Erick used the end of one of the dining tables as an office of sorts, and Dr. Su claimed another table as an examining bed for his patients. Each night, Erick and Luke would lead all the kids and adults in prayer, thanking God for their safety and asking for restoration of their orphanage.
CHAPTER THIRTY
With the help of the team, the housemothers, and Luke hobbling around on one crutch, they were able to clean up all the broken glass and clear out the debris in the various buildings. Erick got some plastic sheeting out of the outdoor storage shed that they kept on hand for leaking roofs during the rainy season. He helped the team replace the broken windows with the plastic, which allowed light into the rooms, but limited the ventilation.
Both Luke and Madison’s parents back home had heard about the earthquake, but with the cell towers in the Beijing area jammed, their only communication was the Internet, which thankfully allowed them to send email. Madison’s homesickness was swallowed by her busyness as she attended to the injured and cared for Lily and for little Chen, who refused to be comforted apart from Luke’s presence. Having only arrived at the orphanage a week before the quake, the little boy hadn’t had a chance to really bond with his housemother yet. And for some reason, Luke spelled security and safety.
Each night, their two little charges would sleep next to them, sometimes whimpering and needing attention before dawn.
One night as they were finishing their prayers as a couple, Luke said to Madison, “You know, Maddie, God gave me a warning about all this.”
She propped herself up on her elbow beside him on their mattress. “Really?”
“Yeah. The night it happened, I couldn’t fall asleep. And as I was praying for you and our families, I suddenly felt like God stepped into the room.” He looked her in the eye and added, “It was really different than anything I’ve experienced before.”
“Wow. So how did He warn you?”
“He impressed on my heart to brace myself and to pray for the kids. And He assured me that He would be with me and get me through what was coming.” Luke paused and then added, “It wasn’t like I heard an audible voice or anything. He spoke directly to my spirit.”
“I’ve had that happen to me before, too,” she replied with a nod.
“So have I. But I’ve never felt God’s presence so strongly as I did that night.” He studied her face as if to see if she understood. “I mean, it wasn’t like the times I’ve cried out to Him about something, and then felt Him draw near. Instead, it was like He came to me with a distinct message of warning and reassurance in advance of the earthquake.”
“That’s amazing, honey,” she said, snuggling her head down onto his chest. “We have a lot to be thankful for.”
“Yeah, we do,” he replied. And then he remembered something else from that night. God had also urged him to pray for his father. While Madison drifted off to sleep beside him, Luke stepped up his prayers for his dad, making a determination to call him the following day.
Michelle was hurrying back to her 7th grade language arts class from lunch break when the school secretary intercepted her. “You had a call from the high school,” she said. “It was the assistant principal. He’d like you to call back as soon as possible.”
Oh, no. What now, Lord? “Okay, thanks for letting me know,” she replied, taking the message slip from Elizabeth’s outstretched hand. If she called now, she’d be late for her next class, but she hated to keep the assistant principal waiting. Poking her head into the counselor’s office, she found Karen eating a salad at her desk.
“Would you do me a huge favor and watch my next class for a few minutes? I need to call the high school.”
Karen smiled. “Sure, friend. No problem. Anything you want them to do until you get there?”
“There’s a warm up on the board they can work on, and copying tonight’s homework assignment.” Starting to walk back to the main office, Michelle stopped herself and added, “Thanks, Karen. I really appreciate it.”
“My pleasure. Hope everything’s okay with your son.”
“Me, too,” Michelle admitted, taking a deep breath and heading off to make her call.
As she was connected to the assistant principal at Caleb’s school, she shot up a quick prayer for wisdom. Their son had always been such a sweet, cooperative kid. Never any major issues. Now, he was a stick of dynamite, always one spark short of an explosion. Not only was it affecting him and his life, but it was taking a toll on Michelle and Steve as well. Michelle felt like she was constantly in the role of a referee—trying to keep the peace between her husband and their son.
Although she understood Steve’s concerns and frustrations, she could see that Caleb was really floundering emotionally and spiritually. Maybe her many years of teaching middle school teens helped her to look deeper into the hearts of broken kids. Wow, just thinking about that phrase, broken kids, brought tears to her eyes. How she wished she could have somehow spared Caleb all the heartache he was experiencing because of Adam’s rejection.
“Mrs. Baron?” Tom Thorton’s voice cut into her thoughts.
“Yes. I’m here,” she replied. “Is Caleb okay?”
“Well, that depends on your definition of okay. He’s sitting right here across from me. Physically, he’s fine. But he picked a fight today with a classmate and it almost resulted in a slug out. Thankfully, the P.E. teacher intervened before anything beyond a shove occurred.”
Michelle sucked in the air around her. “I’m sorry to hear that, Tom. That’s not like Caleb.”
“It caught me by surprise a little, too,” he admitted. “You need to know that he’s also missed his morning classes today.”
“What? Really? Did he give any explanation?” she asked.
“Only that he wasn’t feeling well,” he replied.
Steve’s going to blow a gasket on this one. “May I speak to him, please?” she asked, glancing at the clock on the wall. She’d already missed the first ten minutes of her class.
