Mysterious stomach pains have been plaguing me lately. A virus? An ulcer? A tumor? My mind races. My hands wrestle a fat book on nutritional health from the shelf. Oh dear, your stomach may be digesting itself! You should be eating bananas and running everything else through the food processor! My hand, crooked and crumpled with carpal tunnel syndrome, turns the pages until I've worried myself silly.
Then, floating in on a major chord, comes my mother. She feeds me, lays me down, and draws symbols on my stomach with Lourdes water. Then she closes her eyes and starts to give me reiki.