The kids looked at me, and I gave them a thumbs-up sign and so they nodded in agreement.
“That is fascinating. I wish I could see that, but, no, I understand that’s not a good idea. And you are unharmed?”
The kids again nodded.
“It’s interesting because in the clear cases of spontaneous human combustion, well, the afflicted person typically dies from the flames. Or the smoke. One or the other. This is not, I believe, as straightforward as that. And also different from those cases, I understand that you can sense the arrival of the combustion? Would that be correct?”
“Yes,” Bessie admitted.
“Where, sweetie?” he asked.
“Where?” Bessie replied, confused.
“In your head? Your stomach? Your heart?”
Bessie looked at Roland, who then nodded, their little silent communication. “It kind of starts in our chest and then moves outward, like to our arms and legs and head.”
“Yes, that makes sense. A kind of radiating heat. Interesting, interesting,” the doctor said, making some more notes. “This is all very fantastical. I mean, the children combust, but are unharmed. It’s most unusual. But we can try to be scientific, to adhere to medical truths.”
“That would be perfect,” Carl assured the doctor.
“My initial thoughts have to do with ketosis. Do you know what that is?” he asked the children, who shook their heads. I was shaking my head, too, without realizing it. Carl, of course, was nodding. Of course he knew.
“It’s just a natural metabolic process that happens in your body. If you don’t have enough glucose in your body for energy, your body starts to burn fat. Like a candle, perhaps, if that helps? And so, some people say this is good and some people say that it can be bad. I’m not interested in that, because I think your case might exist outside those worries. But, if you could create a diet that avoided ketosis, then, and this is only a theory, you might prevent the body from so easily creating a kind of internal combustion. Does that make sense?”
“I suppose it does, Dr. Cannon,” Carl replied.
“Can we eat ice cream?” Roland asked.
“Well, that is high fat, but there’s sugar, so I think that would be okay,” Dr. Cannon replied. He tore off a piece of paper and handed it to Carl, who pocketed it.
“It’s simple,” Dr. Cannon said. “You might already be doing it without knowing it, which of course would mean this entire visit was useless. I’m afraid I can’t offer much more than that while maintaining such strict protocols for privacy, without much more testing.”
“This is fine,” Carl said. “It’s greatly appreciated.”
“Now, children,” he said, redirecting his focus, “if we move beyond medicine and look at the paranormal, we might think about the idea of fire, and how a fire is contained within a human vessel.”
“Huh?” Roland said.
“Well, the only fire that I know of that exists within a human body is the Holy Spirit.”
“What now?” Bessie said.
“Say what?” I said.
“The Holy Spirit? The unveiled epiphany of God?” he continued, frowning. He looked like he was on The $10,000 Pyramid and he couldn’t believe his partner hadn’t yet guessed the answer. “The Holy Trinity?”
“Oh, okay,” Bessie finally said, trying to get on with it. “Like, your soul?”
“No, dear,” he said, chuckling. “Not quite.”
“Dr. Cannon,” Carl said, “we need to get go—”
“So, the Holy Spirit,” Dr. Cannon interrupted, moving on, still staring at the children, “resides in your heart. And so, if you children are experiencing these moments where the fire manifests itself externally, well, that could mean quite a few things. Perhaps you are prophets, chosen by God—”
“We really must be going,” Carl said.
“Prophets?” Roland said, trying out the word, liking the sound of it.
“You might be envoys for the second coming of Jesus Christ, our lord and savior,” the doctor elaborated.
“Carl?” I said.
“Or—and this is quite radically different—it could be a case where the devil, in his multitudinous evil, is warring with the Holy Spirit inside you. That would make you, Bessie and Roland, demons. Or, perhaps, simply possessed by demons. Whatever the case, it is possible that there is an evil inside you, one that must be purged.”
“Okay,” I said, “no way.” I reached for the kids, pulling them off the table.
“But I want to hear more,” Roland said.
“Thank you, Dr. Cannon,” Carl quickly said, opening the door to the office, leading the children outside. “Ketosis. Very good. We have all we need.”
“Say hello to Jasper for me,” he said, waving. “He was always such a wonderful patient. I can’t remember a time when he was sick.”
We hustled the children into the car, and Carl quickly pulled back onto the road. I stared at him, but the sunglasses made it hard for me to really see him. “Who wants the radio?” he asked, turning it on without waiting for a response, which made Roland cheer.
“That was a mistake,” he admitted to me, keeping his voice down. “I don’t know that Senator Roberts has been in contact with Dr. Cannon in quite some time. I don’t think he knows the full extent of his, uh, condition.”
I didn’t say a word, just kept staring at him.
“He’s one of the most revered doctors in the entire state,” Carl continued. “All the governors and country music stars, he was their physician. All kinds of published articles.”
“Fascinating,” I replied.
“I’m just doing what the Robertses have told me to do,” Carl said, looking back to make sure the kids weren’t listening. “And, honestly, the real doctors, the specialists who saw the kids right after Jane died, they didn’t have much else to tell us. I think one of them even mentioned ketosis. So, no harm done.”
“Now the kids think they might be demons,” I told him.
“Well, I don’t know how much of that they understood.” He quickly turned back to the kids. “Double-scoop sundaes, okay?” he said.
I groaned and turned off the radio. I looked back at them. They both seemed bored, but I could see them working through something in their heads, passing it back and forth. “Look,” I finally said, “you are not demons, okay? No fucking way. That man was crazy.”
“Maybe we’re prophets, though,” Roland offered.
“No,” I said, my voice rising. “You’re just normal kids, okay? You catch on fire, but you’re normal kids.”
“Okay,” Bessie replied. “We believe you.”
“Okay,” I said. For a few miles, we drove in silence, but then Roland started to giggle. I turned back around. Bessie’s face looked both pained and relieved at the same time. She looked at me. She started to laugh a little, too. “We’re not demons,” she said, and I shook my head. And I knew that they were my kids, that I protected them, because they believed me. For right now, in this car, they trusted me. They were not demons.