“I’ll put him on.”
“Mom?”
Michelle tried to calm herself before she replied. “You weren’t feeling well this morning? You didn’t say anything to me about that.”
“I had a headache.”
“A headache? So you decided to skip your morning classes? That’s not like you, Caleb. What’s going on with you? And what’s this about you picking a fight?”
After a moment of silence, Caleb asked, “Can we talk about this later?”
“Definitely. We’ll all three discuss this tonight after your dad gets home. Put Mr. Thornton back on the phone, please. And be sure you come straight home after school.”
“Whatever.”
Whatever? Really? Michelle felt her stomach clench. Before she could come back with a reply, the assistant principal was back on the line.
“I’ve assigned Caleb two detentions,” he said. “He’ll serve the first one today after school and the second tomorrow.”
“Okay. And his father and I will talk to him as well. Again, I’m very sorry about all this.” She thought for a second and then added, “I’d like to talk to you privately, Tom. I mean when Caleb’s not in your office. Can I give you a call after school today?”
“Sure. I’ll be here until five.”
As soon as Michelle was off the phone, she hurried to her classroom. Karen had the class quiet, and students were either finishing their warm ups or reading silently. Michelle shot a quick smile to her friend and mouthed the word, “Thanks.” Karen nodded and slipped out the back door.
“Your mother tells me she had a call today from the assistant principal at your school,” Steve said to Caleb that evening as the three of them finished their dinner together. Caleb had been wordless the entire meal, staring at his plate rather than joining in any conversation.
Now he looked up at his dad defiantly. “Yeah, old man Thornton wouldn’t listen to my explanation.”
“Your explanation?” Steve replied. “How about if you give
that to us?”
Caleb eyed them warily. “Some stupid jock said something about a girl I know—a friend of mine.”
“Oh really?” Steve asked, not attempting to mask his skepticism.
“Really. But it sounds like you’ve already taken his side, so no point discussing it.”
“I’m not taking any sides, son. And we are going to discuss it. So, go ahead and tell us what was said.”
Caleb sighed and slumped into his seat. “He called her a hoe.”
“A hoe?” Steve looked from Caleb to Michelle.
“It’s slang for whore,” she explained softly.
Propping his elbows on the table, Steve leaned toward Caleb. “Okay, I get that you’d be upset to hear someone say that about your friend. But starting a fight? How about ignoring the guy or just telling him to knock it off?”
“Right, Dad. Knock it off. Like that erases what he said. The guy’s a total jerk. Just like Adam,” he added under his breath.
Silence fell over the kitchen table. Steve sat back in his chair. So that’s what this is about. “Caleb, we understand that you’ve been upset about the whole Adam thing, but you can’t take that out on other people. What the kid at school said was wrong. Agreed. But you were just as wrong to try to pick a fight with him. I know you were trying to defend your friend’s honor, and I respect that.”
“We both do,” Michelle added. “But your father is right. You can’t go pushing and slugging to try to get someone to stop being a jerk.”
“So what was I supposed to do? Just let him get away with it?” Caleb asked, his eyes brimming with challenge.
Michelle looked at Steve.
“You shake your head, turn the other cheek, and walk away. And you make sure you stand by your friend, encouraging her to ignore the foolish remarks of people like that jock.”
“It wasn’t like she was there, Dad.”
“So she didn’t hear it?”
“Nope.”
“Then all the more reason to let it drop, son. I don’t mind you saying something in defense of a friend. But fists are not the answer. They’ll just land you in as much trouble or more than the other guy, especially if you’re the one who starts it.”
Caleb sat pensively staring at his empty plate. “Are we finished?” he asked quietly.
“Yes,” Steve replied. “But I also don’t want to hear about you skipping any other classes. Are we clear?”
“Clear.”
More than five thousand miles away, Caleb’s sister awoke in the early morning predawn hours to a strange sound of silence. Lily’s labored breathing had stopped. Leaping from the bed, Madison lifted the tiny girl out of her crib and began CPR.
“Babe? Is she okay?” Luke asked, sitting up.
“We need an ambulance,” she replied between puffs. “And call Dr. Su.”
Luke was on his feet and on the phone immediately. As Madison continued to work on Lily, he dressed quickly and opened the door, ready for the emergency response team. Soon Erick ran in, followed by the paramedics. Madison handed Lily over to the team and quickly changed into street clothes, racing after them as they headed out to the ambulance with one responder still breathing for Lily as he carried her body in his hands.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
As the paramedics whisked Lily into the open doors of the hospital emergency room, Madison fought to follow but was blocked from entering the examination area. Erick and one of the aides ushered her and Luke over to the admission desk. After much discussion, the aide explained to them that policy forbid anyone in the examination area except immediate family.
“Tell her I’m a nurse,” Madison urged.
The aide translated to the woman at the desk, who shook her head. “She’s saying you must work at this hospital to be allowed back,” the aide said.
“Erick, there must be something we can do,” Luke said. “Since Lily doesn’t have a family, can’t we count as family for her? I mean she lives with us, right?”
