The Grantville Gazette - Vol. 10 Part 28

"We think Daisy has teta.n.u.s."

"Teta.n.u.s? But surely you can treat that. There're vaccines . . . aren't there?"

Susannah shook her head slowly. "Up-time, there were vaccines and anti-toxins and we could always get more. I'm sorry, Dell, but we've run out. We've used what we brought back with us on neo-natal cases. We're doing the best we can using plasma taken from some of the last people to get a teta.n.u.s shot up-time, but I don't think it'll make much difference in Daisy's case."

"What the h.e.l.l do you mean you don't think it'll make much difference in Daisy's case?" Dell yelled.

"Everything is happening too fast, Mr. Beckworth. Even if we had the anti-toxin, I don't think we could do anything for Daisy. Even up-time, when someone wasn't immunized, teta.n.u.s was a very dangerous disease. It's caused by a toxin that kills in extremely low doses. Daisy, from what we can tell, has had more than a lethal amount." Susannah rested her hands on her desk. "I'm sorry, Mr. Beckworth, but I think you should prepare yourself for the fact Daisy isn't going to get better."

"Not get better?" Dell shot to his feet, the chair went flying backwards. "You mean she's going to die?

She's too young to die. Daisy's only f.u.c.king four years old."

"I'm sorry Mr. Beckworth, but we've doing everything we can. In Daisy's case, I don't think it's going to be enough."

"How much time, Doctor?"

"The speed it's been working, a couple of days, if that."

"s.h.i.t!" Dell buried his head in his hands. He sniffed, and pulled out a handkerchief, blew his nose and mopped his eyes. "I better see about getting a message to Lora's husband."

Susannah remained seated. She grabbed a handkerchief and blotted her eyes. Sometimes she really hated her job.

"Hi, Mary. I've come to takeRegina home. How is she?"

Mary Moran opened the door to let Stu inside. "She's sleeping just now. But what's happening with Daisy? We were all worried about her at work."

Stu stared blankly at Mary and shook his head.

"Oh, how's Lora coping?"

Stu sighed. "Not very well. Look, I'm sorry, but could you just getRegina , please. Mom's home alone with Lora's kids, and she's not very well herself."

Stu started to worry as he turned to walk up the drive. Lora's house was dark. There should have been lights on. It wasn't that late, and anyway, surely his mother would stay up until she got news of Daisy.

When he arrived at the door he became even more worried. The sound of a child crying could be heard.

It sounded as if Tommy had been crying for a long time. It wasn't like his mother to let a child cry like that. He rushed inside.

The sight before him made him jerk. For a moment, in the first flash of light, he'd mistaken the blanket-covered toys on the floor for a body.

Tommy had never been able to settle without his blanket as long as Stu had known him. He picked up the blanket to give it to the baby, but the odor made Stu back off. It smelled as though Tommy hadn't been changed for a while.

Stu was worried about his mother now. There was no way she would let a baby stay wet. He headed for his mother's room, but she wasn't there, either.

Stu paused. The sleeping weight ofRegina was somehow comforting, but she was starting to feel heavy.

Best to put her to bed before searching for Mom. He headed for the girls' bedroom, then froze. His mother lay curled up on Daisy's bed, some of Daisy's favorite toys gathered in her arms. Beside her, holding her hand, sat Maria Helena.

Maria Helena carefully slipped her hand out of Aggie's and walked over toRegina 's bed. She opened the bed covers and gestured to Stu.

The look of calm acceptance in Maria Helena's eyes almost caused him to throw up. He placedRegina on her bed and left her in Maria Helena's capable hands. Then he moved to check his mother. She looked peaceful, too peaceful. He touched her hand. It felt cold. He felt for a pulse. He couldn't find one.

Finally, he took her spectacles and held them close to her mouth. No sign of water vapor.

Stu swallowed and turned to check on Maria Helena andRegina .Regina appeared to be sound asleep.

Maria Helena met his gaze. Blinking and breaking eye contact he looked around the room before returning to look at Maria Helena. "Benji?" he asked.

Maria Helena pointed up the hall.

"Will you be all right, Maria Helena?"

She nodded.

Feeling guilty for leaving her in the room with a dead body, Stu walked over to Benji's room. Benji was curled up in bed and Stu had to make sure that Benji was just sleeping. He was.

Quietly Stu slipped out of Benji's room, closing the door behind him. He looked at the bed where Maria Helena sat beside her sister. He couldn't leave the two girls in the same room as a dead body. It just didn't seem right, but first things first. He had to get Tommy cleaned up and properly settled.

