Jack made a mental note to look into that ruling. Considering what he’d learned that afternoon about chiropractic, it seemed inconceivable the Supreme Court would have ruled in chiropractic’s favor, although he assumed that the ruling involved the monopoly issue only and had nothing to do with efficacy.

“You’d think that such a ruling would have helped chiropractic,” Newhouse continued. “But strangely enough it split us. A number of conventional doctors, obviously from seeing our benefits, started working with us, at least with those chiropractors willing to limit themselves. Over the years these traitors have been dubbed ‘mixers’ because they’ve been duped into limiting themselves to back problems exclusively and by doing so betraying the chiropractic movement.” Newhouse paused momentarily, then added derisively: “Meaning, of course, they are not real chiropractors.”

“And what are you stalwart patriotic chiropractors called?” Jack demanded, allowing a full dose of his infamous sarcasm to manifest itself.

For a beat Newhouse gazed at Jack almost as if Jack had slapped him. It was apparent the sarcasm hadn’t been lost on him, but he appeared more confused than affronted. Ultimately he ignored it and said: “We’re appropriately call ‘straights’ because we are true to our beginnings.”

For the hundredth time during his relatively short conversation with Newhouse, Jack had to restrain his reflex urge to speak his mind. Modulating his voice carefully, he said, “I’d like to ask you about another patient. Her name is Keara Abelard.”

“Ms.Abelard,” Newhouse repeated, allowing his sunshine face to reappear. “Another classy young lady. Did she also refer you to me?”

“Ultimately, I’d have to give that a qualified yes.”

Newhouse’s smile faltered. He was mildly confused again. Jack’s response seemed unreasonably convoluted. “She was a new patient,” Newhouse said. “Did she say something to you about her experience here?”

“Indirectly,” Jack said, purposefully trying to be somewhat mysterious to fan Newhouse’s curiosity. “Ms. Barlow told me she had suggested Keara come to see you but didn’t know if Keara had followed through.”

“She did. She came in as a new patient this past Friday. We squeezed her in because she said she was in considerable pain.”

“So you remember her distinctly?”

“Oh, yes. Quite distinctly.”

“How is that possible, given how busy you are? You must see a lot of patients to cover your overhead and pay the installments on your digital X-ray machine.”

“I remember names,” Newhouse said, looking askance at Jack. Jack’s comment seemed inappropriate at best. “I have a facility for it.”

“Do you remember her complaint?”

“Certainly. She had a severe frontal headache that was unresponsive to drugs. She’d had it for weeks.”

“So, you thought you could help her.”

“Most definitely, and I did. She said her headache melted away like magic.”

“Did you take an X-ray?”