CHAPTER 1

The sun rose slowly over the mountaintop into the orange-purple sky until it showed its full face of fire. Its warm rays touched the trees, causing a steady rise of steam from the dew-drenched leaves. Mist dripped from the tips of the larger leaves, issuing a rhythm as each droplet fell onto the forest floor. A glance away, the morning flowers alive in the meadow stretched and opened to greet the new day, bringing all the colors of a rainbow to the field. Their burst of color signaled the bees and butterflies to begin their daily dance of pollen transfer. The butterflies sniffed the petals of the morning flowers. When they opened a little more, their busy friends were invited to enter and sip the ambrosia. The field pulsated with activity.

Between the edge of the meadow and the forest floor slept Josh and Marley. The sun's rays shot directly into their eyes, disturbing their sleep as they lay tightly enveloped in their sleeping bags. With the nudge of the sun, Josh muttered an indistinguishable profanity and rolled away from the bright light, while Marley swung her arm over her eyes in a gesture of declination to the sun's invitation to awaken. Marley had been having beautiful dream about a prayer flag flapping on a majestic mountaintop and didn't want to leave the feeling of pure contentment and peace.

It had been a rough night for these two unseasoned campers who, as adults, had camped infrequently. No matter what position they arranged their bodies or where on the ground they moved, a rock or a stick would seemingly rise from deep below the surface to poke them. Since their arrival at the campsite was late at night, it had been difficult to see all the hidden obstacles, and besides they were both too tired to do more than a cursory removal of rocks and branches.

By the early hours of the morning, Marley had found that if she lay snake-style, curled in an S shape between the rocks, her large bones would fall between the rocks and she could sleep. So when the sun beckoned, neither Josh nor Marley were ready to greet the morning with any enthusiasm.

Ignoring the sun's heat, they both snuck in another hour of sleep. When Josh was roused the second time, he felt like he had been sleeping in an oven; sweat covered his body. He was thirsty and had a strong urge to pee. He looked around to scope out a place for relief from the sun and decided to head toward the forest, where he sat in the shade of the closest oak tree. His black hair pointed helter-skelter. His coal-black eyes peeped through squinting, puffy eyelids. He stretched his arms over his head, yawned deeply, and tried to convince his body it had had enough rest. The trip yesterday had worn them both out. They had a late start from their homes in San Francisco and had hit stop-and-go traffic even though they had taken the back way up through the North Bay, stopped for breakfast in San Rafael, lunched in Redding, and started their five-mile hike toward Mount Shasta at three. They found an opening in the dense forest around eight and fell into their sleeping bags exhausted. They thought their exercises at the gym would have prepared them for hiking — but hiking was different from the treadmill.

Since they had arrived at their campsite in the dark, this was the first-time Josh had a chance to survey the beauty that surrounded them. Sitting on a log, he saw the busy meadow backdropped by the mountains, and it reminded him of past camping trips both with his parents and with his Boy Scout troop. His father worked hard in a laundry for an hourly wage, and so the family could only afford camping vacations, but that was always fine with Josh. He loved the freedom camping seemed to offer. He hadn't been camping since he was a teen, and a nature adventure had been calling his name. Both he and Marley decided they wanted to include more of nature into their busy lives. He whispered to himself, "This ain't bad."

Josh was still hazy when he swung his legs off the log and headed a little way from camp for a "no-hands" morning pee, an experience few males ever get to enjoy since usually aim is required. Both hands were free, and he was able to use them to swat at the buzzing insects being drawn to his sweaty body. After he relieved himself and wiped stray urine off his foot with a leaf, he swaggered back to camp with an air of machismo. His father had taught him the no-hands pee on the first camping trip he could remember, like it was a rite of passage, somehow. He thought, It's funny, but that's all I can really remember about that trip.I guess having that man-to-man time with Dad was important, now that I look back on it. It's strange the things we remember from our childhoods. He took a big breath of mountain air and looked up at the sky as a hawk soared overhead. Yeah, he thought, this is great. I like this place.

Upon returning to camp, he saw that Marley was still wrapped in her sleeping bag, like half of a spooned couple. He wondered what she was like as a little girl; probably she slept in a Cinderella sleeping bag. He smiled at the thought. As his gaze lifted, he was stunned to see that everything in the camp had been ransacked. Their things were strewn hither and yon, and with a quick glance he noticed most of the items were missing. Running toward his pack, his tall lanky body fell forward when both feet became entangled in his sleeping bag.

Normally he would laugh at his clumsiness, but for now he was worried. He stood up the best he could while trying to kick the bag off his feet, hopped over to his pack, looked inside, and found it empty. What was Marley up to? Was she playing a joke? he thought, more than a tad annoyed at her and not thinking this was very funny.

