PKU (English)

12.

There was silence for a few seconds. Nita looked at Sandy and Sandy looked at Nita.

"PKU?" he repeated.

"Phenylketonuria," Nita explained. "It's an inherited metabolic disease. My body can't break down the amino acid phenylalanine, so I can't eat anything that contains this protein. I always have to feed myself on special products, they are expensive, but the health insurance company pays a large amount for dad."

"Isn't this disease curable?"

"No, like I said, it's innate. Every baby is tested for PKU. If they have it, they are not allowed to drink breast milk. Leon and I are fraternal, and I wasn't as lucky as him. But he wasn't allowed to drink from Mama either, because she also had some kind of illness."

"What... what happens if you eat something with Phi... er, that amino acid?"

"My brain cells are dying."

"WHAT?!"

"Normal eating leads to cognitive development disorders in PKU, which are different for everyone, and in my case my brain cells are dying."

"That means you might suddenly forget... how to speak?!"

"Yes. As the doctors always tell me, there are infinitely many nerve cells in the brain. It's not bad if some die, but if the connection between them dies or gets worse, suddenly everyone can no longer work and then not everything is forwarded."

Again, Sandy just looked at her in bewilderment for a few seconds and Nita wondered how one could have such amber eyes. That wasn't normal, was it? "Maybe he is," she began, but immediately dropped the thought. Leon was right: magic only got you into trouble and terribly embarrassing situations.

"Now I understand why Leon was so defending your bread."

"It wasn't even real bread." "I can't even eat that," she added in her thoughts.

"I could tell you I'm sorry for you, but you probably don't want that because you've heard it from all kinds of people so many times. I'm not in your shoes, but I can imagine it must be incredibly annoying when everyone treats you like... like a raw egg."

Nita's eyes widened. No one had ever reacted to her illness like this. But not only that was the reason, but also a silhouette that jumped out of the lake behind Sandy for a split second and went under again. The experiences of the previous night, before she mistook Sandy's cabin for hers, immediately flashed through her mind.

"Nita? Did I say something wrong?"

"No, it's just..." Nita bit her lip. No, she certainly wouldn't tell him about the shadow creature. "I have to get to my cabin quickly."

She ran hurriedly, not noticing how Sandy turned towards the lake as the figure jumped out of the water a second time. So, she didn't see that his eyes widened too.