“I wish it worked like that,” Erick replied. “But for now, I think all we can do is wait here.”
The next fifty minutes, Madison paced and prayed. Luke sat hunched over in a plastic chair, his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands, while Erick and the aide spoke in soft tones to each other from time to time. People came and went in a blur, until finally a voice spoke in English, “Who is here for the infant girl Lily?”
Immediately, they were all on their feet and clustered around a doctor. Before he could say a word, Madison’s heart sank. The doctor’s grim expression said it all. Leaning hard into her husband’s side, she listened as the details unfolded. Lily had revived once for a few moments, but her heart was too weak to sustain her life. Although they’d done all that they could, Lily was gone.
Maddie could feel Luke’s strong arm holding her up. Erick asked a few questions regarding the baby’s remains as Luke led Madison over to a pair of chairs against the wall. Sinking into them together, they clasped hands and shared their grief.
Between sobs, Madison choked out what they were both thinking. “We could have saved her, Luke. We had the money from the church. She could have had the surgery.”
As Erick made arrangements for Lily’s burial, Luke took Madison outside. They sat on a wall, bowed their heads together and prayed.
When they finally arrived back at the Children’s Garden, Chen was sitting alone on the playground. He spotted them and ran to their side, eyes clearly searching for Lily. Luke scooped him up in his arms and the three of them walked back to their residence. Madison was exhausted, and Luke suggested she try to sleep a bit.
“What will we do with the surgery funds?” she asked quietly.
“I’ll talk to my dad about it,” he replied. “You just rest now. I’m going to try to get Chen to take a nap as well.”
As Madison tried to go to sleep, her mind kept replaying what had happened. If she’d been watching more closely…if she’d gotten to Lily a few minutes sooner…surely there was something she could have done to save the little girl. Her thoughts circled in an endless loop as she struggled to find rest.
“I would have adopted her,” she whispered in her spirit to God. “I would have made her my own.”
And then a voice spoke to her heart. “Lily is Mine, Madison. She is home. And one day you will see her again.”
“Did you hear Caleb leave this morning?” Michelle asked Steve as she packed her lunch for school.
“No. Why?”
“It’s not like him to not say goodbye or anything,” she replied, suddenly feeling her uneasiness grow. “I’d better go up and check on him and make sure he didn’t oversleep.”
When he didn’t answer her knock on his bedroom door, she turned the handle and pushed it open. Caleb’s bed was the way it had been the afternoon before when Michelle had put some clean laundry on it for him to put away. There was no sign of him. “Steve, come here!” she called from the landing at the top of the stairs.
“Are you calling me?” Steve replied as he walked into the living room.
“Yes. Caleb’s gone.”
Steve stared at her for a moment. “What do you mean, ‘gone’?”
“I mean he didn’t sleep here last night. His bed is still made and there are clothes stacked on it that I left there yesterday.”
Joining her at the top of the stairs, Steve looked both worried and angry. “What is with that kid?” he muttered under his breath. Then he turned to Michelle and said, “Let’s call and see if he stayed at the Johnsons.”
“Good idea,” she replied. “He was pretty upset last night. Maybe he just needed to talk with Logan.” Michelle walked into the master bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed as she dialed the phone.
“Johnson residence, Liam speaking.”
“Hi, Liam. It’s Michelle. Is your mom there?”
“Just a second. I’ll get her,” he replied.
“Michelle? Is everything okay?” Kelly asked.
Michelle glanced
at the alarm clock on the nightstand. She should already be on her way to work. “I’m worried about Caleb. Did he stay at your house last night?”
“No, why? What’s happening?”
Michelle quickly explained and then added, “Would you ask Logan if he’s talked to him? Maybe he’d know where Caleb stayed overnight.”
While she was holding on the phone for Kelly’s return, Steve said, “I’ll go look at his laptop and see if I can spot anything in his emails.”
“Good idea,” Michelle agreed, looking at the clock again. If she didn’t leave for school in the next fifteen minutes, she’d be late for her first period class. Thankfully there were no teacher meetings before school today, and she didn’t have any gate or bus duty assignments this month. But she’d already missed part of one class because of Caleb. She was about to call out to Steve to come and take the phone so she could call school on her cell phone down in the kitchen, when Kelly came back on the line.
“Logan says he hasn’t talked to Caleb. In fact, he said Caleb’s been pretty much off his radar lately.”
“That’s weird. They’re so close. Logan’s like a brother to him,” Michelle said, concern growing in her heart. “I’ve gotta run, Kel.”
“Okay. Let me know if you find out anything. I’ll be praying for you guys and for Caleb,” Kelly replied.
“Would you see who’s at the door please?” Amber called out to Will.
“Sure, babe.”
Amber ran a brush through her hair and grabbed her backpack. She had a class in an hour. In contrast to her teen years when she did everything she could to avoid school, now she tried to arrive early for each of her college classes. What a difference a goal made! She could hardly wait to finish her credential and be a teacher like Michelle.
Above All Else (Sandy Cove Series Book 7) Page 19