On closer inspection, he saw that Marley was still asleep, just the tips of her blonde hair visible at the edge of her sleeping bag. He remembered the food he had tied up in a tree. He saw it was also gone, along with the pans that should have rattled a warning. There remained two canteens of water.

Josh yelled, "Damn it!" as he slammed his empty pack to the ground.

Marley was awakened by Josh's yelling and running from spot to spot, back and forth and around in circles. He looked like a crazy man. Since Marley wasn't privy to the seriousness of the situation, she laughed hysterically at his antics.

"Be careful," she said. "My shingle isn't out this weekend."

"Don't laugh!" Josh blurted. "I don't think your little joke is very funny." He pouted as he sat down on a fallen tree.

Marley, taken aback by his attitude, asked, "What're you talking about?" She sat up.

"Are you telling me you're not playing with me? You didn't destroy our camp and hide all of our food? Oh, God, please tell me this is a not-so-funny joke."

"What? I didn't do anything. I've been asleep." Marley became quiet as she looked at the empty campsite. She brushed the long blonde hair out of her face, her large lips pursed and her eyelids partially closed over her ocean-blue eyes from the glare of the sun.

Before she could respond to Josh and the situation at hand, she was flooded by an experience from her childhood. Something here brought memories to her mind of her father. Marley remembered the time her family had planned to go to Lake Shasta on a fishing trip.

Marley and her mother had been responsible for the meal planning, the preparation, and reserving the cabin. Marley's father, Leland, had only needed to obtain the fishing licenses and gather the bait and other fishing equipment. When it was finally the early morning of their departure, everything was placed by the front door, the car was packed, and the family began the one-hundred-mile trip to Lake Shasta. They sang and played the "find the alphabet in road signs" game and talked about who would catch the biggest fish.

When they reached the campsite, Leland had looked to Marley and asked, "Will you help me put up the tent?"

Marley, excited over the responsibility, had answered, "Yes!"

Marley's mother, Suzanne, had laughed and said, "Okay, I'll unload everything by myself." When she had finished unloading the car, she noticed that there were no fishing poles. She asked, "Ah, honey, where are the fishing poles?"

Leland had turned red from embarrassment. "Oh, crap. I knew I forgot something. But it doesn't matter anyway. I forgot to get the fishing licenses too."

Marley had thought, How could anyone leave anything as obvious as the fishing poles for a fishing trip? Even as a child Marley had thought his lack of consideration was inexcusable; she was sorely disappointed in him at the time.

Yeah, Marley confirmed, Dad didn't care about us because he was unconscious and selfish. We were always second to his work. A wrenching feeling came into her heart as her thoughts went to her mother. She confirmed to herself that she still blamed her father for her mother's early death, even though medically she knew better. Mom was only forty-eight years old, Marley recalled. If only Dad had been more loving, more considerate, perhaps Mom could have lived longer. Just like with the fishing poles, Dad was so self-absorbed he forgot to take care of his wife. Marley rubbed her eyes and snapped back to reality. Wow! That was strange. Where did all that Mom and Dad stuff come from?

Trying to calm her anger of the memories, Marley snapped at Josh, "Even though it was late and dark when we got here, you still should have taken responsibility for securing the camp. Isn't that the man's job? What will we do without any food? I mean ... I don't want to end up like Mom."

Josh was taken back and replied, "Whoa, what's that all about? Like your mom?" Marley knew that Josh loved her; it wasn't necessarily his fault that he turned out to be another man with flaws. Marley's favorite joke was that when God built the Y chromosome, he had left off a "common sense" protein.

Another reason for this camping trip, besides reconnecting with nature, had been to consciously enrich and rekindle the fire in their relationship. They had met five years ago when Josh was hired to perform the tedious task of getting the hospital's records online. He kept pretending he couldn't read her chart notes and asking her to interpret her doctor codes. It was love at first sight. Later they both confessed that they felt they had known each other forever. In addition, they both thought the other was drop-dead gorgeous and super smart. They both took time off work in those early years to spend time together, but as often happens in relationships, they became consumed in their work worlds and spent less and less time together. They discussed this and decided that if they wanted to keep their relationship alive and well, they would need to open more time in their schedules to be together.

Marley took a big breath and tried to relax. She felt the stress of too much going on here. When she was able to disregard Josh's anxiety and her anger calmed, she felt the peacefulness and quiet of this natural setting. Here, between the meadow and the forest, she reminded herself that she was glad she was a woman. Marley didn't consider herself a feminist, at least not the card carrying, bra-burning type. She knew that women were important in the further development of humanity and the earth. The days of women living just to have babies, cook, and clean were over. Like her, women were being fulfilled in all walks of life. Marley herself had chosen the most tight-ass of professions to work in, and she often felt she walked a thin line to stay involved in the male-dominated American Medical Association.

