I felt strange coming to the small health clinic that my physical therapist had recommended. It was obvious that I'd reached a plateau in my athletic performance, so it was time for some new exercises that also involved mental training. The limo drove me all the way to The Almond Modern Medicine Institute, where I was met by a young, enthusiastic woman. She showed enormous strength even though her body was much smaller than mine, and just not strength, but flexibility and dexterity as well. I was amazed at her attitude and performance. Her entire appearance was simply glowing.
She showed me to the reception area, where I got to sign a few papers waiting there for me. As I was putting my name on them, a voice greeted me with a welcome and I looked over my shoulder to see a beautiful tall woman, apparently in her prime.
"Welcome to The Almond Modern Medicine Institute, or TAMMI for short. I'm Olivia Almond."
We nodded to each other without shaking hands.
"Your room and therapy is prepared for you, and I'm sure that you will find the next two weeks here very giving to your body and soul. We have prepared a series of tests to examine how we can provide the best treatment for your athletic career. Would you follow me to your room so that we can start your experience here right away?"
She looked at me for a sign, and I nodded once again, and she turned around and walked down a large corridor with many different sculptures and paintings of impeccable taste. The institute displayed a very exclusive facade in the huge garden, where exotic trees and plants flourished, on the way to the main house. The composition of art in this magnificent house was close to perfection with sculptures standing not only as showcase objects, but also as barriers to shade other areas and enhance other objects and paintings.
Olivia walked silently before me in a landscape of history, wearing incredibly high heels on which she balanced perfectly on the hard marble floor. Her long white dress was entirely open in the back showing her tanned skin, which lay in excellent contrast to her soft, dark brown hair, which glistened with discrete red highlights.
"Your trainer has explained your level of training so far, and how it has been set up. The physical exercises will be much more intense that you are used to, but I can assure you that you will not notice how hard your muscles are really working. We will also have a series of mental exercises for you, to prepare you better for your tasks on the field, and we will also monitor your style and make suggestions if we see that you have the physical and mental components suitable for other sports. We will of course prepare all your meals, making sure you get all the nourishment you need. You'll then leave after a complete physical examination, where we will show you in black and white exactly how the two weeks has been effecting you. We will then send you an invitation to return after six months so we can follow up on your therapy."
It was amazing to hear her speak about what the institute would do for me in a way that sounded like I really wouldn't have to do anything but lay down and sip from fruit cocktails with small umbrellas. She must have sensed my amusement because she turned around and faced me, looking at me with a stern expression.
"Are we making a mistake to think that you want to be here?"
I looked at Olivia for a second before I realized it was too late to say a simple "Yes" or "No", so I stuttered out, "No, no, no, I want, I want, I want..."
"You want? Our therapy requires that you stay focused on the task at hand."
Turning from me again, she started to walk, with me in her wake, until we reached a small pathway down through some trees and bushes and up to a small bungalow. The inside contained a minimum of furniture, a bed, a chair and a nightstand. I looked around and thought for a while that I had by mistake ended up in a monastery.
"Undress and my assistant will be here to get you in 15 minutes for your initial evaluation."
The door closed behind me, and I realized that I had none of the bags with me. I sat down heavily on the bed. It felt extremely hard, like a plain wooden board, and shook my head. What kind of therapy was it to treat their customers to this kind of service?
I removed all my clothes except my shorts, and lay down on the floor to do a few push-ups while I waited, but the door opened at that very moment, much sooner than I expected. At first I saw small feet enclosed in elegant black 6 inch heels with ankle-straps, but raising my eyes I noticed the woman was completely naked, apart from the heels and a thin black ribbon around her neck.
"Come with me."
She had already walked away from the door before I realized that she had spoken, and I got to my feet and followed the gorgeous woman down another path to a steel door set in the rocks nearby. The door opened before her onto a small stairway leading down. She kept walking without saying a word, and I followed looking around me curiously. At the end of the stairs was a corridor leading to yet another door. She paused a bit before the door opened and we entered a room where the walls were covered by machines with blinking lights and readouts.
In the center of the room was a chair, which immediately made me think of my last dentist appointment. She pointed toward the chair and I understood that I should sit down. Sitting down, I let my eyes wander from machine to machine, across white desks with different gadgets on them. The only things I recognized were test tubes. The rest was either medical or something straight out of science fiction.
The woman left, leaving me alone in the room, but not for long. Another door opened and in came Olivia, followed by two men and two women.
"Hello again. It's time for your physical. We'll take a few tubes of blood, which is standard procedure here. We'll check you carefully to make sure you have no hidden or sleeping physical problem or dilemma, which could influence your treatment. We'll then let you go through a few tests to measure mental and physical speed, among other things."
While she was talking, the assistants were busy making preparations around me and one inserted a needle in my left arm, extracting blood into color-marked tubes of various sizes. When they were done, they withdrew the needle and placed a small protective plaster in the bend of my arm. The efficiency of this place was admirable, as they placed a collar around my right arm and measured my blood pressure then checked my finger to see how much oxygen I had in my red blood cells. After that followed more tests which were new to me, but evidently meant that the Institute would be able to give me more accurately targeted exercises. Each test, regardless how long it took, ended with someone saying "Very good." without saying anything about the actual readouts.
"It's time for a visual test."
They took out a helmet that looked like a VR helmet, and placed it over my head.
