Healers by Laurence Dahners

can help. Would you let me examine you?”
    The man frowned, “Examine?”
    “Yes. Look at your legs. Have you show us where they hurt.”
    “You ain’t just got a potion for leg pain?”
    Eva frowned at him, “No, different problems require different treatments. We have to see what’s wrong before we’ll know whether it’s something we can treat.”
    “We? I thought you were the healer?”
    “Well, yes, but my son and daughter help me.”
    The old man scratched his chin, then said, “Sure, have a look. But don’t do any funny stuff, then tell me I owe you a lot of money without me saying it’s okay.”
    Eva smiled at him, “Okay, have a seat here while I get my son and daughter.” She waved him to one of the boxes they packed their supplies in and said, “It’d be helpful if you took off your shoes and socks and rolled up your pant legs.”
    The line of people still waiting to be served breakfast was short, so Eva asked Kazy if she could manage it while Daussie helped Eva. Nervously, Kazy said, “Are you going far away?”
    Eva said, “Just over to see if we can treat that man over there.” She pointed to the older fellow sitting on a box beside the wagon.
    Kazy looked relieved, “Oh, sure, I’ll be fine.”
    Tarc stepped over when Eva called him. She knelt and picked up the man’s foot, noticing it was virtually hairless. Putting her fingers on the pulse point on top of his foot, she said, “Your name sir?”
    The man said, “Albert.”
    Eva smiled up at him, “Well Mr. Albert, do your legs hurt when you’re not walking?”
    The man shook his head.
    “And where do they hurt?”
    “Here,” the man said squeezing his calf. “They ache somethin’ terrible after I walk a ways.”
    Eva glanced up at her children, hoping to see understanding in their eyes, but they both looked puzzled. She said, “Tarc,” she pointed with her chin, “move that box over here behind Mr. Albert so he can lie back.” She stood up and turned her eyes on Albert, “We’re just going to go talk about you over by the wagon so I can teach my children what to look for in a case like yours.”
    The man looked up at her suspiciously, “Talk to them here where I can hear you. I want to learn as well,” he smiled wolfishly, “I especially want to listen to you tell them how to separate me from my coin.”
    It’d been a long time since Eva’d had such a suspicious patient. Well, she thought to herself, that’s if you don’t count Ms. Prichard’s husband. He wasn’t very trusting. Gaining people’s trust out here on the road’s going to be a lot more difficult than it was back in Walterston. Taking a deep breath she smiled at the man, then turned to Tarc and Daussie. “Before you try to examine Mr. Albert, what do you think the most likely diagnosis is?”
    Tarc and Daussie looked at one another, puzzlement evident on their faces. Daussie turned to her mother and said, “Arthritis?”
    “Arthritis is a joint problem, so it should hurt in the joint instead of halfway between the knee and the ankle. But it could be. Sometimes people feel pain farther down the limb than where the pain’s actually coming from. Shoulder pain’s sometimes felt in the middle of the arm and hip pain can be felt in the thigh or even down in the knee. But another thing that argues against arthritis is that it goes away when he rests. Arthritic joints keep hurting for a while after they’re irritated.”
    Daussie frowned, “Did you feel a pulse? I saw your fingers on it.”
    Eva smiled at her daughter, “No, I didn’t. Does that fit arthritis?”
    Daussie shrugged, “Not arthritis, but if he has poor blood flow to his muscles they’d hurt when they’re exercised.”
    Eva smiled even more broadly, “ Yes ! And notice he doesn’t have any hair on his feet, or really much below his knees. People with hardening of the arteries and poor blood flow to their legs seem to lose the hair on their feet. What he’s telling you is actually