She had fallen ill, cancer, as it was. He had tried everything that a ten-year-old boy could possibly do at the time. He tried magic, because if all those colorful characters on TV could use their powers to help people, maybe he could too. It didn’t work. He tried praying, because even if he didn’t have any special powers the gods surely did, right? It didn’t work. He tried every folk remedy that he could find, because if the gods couldn’t hear him somebody, anybody, would know what to do, right!?
