“Who was singing that beautiful song?” Cynthia asked in wonder.
“Her name is Aria,” Dr. Cole replied. “She’s a coma patient at the Harbor View Burn Center. She’s been singing songs similar to this one since yesterday morning, even though her brain is in a vegetative state. Until just now, everyone who has been healed was in her presence as she sang. We recorded her last healing session to see if recordings would work as well as live performances. They appear to work just fine.”
“How is she singing if her brain isn’t functioning?” Cynthia asked in puzzlement.
“That’s the big mystery,” Dr. Lorenzo replied with a sigh. “She is defying everything we understand about how consciousness works.”
“We would appreciate it if you kept this miracle to yourself for a few weeks,” Dr. Cole said gravely. “We need to get as many songs as possible on the internet before the FDA tries to put a halt on it.”
“Why would the FDA try to stop the cure for cancer from being shared?” Cynthia asked in shock.
“Because they do whatever the pharmaceutical companies tell them to do and these songs are going to get rid of all of the diseases in the world almost overnight,” Dr. Lorenzo explained with a disgusted shake of his head. “This represents the end to their empire of drugs and malpractice. They’ll fight for their survival with everything they’ve got.”
“So what’s the plan now?” Rhapsody asked the two doctors with a raised eyebrow.
“Now, we start bringing in every kind of diseased patient we can find,” Dr. Lorenzo replied. “I noticed that Aria sings differently, depending on what the patient’s condition is. If there is a unique song to cure each of the major illnesses in this world, I want to get them recorded while we have the chance.”
Rhapsody nodded her agreement. While it was beyond amazing to heal cancer, AIDS and cystic fibrosis, it would be positively astounding to be able to heal all of the world’s illnesses. She was still having a hard time believing this wasn’t some kind of epic dream.
When they returned to the burn center, Dr. Lorenzo and Dr. Cole reconnected the microphone array and laptop to the bed. The rest of the day was spent recording new songs as the two doctors kept returning with different patients. There were several attempts by reporters to sneak in, but the security team nabbed them every time.
The days began to blur together for Rhapsody as she watched a steady stream of sick patients wait their turn to enter Aria’s room. Rhapsody had finally convinced Harmony and Melody to spend a few nights a week at their own house. Aside from Aria’s continued singing, there had been no indication at all that she might suddenly awaken.
After two weeks of marching sick patients into Aria’s room, Dr. Lorenzo and Dr. Cole did a mass upload of all of the recordings to every video and audio site they could find. Each song had a title to match the illness it was meant to heal. There were hundreds of millions of downloads before the medical industry realized what was happening and began shutting the videos down with claims of copyright infringement. It was too late though; every time one of the songs was pulled offline, one-hundred more of the same thing replaced it.
Rhapsody couldn’t help chuckling to herself in amusement as the media tried to smear the source of all of the healing. It looked like they were resorting to outright lies, claiming that many people who had listened to the healing music had suffered from heart attacks and strokes. If they were dealing with common cold or flu patients, their tactics might have worked; but they were dealing with people who already had terminal illnesses and severe disabilities. These people were willing to gamble a lot for a chance to have a normal life again.
The stock market crashed within a few days of the songs being published to the internet, as shares in pharmaceutical companies plummeted like a rock. Rhapsody felt a sense of grim satisfaction at the giant’s collapse.
By the time the FDA had regrouped enough to start banning the use of Aria’s music, the majority of the world’s illnesses had been cured. The political landscape quickly changed as the funding from pharmaceutical lobbyists dried up. The UK and Canada made a point of rubbing the United States’ nose in the fact that if they had switched to universal healthcare several years ago, their economy wouldn’t have crashed.
After two months of being in the hospital, the doctors released Aria to Harmony and Melody to take care of at home. The medical equipment was ridiculously expensive, but thanks to Harmony’s booming chain of karaoke bars, as well as an anonymous donation of fifty million dollars, she was able to afford it. They had erected a kind of shrine for visitors to stop at outside the house, where Aria’s voice could still reach them with its healing power. There was always a steady stream of amputees and serious injuries that required her to heal them individually.