Harry never expected Cory to show a streak of humility, to openly question himself. She thought of Annalise’s passionate outburst yesterday. Maybe a sensitive human being can’t work every day with the Emilys of this world and not be touched.
Cory handed everyone a sheet of paper with simple vitamin suggestions based on what type of procedure the woman had undergone, which treatments they were in now.
Harry’s sheet listed a multivitamin, vitamin E, vitamin C, and potassium.
“Harry, I spoke with Jennifer. You had cancer light.” He half smiled, handing her the paper. “So this is my short list, but you might want to speak with her yourself. Noddy told me you’re working out two days a week now. With your farmwork, that’s very positive.”
“Thank you for taking the time to do this for each of us.”
“Half of your group are my patients. I’m delighted they are in this group, and Toni will keep everyone going.”
Harry looked up at him. “There must be times when this is hard on you.”
He waited, then lowered his voice. “It is. I tell myself every woman I see is a legacy. She is teaching me for others, and I truly believe in my lifetime I will see a vaccine or possibly a preventive measure, such as taking a pill every morning if you’re at risk.”
“I hope I live to see it, too.”
“You will,” he confidently predicted.
After her meeting, Harry drove to the GNC store in the mall. She bought each of the vitamins Cory suggested. She now had an arsenal to accompany her Centrum.
When she arrived home, she kissed her pets and carried the small bag into the kitchen.
“No time like the present.” She opened the bottles, grabbed a Coke, and counted out one pill each.
“That’s the smell!” Tucker barked loudly.
“What are you making noise about?” Pewter, miffed that Harry hadn’t brought treats or toys, complained.
“That’s the smell, much stronger, that I smelled on Paula!”
Mrs. Murphy leapt onto the table. She batted over the bottles, then knocked Harry’s pills, like tiny hockey pucks, onto the floor.
“Hey!” Harry quickly grabbed the white plastic bottles, for she’d turned her back.
Mrs. Murphy stuck her nose in each bottle. “That’s it.”
Pewter, mouth agape, was too surprised and curious to continue complaining.
“What is it?” Tucker called up, her nose on an oblong pill.
“Potassium.” Mrs. Murphy then knocked that bottle on the floor, the pills scattering all over the place.
“Murph!” Harry lunged for the bottle.
The cats and Tucker grabbed what pills they could, ran outside, and spit them in the grass.
“Oh, my God, will we die?” Pewter realized what she’d done.
“We’ll know soon enough,” Mrs. Murphy calmly replied.
Harry, livid, blasted outside only to see those pills ruined. “I could just kill you all!”
“We might have saved you the trouble.” A mournful Pewter regretted her moment of bravery.
By 8:00 P.M., all were fine. At 5:30 A.M., the usual rising time, the three got up hale and hardy.
Pewter, thrilled to be alive, said, “Looks like you two were wrong.”
“No, we weren’t.” Tucker stoutly spoke up.
“Pewter, the potassium smell was the exact same smell.” Mrs. Murphy sat next to the only dog she loved.
“Why did it kill Paula and not us?” Pewter asked, reasonably enough.
“I don’t know, but I hope we find out,” the tiger cat answered.
Flopped backward over a large plastic ball, Harry did sit-ups, hands clasped behind her head, all while trying to keep the ball steady.
“Crap,” she muttered under her breath as she rolled off. Another tough early-morning workout.
“Butter butt, you slid off.” Noddy offered zip sympathy.
“Tell me why I’m doing this again?”
“Pride.” Noddy lifted one eyebrow. “You want a few more? To look sexy for your wonderful husband, to strengthen your body while it struggles with an invader.”
“Oh, right.” Harry put her two feet flat on the floor and scooched up on the ball.
“This is one of those great core exercises. It works so much. I know you can feel it.”
“Yep.” Harry started again. After doing three sets of ten reps, she gratefully stood up.
“Assume the position.” Noddy pointed to the ball.
“I did them.”
“Yes, you did, and now you’re adding a twist, literally. You only have to do one set. Right elbow to left knee. Left elbow to right knee.”
Harry found this more difficult than a regular sit-up. Gritting her teeth, she was determined not to slide off. She managed, standing up, dripping with sweat.
“Need a break?”
“One sip.” Harry toweled off, picked up her bottle of water, unscrewed the cap, and took a swig. Water never tasted so good. “All right. What next?”
“Take heart. You’re very nearly finished for the morning.”
“Oh, thank you, Jesus.” Harry rolled her eyes. After all this, beating cancer and figuring out why Paula and Thadia died should be a cinch.
“Last one. Then you do some warm-downs, as I think of them. Okay, grab two dumbbells.”
Harry walked to the rack, picked them out. Gray mats covered the floor. A smaller, volleyball-sized ball with two rubber handles was there, as well as two medicine balls on the floor.
From here, she saw the main room of Heavy Metal Gym. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Annalise pulling down one hundred pounds on the lat machine. Toni Enright was there somewhere, but Harry couldn’t see her.
“When do I graduate to the real weight room?” She faced Noddy.
“Don’t think of it as graduation. You build muscle there. You build some here, too, but the purpose of these exercises is to make you strong and supple. This can improve reflexes, especially the explosive exercises.”
“Do I need firecrackers?” Harry asked. She wondered whether if Thadia had had better reflexes she wouldn’t have ended up with her throat slashed.
Noddy smiled. “You perform each exercise very quickly, usually four sets of ten for each exercise, twenty seconds in between. You’ll start some of those next week. You haven’t been at this all that long. Don’t be impatient.”
“Right.” Harry sighed.
“You’re doing good. You started in pretty good shape, an advantage. Now give me those dumbbells.”
Noddy knelt on the floor, then got in a push-up position, her hands on the dumbbells. She dipped low, one good push-up, torso straight, then she pulled the right dumbbell up to her chest, a rowing motion. After returning the dumbbell to the floor, she repeated the same sequence for her left side.
“Got it?” Noddy handed the dumbbells to Harry.
“Got it.” Harry dropped down, fired off ten.
This was easier than the big ball until she had to do four sets. Still, she liked it better than struggling to keep her balance. It felt good to make her mind a blank. Maybe working out would help her look at things with a new perspective.
After that, Harry did some more stretching, then on to the stationary bicycle, another exercise she disliked. She didn’t mind running in the open fields on the farm, nor did she mind bicycling down the farm roads, although she preferred riding a horse. To sit there—pedaling and going nowhere—tried her patience. But she did it. Once she’d put in twenty minutes, she gratefully retired to the locker room. She couldn’t remember a shower feeling so good.