Marley's attention was again called back to the campsite by Josh's swearing. "Don't panic, Josh," she smiled patiently. "It had to be raccoons. If we look around, we'll probably find our stuff. They couldn't have lugged all that stuff very far."

Josh turned his gaze and attention to Marley, and she in return landed her sight straight into his coal-black eyes. She could see fear. Marley knew that Josh was brilliant and highly respected in his field of computer systems, but she also knew when anything happened out of the scope of his sequential logic, which was a requirement in the computer world, he would become unnerved. She loved his moments of vulnerability. That was a major difference between them: His mind was linear, and she preferred the thrill of working with chaotic, nonlinear events. She also knew that that difference was another reason they were good with each other. For Marley, the inherent chaos of working with people and their symptoms was the part of medicine she loved the best.

* * *

Marley became a medical doctor by attending the University of California at Berkeley for her bachelor's and the University of California at Parnassus for her medical degree. She practiced at the hospital on Parnassus. Her home nearby allowed her to walk to work each morning, giving her time to mentally go through her patient list and plan her day. The San Francisco fog sweeping down the steep hill refreshed her, and she was mindful of an ethereal world around her. She sensed that this walk was a spiritual time when the healing muses could visit her, and she tried to stay open to whatever crossed her mind during this part of her day.

Last week Marley was referred to a patient who had stumped her orthopedist. The patient had constant numbness in her right hand, but none of the x-ray, EMG, or MRI exams revealed anything abnormal. Marley reviewed all the findings and agreed with the other doctor that there didn't seem to be a direct cause and effect for her symptoms. Using her intuition, Marley swept her hand over the patient's entire body to sense any variation in body temperature. When she reached the patient's right collarbone, the heat increased. Marley questioned the patient, asking if she had fallen on her right side or if she had an injury in the past to her right shoulder. The patient said she was painting the ceiling and missed the last step of the ladder, which caused her right shoulder to jam into the wall. Marley gently pushed on her right clavicle, and the patient jumped. They both heard a click, and then the patient visibly relaxed. Marley subsequently sent the patient to a chiropractor friend of hers. She confirmed Marley's diagnosis of a jammed clavicle, and with chiropractic adjustments the patient's numbness went away.

In addition to treating patients at the hospital, Marley's most recent research paper was a case study on a twelve-year-old boy named Willy, who was near death. She had been called for a consult because Willy's primary doctor was desperate for help. He had given Willy every test imaginable with nothing pinpointing why he was so sick. The doctor had prescribed various combinations of medications, but none seemed to improve Willy's condition. The boy was grossly underweight and kept losing consciousness. His bloodwork showed anemia with a high sedimentation rate, but that was it. The findings hardly justified the boy's dire symptoms.

Marley interviewed the boy and his parents and discovered that he spent all his free time playing World of Warcraft on the computer. He ate plenty, but his diet consisted of fast food, candy, and sodas.

Marley's intuition flared, and she felt that the boy's problem was a lack of blue-green light, which contains many of the B vitamins. To test her theory, she brought a grow light, which emitted light strongest at the blue-green end of the color spectrum. She placed it above the boy for one hour three times a week for four weeks. She also started him on a diet of blue-green algae, and to everyone's amazement, within the month, the boy was feeling much better. He was talking and laughing with the doctors and nurses. His bloodwork came up within normal ranges.

Marley's next obstacle was Willy's parents. She suggested that they change the boy's lifestyle regarding limiting computer time, fast food consumption, and incorporating exercise in the form of some outdoor sport. While Marley initially met with some resistance, she felt that because he almost died, the parents would do the best they could for their child. Marley had to leave it there. She had done her part, and the rest was in the hands of his parents and the universe.

Her main area of research was the interplay of light on the human body. Her groundbreaking research, light as medicine, was an entirely new concept to heal the body. Her research partner was a chiropractor, Dr. Andrea Bettencourt, whom Marley had met while Andrea was working on her master's degree in public health at Stanford University. Marley was a guest teacher at a healing symposium. The chiropractor's research paper was a study about sunlight regimens for newborns. Andrea and Marley became good friends inside and outside of the lab. They found it inherently easier to do their research within the chiropractic model because it was geared toward natural remedies. Together they were helping to remove the barriers between the chiropractic profession and the mainstream medical model by researching and developing noninvasive remedies that healed.