"Where's Dr. Honaker?" demands Grazyna Czarcinski as a tall and thin young woman in a long white coat enters the treatment room.
"And a happy equinox to you too" smiles the new chiropractor as she pulls up a stool beside the adjusting table.
"Fuck that" Grace rasps in her lifelong smoker's voice. "What's going on here?"
"I'm the new doctor at Emaus" she explains, her straight black hair swishing as she slides the rolling stool back. "Dr. Honaker leads the Sunday service down the road at Waverly Hall."
__________
The renowned clinic for natural healing had been started in the 1920s by the charismatic E. Hieronymous Emaus, a self-proclaimed healer with the somewhat dubious titles of naturopath, osteopath, and chiropractor. Not so well known was that Emaus was also the Grand Master of Fraternis Lilia Croesis, a secretive Christian sect claiming roots in Egyptian mysticism. After Emaus died in 1970 the leadership of the FLC and the Clinic were passed on to one C. Gerald Honaker, an officially trained Doctor of Chiropractic with both mixer and spiritual inclinations.
Like the Lilicroestians, the American chiropractic profession had had a rift in the early twentieth century. Graduates of the original school, the Palmer College of Chiropractic, and it's affiliates believed in limiting practice to spinal adjustments. Others who advocated additional therapies like adjusting devices, homeopathy, and nutrition came to be known as mixers. Over time the latter would become predominant in both professional organizations and numbers of practitioners.
__________
"Well whoop-de-doo" Grace scowls. "If he knows what's good for him he'll keep those long paws off my naive niece."
"Look Mrs. Czarcinski, I'm here to continue your healing if you'll let me."
"As long as you're not one of those neck crackers" Grace assents.
"It's all activator for me" she replies with relief, holding up a syringe-like device for the tapping of spinal segments. "That and homeopathic remedies to prolong the response."
"Well get cracking then so I can get over to your Waverly Hall."
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