August 14th

Patient:

Ms. Molly Lannery, age 12, child

Ailment:

Sliced finger on a trowel

Treatment:

Housecall. Stitched finger back up

Explanation:

Procedure falls within bounds of modern medicine. No need for obfuscation.

Payment:

3 ears of corn

Note:

Going forward, will try to be more discreet about what I’m capable of. I’d rather be open; I’ve no taste for this level of subterfuge and it’ll keep me from helping as easily as I could. But they need to trust me, both so I can work on them and for what comes later.

August 16th

Patient:

Mayor Roger Macy

Ailment:

Weeping arm stump, blasphemy (Stonewall)

Treatment:

Treated at office. Auger applied to eye socket for twenty minutes, followed by wax and bitumen sealant. Discussed potential options for a permanent fix.

Explanation:

Procedure falls within bounds of modern medicine. No need for obfuscation.

Payment:

10 cents

Note:

Will have to mail Father for advice on how to handle a blasphemy, unfortunately. My craft is ill-suited for magical ailments. Additionally, brought up the topic of Macy’s daughter’s curiosity in my craft. He’s surprisingly amicable towards it, but he balked at the idea of her studying at the office. Can I risk teaching her at the Macy residence?

August 17th

Patient:

Mr. Richard Campbell, age 38, farmer

Ailment:

Severe cough after cleaning chimney

Treatment:

Housecall. Opened torso, scrubbed airways, left some sage in the lungs to add fragrance to breath.

Explanation:

Patient was told that an examination would be needed, and was given liquor doped with sleeping draught to ‘ease anxiety’. Gave him tonic water and sugar pills once the ‘examination’ was complete.

Payment:

25 cents

August 20th

Patient:

Mr. Josiah Fry, age 46, cobbler

Ailment:

Alcohol poisoning

Treatment:

Found unconscious at his store, brought back to office. Opened throat and torso, ran clean water through his piping until bodily functions were restored. Explained that his restored liver will have a lower resistance to alcohol.

Explanation:

Unnecessary

Payment:

Heel on favorite pair of boots was fixed

Note:

Questioned him on whether Geraldine could have learned about my skills from him. He claims that she asked him a few questions, but ones that implied she already knew beforehand. Implored him to keep his mouth shut from now on.

August 22nd

Patient:

Mrs. Abuse-Not Walker, age 52, farmer’s wife

Ailment:

Blood

Treatment:

Housecall. Attempted transubstantiation/consubstantiation mix but switched to pure consubstantiation after protests from patient. Remainder blood was instead burnt.

Explanation given:

Procedure falls within bounds of modern theology. No need for obfuscation.

Payment:

1 Loaf of Bread

Note:

Treatment took longer than expected due to Mr. Walker’s concerns about me touching his wife, and Mrs. Walker’s suspicions about my ‘true allegiance to the dark countries and the Whore of Babylon’. Hopefully resistance will subside over time, but in the meantime I may need to hire a paler assistant as a buffer.

Additional Note:

I should consider any techniques from the Roman school of medicinal theology off-limits. Syncreticism here might be as dangerous as my actual hidden secrets. Unlike at home, working with the local pastor to legitimize their usage is not feasible.

August 25th

Patient:

Mr. Wilford Hane, age 25, fisher

Ailment:

Skeleton worming

Treatment:

House call. Opened left arm. Attempted to extract worm from ulna, but it wriggled into the ribcage. Opened torso to extract, but worm was too entwined with the spine to remove safely. Was eventually able to coax it out with a chicken bone from Anak’s last meal.

Explanation:

Claimed to the patient that I could reduce the bone pain caused by the parasite with some special physical procedures. He agreed to be put under for the process. Gave patient a bottle of rosewater as ‘medicine’ afterwards, which should explain how he was cured to him and anybody else. Worm was disposed of by feeding to Anak.

Payment:

Catfish, lunar

Note:

Kept noticing a shadow moving by the window of Hane’s house as I worked. Am I being watched?

August 27th

Patient:

Mr. Silas Jefferson, age 56, traveling Bible salesman

Ailment:

Compound fracture, right femur, run over by his own wagon

Treatment:

Treated at site of accident. Disassembled outer layer of right leg in its entirety. Removed broken femur, gathered fragments from site of the accident, sealed break with glue and wax, wrapped bone in copper wiring to reduce risk of misalignment and improve sensation. Replaced bone and reassembled right leg.

Explanation given:

Deemed it safe to be open with Silas, as he is neither a local nor white. Had a nice chat with him as I worked; he’d heard rumors of my father back in his prime and was surprised to hear that he was real. Kept any details about why I was out here to myself.

Payment:

10 cents, will allow me to help him sell Bibles this upcoming Sunday. Should reduce rumors of my ‘true allegiance to the dark countries’. We’ll see if it helps with the ‘Whore of Babylon’ suspicions.

Note:

Been too long since I’ve met with my own kin.

August 30th

Patient:

Ms. Josephine Campbell, age 8, child

Ailment:

Earache

Treatment:

House call. Detached back half of head. Extracted earwax, earwig, earworm. Treated ear canal with aloe vera to reduce pain, swelling. Adjusted levels in cochlear to improve patient’s hearing up until adulthood.

Explanation:

Did best to comfort patient. Claimed that I’d be using a special tool to help her ear, that it might feel a bit weird, and that she needed to be a brave girl. Father trusted me enough after previous operation to let me work in privacy on the second floor of his home.

Payment:

Bottle of whiskey

Note:

First test of whalebone knives. Positioning is more difficult than with a scalpel, but they cut thinner, leading to smaller seams after the procedure. Perfect given the need for plausible deniability, and the youth of the patient. I should thank Father for his prescience, and yet …

August 30th

Patient:

Ms. Geraldine Macy, age 19, troublemaker

Ailment:

Assorted bruises and scrapes, slipped while trying to peep at the Campbell operation.

Treatment:

Gladly accompanied me to office. Cleaned wounds with rubbing alcohol, applied bandages. No procedures outside of modern medicine required, to patient’s dismay.

Explanation:

Patiently explained that I wasn’t going to ‘take her apart’ when I could treat her injuries with standard medical tools, and that contriving a situation where I’d have to do so would be unwise.

Payment:

A journal, forgotten and left after she stomped off in a huff.

Note:

While I understand that a young woman is owed her privacy, I did take a quick glance through the journal. I can see that she has a fairly comprehensive mechanical understanding of werewright methodology, even if her conceptual understanding is still shaky at best. I can also see that she’s been stalking me for at least a week, though she at least had the sense of character to regret doing so. Apparently, if her father won’t give her permission to learn from me, she’s more than willing to sneak around his back.

Additional Note:

I’ll have to teach her. It solves too many problems. I need her to stop obsessing over me from a distance. I need someone to assist me who the town will accept. I need to keep making inroads with the Mayor. All I have to do is trust that bringing her in won’t cause bigger problems than keeping her out. Difficlut but not impossible. If I can trust Birch, I can trust her. Maybe.