Dark Seed (DeBeers 0.50)

He sat beside me. "You know there are many illnesses that we can't yet cure, don't you. Willow?"

"Yes." I reluctantly replied.

"Should you be angry at the doctors who tried to help her then?" I didn't want him to be right, but he was, "No."

"That's all right. though. I understand how you feel. We often blame the wrong people for things, but maybe it's because we put so much hope and faith in them."

That struck a familiar note.

"Scott's mad at his father. He said he promised his mother wouldn't die."

"Oh. I see. Well, why do you think his father did that?" "So he wouldn't worry."

"So his father didn't do it to hurt him then, did he?"

"No. But he shouldn't have promised." I added on Scott's behalf. "Lies weren't supposed to happen in his house."

"No, they shouldn't happen in anyone's house."

He was quiet a moment. and I wondered if, finally, the Doctor had no answers.

"I wouldn't want to ever tell you to lie," he continued. "But sometimes it's all right to give people some hope. It helps keep them healthy and productive. How would Scott have been if his father had told him a long time ago that his mother was going to die soon?"

"Bad," I admitted.

"And would he be able to go to school and enjoy his friends and even sleep well at night?"

"No."

"So, did his father do a bad thing to him?"

"No," I said.

"Maybe afterward, when a little time passes, you can help Scott see that, too. Then you'll be a very good friend to him. Willow."

I nodded.

The Doctor does have all the answers, I thought.

He patted me on the knee and rose.

"Looks like we might get some rain tonight." he said, looking out over the trees. "Flowers need it."

Sometimes I thought he was speaking to me, but he really wasn't. I was just there. He would look at me. but I felt he was looking past me, looking at someone else who was in his eyes. It gave me a funny feeling.

"Well. I've got some work to do," he concluded and went inside.

I wanted to go to Scott's mother's funeral, but my mother wouldn't take me and the Doctor had to be at his clinic. I thought about getting on my bike and riding all the way, however. I knew it was too far and it would take me too long. I did go to his house afterward and sat with him. There were so many people there, friends of his father's from work, more relatives. He and I didn't talk that much.

He was different when he returned to school. No longer as outgoing, he lost his impish quality, and if he got into any arguments or fights, they were far more vicious and brutal. He was in trouble more often.

Then, one day, he didn't come to school. He didn't came the next day, either. On the third day I rode to his house and saw a sign on the lawn advertising that it was for sale. The windows were dark and his father's pickup truck was not in the driveway,

I went up to the front door and pushed the buzzer, but no one answered, When I looked in the window, I saw the furniture was gone.

I remember I snapped back as if I had burned my forehead on the glass,

Later. I found out his father had gotten