The Bio-chem Buddha

This old Vietnamese guy
named Miki had really bad
stomach cancer. He'd been told
he had only weeks to live. Miki's
children heard about a crazy bio-
chemist who was able to bring
folks back from the brink of death,
a pudgy, bald guy with a big smile,
a big laugh, and a nice round paunch
underneath his Mexican-wedding
shirts. Name was Joe, and IV
aloe vera was the ticket.
Shriveled up tumors like
they were grapes just waiting
to be raisins. Not a pleasant
process, but, by all accounts,
more effective than any other
single treatment ever discovered.
Miki started coming in for weekly
treatments. Outlived all the
predictions quickly. But when
he got up to the full dose of the
aloe-vera juice, it wiped him out.
His children called Joe one
morning, despondent, saying
their father was just lying in his
bed and they couldn't even tell
if he was breathing. Joe assured
them not to worry, but came
out to the house later to check on
things. He felt around Miki's
stomach, checked his vitals,
and walked downstairs to tell
the kids everything was fine and
Miki would be better by the next
day. Miki's children were worried
sick themselves. None of them
slept well that night. But the oldest
daughter woke up early to hear
sounds coming from the kitchen.
She wandered in to see who it was
and jumped out of her skin when
she saw that it was her father.
"Ba!" she cried. Miki turned
around, "Oh, hi, sweetheart.
I felt like making everyone
breakfast this morning."
"What happened?" the daughter
demanded. Miki stopped and
calmly told her, "Everything's
fine now. The Buddha came to
see me last night. He placed his
hands on my heart and told me
we're all going to be okay. You
know, the funniest thing is,
he really does have a big belly
just like all the statues."

(2006)