| General Fiction posted October 4, 2025 | Chapters: |
...18 19 -20- 21... 
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Marie's arrival in North Carolina
A chapter in the book Beating the Devil
Beating the Devil - Chapter 20
by Jim Wile
| Background A cancer researcher invents an early cancer detection system. |
Recap of Chapter 19: It’s two years later, and Marie asks Cedric for a ride to the airport on Thursday for a trip to visit her family. Cedric agrees in exchange for a free lesson from Marie. Marie then calls Julia to tell her the plans and converses with Johnny first.
The scene switches, and we see Letitia Roberts, Mal’s mother, supervising the play of Sammy and Lindsay at Mal’s house.
It switches again, and we see Julia practicing her therapy dog training with Earl.
In the final scene, Cedric drops Marie off at the airport on Thursday. He’s struck by remarks she makes, a brief peck on the cheek, and her gait, and he has an unsettled feeling about it.
Chapter 20
“There she is!” shouted Lindsay when she spotted her grandma descending the escalator to baggage claim. The whole family had come to meet her at the airport.
Marie spotted them at the same time and waved.
As Lindsay started forward to go and meet her, Brian grabbed her shoulder and held her back. “Too many big people around, Linds. It’s way too crowded over there. Let’s just wait here for Grandma.”
They lost sight of Marie, though, and there seemed to be a sudden crush of people at the bottom of the escalator as something or someone was blocking the egress. Those behind on the escalator didn’t quite know what to do, as the way off was obstructed. They started backing up.
Someone had the presence of mind to hit the emergency stop button, which brought the escalator to a halt.
“Stay here,” said Brian to his family as he rushed forward to see what the problem was.
A woman was down on the ground and was moaning in pain. When Brian approached the crowd at the bottom of the escalator, he saw that it was Marie. She was being attended to by a young woman and a man who had knelt down to try to help her, and five or six others stood nearby.
“Marie!” shouted Brian. “Are you alright? What happened?”
“Brian… the pain… I can’t… “ was all she managed to say.
The young woman kneeling by her side said, “I was right behind her when she stepped off the escalator. It looked to me like her heel broke, and she went down hard on her bottom. Now she’s really hurting.”
As the onlookers made room for Brian and began clearing away, Brian said, “Marie, where’s the pain? Can you tell?”
“Middle… of my back…. Hurts like hell,“ she said, gasping and twitching.
Brian thought for a moment. He said to the young woman, “Do you think you could find security personnel or someone who could close off this escalator? I hate to move her out of the way because it may be a spinal cord injury.”
“Yes, I’ll do that. Ma’am, I’m so sorry you’re hurt,” she said and left to find someone.
Julia and the kids had made their way over by now. When they saw who it was on the floor, Julia cringed and said, “Mother, are you okay?”
“Just… peachy.”
Brian said to Julia, “She fell. It’s her back. Could you call 911? We’re going to leave her here and not attempt to move her. Someone’s getting security to block off the escalator.”
“I’m so sorry this happened, Mother. I’m calling for help right now,” she said as she fished out her phone and began dialing.
Johnny and Lindsay were startled and confused by the grossly pained expression on their grandma’s face. They remained silent, clinging to Julia.
Eventually, the escalator cleared as people walked back up. Security must have blocked it off because no one else tried to come down.
The man who had been kneeling next to Marie got up and left after wishing her well. Brian and Julia both thanked him, and Julia took his place, kneeling down beside her mother. She took her hand and said, “Help will be here soon.”
Johnny and Lindsay both sat down beside their grandma. Johnny found his voice and said, “I’m sorry you got hurt, Grandma,” and Lindsay added, “Me too, Grandma.”
Marie was grimacing, but she reached out her other hand and patted both their knees. “Thank you.”
The family stayed huddled around her until the paramedics came, wheeling in a gurney.
Brian said, “Kids, let’s give them room to help Grandma. Let’s all stand back out of the way,” and he ushered the family back a few steps.
Marie had lain down at one point, so the paramedics rolled her gently onto a backboard to immobilize her spine and then lifted her onto the gurney to wheel her out to the ambulance. They told Brian the name of the hospital where they would take her, and Julia would accompany her in the ambulance.
