"The Healer"
Science Fiction Story
It would be 11:55 in 41... 42.. 43.. seconds. I couldn’t wait to get out of my Political science class. I loved the hands on work, writing papers, debating and analyzing political documents but the lectures were a killer. As the professor droned on and on I couldn’t help but drift off to sleep. There were violets and blues all around me, and I felt at peace. A feeling I had not felt since I got to Howard University. The dream shifted and before I knew it I was floating above the clouds to a woman with a snake wrapped around her ankle. She had to be about 40 feet tall with kinky brown hair that shielded her eyes. She wore a brown cloak that was torn at the bottom. Her hands were slender and her skin was a rich coco powder brown. It was if she was beckoning me to come closer. It felt as if there was a magnet in the pit of my stomach and she was drawing me to her. The force began to get so strong that it caused me physical pain. I shouted for her to stop but she shook her head sadly and continued to pull me in. Looking into my eyes she opened her mouth as if she were about to speak until suddenly.
“Makenna Jameson!”
I jolted up in my seat as if someone had just prodded me with electric rods. And looked up at my teacher.
“Uhh, hi.. Proffessor Davis. I was just resting my eyes for our big midterm tomorrow”
“As I can see that Ms.Jameson, if you want to pass this class you’ll have to do more then rest your eyes.”
“Yes sir, I understand it will never happen again.”
“I hope so.”
As I collected my things and ran out of the classroom, I kept thinking about my dream. It was a recurring nightmare, I guess but the woman’s face wasn’t scary. It looked as if it pained her to inflict pain on me. Oh, well I didn’t have time to think about dreams, midterms were tomorrow and I needed to catch up on my studying. I carried my shoulder bag and walked back to the dorms. The air was chilly and the On the way there I saw my friend Anita sitting outside.
“Hey Anita, what’re you doing outside? It’s freezing out here.”
“Hey Makenna, and they’re doing some kind of clean sweep of the dorms. There are a ton of people in the buildings with masks on. I hope they finish soon, I need to study and their interfering with my Calculus time.”
“Oh my gosh, I hope they didn’t find anything serious, this is not the time to try and care about our health now. I need to graduate with a 3.5 or I loose my scholarship.”
“Yeah. Hey, do you want to go over to the Labs it’s freezing and they have to keep the temperature high in there or the science geeks freak out.”
“Sure, let’s go.”
We walked over through the campus over to the science buildings. I didn’t know this portion of campus very well, I stayed in the social sciences area. We walked into a building furnished after a Greek temple. We walked in and Anita was right, it was burning hot. I took of my leather jacket and hung it up.
“Makenna, come over here.”
Anita called me into one of the labs and put on one of the lab coats hanging on the coat rack.
“Anita, are you sure we’re allowed to be in here? I think we’ll be in some serious trouble if we screw with anything.”
“Oh relax, I’m in here almost every day. Did you forget I am a genealogy major, I know what I’m doing. I’m working on a project, you can help. I just need a small blood sample. All you have to do is prick your finger and squeeze some of the blood onto the sheet. I’ll put it through the machine and then I’ll be able to retieve some information about your ancestors.”
“That would be really cool, I am adopted but I never thought I would have the money too look up information about anyone related to me. But I do know that my birth mother and father died in a car crash 19 years ago.”
“Cool, so I’ll really be able to dig into some records.”
I pricked my finger with the pin sitting on the counter and squeezed the tip of my finger until blood ran on to the sheet of thin paper. Anita took the sheet and ran it through the scantron machine. I sat down and anticipated the results. I was nervous. Up until now I never really thought about where I came from. Of course, as a child I had dreams that maybe I was a magical princess who would some day rule over Genovia but reality set in and I accepted my adopted family and loved them with all my heart. I thought to myself Makenna, this does not change anything. Your parents love you and you wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world. You’re just finding out where you are from.
“Anita how long will this take. I don’t want to be here all day, you know we have-”
Before I could even finish my sentence an administrator walked in and yelled.
“HEY! What are you doing in here, you can’t use the equipment unathourized. GET OUT!”
We ran out of the lab before he could even get another word in, I grabbed my jacket and bag and we ran back to the dorms. Out of breath and sweaty I almost strangled Anita.
“You said it wouldn’t be a problem! If I get kicked out of school you owe me time and money!!”
“Relax, he was just a transfer intern, they all leave tomorrow. He won’t even know who we are.”
“Better not or we’re going to rumble.”
She laughed heartily.
“Oh, Makenna that’s why I like you, always so conscious.”
“Whatever, I hope they’re little investigation is over because I’m going to my dorm.”
