Placebos were often just sugar pills, made to look like the real thing. In tests, doctors or scientists gave sugar pills to some subjects while others received real medications. Often, those who received the sugar pills responded to the treatment as positively as those who had received the real medicine.
The mind is a powerful thing. Peter knew that, and, without any other solution, he was contemplating a very involved ruse as a last ditch way to try to help Lang.
He felt in his pocket and noticed that he still had the cell phone from the man he’d been forced to shoot. Peter knew that cell phones were loaded with trace amounts of gold and silver, and that both gold and silver have been used for millennia as antibiotics and antivirals. He also knew that he didn’t have the proper tools, chemicals, or equipment to extract the gold and silver from the phone… but, he thought to himself, and this was the thing, Lang doesn’t know that.
The first thing Peter did was to gather Natasha and Elsie together. He told them that the three of them needed to black out the windows. They were going to have fire and light in the cabin, and they wanted as little evidence of that to be evident from outside the cabin as possible. The smoke from the fireplace was bad enough. Peter thought that he should have asked them not to light a fire in the first place; however, since they’d already started the fire, he would use it to sterilize the knife and prepare his placebo ruse.
Using the flashlight for light, Peter proceeded to cut large squares of carpet from the floor of the cabin and instructed Natasha and Elsie to find nails, staples, or any other materials that might be useful for hanging the squares. He told them that they could fasten them over the windows by pounding bent and rusted nails through the carpet and into the window frames using a brick and a rock they’d found behind the cabin. It took 45 minutes for the water to boil sufficiently for Peter to get to work.
He started by taking the phone apart. He made a big show of the disassembly process. In his mind he noted that he was not only disassembling, but he was also dissembling, which meant lying. It was good that the trick was a secret, because he didn’t know how poorly his word play might be received at such a time.
He removed the chip, the processor, wires, and connector from the phone, all the while announcing loudly and confidently everything that he was doing. He convinced himself of the lie, so that his patient might more readily believe him. He gave a short dissertation on the antibiotic, antiviral, and anti-bacterial benefits of silver and gold in solution. All that part was true, he thought. He worked like a magician, using sleight of hand and showmanship to make the whole display believable. Nobody doubted him. He noted that he was manipulating the trust of his friends, but— He forced the thought to leave him. He didn’t have time for self-recrimination.
“Natasha? Elsie? Have you finished blacking out the cabin?” Peter called out from down the hallway.
“Yes, Peter. It’s all done,” Natasha replied.
“Okay, while I finish this, I want you two to do a top to bottom search of this place. Examine every cabinet, drawer, cubbyhole, shelf… everywhere… anything you find, call it out loudly, OK? You holler out what it is to me, and I’ll tell you if we can use it. There’s probably not much to be found. The place looks like it’s been stripped bare, but you never know.”
He stepped back into the room and then stuck his head into the hallway again, as an afterthought, choosing to err on the side of caution. “Stay away from any windows,” he warned. “Even brushing up against one can cause a disturbance that might be seen from outside.”
The two women called out agreement and began their search. Peter used the momentary diversion to pour out the solution he’d been concocting. He filled an empty coffee cup with water from one of his water bottles, then added a tiny pinch off of the ChapStick to the water. His plan was to heat the water in the cup by the fire so that it would melt the tiny amount of ChapStick. The oily substance would add a peculiar taste that Peter hoped would amplify the placebo effect on Lang’s mind.
“An old aluminum soda can!” Elsie shouted from one of the bedrooms.
“Keep it!” Peter responded.
“An empty bourbon bottle!” Natasha yelled, even though she was just fifteen feet away in the little kitchen nook, searching through the cabinets.
“Keep it!” Peter yelled back, laughing.
“A knitting needle!” Elsie hollered.
“Keep it!” Peter and Lang shouted back, in unison. Lang was now laughing through the pain, and the diversion was good for him.
“This place is a veritable treasure trove of valuable artifacts,” he said. He was surprised that there were so many useful things still available in the cabin—items most people would probably think were useless.
Peter took the hot coffee cup away from the fire and allowed it to cool for thirty seconds or so. Then he handed it to Lang and told him to drink it all down.
“Swallow it to the dregs, son. That concoction will make you right as rain.”
Lang did what he was told and scowled a bit from the strange oiliness in the water.
“A quarter bag of sugar!” Natasha yelled.
“Keep it!” Lang shouted, chuckling at the game.
“Woah! Wait!” Peter said. “Did you say sugar, Natasha?”
“Yes, Peter. Refined sugar. Kind of clumpy, but still white.”
“Oh my goodness,” Peter said, and excitement lit up his features. “Bring it here, daughter. You may just be a lifesaver!”
Natasha walked over by the fire with the bag of sugar. “Why?” she asked. “What good is sugar? Are we going to eat it?”
“Well, young lady, refined and bleached sugar has a multitude of excellent uses, but eating it isnot one of them. In fact, one of the poorest uses of refined sugar is as a food substance. It has killed more humans than Stalin and Mao combined.” He paused, winking at Lang, as if to say… it’s true… then he continued. “But it is good for many medicinal reasons, not the least of which is the fact that sugar and honey have been used as an antibacterial agent for millennia.” The older man began to elucidate on the healing properties of sugar but, at that moment, Natasha and Lang were not entirely paying attention. They were looking at one another.
When Natasha had entered the room with the bag of sugar, she’d glanced sideways at Lang. They caught one another’s attention and held the look for what was a tiny moment that seemed like much longer to each of them. The glance was a tiny visual embrace, but then they released it and smiled to one another, as if to say… There he goes again.
Monday
No one got much sleep. Treating Lang’s infected wound stretched into the wee hours of the morning, and it had been a soul-wrenching mind siege, every single minute of it.
Before Natasha found the sugar, Peter hadn’t had much hope left at all. The placebo trick wasn’t real or tangible, but, at the time, it was the only real hope he had of halting or reversing Lang’s infection.
The boy had been valiant. He had not even complained, not once, though Peter knew that he was in severe pain. In the older man’s mind, finding the sugar had been a miracle. He’d exhausted his knowledge and experience, and, without just such a miracle, a stupid mind game was all that he had remaining in his bag of tricks.