The Opening Spell
One day there will be a diagnostic test for ME, and effective treatment. When that day comes, we shall have the assurance of knowing that the treatment is the outcome of years of painstaking research and testing. Long ago, things would have been very different...
"Well, Sir Gareth,
has my serpent stew restored your lady wife to
good health?"
"Alas no, Master Merlin," replied the young knight. "It has done no more good than the dessicated toad compound, or the tincture of dragons' droppings. Still it is the same: one day she seems almost well, and I hope; the next she can scarcely rise from her bed. Oh, Master Merlin, will she ever be well again?"
"Fear not, Sir Gareth," replied the magician. "I will find the answer in time. Return here at a like hour on the morrow, and I may have something for you. Now, off with you to your jousting practice. Be off, be off!"
Merlin shooed the troubled knight out of his den, and closed the door behind him. Then he crossed to the narrow window and stood there for a long while in thought. There was a frown on his ancient face as he looked out over Camelot, for there was now only one course of action left, and it was one that was not to his liking. Too often it came to this, he mused, and always it seemed like admitting defeat. Still, it could not be helped: he had his reputation as a master magician to uphold.
Reluctantly he went to a secret alcove and drew forth from its hiding place his book of Time Spells. "Yes, Sir Gareth," he muttered as he opened the book, "I'll find the answer in Time."
"You shouldn't have too much longer to wait, Mrs. Williams," said the nurse, looking in. "The doctor's on his way now."
Stephanie thanked the nurse, and sure enough a few minutes later the doctor came bustling in.
"Ah, Mrs. Williams—all ready to go, are we? And the family's here to take you home, I see."
Stephanie introduced her husband David, and their two young
children, Susie and Daniel, who had decided that a hospital ward made
an excellent playground.
"Before you leave us," the doctor went on, "I just want to reassure you. The tests that we've done while you've been here are entirely conclusive: you are definitely suffering from myalgic encephalopathy, and the many symptoms that you've reported—hyperfatiguability, myalgia, memory problems, lack of concentration etc.—are all attributable to this one disease. So there's nothing at all to be concerned about. ME is easily treatable now; in fact, it's one of my favourite diseases because it responds so well to the medication."
"Meaning the drug is so new that the bugs haven't had time to develop resistance to it—yet," David interposed drily.
"Quite," replied the doctor, looking a trifle peeved at having the truth mentioned so openly. He went on, "Now I want you to give this letter to your GP...and here is your medication."
"I hope you haven't done the lid up tight," said Stephanie as she reached out to take the little plastic bottle. "Even David has a struggle opening these childproof—"
A brilliant green flash made Stephanie jump. "Goodness, what was that?" she exclaimed, her heart thudding from the fright.
The doctor gave her his professional reassuring smile. "I'm sure I haven't the foggiest idea," he said, which Stephanie somehow did not find very reassuring. The doctor stooped and picked up the envelope which Stephanie had dropped. "Here's the letter for your GP, and your medication is, um..."
But the little plastic bottle was nowhere to be seen. Three student nurses, ‘helped’ by Susie and Daniel, searched on hands and knees under all the beds, but no trace of Stephanie's medication could be found.
"Oh well," said the doctor finally, "I'll just have to get you some more. Won't keep you a moment."
David groaned as the doctor disappeared out of the door. "Another hour's delay, I'll bet," he grumbled.
Sir Gareth knocked cautiously on the door of Merlin's den and waited for a reply before entering, for magicians do not take kindly to having their magical doings interrupted. The last person who had been foolish enough to annoy Merlin had spent the next week in the form of a large brown rat. When Sir Gareth did enter, at the magician's summons, he found Merlin holding a small bottle, made not of glass but of some white material that Sir Gareth did not recognize.
"Have you something for me, Master Merlin?" he asked.
"Indeed I have, Sir Gareth," replied the magician, holding up the bottle. "Herein is the medicine that will cure your wife. She must swallow one pill thrice daily after meat." He tapped the bottle with his forefinger and added archly, "I obtained this by magic from a far distant, er, place."
"You are indeed the world's greatest magician," exclaimed Sir Gareth, feeling that a little flattery was called for.
"There is one slight problem," admitted Merlin. "The bottle is sealed by some sorcery unknown to me, and thus far I have not succeeded in working the opening spell. See, here on the lid is writ Push down and twist to open, together with the likeness of an arrow in flight to show the direction. Yet when I do..." He pushed and twisted, and twisted and pushed, but however he wrestled with it the lid would not open. It merely clicked at him, mockingly. With an exclamation of annoyance Merlin cast the bottle down on his workbench and glared at it. "It may take me some days yet to learn its secret," he added.
But Sir Gareth was smiling broadly, sensing that here at last was a matter which lay within his own abilities. "Pray trouble yourself no longer, Master Merlin," he said, throwing off his cloak. "A spell-sealed bottle is no match for a Knight of the Round Table!"
Merlin hastily retired to a safe distance as the knight drew his sword.
