They say that a journey of ten thousand paths starts with a single decision. Once upon a time, at a point touching upon many times and places, countless worlds and endless possibilities spun before him. As the bumper sticker says, the choice is simple: Life, Death, or Los Angeles... and, for a time, he had chosen LA.
California in general has its problems, and LA in particular has its share of problems. For a while, he did very well in California. His unique blend of experience in trauma management and bioenergetics had served him well as a lecturing Doctor at UCLA Medical Center. His remarkable talents, demonstrated at satellite trauma centers, lent credence to his teachings.
His European methods and socialized medicine mindset made Mikkelus much more popular with patients than with HMO representatives and insurance companies. Hospital boards of directors tended to have mixed feelings concerning him: his phenomenal medical results spoke for themselves, yet his unorthodox methodology did nothing to fill pharmaceutical sales quotas or sustain clinical trials in drug research. Worst yet, he regularly skipped staff meetings... to see patients, of all things! As a result, while skilled doctors and specialists usually commanded superstar salaries to support their affluent lifestyles, his resources barely sustained his private practice. Though he successfully treated conditions that the AMA consider terminal, Rife Memorial never turned a profit, perhaps because it did not turn away anyone in need, regardless of insurance or ability to pay. When, after fifteen years of head-butting with administrators he opted to retire, his privte practice was more attractive as real estate than it was as a business venture.
He left LA and dropped out of the public eye, offered no explanation for his whereabouts for the five years before he arrived in Cleveland. Whispered rumors in the migrant worker community attributed miraculous results to a person generally matching his description in Omaha. Was it him? When directly questioned concerning the matter, he simply states that he has no idea what happened in Omaha, so he can't explain it. Furthermore, if he had been there and knew what happened, he could not ethically discuss the medical history of his or any other patient.
Since emerging in the Cleveland metropolitan area, he can frequently be seen entering or leaving Franklin Castle at night. As the membership of private social clubs are not public information, it has not been determined whether he attends as a member of the Castle Club, an employee, or gains admittance as a frequent guest.
It is a matter of public record that a Doctor Vagus has begun offering European style bio-energetic treatment in a remodeled farmhouse in Richfield, just south of Cleveland. Business is apparently slow enough that he supplements his practice with referrals turned away from the Brecksville campus of the Cleveland VA hospital. Either things must be looking up for the doctor, since he's been seen zipping around town on a shiny new three wheel amphibious motorcycle instead of his tired old Volvo, or he's having his mid-life crisis.
Away from the office:
Mikkelus appears an unremarkable (App 2) male of indeterminate age. A
weathered soul, time and elements have deeply etched the lines in his features
and bleached his hair and beard to a salt-and-pepper mane. Laughter has written
lines around his expressive grey eyes. When traveling the streets of the city on
foot or in his utilitarian vehicle, he can most often be seen wearing simple
unadorned light grey fatigue style clothing or chinos cinched around his waist
by a woven web belt, a comfortably loose-fitting sign of disregard for fashion.
In inclement weather, a long grey trench-coat or voluminous ankle-length
poncho billows around him. As he travels down life's highway, the only certainty is that a steaming mug
of coffee is seldom far from his hand.
Past
The diplomas hanging on the wall from a variety of European schools
of Medicine offer a few clues to his past. While his accent shows
strong Gaelic influence, he carries an expired passport from Svalbard, a
personal passport from Lichtenstein, and
an official international humanitarian aid passport from Switzerland. His
international drivers license was issued in Lichtenstein.
Other than the official documentation, he seldom discloses details of his past to any but those closest to him, and those details raise more questions than answers. To the casual inquiry, he seldom substantiates or refutes speculation concerning where he considers home, when or why he left that home, or even his age. Whether he comes from human, Nuwisha, Fae, or from some other stock, he generally avoids answers to questions concerning his origins with questions, with riddles, with metaphor, with a kind and silent smile, or by suggesting that in reality, he is as he appears in the here and now, but here and now is illusion and reality is simply another name for the most substantial shadows or dreams at which people grasp.
Present
Mikkelus claims to have come to Ohio from LA to make a
break with his past. He's fond of remarking that people tend to be where they need
to be, when they need to be there, though not always when they want to be there.
Few people can say for certain where he goes when he cannot be found socializing
at the coffee bar of the club, the clinic, or the VA hospital. Rumors occasionally place him abroad,
working with relief agencies like the International Red Cross and Doctors
without Borders. The
Hippocratic Oath generally dictates his actions and attitudes.
Future
"Life generally takes people where they need to be, when they need to be there."