ALL IN THE HEAD 1

THE HEALER

      Today is born a seventh one, born of woman, a seventh son, and he in turn a seventh son. He has the power to heal; he has the gift of the second sight. He is the chosen one. So, it shall be written, so, it shall be done. – Lyrics from Seventh son of a seventh son by Iron Maiden.

Eleven-year-old Jamie was out playing ball by himself. He had been fighting with his brother until his mom scorned him. Jamie is the older brother and his mother told him he should know better even though he insisted that his brother had started it so to the great outdoors Jamie went.

Now his football has come to be stuck up a tree, a tree just a few feet past the garden wall and there was no one around to help Jamie get it back. Jamie began to climb and when he thought he was high enough he stretched an arm out towards his ball but couldn't quite reach it. He lost his footing and came down hard, landing flat on his back.

Through the living room window Jamie's mum could see her son fall. She screamed and rushed out to his side, lifting his head and upper torso on to her lap.

'Help, somebody help me' she shouted out in a panic, for her son is unconscious. In a slightly quieter voice, she continued 'oh my god, he is not breathing'.

A man approached.

'It is alright madam, I can help.'

Not knowing how to react and at the same time hoping for a miracle, she raised up her own arms to give the stranger some room and access to her son. He knelt and placed one hand on Jamie's head and the other hand on Jamie's chest. The man's eyes began to roll to where only the whites were showing as his eye lids remained open. After fifteen seconds or so the man's eyes returned, and he would look directly at the boys' mother.

'Your son is going to be just fine.'

The man stood up and began to walk away before the boy's mother could in any way react to anything that he had just done, Jamie began coughing and pretty soon his mother would begin crying. Jamie is alive and well. The man who helped him was long gone before he could be thanked.

***

Norman didn't cry when he was born. In fact, he rarely cried at all. Being the youngest of seven brothers in one way ensured he had nothing to cry about and in another way was cause enough in itself. Growing up, it was always clear that Norman was at least just a little bit different. He could predict things before they would happen, like telling one of his brothers to answer the household telephone just before it would begin to ring out.

When it did ring, the phone would be for that particular brother with whom Norman had told to answer, but Norman wouldn't sound like he was predicting something, it was more like he could already hear the phone ringing and wondered why the relevant person wasn't already answering it. It was kind of an instinct that he knew who should be answering the phone.

It was on the day of Norman's fourteenth birthday when it was realized to some degree that there was a lot more to him than there had ever seemed to be, for it was on this day that two things would happen. First of which happened when Norman had been sitting on the passenger seat in his father's car along with his dad, Norman senior and also with his sixteen-year-old brother David. David played with a local football team and they would be on the way to game in this particular moment in time.

As they made their way to where that Saturday afternoon game was to take place, a sparrow crashed into the car windscreen and came to a halt on the bonnet. When the car came to a halt Norman felt compelled to get out and pick up the bird. He cupped his hands together and after a matter of seconds the sparrow turned over from being on its back and took flight. It had been clearly injured perhaps even dead, though when Norman Junior was done with what he was doing, the bird flew off as if nothing had happened at all.