It wasn’t until this morning that Mr. Campbell returned with Dr.
Miracle, whose real name was Dr. Mercer. The doctor entered Henry’s room before
Mr. Campbell as though he knew his way through any hospital. Mr. Campbell, who
was now clean-shaven and in a fine grey suit, stood back as Dr. Mercer
introduced himself. He looked uncomfortable in his new clothes and pulled at
his shirt collar. Dr. Mercer shook hands first with me and then with Graham,
who was keeping me company. He looked Henry over.
“When do we start?” I admit that was a little presumptuous of me.
“I will start immediately.” He clearly thought it was, too. “You will go
home or to work and wait for my call.”
“I will not!”
“Madam, please excuse my curtness, but the way I work is good for the
both of you. I will contact you when I have news.”
“The sheriff will contact me.” At my words, Graham stepped forward. “He
will stay with you while you work.”
I went home and went to work the next day, but I couldn’t get any work
done. By lunch, I’d heard nothing from Graham. I called him up but got no
answer. I had meetings to attend after lunch, but I couldn’t concentrate and
just said yes to everything. I don’t know, I may have agreed to a waterslide in
front of town hall.
By the end of my day, I’d had enough. I knew how to handle this in a
language Dr. Mercer might understand, so I went over to Mr. Spencer’s practice
and let myself in. Mr. Campbell was at his desk, crying. His face was beet red.
Albert had his hands on Mr. Campbell’s shoulders. He saw me and looked totally
confused.
“He’s been like this for over an hour now. He won’t tell me why. I
didn’t know what to do.”
I knew what to do. We took Mr. Campbell back to the hospital and
admitted him immediately.
“We may have released him from the hospital too soon.” One of the aids
said.
“No, it’s the fever.” I knew it was. What else could it be?
Moments later, Graham came out to see me.
“There you are! Why haven’t you called me?” I got right in his face.
“I’ve been all over town for Dr. Mercer.” Graham tried to put his hands
on my shoulders, but I smacked them off.
“I told you to watch him!”
“It’s all right.” He made his voice as soothing as he could. “He’s been
running tests all day. Henry’s doing fine.”
Dr. Mercer showed up just then. He was wearing one of the white coats
from our hospital.
“I’ve cancelled my symposium in Boston.” At least he could see how
important this was. “I’ve never seen anything like this. I’ve reached all of my
contacts and no one is to bother me while I solve this.”
“But how long do you think this will take? How long can Henry remain
like this?”
“His vitals are good. Despite whatever he has, your son’s a strong
little boy. If I may, I’d like to talk more about this to you. Would you come
with me to the cafeteria? I haven’t eaten since yesterday.”
“Would you like an apple?” I reached for the one in my purse.
“No thank you. I don’t like apples.”
We went to the cafeteria. As he sat down at the table with his lunch,
Dr. Mercer’s coat opened up, revealing Kurt’s old shirt.
“All I came with was the suit I was wearing and a suitcase full of
clothes for weather much warmer than this.” Dr. Mercer smiled for the first
time. “Mr. Campbell was kind enough to lend me warmer clothes.” He saw the face
I made. “He assured me they’re clean.”
“You’re not worried that you could get sick just by wearing his clothes?
He was just admitted too.”
“We may find out, but so far, I’m not.” He was very good at speaking
clearly while stuffing food into his mouth. “You say you’ve seen this before?”
“Yes, in small children like Henry. But it doesn’t make any sense why
Dr. Whale or Mr. Campbell would be affected.”
“We don’t know how it’s transmitted yet, but I’ve been able to rule out
that it’s airborne. Otherwise, we might have a pandemic on our hands. But the
fact that three people are hospitalized in just a week in a town as small as
this is worrisome.”
I waited while he drank his carton of milk in two gulps.
“I’ll tell you what I’ve done today, apart from study the patients.
Usually, the amount of people who check into hospitals for whatever is going
around is only a small percentage of those who are actually infected. So I got
the sheriff to help me find as many people as possible who came into contact
with Dr. Whale and Henry within the last seventy-two hours and tested them. I
took a small sample of everyone’s blood.” He paused as a thought occurred to him.
“Now I should probably test those who came in contact with Mr. Campbell—“
“That won’t be necessary. He—was just released from the hospital. I’m
sure whoever you tested for Dr. Whale will be sufficient.”
“Well, I questioned everyone I tested. It seems this town had some sort
of celebration last week?”
“Miner’s Day,” I nodded. “But as I said, Mr. Campbell wasn’t there.”
“But your son and the doctor have something in common, so I’ve heard,
and I’m wondering if Mr. Campbell shares that commonality. May I see that apple
again?”
I reached in my purse and handed it to him. He turned it in his hands
and examined it.
“What kind of apple is this?”
“Honey crisp.” That sounded reasonable to me.
“Are you sure?” Not to him, though, apparently. “I’ve never seen an
apple to look this good in the coldest part of winter.”
“The tree comes from a very hearty stock.”
“Can you remember if Mr. Campbell has eaten one of these recently?”
“Yes. I gave him one before he left to pick you up. Also, he had one of
my apple turnovers the last time he and his—he came over for dinner.”
“I’d like to examine this, as well as your tree.”
“You think my apples carry waking fever?”
“I do.” His confidence frightened me. The tree was the only thing
brought over from home. Did I bring waking fever to Storybrooke, to kill anyone
who wasn’t already immune?
“What if you’re wrong?”
“Then this is going to take a lot longer, and I don’t know how long I
can keep your son alive.”
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