allows patients with this specific memory loss to repair the mechanism for recall so that memories—new and old—can be accessed.”
As the words hovered in the air, Rita reached under the table to give my hand a squeeze.
“Dr. Milton has already begun a trial of patients,” Dr. Chen continued. “They’re a few weeks ahead of us but their results, so far, have been encouraging. Though the risks are not inconsequential.”
“What risks?” I asked, drawing everyone’s eye.
“Are we talking open brain surgery?” Delia asked, giving me a sharp look to remind me Thea was her concern, not mine.
Dr. Chen shook her head. “The surgery is a minimally invasive endoscopic, endonasal procedure, which also involves stem cell extraction from the pelvic bone and cerebrospinal fluid…” She waved her hands. “We are getting ahead of ourselves. There are preliminary tests that need to be done to ensure Thea is a proper candidate. Dr. Milton will want to fly in to perform them and the procedure himself. With your consent,” she said to Delia.
A quiet descended over the room.
“You’re saying this procedure might restore Thea’s memory,” Delia said slowly.
“It’s a possibility, yes.”
“All of her memories? From her life before the accident?”
“Correct.”
Delia’s glance flickered to each of us, watching her. Waiting. Holding our breath.
“And if it works…”
“If it works, Ms. Hughes,” Dr. Chen said, “this treatment will bring Thea back to life.”
Chapter 18
Jim
“I’d like to be alone with Dr. Chen,” Delia said. “I have questions.”
“Of course,” Anna said.
“Thank you, Jim,” Dr. Chen said as we headed out. “Your information was particularly helpful.”
I nodded, feeling Delia’s eyes on me.
In the break room, Rita gave me a hug, her eyes shining. “You did this. Everything good that’s going to happen for Thea is because of you.”
I slipped out of Rita’s embrace. “That’s not true.”
“It is true, and you need to own it,” she said.
“All right, I agree it’s very exciting news,” Anna said, “but we still have work to do.”
The importance of Dr. Chen’s words sank in. I tried to imagine how Thea would be, out of her prison. Talking to her for longer than a few minutes. Her calling me Jimmy with the kind eyes. Her remembering me…
Not gonna happen, you big dummy. Doris chuckled. Delia will see to that.
Alonzo clapped me on the back. “Still putting in your notice?”
“I don’t know…”
He stared. “How do you not know?”
Because nothing good lasts. I have to be able to walk away. It’s how I’ve survived.
“If you’re worried about Delia, forget her,” he said. “If this miracle works on Thea, she’ll have something she hasn’t had in two years. Free will. Let her decide what she wants.”
“Alonzo—”
“You think you’re so replaceable?” he demanded with sudden fury. “You think I can pick up the phone and just find someone else? You think it’s gonna be easy for me not having you around?”
To my shock his eyes were shining.
“Forget it,” he said, shaking his head and heading out the door. “Do what you have to do. What do I care?”
Over the next few days, the sanitarium was crawling with doctors. Dr. Bernard Milton and his team from Sydney flew in and began running tests on Thea. It only took two days to come to their conclusion.
“They’re going to do it,” Rita cried. “Dr. Milton said she’s the perfect candidate and Delia’s given consent. Can you believe it? I’m so excited for her.”
“Me too.”
And scared shitless.
I’d looked up Dr. Milton’s procedure. He’d performed it on a test group of patients in Australia a few weeks ago. I didn’t understand all the technical jargon, but I grasped the surgery involved drawing bone marrow from Thea’s hip bone. The stem cells would then be processed in a lab and married with neurons drawn from her spinal fluid. A procedure called neuroendoscopy would implant the cells into the damaged areas of her hippocampus via her nasal passage. After, she would take an oral medication—a sort of bonding agent—that acted as a bridge between neurons to facilitate the memory recall.
The potential complications from surgery were aneurism, blood clots, and infection. The medication—which she’d have to take for the rest of her life—had its own risks, including elevated blood pressure and stroke.
But if that’s what it took to break her out of her prison, then there was no choice, in my mind.
The day came when Thea was transported from Blue Ridge down to Roanoke Memorial. Delia and Rita went with her, gently guiding Thea toward the medical van, talking soothingly to her along the way.
“When she comes back,”