“Okay, see you later.”
I walked into the dorm the floors were covered in broken yellow caution tape. Probably from oblivious college students ripping it down and continuing to their rooms. I took the elevator to my floor, walked down the hall, and unlocked the door to my room.
“Oh my god!”
My room was torn apart, my mattress was flipped on to the floor, all the stuffing spread on to my desk and even in my closet. My clothes were strewn around the room and my laptop was gone. “What the hell happened?” I screamed. I walked in the room looking for anything that I could salvage. Even my toiletries were gone, my hair pins, heck whoever did this took my care package from home. I ran down the steps to Anita’s floor and banged on the door to her room.
“Anita! Open up! Someone ruined my room.”
She opened the door slowly and looked at me with her eyes wide open.
“Makenna, come in. I need to talk to you.”
“Anita, are you okay, what’s going on?”
“I just got a fax from the lab, we need to talk.”
“Talk about what? Anita! Tell me.”
“If I tell you you’re going to have to trust me.”
“I will.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
“Makenna, you are Ethiopian from a tribe known as the Oromo people. I screened through your records and your DNA says you are a healer. Oromo mythology says that healers were regarded as one of the highest honors. It also says that the goddess of healing, Dachambe, watched over them through dreams and gave them beyond supernatural powers. Healers could heal anyone wit the palm of their hands. And they had the ability to live forever if they decided to be dedicated.”
“..What? How did you find all of this through one spot of blood?”
“Makena, I have always had my suspicions that you were a healer. I’m not an average student, I am apart of a team who looks for healers throughout the world and protects them. It is my job to protect you from the government.”
I laughed hard.
“Protect me?! Anita, you’re 5’4 and 135 lbs. And you sound like some conspiracy theorists. What does the government want with me?”
“Makenna, don’t doubt my abilities. If I need to I would die for you. And the government wants you so they can kill you. You don’t understand the power the sick have in this world. People will pay millions of dollars so that they can live. Parents spend their life savings on children who get leukemia. Billions of dollars are given to government funded programs to find a cure. But if you can keep a person alive and still sickly they will spend thousands to survive. Your powers take all this money away in the blink of an eye. You are the key to saving the human race and you are also the one girl who can put us in the worst economic crisis this world has ever seen.”
I sat there silent and then there was a knock at the door.
“Makenna... Open up. We want to speak with you.”
It would be 11:55 in 41... 42.. 43.. seconds. I couldn’t wait to get out of my Political science class. I loved the hands on work, writing papers, debating and analyzing political documents but the lectures were a killer. As the professor droned on and on I couldn’t help but drift off to sleep. There were violets and blues all around me, and I felt at peace. A feeling I had not felt since I got to Howard University. The dream shifted and before I knew it I was floating above the clouds to a woman with a snake wrapped around her ankle. She had to be about 40 feet tall with kinky brown hair that shielded her eyes. She wore a brown cloak that was torn at the bottom. Her hands were slender and her skin was a rich coco powder brown. It was if she was beckoning me to come closer. It felt as if there was a magnet in the pit of my stomach and she was drawing me to her. The force began to get so strong that it caused me physical pain. I shouted for her to stop but she shook her head sadly and continued to pull me in. Looking into my eyes she opened her mouth as if she were about to speak until suddenly.
“Makenna Jameson!”
I jolted up in my seat as if someone had just prodded me with electric rods. And looked up at my teacher.
“Uhh, hi.. Proffessor Davis. I was just resting my eyes for our big midterm tomorrow”
“As I can see that Ms.Jameson, if you want to pass this class you’ll have to do more then rest your eyes.”
“Yes sir, I understand it will never happen again.”
“I hope so.”
As I collected my things and ran out of the classroom, I kept thinking about my dream. It was a recurring nightmare, I guess but the woman’s face wasn’t scary. It looked as if it pained her to inflict pain on me. Oh, well I didn’t have time to think about dreams, midterms were tomorrow and I needed to catch up on my studying. I carried my shoulder bag and walked back to the dorms. The air was chilly and the On the way there I saw my friend Anita sitting outside.
“Hey Anita, what’re you doing outside? It’s freezing out here.”
“Hey Makenna, and they’re doing some kind of clean sweep of the dorms. There are a ton of people in the buildings with masks on. I hope they finish soon, I need to study and their interfering with my Calculus time.”
“Oh my gosh, I hope they didn’t find anything serious, this is not the time to try and care about our health now. I need to graduate with a 3.5 or I loose my scholarship.”
“Yeah. Hey, do you want to go over to the Labs it’s freezing and they have to keep the temperature high in there or the science geeks freak out.”
