[Goal, Slow]
When I got back the party was over, no one was left at the brew pub, so I walked in the back door of the bakery right into the kitchen. But it was quiet and dimly lit. I walked over, touched the drawing and was inside the book store.
“Don’t worry EG, I’m just passing through.”
“You startled me, Rose.”
“I’m sorry, this will probably happen a lot, Sparky installed a transportation network that jumps right through the store. You are the hub that everyone must travel through. Go back to reading, I’m on my way home. Talk to you tomorrow.”
“Good night Rose.”
“Good night EG.”
I touched the library drawing and I was back in the tower.
“Hi Doug, do you know who is watching Ryan?”
“Sorry Rose I don’t.”
“That’s alright, I hate to do it but I’ll have to wake Lu.”
“No you won't, Lu is right here, wide awake. Ryan is here, sleeping in Ruby’s bed, Ruby is in a guest room, she thought Ryan would be more comfortable if he wasn’t alone. How is Mossbeard Ironhide, I got his name from Orin?”
“I think he is going to be okay, he’s a human right now. Lottie thought the best chance for him was for me to transform him. She doesn’t know anything about gnome anatomy so it was safer to turn him human then turn him back after he recovers a little. I have to jump back, Lottie is understandably worried about her son. I’ll be back as soon as I can. I’m really sorry about your party.”
“Paula thought it was a huge success, she said everybody loved the food and the beer. So it wasn’t ruined at all.”
“Good, I have to jump back, this was all my fault, if I just let them put those carpenters in jail, this accident wouldn’t have happened.”
“It might have happened even if the human wasn’t there, if Orin didn’t know about Lottie and you, Mossbeard would have died. Nobody else could have done what you did. I won’t have you blaming yourself. You helped to save his life and we’ll help him recover no matter what it takes. So go tell Lottie, Ryan, is just fine here and can stay as long as Lottie needs him to.”
So I jumped back to Maz’s lab, Lottie was pacing.
“What took so long?”
“Sorry Lottie, everyone was asleep. But don’t worry he’s asleep in Ruby’s bed in Opal’s room. Ruby and Lu thought he’d be more comfortable with someone his own age. How is Mossbeard Ironhide?”
“Ha, is that his real last name? Well he’s living up to it, he woke up a little while ago, drank some water and fell back to sleep. I don’t even think he noticed that he was human.”
“Is that good or bad?”
“It’s good, there was a story I read by Kalfka, The Metamorphosis, where a man wakes up to discover he has been turned into a bug. His family winds up killing him. So yes’ it’s better that Mossbeard doesn’t realize. Once we get some more blood into him and I’m entirely certain that he is stable you can change him back.”
“We need to get you a real nurse don’t we?”
“That would be ideal, but I’m not sure how we could accomplish that.”
“It’s been my experience that the people of Earth are driven by money, money isn’t an issue, but it also occurs to me that a money grubbing nurse would not make a great partner for you and probably wouldn’t enjoy life in Wyldwood. You wouldn’t happen to know any nurses who were sent to prison would you?”
“No I’m afraid that I don’t, but I have something even better, did you mean it when you said that money was no object?”
“Certainly, it’s no harder to author ten million than one million, but do you really want a healer who’s only interested in money, I’d rather have someone with less knowledge that isn’t driven by greed.”
“Just because you want money doesn’t necessarily make you greedy. You have to go to school to become a nurse, that is expensive, so you take out a loan, which puts you in debt. Because it’s a loan with interest the debt continues to grow over time.”
“That seems like a very stupid system, unless you have way more nurses than you actually need.”
“No, we have a shortage of nurses, actually.”
“Then the community should pay for the nurses' education.”
“In an ideal world, that’s what would happen.”
“Wyldwood is my ideal world, so let's make that happen. Let’s get two or three older nurses that can train some young people to work at your clinic, Doug can handle the books that are needed easily. Our retirement home for actors is almost complete, having two or three retired nurses living there would be better for the actors.”
“So instead of hiring a nurse, you want to establish a nursing school?”
“If we look outside for the solution, we’ll be dependent on that solution, but if we start a nurse apprentice program, we’ve solved our nursing problem forever. I’ll bet that a nurse learns some important skills in the first month of their schooling. As soon as they have those skills, you put them to work for three hours a day, honing those skills. If you have eight apprentices, that means you have a nurse twenty four hours a day. That means we need Orin to put a second no,a third floor on the clinic. Third floor bedrooms for the apprentices, second floor classrooms to teach the students. So where do we find our two or three teachers?”
“Actually, I think I might know someone who could be interested. I worked with her in Boston. When Maz wakes up, can you take me to a specific address in Boston?”
“If you can show me a picture of it, I can.”
“Google Maps to the rescue.”