Nurnberg, two days later Jeff Matheny looked at the radiogram with dread. The look Tom Johnson, the radio operator, had given him when he pa.s.sed it over promised bad news. The fact that the radiogram was folded and sealed suggested the worst of bad news. With great trepidation he broke the seal. He looked to the bottom first, to see who it was from. "Dell."s.h.i.t, the only Dell he knew was his father-in-law. Why was his father-in-law sending him a radiogram . He moved his eyes to the main text.

DAISY DYING STOP.

TETa.n.u.s STOP.

GET HERE ASAP STOP.

Jeff swallowed. His daughter was sick, and he hadn't known. He looked at the header of the radiogram to see when it had come in.Oh, s.h.i.t. It's two days old. My daughter may have died without me at her side. And h.e.l.l, Lora. My family needs me . Jeff set off to tell his boss he was heading for Grantville.

After the funeral Stu Beckworth stopped walking to turn and look back at his niece's home where friends and family were still gathered to comfort the family. He spat at the ground. "The sooner that b.a.s.t.a.r.d goes back to Nurnberg the better."

Dell nodded his agreement. Lora's husband had arrived in Grantville barely in time for the funeral. There might have been some excuse for that, but there was no excuse for the way he ignored the two girls in favor of his sons. "Yeah! The sooner the better. For a moment there, I thought you were going to thump him."

"Believe me, Dell, if you hadn't dragged me away from there I would have done more than thump the b.a.s.t.a.r.d. Maria Helena went from excited and animated that her 'father' was coming home to totally lifeless as he walked right past her, and her sister was reduced to tears. I could have killed him there and then."

"Yeah, well, then it was a good thing I dragged you away. There's been enough death in the family for now."

Stu shoved his hands in his jacket pocket and started walking again. Dell fell in beside him. They walked another half mile before Dell broke the silence.

"Why the h.e.l.l isn't the government doing something to protect the children, Stu? Okay, so they got that smallpox immunization program up and running, but what about teta.n.u.s?" Dell stared at the setting sun. "I asked Dr. Shipley after Daisy died. She said she hadn't heard anything. You got any idea what it takes to make a vaccine?"

"No. Do you?"

"No. Dr. Shipley suggested I talk to Dr. Ellis. He was part of the team responsible for the smallpox vaccination. I think I'll drop in after work tomorrow and ask him. You want to come along?"

Stu looked torn. He hesitated, and then shook his head. "I think I'd better hang around Maria Helena and her sister. Maybe the b.a.s.t.a.r.d will spend a bit of time with them before he goes back, but just in case he doesn't, I want to be around to let the girls know that they're important."

The Home of Dr. Emery Ellis, M.D. (retired) "Sorry about what happened to Daisy. A real shame that." Dr. Ellis shook his head.

"It's Daisy I wanted to talk to you about."

Dr. Ellis stepped back from the door. "Come on in, Dell. But I have to tell you, I've spoken with Dr.

Shipley about Daisy's case, and there was nothing more she could have done."

"Yeah, that's what she told me. But that's not what I want to talk about. I want to talk about what it takes to make a vaccine."

Dr. Ellis guided him to a seat before sitting down himself. "I guess you really want to know about a teta.n.u.s vaccine, don't you? Well, generally speaking, once you can reproduce the bacteria in the laboratory, making a teta.n.u.s vaccine becomes a possibility. The trouble is, the bacteria are anaerobic, meaning that they live under conditions without oxygen. It's d.a.m.n near impossible to culture the bacteria without developing some special equipment first. I hear Les Blocker is trying to do that, but he's not making a lot of progress."

"The vet? Any idea why he's not making much progress?"

Dr. Ellis shook his head. "Yes, the vet. Veterinarians actually know a lot about vaccines, Dell. The big problem is the lack of trained staff. There just aren't enough trained laboratory technicians. Come into the study and I'll show you what I have on vaccines and vaccinations.

Dr. Blocker's Veterinary Clinic "Hi, Dell. Dr. Blocker's fallen a bit behind. If you'll just wait in the waiting room, he'll see you as soon as he's free."

Dell glanced over towards the waiting area. The first thing he saw was the young girl. He froze for a moment. She looked so much like little Daisy. Backing away from the waiting area he turned to June. "If you don't mind, I'd prefer to wait outside."

Outside the surgery Dell leaned against the wall. The sight of the girl had brought back memories of that night spent beside Daisy's bed praying for a miracle that didn't come. When his breathing returned to normal, he pushed off from the wall and started to look around. The animals in the paddock beside the surgery attracted his attention. He'd always had a bit of a soft spot for the llamas. Or were they alpacas?

He'd never really been sure of the difference.

He lean against the fence and he watched one of the animals approach. It didn't appear threatening, so he stood his ground until the llama started to gently b.u.t.t its head against his chest.

