Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 88114 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88114 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
“Okay, Mrs. Hayle, thank you for coming back. If you remember, we did a lot of tests on you last time. MRI, X-Ray, bloodwork, everything I could think of. You’ve been scanned and drained and poked enough, right?”
Mom laughs lightly. “I don’t know, Doctor. You’re just doing your job.”
“Sweet of you to say.” He clears his throat. “Your scans came back mostly clean. The MRI showed some oddities that I want to follow up with, but nothing we need to worry about right now.”
“Cancer?” Mom asks, looking surprised.
“No, nothing like that.” He glances at me and keeps going. “There were also some strange values on your bloodwork. I want to take another shot at it just to make sure the lab didn’t screw something up. I’ll be honest with you, Mrs. Hayle, I’m not positive what to make of what we found.”
My heart’s beating fast and sweat beads along my back. “Just tell us what you’re thinking, please.”
He turns toward me and looks uncomfortable. “Well, I want to be clear when I say that I’m not completely sure that this is something we need to be concerned about, but the test found a strange amount of mercury in your mother’s blood. An elevated amount. Dangerous levels, to be honest. Does your mother refurbish old clocks or handle mercury in any way? Perhaps she has antiques? Or maybe she eats a lot of fish? An inordinate amount of fish.”
“Mercury?” Mom laughs, shaking her head. “Lord, no, we don’t have anything like that.”
“She barely leaves her room and I don’t think there’s anything old enough to contain mercury in there.” I frown, staring into the distance and mentally going through every piece of furniture and every bit of art. “I can’t think of anything.”
“Her MRI did show some signs of degradation that could be consistent with mercury poisoning. If that’s the case, it might explain her symptoms. Mercury poisoning, is in small doses and over long periods of time, can show up much like dementia. It’s extremely rare however, and I’ll be honest, I had to consult a few colleagues about this because I’ve never seen anything like it, but if this is mercury then we’ll need to treat it immediately. I’m going to take some more blood, get it to a lab for an expedited test, and we’ll have the results later today. If it comes back still elevated, we’ll bring her into the hospital and get started on chelation.”
“Slow down,” I say, shaking my head. “Chelation? Mercury?”
“I know, it’s a lot. Chelation is the process of removing the pathogen from her system. It’s safe, but we’ll go over all the details if it becomes necessary. Right now, let’s focus on getting the blood, confirming the mercury’s presence in her system, and figuring out how it got there at all.”
I stand slowly, blinking rapidly, head dizzy.
“Kellen?” Mom asks.
“I’ll send in Eunika,” I say, heading to the door. “She’s mother’s nurse. She can handle things from here.”
“Are you okay, Mr. Hayle?” Dr. Kennedy follows me into the hall. “I know this is a shock. Are you sure your mother isn’t ever around something that might contain mercury? An old thermometer perhaps? One that’s leaking? I’ll admit, I find it hard to imagine how she got so much mercury in her blood without licking an old gilded clock or eating tons of fish.”
“No, doc, nothing like that.” I look down at my hands and they’re shaking. “Get her tested. Her nurse will be back shortly.”
I walk away, hurrying, heart racing. I’m aware of the doctor watching me the whole time, and I can only guess what he’s thinking.
Well, fuck him. And fuck everyone.
Mercury poisoning.
It seems so absurd.
Fucking mercury, like she’s a mad hatter or an insane clockmaker or something equally wild. My mother, poisoned with mercury.
There’s only one person in the entire world that would benefit from something like that.
But how the hell has he been doing it all this time?
I find Eunika in the waiting room and she looks up at me with those serious eyes of hers, frowning slightly, head tilted to the side—
And pale, fucking ghost white, like she’s afraid of something.
“Mother needs you,” I say, my voice drifting off like a balloon.
“Good, yes, I’ll see to her.” Eunika stands and goes to walk past me.
I grab her arm. The receptionist stares, frowning, but I ignore them.
“The doctor says she might be suffering from mercury poisoning.”
Eunika stares straight ahead. “Really?”
“He wants to know if there’s anything Mother might get that could possibly contain the stuff. He thinks she’s been ingesting it somehow, maybe for years.” I lean closer to her. “How long have you been my mother’s nurse?”
“Years,” she whispers.
“Go make sure she’s okay.” I release her arm and she hurries away.
If Eunika is involved, I’ll handle it. For now, Mother will be fine—she’s in a public place, and I’ll have Rory and Angus hurry over to escort her back to the house. Eunika will never deal with my mother again, not after this.