Miracles Retold

by Holly Ambrose

  While Annie was covertly stashing gifts, Carter remembered he left the front door open and returned to close it. “Mom?” he called. But she wasn’t outside. Just as Carter turned to come back in, he saw something white out of the corner of his eye. “Angel!” he said. “You’re outside again?” Angel dashed into the closest shrub, disappearing completely in the dark even though she was bright white. “Come on, it’s too cold!” Carter called. Carter looked around and saw Grandma’s jacket on a chair by the front door. He threw it on before heading outside, the arms of the garment hanging beyond his hands. “Angel, come here, Angel!” he called.

  Angel darted out of the shrub. Carter followed her down the driveway. He bent over to pick her up, but he managed only to grab her back legs. Angel poured like water through Carter’s arms and scampered a few feet away. “Angel! Come back!” Carter lunged toward the cat again, and Angel started running. Carter ran after her. Angel stopped, saw Carter running for her, then started running again. Carter ran behind, bending to try to grab the cat when he got close, but never quite got a hold of her. Angel led Carter in a cat-and-boy chase down the street and through yards. Starting and stopping, bending and lunging, the pair scrambled across the neighborhood by the glow of the holiday lights and decorations on everyone’s houses.

  Carter realized he was farther away from his home than he had ever been by himself, but he couldn’t stop now. He would catch her! “Angel! Let’s go home! Come on, kitty!”

  Angel ran through a backyard, then another, then another. Carter crashed through bushes, and dodged around trees, toys, and flower beds to catch up. Once, he tripped over an extension cord leading to a Santa Claus inflatable.

  Finally, Angel scampered up a berm and looked down at Carter when she reached the top. Tired of running, Carter trudged up the small hill. Angel stayed still and let the boy pick her up.

  “You’re a bad cat!” Carter said, jiggling her fluffy body in his arms to make his point. “Look where we are. We’re … Where are we?” Carter looked around at the overgrown trees that created a darkness even deeper than the night sky.

  Carter turned to go back down the berm to the neighborhood, then stopped. He wasn’t sure he knew how to get home. He had been so focused on watching where Angel was going that he didn’t pay attention to his surroundings. Nothing looked familiar.

  “Now what do I do?” Carter said. He climbed back up the hill and sat down with Angel in his lap, pulling his grandmother’s jacket around both of them. “I’m … I’m not going to be scared,” Carter told the cat. “You shouldn’t be scared when you’re lost. But I’m not exackally lost,” he said.

  He hoped it was true.

  Searching for a Miracle

  The kitchen was covered in flour, butter, and sugar, cluttered with dirty pans and bowls. Cookies lined up on every free inch of counter space. “Kitchen under siege,” is how Lon put it when he got home a few minutes after Annie had hidden the presents. So, the family decided a pizza delivery would be the fastest way to get dinner. While they waited for the pizza to arrive, Grace insisted everyone should have a salad as well, so Hannah placed bowls of salad and a bottle of dressing on the family room table. It was the only place free of cookies where they could eat.

  Annie grabbed some napkins and placed them near the salad dressing. She looked around and realized that everyone in the family was cleaning up the kitchen, storing cookies, or getting ready for the pizza to arrive — everyone except her youngest.

  “Where’s Carter?” Annie asked.

  “Caaaaarter!” Ryder yelled from the kitchen.

  “That’s helpful,” Hannah said and rolled her eyes.

  But no Carter appeared.

  Annie checked the boys’ room and bathroom — then walked through the house twice, calling Carter’s name. Lon looked for him in the backyard.

  “Where’s Carter?” Annie asked again, this time her voice in a higher pitch.

  “The front door was unlocked when I came home,” Lon said, moving in that direction. “I thought it was odd. Maybe he’s in the front yard or went to a neighbor’s house.”

  The whole family hurried outside to the driveway.

  Lon called Carter’s name. Annie wrapped her arms around herself.

  “I can check with the Bergers,” Ryder said.

  “I’ll ask the da Silvas,” Hannah said. The two older kids left for the neighbors’ houses.

  “I’m going to walk around the Cohen’s,” Lon said. “They’re on vacation. I’ll just check their backyard in case Carter chased Angel there.”

  Annie stared after him. “Those are the only neighbors with kids around their age they all play with,” Annie said to Grace. Then Annie opened the garage door to check that Carter didn’t end up there when she was stashing gifts — even though he could have come inside through the door that led from the garage. But no little boy was there.

  Lon came back shaking his head. Hannah and Ryder returned with the word that none of the neighbors had seen Carter.

