Plague

Chapter 6: Maybe

Roana placed her mask on the kitchen table and sighed deeply to herself.  She sat down in one of the wooden chairs to rest her weary body. The contact of her form with the abrasive and hardwood only reminded her of the tumble all over again.  She was tired and wanted nothing more than to relax on something soft.  Today was stressful, and a lot happened that she wanted to forget. 

The gentle rain and warm light of the kitchen fire tried to soothe her wet and broken body. She shivered against the tepid air and embraced herself, which didn’t provide much sanctity.  Her dress was heavy with soil and moisture, and her limbs felt like concrete and took more than their share of energy to move.

“You’re home a bit early today. How did everything go?” Rosalind was interested in Roana’s outing with the doctor.  She knew that her daughter had been anticipating spending time with him and she was curious as to what her experiences were.  After all, she showered the doctor in accolades and Rosalind wanted to know if he lived up to the hype.

“It’s tiring,” Roana closed her eyes and tilted her head back.  Honestly, she just wanted to be in bed and forget about all the physical and mental stress she put herself through.

She could hear footsteps as her mother approached her and sat in the chair across from her.

“I’m making some tea.” Rosalind smiled. “It should be done shortly if you’d like to have some with me. It might help calm your nerves.”

Her daughter looked distressed and weary.  It must have been a hard day working with the ill.  She wondered if someone died, or if she just had a hard time learning what the doctor was teaching her.  Either way, she wasn’t going to press too hard for answers. Roana would speak about these things when she wanted to. Rosalind was there to be supportive and comfort the downtrodden girl.

“I’ll take some. I need something to help me unwind. Today was terrible.” Being pushed downstairs in a creepy little structure in the woods, not turning up with so much as a clue from searching for Josephine, and being scrutinized by Red did her no favors.

“What’s wrong, dear?” Rosalind decided to question her.

“It’s Red,” Roana’s visage morphed into a mixture of feelings – fatigue, sorrow and irritation. “He’s questioning my choices and it’s stressing me out. Does he truly think I can’t do anything on my own?”

He trusted her enough to seek her advice, enough to come to her for help when he abandoned Josephine in the cemetery and sought her advice on the paranormal and spirits and yet he had the audacity to question her for hanging around with the doctor and judge him before he even knew him.  Then he accused her of hanging around some scum-ridden vagrant.  What nerve!

“Maybe he’s just worried about you.” Rosalind tried to see things from Red’s point of view.  She knew this situation wasn’t that simple when multiple people were involved. “After all, you’re deviating from the normal and doing your own thing. You’re spending less time with him and more time with some strange man. Even I don’t know who he is.”

Before she could speak any more on the topic, a loud whistle sounded from the tea kettle. Steam cascaded from its spout.

“Tea’s done!” Rosalind perked up and left her daughter’s side to attend it.

“He’s a wise man who is well-versed in his craft.  He knows a lot about many elements of Conversion Town that people don’t understand. I am intrigued by him, and I want to know more about him.” Roana wasn’t going to let Red’s questioning ruin her impressions of him.  She knew the doctor more than anyone and no one could take that from her.

Rosalind walked back over to the table, sitting down porcelain teacups with intricate designs of flowers and vines around the rims and bottoms. Small plates were beneath with matching designs of blue, gold and green. The glass clicked as it was placed.

The woman paused for a moment, like a thought just hit her and she leveled Roana with a serious expression. “You’re not in love with him, are you?”

Roana was nearly taken aback by such a claim. A small blush rose to her pale cheeks. “Of course not! I barely met this man. Why would you say something like that?”

Her mother truly was being presumptuous.

Why would she think that Roana would fall in love just like that?  Surely, the doctor was alluring but not in that sense.

“You never know,” Rosalind half-teased before she fetched the tea pot, tea pouring from its spout. “Some people fall in love at first sight.”

“I have never even seen what is beyond his mask.” Roana replied as the scent of hot tea filled her senses.

It wasn’t as if that would be happening any time soon, either.  As far as she was concerned, his mask was his face and since he only wanted to be known by profession alone, it was all too fitting.

“You should ask him sometime if you’re curious as to what he looks like.” Rosalind poured the tea into their cups.

“He won’t even tell me his name, much less show me his face,” blue eyes watched the steam rising from the amber liquid. “I couldn’t do that.”

They may have trusted each other, but it was nowhere near that level.  The doctor had some pretty bad things happen to him from what she could gather from his subtext.  There was no way that trust with him on that level would be earned so quickly.

“He won’t even tell you his name?” Rosalind looked a little confused. She sat the kettle in the middle of the table and took her seat once more. “Why not?”

It was odd of him not to even tell her something that came so naturally to most people.  Surely, he had a reason for doing so.

Even so, it made her feel a little on edge.

“He said he abandoned his name for the sake of his profession and wanted people to simply call him ‘doctor’.” Roana told her and took a sip of tea.  The liquid crawled down her throat and warmed her chilled body. It felt like a sweet comfort.

“That’s quite odd. I assume you trust this man?” Rosalind wasn’t really sure how to feel about someone who withheld his name.  The implications of such a thing made her uneasy.

“Of course I do. I want to learn more about him despite his eccentricities.” There was a reason that he was running and taking refuge behind a doctor’s mask. Roana wanted to know what it was.  There was much more to him than a simple doctor. She knew that for certain.

“It’s strange to me,” Rosalind sipped her tea gingerly.

“Hm?” Roana’s lips just met the porcelain as her mother’s words came to her.

