Read Panacea for Free Online

he liked when she did that, but he had a feeling he wasn’t going to like this. “Chet means well. I’m sure he believes his folk remedy can help you, but it’s just some herbs and things that might do more harm than good.”
    â€œChet wouldn’t hurt me.”
    â€œNot on purpose.” Now she showed him the tube, holding it up between them, just inches away. Tommy had to admit the liquid in it looked yucky. “But I’m sure even he doesn’t know all the ingredients in this stuff. It might not hurt a regular person, but who knows how it will mix with the meds Doctor Sklar is giving you. It might even cause an infection.”
    â€œBut what if it really can cure me?”
    â€œDon’t you think Doctor Sklar would know about it? He’s spent his whole life treating children like you.” She shook the tube like she was shaking a finger at him. “All this is is false hope. If you drank it, you’d be expecting a miracle that would never come. And when it didn’t, you’d be so terribly disappointed. I don’t want you to go through that.”
    â€œBut—”
    Tommy couldn’t help it … he began to cry. He was tired of the swollen knees and the bent fingers and being in a wheelchair and hurting ALL. THE. TIME.
    Finally, when he found his voice, he said, “I don’t want to be like this forever, Mom! I’m sick of riding the short bus! I wanna play soccer, I wanna ride my bike, I wanna WALK!”
    Now she was crying too.
    â€œI want that too! This is why I sent you to set up the chess. I don’t want anyone making promises that won’t come true, because it’s so much worse when they don’t.” She pushed herself to her feet. “Now … we won’t talk about this anymore.”
    The glass tube disappeared into the pocket of her sweatpants.
    Tommy wiped his eyes on the sleeve of his Giants shirt. “Okay.”
    â€œWant to play chess?”
    He didn’t. Not really. But since she’d kept him home from school today …
    â€œI guess so.”
    â€œGood. Set it up and we’ll play, okay?”
    He set it up, and they played, and he won only one out of three games because all he could think about was that tube in his mother’s pocket.
    Afterward he kept an eye on her. He pretended to go watch SpongeBob in the living room, but peeked back around the corner and saw her shove something deep into the kitchen garbage pail.
    He bided his time, waiting until she went upstairs to use the bathroom. As soon as she reached the second floor he wheeled himself into the kitchen and opened the cabinet under the sink. He pawed through the wet paper towels and remnants of breakfast until he found the glass tube. His gnarled fingers had trouble with the rubber stopper, but finally it came free with a soft pop.
    He hesitated for a second—what if Mom was right and it made him sick?—then upended it into his mouth.
    Gah! It tasted awful!
    He forced a swallow, then restoppered the empty tube and jammed it back into the garbage. By the time his mother returned he was playing DNA Wars on his old PS3 …
    Â â€¦ and waiting for the miracle.

 
    6
    â€œHe’s dead ?” Nelson Fife said, staring at Chaim Brody’s body, facedown on the floor.
    The inside of the run-down, double-wide trailer was almost a carbon copy of Hanrahan’s front room: virtually no furniture and the same array of long wooden trays filled with strange little plants basking in artificial sunlight.
    He’d rushed out here to the North Fork from the city, fighting traffic on the LIE, then following his GPS onto secondary roads, then this gravel path to a double-wide trailer on the edge of what would be a potato field when growing season began. All to question a dead man.
    Add that to his endless headache and his patience had just about reached its limit.
    Nelson didn’t know who he wanted to