Suzie’s House 515 : Cause No Harm

Much to Sonoma’s relief, Drew walked into the house under his own steam. There had been a few times back when he lived under her roof when they had brought him into the house on a dolly. His muscles would lock up and keep him as still as a statue for painfully long minutes, sometimes even hours.

This gave her heart. The fact he could move now meant she was on to something.

“Well, he looks pretty good, doesn’t he?” She spoke to her life-mate in a low voice intended for no one but him.

The crowd of people around Drew would most likely take it the wrong way. Especially the teenagers. They always took everything so personally.

“Quit messing with the boy, Sonoma. You know this episode was caused by your tea.” Trent gave her a glare.

“He has to get the last of it out of his system for good. Yes, he might have a few more bad moments, but it’s all to clear it all out.” She felt particularly defensive. Bad sign. Usually if Trent said something that made her feel defensive, then she was overlooking something.

The two of them stepped into the den. where everyone else had settled in the kitchen. Sonoma could easily hear them all talk about how Drew was feeling and how well Ben had driven and when Ben was going to get his driver’s license and what to do about Walter – all spoken of with high energy and some overlap.

“Don’t you think if he was going to get clear of it for good it would have happened by now? It’s been nearly a year since he’s had anything.”

“You know that isn’t true. Getting clear of it, I mean. It can take years to get rid of things stored in your fat cells.” Her gut tightened more, though she was sure of the soundness of her logic.

“But we don’t even know how this one works. Not for sure. Not like with crack or LSD. How do you know you aren’t just making it worse? How do you know it isn’t a permanent thing with him, like how Squirrel lost her brain chemistry and now it’s never going to be totally normal again.”

“Squirrel came to us that way. It wasn’t my fault.”

“That doesn’t mean you are always right. You and your teas play with basic brain chemistry. That’s a tricky business even if you were using something as refined as a pill. With tea, there’s too many variables. You could seriously harm to poor boy.”

As he talked, the worry mounted. They still weren’t really coming to the crux of the matter, though she couldn’t see where she was wrong. She was wrong somewhere. She could feel it in her body’s desire to fight and refuse. She forced herself to remain logical and not lash out, as she knew Trent counted on her to do. She took a breath to steady herself.

“I know the tea can be dangerous. In the process of removing the last of the toxins and resolving the resultant chemical imbalances they can cause flashbacks and other side effects. No treatment is a hundred percent safe. But isn’t it better to deal with it while we can so he will have a better result over the course of a lifetime? Yes, I increased his dosages at a risk, but the risk is well worth it!”

She was on to something. From the way her gut flinched in the middle of her speech she knew the flaw in her thinking was somewhere in there. She just couldn’t pinpoint it.

A furtive sound by the door made both of them turn. Drew stared at her white faced.

“You did this without explaining it all to me?”

Ah-hah! That’s what she had overlooked.

Oh no. How could she have overlooked such a thing? She could not imagine a worse way of messing up.

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