Before they left, Brian remembered to ask Marie about her luggage, and she told him what to look for. He said he would come to the hospital as soon as he could.
Brian was well aware of what might be going on with Marie. The severe pain in her mid-back was likely a compression fracture of at least one vertebra, possibly two or more. And that very possibly indicated her cancer was back.
There would be x-rays and other tests, and Brian did not want to put the kids through a long stay at the emergency room.
He decided to call his sister, Fran, who lived in Charlotte. She was an FBI field agent, and he just hoped she was at home and not on some mission. Fortunately, when he dialed, she answered.
“Hey, Big Sis. I need a favor.” He told her exactly what happened and asked her if he could bring the kids over to stay with her and her husband, Mike, for a while until things got sorted out at the hospital.
“God I’m sorry to hear about what happened to her. I love that little lady. Sure, no problem with the kids. We’ll be glad to have them come over and stay for as long as necessary. Bad luck for Marie.”
“Yeah, there may be more going on than just a broken shoe heel and a simple fall. That generally doesn’t lead to fracturing your back.”
“Oh, no. You mean—”
“Yeah.”
“Look, Brian. The kids will be fine with us. You go be with her and Jules and give Marie our best too. We’ll be praying for her.”
“Thanks, Fran. See you soon.”
“Daddy, is Grandma going to be alright?” asked Lindsay.
“She’s got a really sore back, but she’ll be okay, and as soon as she gets out of the hospital, she’ll come stay with us. But tonight, you’ll stay with Aunt Fran and Uncle Mike until we figure out when Grandma can come to our house. We’re not sure when that will be yet.”
“Why can’t we go to the hospital with you and see Grandma?” asked Johnny.
“I’m sure you don’t want to sit around in a hospital all evening, nor fall asleep there when it gets late. You’ll have a lot more fun over at Aunt Fran’s. You’ll spend the night there.”
Brian dropped the kids off and told Fran he would keep her updated. She told him the kids could stay as long as needed.
He also called his neighbor and asked him if he could look in on Earl and feed and walk him. The neighbor had a key to the house, and Brian disabled the alarm system from his phone.
He headed to the hospital and phoned Julia on the way. “Hi, Babe. What’s happening now, and where are you?”
“I’ve been with Mother most of the time, but I’m now in the waiting room by the Imaging Center. They’re getting her ready for an MRI. She’s got compression fractures of three of her vertebrae, and there was some other stuff on the x-rays that didn’t look good. I think the cancer might be back, Brian.”
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too. God, Babe, I’m so sorry. Did they talk about that with her?”
“Not really. They just said they saw some things that require additional imaging. But I’m sure she knows what it likely is. When they’re done, they’ll be admitting her. She’ll be here for a few days. Are you on your way now?”
“Yeah. I just dropped the kids off at Fran’s, where they’ll stay the night. I’ll be there in twenty minutes. I’ll meet you at the Imaging Center unless you call and tell me you’ll be somewhere else.”
“Brian, I’m scared of what they’re going to find.”
“I know. I’ll be there soon. I love you.”
“I love you too. Hurry.”
 Recognized |
Brian Kendrick: A 43-year-old neuroscientist and cancer researcher
Julia Kendrick: Brian's 43-year-old wife. She is also a world-class violinist.
Johnny Kendrick: Their 8-year-old son
Lindsay Kendrick: Their 6-year-old daughter
Earl Kendrick: The Kendrick's chocolate Labrador Retriever
Dr. Marie Schmidt: Julia's mother
Abby Payne: Brian's partner on the project. She is 67 and a brilliant mathematician
Malcolm Roberts (Mal): One of Brian's two lab technicians
Tanya Roberts: Mal's wife
Samantha (Sammy) Roberts: Mal's 6-year-old daughter
Letitia Roberts (Lettie): Mal's mother
Larry Posner: One of Brian's two lab technicians
Vivian Delacroix: An oncology professor at Wake Forest University also doing early cancer detection work
Roberta (Bertie) Chen: Brian's new lab technician
Cedric (aka Cecil) Washington: Marie's premier violin student and friend
Maddy McPhail:Owner of Bo
Bo McPhail:Maddy McPhail's cancer-sniffing therapy dog
Picture courtesy of Imagen-4
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© Copyright 2025. Jim Wile All rights reserved.
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