“I know many of the doctors who operate in this area, but I’ve not run across him.” She was certain that such an odd person would stick out to her if she met him.  This ‘doctor’ seemed like a man who held a great presence wherever he went. Someone that enigmatic would have surely caught her interest.

“It seems as though he’s been operating at night or mid-day,” Roana figured that maybe they just didn’t have the same shifts to come across each other. It must have been common that the doctors didn’t see each other too often as it was. 

“You said he had patients, right?” Rosalind asked before she took another sip of tea.

“Yes, he says he does and he leaves at specific times. I’m sure that’s when he sees them.” Roana had no reason to believe he’d lie to her about it.

Rosalind put a hand to her chin and knitted her eyebrows. “Strange, I wonder who all he treats.”

It seemed as if some of her own patients should have known of him or at least knew people he treated, but she had not so much as heard of this mystery doctor.

“I’m sure he’s keeping that confidential.” Roana knew if this doctor wasn’t revealing anything about him, he wasn’t going to tell anyone who he treated, either.

“Yes, of course…” Rosalind’s voice wavered.  No doubt she knew that they kept lists of those who were infected or have passed, but they did not share it with anyone but the clergy. However, that wasn’t what bothered her.

“You don’t sound convinced.” Roana’s eyes narrowed over the top of her teacup.

“I’m just trying to figure out if I’ve even heard of him. He seems so strange, as if he would stick out. It’s just odd that no one has spoken of him to me. I wonder if he’s a new doctor.” Given the nature of the town, that even seemed strange.  It was a containment town, where no one could leave and no one could enter.  When the pestilence outburst began, they sacrificed themselves to keep it from spreading and let the wave wash over them.  They hoped that this would end the reign of the plague’s grip. 

Perhaps the doctor was called in by the clergy.  She couldn’t think of another reason that they would have a new doctor in Conversion Town.  Maybe the pestilence was worse than she thought.  That would have explained the rise in deaths lately.

“He says he has been here for a long time. He even claims to know about oddly specific details like the plague in this town and the people buried in the cemetery.” Roana was bewildered at why her mother didn’t know who he was. She was a very prolific doctor and known to be reputable.

Why wouldn’t two certified professionals know each other?  Roana thought that they would probably get along if they ever met.  Perhaps she would introduce him to her sometime if he was comfortable with it.

“Roana, do you think I could meet him sometime?” Rosalind sat down her teacup and gave her daughter a serious glance. “I would like to know this man myself.”

She didn’t want to judge him without knowing him, but there were several red flags in Roana’s story that she wanted to quell her worries on.  If he truly was a reputable man then he would have no problem talking to her, as doctors, and as people who held relation to Roana.

“I can ask,” Roana took a sip of tea.  Her body was finally beginning to feel warm.  Thank God. She felt as if she had been thawed from an age-old glacier. “It’s really up to him whether or not he wants to comply. He’s very mysterious and unpredictable, but I can’t help but to be fascinated with him. He claimed that he could make me a great plague doctor.”

“Why would you not ask me to do that for you?” Rosalind was a little hurt that Roana didn’t want to continue learning her skills.  Was it because all her patients were dying?  She wondered what this doctor had that she did not.

“I feel that he can teach me a great deal.” It was nothing personal.  Her mother would be around; this man came and went and a part of her wanted to see if he would live up to his promise. “If you met him then you’d see what I mean.  I believe that you could gain insight from him as well.”

Roana was certain that this doctor held some sort of key when it came to the infected.  He oozed pure prowess, and she hadn’t known anyone with that type of aura since her uncle had been alive.  This doctor was an amazing man who did god’s work and she would not think any lower of him.

He was unlike her, and unlike Rosalind.  He was special.

“I trust your judgment,” Rosalind forced a smile.  Maybe she would see what Roana saw if he decided to give her a chance.

She could only hope, anyway.

“I’m glad someone does.” Finally, someone who didn’t hold her under some odd suspicion or act as if she were harboring some serial killer.

“Has Red ever met the doctor?” Her mother questioned.

“No.”

“Maybe you should introduce them. Redway may be weary of this man.” If Roana was telling her that she needed to meet the doctor, then maybe Red did as well.  Knowledge cured the unknown, and it might make Red feel a little more comfortable with Roana being in his care.

“He thinks the good doctor is the mad doctor who has been going around killing people.” Roana averted her eyes and her voice trailed into a tone of sorrow.

“Why would he think that?”

Surely, he had evidence, right?

“I’m not sure,” blue eyes looked back to her questioning mother. “All I know is he can stop thinking whatever it is that he does, because there is nothing wrong with the doctor.”

“I feel people probably need to get to know him. Once they do, I am certain they’ll love him as much as you do.” Rosalind thought that maybe people just didn’t know how to take someone who was shrouded in mystery and highly secretive.  She wasn’t all that certain that she would know how to take him, either.

Maybe once she got past those waxed robes that held his secrets that he would open up to her.  Either way, Rosalind was interested to know how this man ticked.

She was pulled from her thoughts as the wooden legs of the chair raked across the ground and Roana slowly arose, teacup in hand. The girl held it close to her, like it was a newborn child.  She didn’t want to accidentally crush the thin delicate porcelain.

“Well, I’m going to bed.” In truth, Roana needed the rest and she wanted to change out of her damp dress.

“I’ll see you in the morning,” Rosalind bid her goodnight and smiled from the table.  She wanted to stay up just a bit longer to plan for her morning and wash a few dishes.