[Fiction] Families Seperated

[Neil Preston]

It was snowing again. Neil wondered if there would be peace by Christmas. Hear in the nation just about every family had someone away, guarding the truce line and ready to fight. Kids were without mothers or fathers, parents without the children, husbands and wives without there better halves – families divided. There was also the sickness and disease brought about by the disruption of supplies coming into the Nation. Medicines were always in short supply, even with the efforts by groups like the Red Cross to keep the Lakota physicians supplied. It sucked.

Two warriors accompanied Neil as he made his rounds along the frontier. The two were as much to make sure that none of the natives shot the ‘Wandering Lone White Man’ as to provide any really security from attack. He was sure that the occasional military listening post caught sight of him – here – among the enemy. It was okay. He was living in Brazil now anyway.

This stop only had a few minor cases of frost bite and one infected cut, from chopping wood. Neil patched into his store of quantum goodies and replaced their wounds with new flesh. As the damaged tissue healed on his body, he took comfort in how easy this had become. Indian flesh was just like White flesh. They didn’t feel any different, even down to the quantum level.

Several more stops brought him to sunset. There were no gunshot wounds today. No miracles to perform. Just the grind of the daily tasks of a doctor in a region were medical care was a tourniquet and a box of band aids. His guards, the guys, were joking now. Guarding Doctor Neil was easy work and if they got shot – well, their Lifesaver was standing right there. Neil’s talents and the expectations were already taken for granted by these men. It was natural. Death was all to close a companion for them. Neil was their Mystic, Magic Anti-Death.

Outside of his medical duties, Neil was quandary for the Lakota Elders. He was Wakinyan’s Blood Brother and no one denied it. There was no argument that he was a powerful Spirit. Most accepted that he was also a Peaceful One and an Ally of Ptesan-Wi, but what then?

Neil was a White Man, too. Didn’t that make him the enemy?

Wasn’t this a war for the Lakota to stand and win on their own?

What place did this man then have among the Lakota?

Was embracing him, embracing weakness and dependence?

Neil knew he was causing problems, but he also knew that children, the wounded, and the dying didn’t care. They hurt and he could heal. This was his place and he saw that he was welcomed in the eyes of those in need … if only for a while. That was enough, until peace came and the families could be together again.