  “You know,” Grace said, “All this time that we have been in the driveway looking for Carter, we’ve left the front door wide open, and Angel didn’t try to escape as usual. Do you think she got out and Carter went looking for her?”

  “Oh!” Annie exclaimed. She put her hand to her forehead. “The presents!” she whispered to Grace, turning away from Hannah and Ryder. “When I was carrying Christmas gifts inside and hiding them, I bet Angel got out then and I never noticed.”

  “Let’s drive through the neighborhood,” Lon said. “If Carter is looking for Angel, we’ll see him.”

  Annie covered her eyes with her hands, then pressed her hands together while Lon and the kids went back inside for the car keys. “This is all my fault,” she said to Grace.

  “Don’t go blaming yourself, honey,” Grace said. “I blame the cat!” She put her arm around Annie. “We’ll find Carter. The kids and I will stay here in case he comes home.”

  Lon came back outside, and he and Annie rushed to get in the car. The air had turned crisp — a 50-degree Florida winter night considered chilly by most Floridians. Annie and Lon would have enjoyed the change in the weather if they hadn’t been worried about Carter’s disappearance.

  “He might be cold,” Annie said as Lon drove the car slowly down the street. They both aimed flashlights to shine between houses as they passed by, looking for Carter, Angel, movement, anything. Most of the houses in their neighborhood were built close together, and most yards weren’t fenced. “It’s dark, and he’s alone and cold!” Annie moaned.

  “He’s probably not far,” Lon said, one hand on the steering wheel and the other holding a flashlight out the window. “Carter!” he called.

  “We don’t know that!” Annie said. “We don’t know where he is! Sure, he could be nearby — and tied up in someone’s closet, and we’d never know it!”

  Lon slowed the car but didn’t stop it. “Annie. We have to stay positive. For Carter’s sake.”

  “It’s my fault,” Annie said. She gulped to keep from sobbing. “If I had waited until the kids were asleep to bring the presents in from the car…. Or if I had carried fewer things at a time and made sure the door was closed.… I don’t even remember the last thing I said to him. I don’t know if I even hugged him today. I might never hug him again. I’m a terrible mother. I should be a better mother!”

  Lon stopped the car and put his arms around his wife. “Darling. It’s not your fault. You’ll hug him again. We will find him,” he said.

  Lon’s voice was soothing, his tone confident. Having his arms around her made Annie feel more secure, better able to focus. Annie calmed herself with a few deep, slow breaths. “We have to find him,” she said. Lon nodded and continued driving down the street. Annie traced the beam of her flashlight along a low wall and loudly croaked Carter’s name. “We have to find him,” she repeated.

  They went down all the streets in the neighborhood, then called Grace to ask if Carter had come home. He hadn’
t. Lon and Annie circled around again, calling Carter’s name and praying they would see him. Lon drove through other neighborhoods and nearby shopping centers, and he and Annie hung out of their windows and called for their youngest child.

  “I guess…” Annie whispered, “I guess we should call the police.”

  Arriving at home, Annie and Lon saw Grace, Hannah, and Ryder in the front yard with the Bergers. Annie dashed out of the car. “Have you heard something?” she asked.

  “No,” Grace said.

  “We came by to see if you had found Carter yet,” Kate Berger said.

  Annie wrapped her arms around herself, clenched her toes and bit her lip. She couldn’t look at Hannah, Ryder, or anyone standing in her yard. She needed to know where Carter was. Not knowing was making her feel as though parts of her being were falling away, like yarn pulled from a sweater, unraveling, pulling and circling around, leaving nothing. She tried to dig her feet into the ground, but even that didn’t seem to stop the feeling of coming undone. People were talking, but she couldn’t hear them. She forced herself to breathe: in, out, in, out.

  Suddenly Annie’s skin prickled. She sensed something. Her breath caught as she jerked her head to look down the street. She started walking in that direction. She heard herself calling Carter’s name. Soon she was running, and Lon and the kids were running after her. Coming around the corner from the intersecting street was Carter, with a dog.

  A Nose Knows

  Ryder got to Carter first, on his skateboard. “Where have you been?” he asked. “Mom and Dad went looking all over for you. I can’t believe you!”

  Annie and Lon reached Carter and pressed him close.

  “You’re squishing me,” Carter said.

  “You’re safe,” Annie said. “You’re safe. What happened?”

  “Look — it’s cold,” Lon said. The temperature had fallen. “Why don’t we all get inside first?”

  The family started walking back home. Grace and the Bergers were in the front yard, watching and waiting for them.

  “Is this dog following you?” Hannah asked. She reached her hand out to the mutt, who sniffed it. He wagged his tail as he walked alongside the family.