“Sure, let’s go.”
We walked over through the campus over to the science buildings. I didn’t know this portion of campus very well, I stayed in the social sciences area. We walked into a building furnished after a Greek temple. We walked in and Anita was right, it was burning hot. I took of my leather jacket and hung it up.
“Makenna, come over here.”
Anita called me into one of the labs and put on one of the lab coats hanging on the coat rack.
“Anita, are you sure we’re allowed to be in here? I think we’ll be in some serious trouble if we screw with anything.”
“Oh relax, I’m in here almost every day. Did you forget I am a genealogy major, I know what I’m doing. I’m working on a project, you can help. I just need a small blood sample. All you have to do is prick your finger and squeeze some of the blood onto the sheet. I’ll put it through the machine and then I’ll be able to retieve some information about your ancestors.”
“That would be really cool, I am adopted but I never thought I would have the money too look up information about anyone related to me. But I do know that my birth mother and father died in a car crash 19 years ago.”
“Cool, so I’ll really be able to dig into some records.”
I pricked my finger with the pin sitting on the counter and squeezed the tip of my finger until blood ran on to the sheet of thin paper. Anita took the sheet and ran it through the scantron machine. I sat down and anticipated the results. I was nervous. Up until now I never really thought about where I came from. Of course, as a child I had dreams that maybe I was a magical princess who would some day rule over Genovia but reality set in and I accepted my adopted family and loved them with all my heart. I thought to myself Makenna, this does not change anything. Your parents love you and you wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world. You’re just finding out where you are from.
“Anita how long will this take. I don’t want to be here all day, you know we have-”
Before I could even finish my sentence an administrator walked in and yelled.
“HEY! What are you doing in here, you can’t use the equipment unathourized. GET OUT!”
We ran out of the lab before he could even get another word in, I grabbed my jacket and bag and we ran back to the dorms. Out of breath and sweaty I almost strangled Anita.
“You said it wouldn’t be a problem! If I get kicked out of school you owe me time and money!!”
“Relax, he was just a transfer intern, they all leave tomorrow. He won’t even know who we are.”
“Better not or we’re going to rumble.”
She laughed heartily.
“Oh, Makenna that’s why I like you, always so conscious.”
“Whatever, I hope they’re little investigation is over because I’m going to my dorm.”
“Okay, see you later.”
I walked into the dorm the floors were covered in broken yellow caution tape. Probably from oblivious college students ripping it down and continuing to their rooms. I took the elevator to my floor, walked down the hall, and unlocked the door to my room.
“Oh my god!”
My room was torn apart, my mattress was flipped on to the floor, all the stuffing spread on to my desk and even in my closet. My clothes were strewn around the room and my laptop was gone. “What the hell happened?” I screamed. I walked in the room looking for anything that I could salvage. Even my toiletries were gone, my hair pins, heck whoever did this took my care package from home. I ran down the steps to Anita’s floor and banged on the door to her room.
“Anita! Open up! Someone ruined my room.”
She opened the door slowly and looked at me with her eyes wide open.
“Makenna, come in. I need to talk to you.”
“Anita, are you okay, what’s going on?”
“I just got a fax from the lab, we need to talk.”
“Talk about what? Anita! Tell me.”
“If I tell you you’re going to have to trust me.”
“I will.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
“Makenna, you are Ethiopian from a tribe known as the Oromo people. I screened through your records and your DNA says you are a healer. Oromo mythology says that healers were regarded as one of the highest honors. It also says that the goddess of healing, Dachambe, watched over them through dreams and gave them beyond supernatural powers. Healers could heal anyone wit the palm of their hands. And they had the ability to live forever if they decided to be dedicated.”
“..What? How did you find all of this through one spot of blood?”
“Makena, I have always had my suspicions that you were a healer. I’m not an average student, I am apart of a team who looks for healers throughout the world and protects them. It is my job to protect you from the government.”
I laughed hard.
“Protect me?! Anita, you’re 5’4 and 135 lbs. And you sound like some conspiracy theorists. What does the government want with me?”
“Makenna, don’t doubt my abilities. If I need to I would die for you. And the government wants you so they can kill you. You don’t understand the power the sick have in this world. People will pay millions of dollars so that they can live. Parents spend their life savings on children who get leukemia. Billions of dollars are given to government funded programs to find a cure. But if you can keep a person alive and still sickly they will spend thousands to survive. Your powers take all this money away in the blink of an eye. You are the key to saving the human race and you are also the one girl who can put us in the worst economic crisis this world has ever seen.”
I sat there silent and then there was a knock at the door.
“Makenna... Open up. We want to speak with you.”
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