Gwendy's Magic Feather

60

WHEN GWENDY WALKS INTO Room 233 on the second floor of Castle County General and sees the tears streaming down both her mother and father’s faces, her heart drops.

Mrs. Peterson is sitting on the edge of the hospital bed with her bare legs dangling over the side. She’s holding hands with her husband and leaning her head against his shoulder. She looks very much like a young girl. Doctor Celano stands at the foot of the bed, reading from an open chart. When he hears the door open, he turns to Gwendy with a big, toothy grin on his face.

“I’m sorry I’m late,” Gwendy says, confused. “I got held up in a meeting.”

Her father looks up at her. His eyes are watery and dancing and he’s also wearing a broad smile.

“What’s going on?” Gwendy asks, feeling like she just stepped into the Twilight Zone.

“Oh, honey, it’s a miracle,” her mother says, holding out her arms.

Gwendy goes to her and gives her a hug. “What is? What’s happening?” Her mother only squeezes tighter.

Mr. Peterson nods to the doctor. “Tell her what you just told us.”

Doctor Celano raises his eyebrows. “All of the scans came back clean. No sign of a tumor anywhere.”

“What? That’s great news, right?” Gwendy asks, afraid to get her hopes up.

“I’d say so.”

“But what about the blood results?”

The doctor waves the medical chart at her. “The blood work we took yesterday morning also came back clean. Your mother’s numbers are squarely in the normal range.”

“How is that possible?” Gwendy asks in disbelief.

“I wondered the same thing myself,” Doctor Celano says, “so I put in a request right away for additional blood work and rushed the lab for the results.”

“I was curious what was going on,” Mrs. Peterson says, laughing. “They took three more tubes before breakfast, and I told the nurse she was turning into a vampire.”

“The new tests came back normal. Again,” the doctor says, closing the chart and holding it at his side.

Gwendy stares at him. “Could it be a mistake?”

“A mistake was made, but not yesterday or today. I’m positive these results are accurate.” The doctor sighs heavily and the smile disappears from his face. “With that said, I want to assure you that I’ll get to the bottom of what went wrong in regards to Mrs. Peterson’s initial blood work on the 22nd. It was a reprehensible error, and I will find out where it occurred.”

“But what about the stomach pain? The vomiting?”

“That’s a bit of a mystery, I’m afraid,” the doctor says. “My best guess is she ate something that didn’t agree with her and the force of the vomiting agitated scar tissue that was caused by the chemotherapy. It’s happened to patients of mine before.”

“So what… what does this all mean?” Gwendy asks.

“It means she’s not sick!” Mr. Peterson says, putting an arm around Gwendy’s shoulder and giving her a shake. “It means we can take her home!”

“Today?” Gwendy says, looking at the doctor. She still can’t believe this is happening. “Right now?”

“As soon as we’re finished with her discharge papers.”

Gwendy gazes at Doctor Celano for a moment, and then looks back at her parents. Their faces are alight with happiness. “I’m starting to think that feather of yours really is magic,” her father says.

And then all three of them are laughing again and holding on to each other for dear life.