Page 43 of Musical Games
‘I’m not a coeliac. I have Crohn’s. It’s an inflammatory bowel disease.’
‘Shit.’
Sam raised her eyebrows. ‘That’s one way to describe it.’
His face went redder and his eyes widened in horror. ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean that, I, shit, I mean, fuck, sorry.’
She giggled. ‘It’s okay. I’ve had many years of dealing with it and it’s finally under control, touch wood.’ She touched the table and Jamie patted his head.
‘Are you on medicine for it?’
‘I was. People present in different ways and have different triggers. Stress and diet are the biggest ones for me. That’s why my final year was the worst. I nearly didn’t graduate. And at times I didn’t know if I would ever get better. I didn’t know if I would ever be able to work or have a normal life.’
Jamie was quiet. His hand lay on the table, a couple of inches from hers. She wanted to reach out and hold it.
‘I didn’t get on with medication. Surgery was looking like the only option, but I didn’t want to lose half of my bowel with everything that entailed. So I ran away to Thailand with Zoe and stopped eating altogether. And when I started again, I went gluten-free.’
‘And it worked?’
‘Pretty much. I had two flare-ups after we got back. But then I started Helminth therapy and I’ve been okay ever since.’
Jamie touched his head again and she smiled.
‘What’s Helminth therapy?’ he asked.
She hesitated. Only her family and Zoe knew about it and her family had been less than impressed. What did she have to lose by telling him? It wasn’t like she needed his approval. It wasn’t like she would ever see him again after this. He could add it to his list of ‘things I don’t like about Sam’. One more wouldn’t make any difference.
She pulled up her sleeve to show him the bandage on the inside of her arm. ‘Helminths are parasites. I have a permanent colony of a human-friendly hookworm called Necator americanus living in my gut and top them up every year or so. Humans evolved with them and most of the world has them, just not us in the over-sanitised west. They have a symbiotic relationship with our immune system and help damp down the inflammatory response.’
‘Oh.’
‘They’re not catching, if that’s what you’re worried about.’
He shook his head. ‘Does it hurt?’
‘No, but it itches like a bastard for a few days.’
‘What does your family think about it?’
Her jaw tensed. No matter how many scientific papers she showed them, they refused to take it seriously. They refused to takeherseriously.
‘I think they see it on a par with my job. We don’t talk about it any more.’
She saw his hand reach towards hers, then he brought it to his glass.
‘I think you’re amazing,’ he said, looking down at his drink.
Sam could hear her heart beating in the silence, then the faint sound of Liam crying upstairs.
Jamie pushed his chair back. ‘Want to try out our latest material on the harshest critic in Kinloch?’
He got his guitar and she followed him upstairs with her notes, failing to avoid staring at his backside. Liam had pulled himself into a seated position and was looking tired and grumpy as he sniffled.
‘Hey, wee man, want some music?’
‘Dah,’ Liam replied.
‘Okay, well, just lie down then and we’ll play your favourites and some new ones as well, eh?’