"He wants you to scratch under the halter."

"Dr. Blocker?" Dell asked.

Les leaned forward and scratched the llama. "Call me Les. You're Dell, aren't you? Dr. Ellis told me you might come around asking about vaccines."

"Yeah, I'm Dell. Dr. Ellis told me you were working on a teta.n.u.s vaccine. Can I ask how far you've got?"

Les shook his head. "Not very far at all. In fact, we've basically shelved it as too difficult. We just don't have the trained staff. I'm spending half my days trying to train some new veterinarians and the other half tending to animals."

"What will it take to get you back working on a teta.n.u.s vaccine?"

The vet pushed away the llama and gave Dell a wry grin. "More than twenty-four hours in every day would be a great place to start. Come on, let's go for a walk. If I hang around the surgery, I'm bound to be called away."

The office of Helene Gundelfinger Mrs. G. looked across her desk at the two up-timers who had asked for an urgent appointment. "Herr Beckworth, Herr Beckworth, how may I help you?"

"We want to sell everything we have. We need to raise as much money as we can."

Helene gently tapped a pencil on her desk. "I can't recommend that. Can you tell me why you need the money? There are a number of investments I've recently made that should make a fine return in time."

"We don't have time. h.e.l.l, too much time has already been wasted."

"Easy, Dell. Mrs. Gundelfinger deserves to know why we want the money." Stu turned to Helene. "I'm sorry about Dell, Mrs. Gundelfinger. My grandniece, Dell's granddaughter, died last week. She shouldn't have. If she'd been vaccinated, she wouldn't have died. We want to underwrite a research program to produce vaccines like they had up-time."

"Children die, Herr Beckworth, are you sure your research program will do any good?"

"Yeah, I know children die, Mrs. Gundelfinger, but not my grandkids, and not from such a f.u.c.king lousy way as teta.n.u.s. Not when a simple vaccination can prevent it." Dell answered.

"Teta.n.u.s?"

"You probably know it better as lockjaw."

Helene thought a moment. She had seen people die of lockjaw. It wasn't a pretty way to die. She glanced up at the ceiling. Above her office her daughter was taking her nap. She would do anything to prevent her daughter suffering that fate. "You might not need to sell all of your investments, Herr Beckworth. If you can gather people capable of developing such a vaccine, I will help raise the money.

Would I be correct in a.s.suming you want the vaccine to be available to the greatest number of people and not just the well-to-do?"

Dell nodded. "Especially the children."

Daisy Matheny BioLab, Grantville, a few months later Dr. Emery Ellis surveyed his domain. He had come out of retirement to serve as the first director of research at Daisy Matheny BioLab, the company named after the first up-timer to die of teta.n.u.s.

Whereas most new businesses struggled to raise capital, Daisy Matheny Biolab hadn't even had a true public offering. Shares had been offered only to selected individuals. People who would rather see affordable health care for all, rather than more money in the bank. There had been a few rumbles from people who hadn't been invited to partic.i.p.ate. Emery grinned when he considered the possible social implications of not being a shareholder in Daisy Matheny Biolab. He and his wife were safe. They held a hundred shares * * *

Lora stood with Tommy in her arms watching the nurse give the children their shots. It wasn't the teta.n.u.s vaccine. They weren't even thinking of human trials of that vaccine yet. Maybe next year. Instead, she and the children were being vaccinated against typhoid. It was a double vaccine, a needle and an oral vaccine embedded in a sugar cube.

Maria Helena volunteered to go first. There was no sign of emotion on her young face as she sat quietly waiting for the nurse to finish. Then she stood up and walked over to Stu. Lora bit her lips when their hands met. She was sure money changed hands. She'd have to have words with Uncle Stu about the evils of bribing the children.

Then she watched Benji approach the nurse. Lora braced herself for a repeat of the fuss he'd made for the smallpox vaccination. But Benji surprised her. He couldn't carry "stoic" like Maria Helena, but the expected fuss failed to materialize.

The smile that pa.s.sed between Uncle Stu and Maria Helena caught her attention. Then she grinned. Of course, that was why Maria Helena had gone first. There was no way Benji was going to appear less brave than a girl.

His dose administered, Benji retreated as far away from the nurse as he could get. He slowly sucked on his sugar cube while he rubbed his arm. That leftRegina next in line. Maria Helena moved closer to her sister and held her hand.Regina didn't cry out, but she did give the nurse an accusing "that hurt" look.

That left just Tommy to go. Sucking on his sugar cube, a rare treat given the price of sugar, he kept his face buried in Lora's shoulder through the whole operation.

Benji andRegina ran on ahead, but Uncle Stu was dragged along by Maria Helena pulling at his hand.