They say that a journey of ten thousand paths starts with a single decision. At a point touching upon all 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.
Mikkelus chose to make a new life in LA. Yet for all of his resolve to begin a new and different life, some things remain the same. He is seldom, if ever, seen without coffee cup in hand. His medical expertise has served him well as a lecturing Doctor at UCLA Medical Center, and his remarkable healing abilities have gotten a work-out on rotation at satellite trauma centers throughout the region. Perhaps more extraordinary than his ability in the emergency room (or the painless resonance-based treatments he administers with Rife machine or Perkl device) is his steadfast resolve that nobody dies in his care, regardless of whether or not the proper forms have been filled out or the insurance authorizations have come back approved. Nobody dies under his care… not even the numerous anonymous accountants at the HMO who value healthy profit more than healthy people, should they find themselves among his listed.
This never-say-die attitude makes Mikkelus much more popular with patients he treats than with HMO representatives and insurance companies. Hospital boards of directors tend to have mixed feelings concerning him: his phenomenal medical results speak for themselves, yet his unorthodox methodology does nothing to fill pharmaceutical sales quotas or sustain clinical trials in drug research. Worst yet, he regularly skips staff meetings... to see patients, of all things! As a result, while skilled doctors and specialists usually command salaries to support affluent lifestyles, his resources barely sustain his private practice.
Though successfully treating conditions that the AMA consider terminal, Rife Memorial has yet to turn a profit, perhaps because it has yet to turn away anyone in need, regardless of insurance or ability to pay. Set up in a two-and-a-half story, six bedroom house originally built late in the 1800’s, the center offers two treatment rooms for outpatient care, reception area, and small office on the ground floor that Mikkelus shares with the on-call nurse and the clinic support staff. Two extended care rooms, each with two beds, a lounge area, a kitchenette, and a bath take up the bulk of the second floor. Upstairs is the modestly furnished two bedroom apartment that he calls home and the rooftop garden in which he grows fresh vegetables.
Off-Duty
Mikkelus appears most often as an unremarkable (App 2) man. 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 one of his utilitarian vehicles, 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 voluminous ankle-length poncho billows around him. As he
travels down life's highway in his 20 year old Volvo wagon, the only certainty is that a steaming mug
of some coffee derivative seldom leaves his hand.
Past
Other than the diplomas hanging on the wall from a variety of European schools
of Medicine, Mikkelus offers few clues to his past. While his accent shows
strong Gaelic influence, he carries passports from Svalbard, Lichtenstein, and
Switzerland; his international drivers license was issued in Lichtenstein. He seldom substantiates or refutes
speculation concerning where he considers home, when or why he left that home,
or even his age. He has no explanation for
the oddly distorted images captured by digital or film cameras pointed his direction, when
they can capture any image at all. 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 here and now is closest to reality, the most
substantial shadows or illusions at which to grasp.
Present
Mikkelus claims to have come to LA from Europe to make a
new start. 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 hospital. Rumors occasionally place him abroad,
working with relief agencies like the International Red Cross and Doctors
without Borders. The provisions of an oath that parallels the spirit of the
Hippocratic Oath in many respects dictate his actions and attitudes.
Future
"Life generally takes people where they need to be, when they need to be there."