me out.”
“To the ball game.”
“Take me out to the park. haHA.”
Van was staggered, having been unconvinced of the certainty of telepathic abilities for all of his professional life, even discounting the assertions of identical twins who purported to know each other’s thoughts. He would give twins leeway that they might be able to think the same thing at the same time, even husbands and wives can do that, but that was not the same as communicating dissimilar thoughts telepathically. These two were complete strangers.
“I have got to get this on my smart phone, can you repeat what you just did?”
“No, I won’t do that, Van. It’s not fair to her or me. Just let us enjoy each other for this little while and I’d rather not have this exchange get out to the public. I think I mentioned to you that what Namanda and I possess can be a crippling curse.”
“I agree,
” Adele added. “But let me tell you, Joshua, what you two have just done has never been documented in any journal that I’ve ever read. I think it’s a first as far as recorded history is concerned. At least both Dr. Vance and I have had the marvel of seeing it happen, and I promise you no one will be reading about it.”
“Thank you. It’s important to me. Now I want to show Tracy and Namanda the workroom before we have our afternoon NIL 57. Come, ladies.” Joshua and the two guests left the coffee garden.
“Adele, I am dumbstruck. You knew I was skeptical, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I surmised that; and to be honest with you, I was unconvinced until Joshua lived with Jack and me. He is amazing, isn’t he? And you know what else? He hasn’t flaunted it with you. He’s been very low key; but if he wanted to, he could recite the beneficial properties of, say, the dandelion for ten minutes, citing references and page numbers. Or he could probably tell you exactly what’s on your mind. That kind of gift spooks people, and I think it may be why Joshua lives the way he does. Namanda can do the very same thing with her photographic memory, but I didn’t know of her telepathy until now.”
“Tell me more about what Joshua did after leaving Lexington.”
“He lived in Lafayette while attending Purdue and worked weekends as a landscaper to raise spending money. He graduated in three years, then visited the reservation in Arizona for the summer immediately after graduation. He showed the Apache community how to raise better crops in that arid region. That’s when he and Hachika, his father figure of the early years, began experimenting with herbs and minerals.
He joined the Peace Corps after his stay out west, and he visited quite a few remote areas of the world, including Okinawa, the Marianas, and several countries in eastern Africa. In each place he instructed the locals on crop implementation. He also became quite proficient as a builder of things, including bridges and dams and irrigation systems. He spent two years in Kenya, but he became disillusioned by the caste system and atrocities of human dignity there.
He returned to the States and visited with Jack and me for a short while, then went back to the reservation. The plants you see in the barn here are being cultivated on the reservation also. When Jack got the inside track on the Park Service shutting this place down and successfully negotiated the long term lease, we called Joshua and offered him the deal he has now. We were quite surprised when he showed up on our doorstep, for we had never before seen him as a Jesus look-a-like.
His experiences changed him, Jamison. Somewhere along the line, I think he was hurt by something or someone; but he won’t talk about it. We had never known him to be this reclusive. He’s done an incredible job transforming this place in the three years he’s been here. That pretty much sums it up. I wonder what’s become of those three. Let’s go see what they’re up to.”
The workroom was abandoned as was the area outside by the water tank. “Oh my God, would you look at that?”
In the valley below, the three stood in the midst of several deer. Namanda ran with her arms in airplane wing fashion, hopping and skipping through the herd of excited deer that seemed to be egging her on. Adele waved to them; and after a few moments, the three began the unhurried return to the barn.
“Adele, these two days have been the most bizarre experience of my life.”
“Told ya you’d be blown away.”
+ + + + +
Nurse Ralston debated….should she, or shouldn’t she? Alone inside the fourth floor nurse’s washroom she examined the vial in her hand. It was two minutes until four p.m., the time her shift started, so she needed to either fish or cut bait. She fished. It was just a half ounce; what damage could it do? It went down smoothly. What she didn’t know was that almost immediately, her pancreas sprang into action, producing the peptide hormone insulin, which promoted trillions of cells in her body to intake elevated amounts of glucose from her blood stream. Energy building glucose, strengthening muscle tissue, and by the end of her shift at midnight, she would recognize the absence of the pain in her arms and calves and feet.
What she also didn’t know was that almost immediately the molecular structure of nitric oxide dilated her blood vessels, thereby increasing the interaction of nerve cells in her brain, which noticeably improved the sensual perceptions of smell, sight, and hearing. What she didn’t know was that the elevated oxygenation of her arteries was delivering a temporary debilitating blow to atherosclerosis, thereby promoting the development of more nitric oxide, which promoted increased endurance and muscle strength without inflammation.
She didn’t know that twenty other beneficial reactions to every organ in her body, including the heart, spleen, liver, stomach, lungs, intestinal tract, but especially the brain would be occurring while she performed her charting routines and patient consultations. What she would know by the time her shift ended was that she wanted more NIL, a lot more.