“Ruthie said she hasn’t sensed any threats recently. I wonder if the entity gave up? That doesn’t seem like them.”
Kizzy wished she could tell him Noah was the one responsible for eliminating the threat. But until and unless she had permission to share her knowledge of Noah’s paranormal side, she wouldn’t be able to tell her father about the reincarnation. So she just had to hope Noah returned to full-grown human before he found out that her boyfriend had blown himself to smithereens—in the ultimate heroic sacrifice.
“It looks like I’ll be able to go back to work,” Kizzy said.
“They’ll be happy to have you. I hear it’s been busy down there in the ER. People have asked me how you are.”
“Yeah, I can’t wait to tell them I had hysterical blindness, but now I seem to be fine.” She rolled her eyes.
“It could happen to anyone, Kizz.”
“Sure. I just don’t think they’re going to believe it happened to me. And in a way, I hope they don’t. It’s a psychiatric problem.”
“Well, they believed me. And since I already made excuses to HR for you, that’s the story we need to go with. They’ll keep the reason to themselves, and when you’re ready, they’ll clear you. As long as you behave professionally, nobody will think you don’t belong back at work. Your supervisor will know, of course, but you shouldn’t have to say anything to your coworkers except ‘Hey, it’s great to be back.’”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
Kizzy wouldn’t blame them if they made her see a shrink before she went back. Hysterical blindness was pretty uncommon. The newer diagnosis, known as conversion disorder, was made when someone presented with neurological symptoms like numbness, blindness, or paralysis not due to a well-established organic cause.
She would never expect to experience it based on the reports of Freud and a few of his neurologist colleagues. They believed many women suffered from what they termed “hysteria.” Later on, it was discovered that many of these cases stemmed from sexual abuse, but the doctors covered for their wealthy patrons. The main thing Freud did right was to give the symptoms credibility and take it out of the “faking it” or malingering category.
She figured whatever condition presented as hysteria, it had to cause significant distress, and eventually, it could be traced back to a psychological trigger. She certainly had one of those she could weave into her story. Likely seeing someone hit by a train could remind her of witnessing her mother’s and grandmother’s sudden deaths. But had anyone been hit by a train recently? It didn’t matter. She could have seen it in a movie or on TV or something.
Just to be sure she had her story straight, she grabbed the nearest psychiatric diagnostic manual off the shelf of their library. She was glad she did. Apparently, they’d kept the main category of conversion disorder but had also given her little excuse a subtitle called functional neurological symptom disorder. The new criteria covered the same range of symptoms but removed the requirement of a psychological stressor.Well, okay. That doesn’t sound quite so bad.
She could do this.
Returning to the hospital meant everything to her. She wanted to help the people she had helped before. Not only those at death’s door due to horrendous accidents or heart attacks, but even the usual sniffles and scrapes. Even though it had only been a few days, she missed it terribly.
“Well, Kizz, we both need to get to work,” Aaron said. “But I want to talk about this map more later.”
That was just perfect for her, because she needed to talk to Mallory and get their stories straight first. She wanted no mention of houses blowing up, boyfriends growing up, or monkeys showing up. Mallory would understand that last one, for sure.
* * *
Antonio had called a family meeting. This usually entailed every son and his spouse, but he decided to let Ryan and Chloe off the hook this time. They were in Ireland and really didn’t know what was going on with their younger brothers and the girlfriends. Nor did they need to.
Antonio sat at the head of the table, with his sons Jayce and Miguel and their wives Kristine and Sandra on one side, then on the other side Gabe and Misty, who was holding their baby, Tony, and Luca. Gabriella was gathering items for snacks in the kitchen.
“I’m glad you’re all here,” Antonio said. “This is a delicate situation, but we believe it must be dealt with. As you can see, two of your brothers are here too—sort of.” He indicated the cage with the two phoenixes who were probably in their bird teens now.
Gabe asked, “What’s going on, Dad?”
“Here’s what we’ve been able to get from your brothers’ girlfriends. Dante is dating Mallory Summers. Noah is dating Kizzy Samuels. They were here the other day, and Kizzy explained what happened. It’s not the usual thing.”
“It certainly isn’t.” Gabriella came in from the other room with a tray holding a big carafe of coffee, cream, and sugar, plus a plate of cookies. Fresh-baked biscotti, if Antonio wasn’t mistaken. Gabriella always made her own.
After she had placed the tray in front of Antonio, she gathered coffee mugs from the hutch nearby and set them in front of each son and daughter-in-law.
“What’s so unusual about this one?” Jayce asked. “Did they not die in a fire?”
“That’s correct.” Antonio pinched the bridge of his nose. “Apparently, they blew themselves up.”
The young men all stared at the cage. The birds looked down and then turned to face away from the large group as if in shame.
Gabriella jammed a hand on her hip. “It’s not what it sounds like, for heaven’s sake. They didn’t do it on purpose. Or even if they did, it was necessary at the time.”
“I’m confused,” Miguel said. “What would make it necessary for two of my younger brothers to blow themselves up?”
