Dark as the Night

12

"Scurvy??  You mean like Pirate Mouth? But... that doesn't happen anymore, right? I mean, that was only a problem several hundred years ago, wasn't it?" Linda's face transformed in an instant from teary to stunned.

Odessa smiled grimly. "It's nothing more than a deficiency of vitamin C – a vitamin that's easy to acquire, I might add. It's actually not uncommon in poor parts of the world where food is scarce, and even in the U.S. among people who, for whatever reason, don't eat properly. The fact that he's deficient means he must not be eating any citrus fruit or vegetables. This is going to sound harsh, but this means that your son is both overweight and malnourished. You are, in essence, overfeeding him and starving him at the same time."

Linda's jaw dropped and she put her hand to her mouth, clearly thunderstruck. "I had no idea... he hates vegetables so he never eats them at the food hall. And it's true that he dislikes oranges, although I don't understand why." She began to cry again, remorse and fear written all over her face.

Odessa arched an eyebrow. "So he's not eating his vegetables or citrus fruits, and then eating sweets and junk food instead?"

Linda blushed and looked down, sniffling. "I never really thought of it that way, that I'm replacing healthy food with junk food. So what do I do? He'll throw a fit if I suddenly change the way we've been doing things, and he loves sweets so much."

Before Odessa could answer, there was a knock on the door and James peeked into the room. Odessa saw him and grinned, waving him in. "Do you hear what we're saying, Byron? You have pirate mouth! That means you're on your way to becoming a pirate. Isn't that cool?" Byron's ashen face lit up and he nodded vigorously. She continued. "The problem is that pirates with pirate mouth are too sick to keep..." she trailed off, searching for the right word. Finally she settled on, "...pirating. They have to get better so they can be big and strong and able to swash buckles and plunder booty. Like James, here."

Byron's eyes widened to twice their size as he and Linda looked at James. Linda blushed again, this time shyly, and Byron cried out, "Sensei is a pirate?? I thought he was a ninja!"

Odessa tried not to laugh at his childish glee as she tumbled out, "He's both! But in order to be strong enough to be a pirate and a ninja, he eats lots of vegetables. Right, Sensei...?"

James arched an eyebrow at her. "Oh yeah, I eat lots of vegetables and I swash lots of buckles and plunder lots of booties," he answered gravely. Odessa smacked his arm and scowled. Linda snorted in laughter and tried to hide it with a cough.

Odessa looked back at the little boy. "So you need to eat a lot of them as well, and fewer pastries so you can be big and strong too. Do you understand?" Byron nodded enthusiastically. His energy seemed to have returned. She smiled and turned back to Linda.

"It's never good to have an abrupt change in diet. It causes withdrawal and ends up making the bad habit worse. What you should do is wean him off of the bad stuff and onto the good stuff. Instead of giving him dessert every meal regardless of what he did or didn't eat, start by giving him dessert only if he eats everything on his plate, and make dessert portions smaller. I'll also talk to the bakery about the possibility of offering healthier treats.

"As for the immediate problem, he needs to eat citrus fruit and lots of spinach, tomatoes, potatoes, broccoli, and carrots. Maybe Leila can get the food hall to offer fruit smoothies as an option in the mornings. They're a good way to get in orange juice and veggies without having to necessarily taste them. There are vitamin C supplements available, but I really think that would just teach your son to take a pill to solve ailments rather than solve the problem causing them. Leila would probably suggest taking a multivitamin supplement along with the dietary changes, but since I'm not officially a healer, I can't offer them to you. I'll check with her though and have her call you later with her opinion on all this."

Linda nodded with just as much vigor as Byron had a few minutes before. "Thank you so much for helping us. We'll start the new changes tonight at dinner."

Odessa smiled at the young mother. "I'll ask the Food Hall if they can at least give him a smoothie tonight so he can have something easy to eat with a dose of vitamin C and hopefully his appetite will return soon. Please bring him back in two weeks so I can see how well he's progressing." Then she ducked back down to Byron's level. "When is your birthday?"

He beamed. "January 27th!"

"So is mine! If you work hard, then you'll be a strong, healthy pirate by then, and on our birthday we'll eat pancakes together, ok?" Byron nodded and left the room the way he came in, holding his mother's hand. Odessa and James walked them to the entrance and watched them leave with a wave. Odessa turned to James and saw him staring at her with his eyebrow arched again. "What?" she asked dubiously.

"So your birthday is January 27th?"

"Did I say that?" she blinked. "I guess... now that I think about it, yeah, it is." She changed the subject abruptly. "So what's with the 'sensei' thing?"

James gaped at her indifference. "Sensei is what they call me at the training center, since I'm the Martial Arts instructor. So wait, you don't care that you just remembered your birthday? How old are you then? And what was all that pirate talk about?"

Odessa rolled her eyes and turned into the office. "Well yeah, I care, but what am I supposed to do, jump for joy? There's still a lot of stuff I don't remember. And I am 17, just as I've been saying all along." She paused to finish updating Byron's medical record then continued, "As for the pirate talk, the kid has scurvy, so I thought if I made him feel like something exciting, it would put him in a better mind to change his habits."

James narrowed his eyes. "So why did you bring me into it?"

"Because you happened to be there and I figured 'what's cooler to a chubby little kid than a giant ox of a man?'" she changed the subject again. "So do you need some sort of qualification to be a Sensei, or does anyone who teaches Martial Arts get that title?"

James felt a little twinge of pride at the off-hand compliment but decided against acknowledging it. "Only the sexy ones," he replied. "Who have a black belt in whatever they're teaching. Don't you need a qualification to give advice as a healer?"

"Nope, just to dispense medication, which I did not do," Odessa answered pointedly.

"So any amnesiac can be a healer," he said with a smirk.

Odessa winked. "Only the sexy ones." James opened his mouth to reply then closed it again. "So why are you here, anyway?" She turned off the tablet and walked past him toward the back of the medical center.

"To escort you to dinner, as per Leila's request."

"Oh, thanks. Let me hang up the herbs I was harvesting, and then I'll get my coat." James followed her to the greenhouse and watched her grab bundles of herbs and take them to the drying room to hang them upside down from a rack on the low ceiling.

He leaned against the door frame, hands nonchalantly tucked into his jeans pockets, as he watched her work. "You really seem to know a lot about this. How much did Leila teach you?"

Odessa shrugged and glanced over her shoulder at him. "Just where everything is and how everything is stored and filed."

"So all that stuff about scurvy, and how to use herbs, you already knew that?" Odessa nodded. "Huh." James scratched his head. "Whatever. I'm hungry.  Hurry up." He turned and walked out, shrugging on a black leather jacket, to wait by the entrance.