A light was on in the room. Viola ignored it as she gathered her bags to go home. Today she would leave the lights for the next shift to tend. For now she wanted only to get on the road.
Viola was on her way home from work, after fulfilling a double shift. It never seems to fail, when you don’t feel well yourself someone inevitably calls off. Viola grimaced with pain at every turn of the wheel or glance into the rear view mirror.
If I can make it home and shower, and get to Doctor Jimmy I’ll be fine. She kept thinking over and over like a mantra. Maybe then I’ll feel up to hosting tonight’s neighborhood Halloween bash. She chuckled at the expected fun, then winced with the pain of this current bout with her neck problem.
After a quick shower and another ten-miles of grueling drive, she arrived at Doctor Jimmy’s office complex. It still was difficult for Viola to remember to call him Doctor Jimmy. He was the same age as her children, and had been ‘Jimmy’ prior to medical school. Yet in the eight years of his being her chiropractor he had proven he deserved to be referred to as Doctor. So he was Doctor Jimmy to Viola.
Following fifteen minutes of questions and anxiously waiting Viola was at last ushered into the eight by ten cubical that held the ‘magic’ table. She glanced at a magazine waiting to hear the familiar tap-tap at the door, signaling Doctor Jimmy’s entrance.
As she looked up at the table she couldn’t help but quietly chuckle. There was a running joke between the two concerning the treatment of Viola’s lower back. More specifically her gluteus maximus. Due to an old pelvic bone injury and the pain it caused, Doctor Jimmy often had to maneuver that more than voluptuous area.
Viola likened his moves to someone kneading two large batches of bread dough. The joke they shared was as the Doctor completed his kneading Viola would quip, ” Throw both my butt cheeks back up on the table Doc and I’ll get out of here. They’d share a laugh as he would help Viola sit up. Usually she would still be moaning. A day or so later she would be right as rain.
She trusted Doctor Jimmy in all his youth. He had worked on her lower back, as well as her upper back and shoulder area. When it really was bad it would even effect the muscles in her neck. At that point it would trigger bouts of vertigo, with severe dizziness and nausea. This only happened when the problem was ignored and ventured further than normal. Which is the stage Viola had allowed it to progress to on this day.
One reason Viola loved and trusted Doc was because he listened. Also he never practiced ‘cracking necks.’ Doc would use message and manipulation in the worst case scenario cold and hot therapy.
For a strange reason Viola harbored a horrible fear of allowing her neck to be cracked. From somewhere deep in her inner self it lingered. A childish fear her head would pop right off her skeleton, should she ever allow her neck to be cracked.
It all began back when she was a chubby little girl. [ well she’s still chubby ] At four she had fallen twelve feet down onto the concrete, landing on her neck and passing out. The next thing Viola knew was she was floating above her Mommy. Who sat with a little girl in her lap, wafting smelling salts under her nose. Then Viola realized, ‘Hey that’s me’, and she was flying down and back into her body, and mommy’s arms.
After that episode Viola was very touchy about her neck. Deep down she knew it was a silly notion, yet try as she might she had not overcome the fear. She simply knew if she allowed her neck to be cracked, her head would pop right off.
Doctor Jimmy entered and they spoke for a few minutes, before he helped Viola onto the table. He began to work on her back and with each maneuver Viola’s four limbs would flail up wildly in reflex, as she’d cry out in pain. ” You have really let this go to long this time Viola,” Doc scolded.
” Well your schedule and mine have been out of sync of late Doc,” Viola defended herself. ” This is the first opening that you have had available.” she continued.
Doctor Jimmy finished the table maneuvers and helped Viola sit up on the side of the table. He reached into to his lab coat pocket and pulled out what Viola called the gun. A little tool Doc used on tough muscles that refused to submit to manipulation. It created a strange sensation much like hitting your funny bone. Normally it succeeded in convincing those muscles that resisted, to submit and so relax but not today.
Doc looked Viola in the eye and said, ” Miss Viola, I know how you feel about having your neck cracked, but I feel it is what is necessary to get to the bottom of your problem.”
Viola’s heart fluttered wildly as she began to speak and then hesitated. She pondered ‘this is such a silly fear I trust Doc, and I do have to get home to that Halloween party.’
So she gave him a painful nod and spoke,” OK Doc I trust you go ahead.”
Doc Jimmy could not believe Miss Viola had given in so easily. He rushed into position behind her. Reaching out he placed one hand on each side of his patient’s head, and gave her neck a quick jerk.
The next sound that was heard coming from the room, was Doc’s voice screaming. There in his hands was the separated head of Miss Viola. Everyone in the outer office heard his frightful voice and looked at one another.
In the unseen realm there was Viola floating up near the ceiling again, as she had as a child. While looking down upon the scene she thought, ‘ Don’t reckon I can just fly back down there into my body this time, why I’ve lost my head,
HA HA HA, she laughed madly,’ an thought but “hey Doc the pain is gone!” Then she remembered the Halloween party at her house. ‘Guess I’ll fly over there, and give them the scare of their lives, this will top every other Halloween party we have ever had, what a surprise!!’
whispers of the day 