sorry this is late

The doctor shrugged and told him not to do anything too energetic for the rest of the day and that he would see him later. He had barely left the room before a different nurse appeared and inserted a new catheter in his other wrist before drawing a new blood sample which she bore off like a trophy. He visited the bathroom again and then propped himself up to watch the television.

An hour later, his parents walked in, surprising the hell out of him. Apparently, they had flown to Crete as soon as they could get airline tickets and visas organized. Once there, they caught the next local flight to Santorini, dumped their bags in his hotel room, and immediately headed for the hospital. Much emoting followed their arrival, even from his father, which surprised him a bit. His father was not, as a rule, the overly physical contact type usually. They were clearly very upset at his near-death! His sister hadn’t been able to come but sent her love.

They had get-well messages from many of his friends, relatives, and even a couple of his professors! And they brought his laptop! With an amazing display of self-discipline, he forbore opening the device and disappearing into it while they were there. Eventually, they were sufficiently satisfied with his recovery that they were persuaded to retire to the hotel to catch up on their sleep. After they had finally departed, he found his email account overflowing with get-well emails. He had never had all that many friends, and getting emails from people he didn’t even know was a strange experience! The fame he had engendered for himself with his translating Linear A, at least amongst the Classical Studies world, was brought home with a rush by the sheer number of messages he had received. And he wasn’t even game to look at his social media accounts! Ha, they would probably be less full if the truth be known.

The doctor reluctantly signed him out the next day as, to all intents and purposes, he was completely recovered, if more than a little weak and very pale looking, and the new blood tests had come back all normal.  His mother made him stay at the hotel on Santorini for another day, which was awkward with them sharing the room before they began the trip back to the States. Jason found himself so weak and prone to the shakes that her maternal hovering was actually welcome rather than annoying. The flight home was long and boring and included a three-hour layover in New York, making the trip seem even longer. At least by the time they arrived back in San Diego, the shakes were finally starting to subside.

He thought back over the trip and wondered whether the leaves had done anything to him? Apart from apparently killing him, twice, that was. Hmmm. Then there was all the strange carry-on with the blood tests. Urasmian had said normal people had a two in a hundred chance of dying from drinking the tea made from the leaves of the right plant. Unfortunately, he had no way of knowing if he had actually found the right plant or not. He didn’t feel magical, that was for sure! But at least he wasn’t dead, which was a good thing!