  “This dog helped me! He showed me the way home!” Carter said. “Mom, you said there are no more miracles, but this dog made a miracle!”

  “What do you mean?” Annie asked. She looked at dog: medium-sized, a little shaggy, definitely in need of a bath. And food.

  “I’m so tired of walking,” Carter said, ignoring Annie’s question for the moment. “Dad, can you carry me?”

  Lon bent and picked up Carter to walk the rest of the way home. “It’s so far,” Carter said. “I’m sorry I got lost.”

  Once the Bergers told Carter they were glad he was home and safe, they went home and everyone went inside to the warmth. Annie’s shock melted into liquid emotion.

  “You scared me to death!” Annie said to Carter. Tears of relief stung her chilled cheeks with their warmth and salt, and she stood on her knees to hug Carter. “Why did you run off? In the dark?”

  Carter looked at the floor. “I saw the front door was open, and Angel got out. So I tried to catch her. But she kept running away from me.” He looked up. “I finally caught her, but then I wasn’t sure how to get home until this dog showed up.”

  The dog had come inside and was sitting up near Grace. Annie released her hold on Carter.

  “He was real friendly and acted like he knew me, but I’ve never seen him,” Carter said. “He was running away from me, then coming back, running away and coming back, like he wanted to play.” Carter made a zigzag motion with his fingers. “So I tried to play with him and keep up with him. But just like Angel, he kept running!” Carter heaved a sigh. “So I followed him for a while and realized where I was and … figured out how to get home. Because of this dog.”

  “That is so weird,” Hannah said. She stroked the dog’s head. He rolled over, and Hannah rubbed his tummy. He closed his eyes. “He’s a nice dog. Doesn’t look like he has a collar.”

  Grace opened her mouth, then closed it. “I need to make a confession,” she said. “When I take my walks around the neighborhood, I see this dog almost every time. I … may have given him a treat or two. It was the least I could do for him for keeping me company.” Carter and Ryder stared at her, and she smiled at them as she rubbed the back of the dog’s neck.

  “But this dog doesn’t know Carter,” Lon said.

  “No, but it looks like Carter took my jacket,” Grace said, smiling. “This little guy must have smelled the jacket and remembered where I live.”

  “Wow,” Hannah said.

  “That’s like, a miracle!” Ryder said.

  “That’s what I said!” Carter exclaimed.

  “Dogs have an excellent sense of smell, you know,” Grace said.

  Benji looked around at all the family members and sniffed.

  Annie sniffed too, done crying. “So where’s Angel?” she asked.

  “I caught her. I did. All by myself,” Carter said. “But when the dog came around, she ran away again. She hid in a bush, and I couldn’t get her out. She was too far inside and there were spiders and stuff … probally.”

  “Do you think you could show me where Angel is?” Lon asked.

  “Uh…. Not sure I can remember how to get back there. There was a big hill.”

  Lon nodded. In a part of the state not known for being hilly, hills stood out. There was a hill at a nearby park, created as a barrier between the edge of the park and the neighborhood. “I think I know how to get there. We should go look for her now.”

  “I’ll put the pizzas in the oven to warm up,” Grace said.

  “Pizzas?!” Carter shrieked. “I’m so hungry.”

  “What about the dog?” Hannah asked.

  “Oh, the dog probably likes pizza too,” Grace said with a wink.

  “No, I mean what do we do with the dog?” Hannah asked. Everyone looked at Lon and Annie.

  “We’ll have to see,” Lon said.

  “That always means no,” said Ryder, “because you’re not fun.”

  “He probably belongs to another family,” Grace said. “Come on, kids, let’s get something warm to drink while your parents get that darn cat.”

  Annie wasn’t sure she wanted to let Carter out of her sight, but as she watched him disappear around the corner into the kitchen with his siblings, she knew he would be all right. He was home, and safe. Grace followed behind, and the dog trailed last. The dog that just might have brought Carter back home to her.

  Once back at the park only a few minutes’ drive away, Lon and Annie walked around and called for Angel, finally coaxing her out of her hiding spot. Annie shivered when she looked at the wooded area and thought of her small son lost there and what might have happened to him. But settling Angel on her lap in the car, her thoughts turned to the dog.

  “Lon,” Annie said, “How in the world would we manage with a dog?”

  Lon raised his eyebrows. “You’re thinking about the dog, huh? My mother has always had a dog,” he said. “I imagine she would manage him just fine.” Lon smirked. “If it weren’t for that dog, and Carter wearing Mom’s jacket, he might still be out there in the park.”

  Annie shuddered and knew Lon was right.

  He started the car’s engine. “How did you know Carter was coming around the corner?” Lon asked.

  “What?”