A few hours later Maz woke up and we related my idea to him, and asked him to watch over Mossbeard for an hour or so while we were in Boston. I jumped us to the sidewalk outside the apartment building, where Lottie’s friend lived. Lottie found the button needed to talk to her friend. I heard a buzz and the door opened. The lobby had seen better days, but it was pretty clean, by Earth standards, which aren’t particularly high.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
We took an elevator to her floor, when we got off, I received a nosefull of scents, some good like cooking smells, some not so good and some horrid. I’m glad I didn’t drag Lu into this, this would be torture for anyone with a sensitive nose. We approached a door and just as Lottie was to knock, an older black woman opened the door. She smiled at Lottie and looked curiously at me.
“You do know that I could be arrested just for opening that door to you.”
“Yes I do, and I’m sorry, but I have a proposal for you.”
“Sorry Doc, I won’t work in any hospital that allows fascist ice agents to arrest sick and injured people.”
“Would you give up TV, radio and the internet to make a real difference, to teach eight young women to become nurses. Do you have even a tiny chance to pay off Milton’s medical debt you currently owe? Would you be alright living overseas, way overseas.”
“Would I have to deal with fascists or US troops on my street corners, would I have to listen to whatever asinine thing the president said today?”
“No and no.”
“I don’t have a passport.”
“You won’t need one, how soon before you are ready to go?”
“Just let me pack a bag”
She left the living room, it was clean and tidy. There was a large bookcase stuffed full of books. I went over and had a look. She was a mystery fan. I saw a copy of a story that Lu had read to me “Fer-de-lance”. I really enjoyed the characters in that novel particularly Archie, his boss Nero, and the loyal Fitz.
The woman was soon back, with a small bag in her hand.
“Those are the only things that I’m sorry to leave behind.”
I said, “Those particular copies or would new hard covers be more to your liking.”
“Those torn and worn books actually, my husband Milton used to read them to me every night.”
“Then we won’t leave them behind.” I shrunk the bookcase to dollhouse size and put it in my pocket.
“Ronja, meet my friend Rose, now let’s get back to my patient.”
I took Ronja by the arm, grabbed Lottie’s hand and said to Ronja.
“Please close your eyes.” I said.
Then we jumped.
“Okay, Ronja, you can open your eyes.”
She gave a little start, at the unfamiliar surroundings.
“Ronja, you are alright, and if you change your mind, Rose will take you right back home, isn’t that right, Rose.”
“Absolutely, a person's agency must not be violated. If you want to go home, I’ll take you back right away. But I hope you’ll at least stay until I can show you what we are offering you.”
“I am alright, are you some kind of magician?”
“Yes Ronja, I’m a Bibliomancer.”
“A book magician huh, that’s why you shrunk my books for me. I’m not going anywhere, I really have nothing to go back to. Therefore my best course of action is to move ahead.”
“Ronja, come meet my patient Mossbeard.”
“That’s some handle he’s got there.”
“That’s the least strange thing about his case. When I encountered him last night he was bleeding out from multiple locations on his body. He was also a Gnome.”
“Like a garden gnome?”
“Like yes, but a living breathing in the flesh gnome. Which I had Rose transform him into a human so I could operate on him, as I know nothing about how the gnome body is organized. Do they even have the same organs? Who knows?”
“I’d like your assessment of whether he should be woken, or if more time sedated would aid in his recovery.”
Ronja checked him over carefully.
“You’re kidding about the surgery right, this healing over the incision is more like a week than twelve hours.”
“Ronja, that’s exactly what I thought as well, but I swear he’s been hurt less than twelve hours. Rose, could you transform him back, please.”
I transformed him then Lottie and Ronja, checked him over again.
I asked, “Is he going to be alright?”
Lottie answered, “Yes I believe he is going to be just fine. We’re going to wake him up. Stay in here, he may recognize you and a familiar face can help ease a trauma victim back more smoothly.”
The gnome suddenly woke up.
“Oh no, I killed Fred didn’t I. I’m sorry the accident was all my fault.”
“Easy now, Mossbeard, the human was fine.”
“I was just trying to play a joke on him, but it’s all my fault, that he is hurt. I told him to pull the wall, to prove that he has no idea how construction actually works. But he was so strong, he actually could pull it over. I’ll be fired, cast out of the colony. They’ll never forgive me, the humans took us in when the others rejected us. What if they force the whole colony to move, my clan will disown me.”
“Mossbeard, relax, the human is fine, no one blames you.”
“Not yet, I haven’t told them yet, when they hear the story, they’ll condemn me, which is fair and just but it’s not the colonies fault, one hundred percent of the blame is mine.”
“Mossbeard, let me talk to Orin on your behalf, I talked him into hiring the humans after they did something way worse than what you did, you were playing a prank and it went very wrong, but you didn’t do it out of malice, you didn’t want Fred hurt and you certainly didn’t want to get hurt yourself, right?”
