And when Dr. Comstock said jovially, while listening to her try to breathe deeply, “It sounds like she’s come down with a nice little case of bronchitis,” it just riled her even more.
“I’ll write out prescriptions for an antibiotic and cough syrup,” he was telling Ian, like she wasn’t even there. “Do you have a cool mist vaporizer?”
“No. I don’t think we do.”
“I’m not surprised. Most people don’t think to buy one until they have children. But I’d suggest you pick one up when you fill these, and keep it going at her bedside round the clock if you can.”
“No problem. I don’t suppose there’s a prescription to put her in a better mood, is there?” He grinned at her and she shot him a scowl. Dr. Comstock chuckled.
“Annie has never been good at being the patient. And I would know. She’s been my patient since she was born. I’ve never known her to willingly slow down for anything. In fact, I’ve often wondered if this is God‘s way of getting her to do just that.”
“Are you finished talking about me yet?” Annie asked sarcastically.
“Pretty much,” the doctor crooned, patting her arm. “Don’t know why you’d expect us to talk to you when all you do is snap our heads off.”
“And I don’t know why I keep coming to see a rude doctor who’s older than dirt, when there are probably ten thousand nice, young ones out there.”
“They’d just show you the door the first time you took an attitude with them,” he said matter-of-factly. “So you’re stuck with me, Annie, dear. Now go home, get some rest, and stay well until I retire, okay?”
Much as she tried not to, Annie had to laugh, however shortly, at the stunned expression on Ian’s face. So did Dr. Comstock, who assured him,
“Don’t worry. It’s an old routine with us. Now get on home and take care of your wife. I’ll see you in about a year.”
“This happens yearly?”
“Like clockwork.”
“Do you think I could get some anti-depressants before it happens again?” He and the doctor both laughed at the joke. Annie just smacked his arm.
“Oh. Go ahead and give her some ibuprofen every four hours or so to keep the fever down. Of course, if you want to find out any secrets, just give her a couple of M & M’s and wait until she’s delirious.”
“That could be fun. Come on, Sweetheart. Let’s let the doctor get to some of his more amicable patients. Like the guillotine operator I saw in the waiting room.”
“I like your husband, Annie!”
“And I like her doctor,” Ian said, ushering her back out to the waiting room.
“You two are just a couple of regular comedians, aren’t you?”
“Very perceptive of you to notice. I think I missed my calling.”
~~~~
“Are you doing okay?” Ian asked when Annie finally answered the phone early the next week. She’d taken so long he was worried she might be having a relapse.
“I’m fine,” she said tiredly.
“What took you so long to pick up?” he wanted to know, and heard her sigh.
“There are some things we don’t need to talk about,” was all she said and he smiled.
“Okay.”
“Why are you calling now? Working overtime?”
“No. Your dad said he needed to do some shopping and wondered if I could stop by and sit with Maddie for about an hour. I told him I’d check with you first.”
“I’m fine, Ian. I’ll probably take another nap, so go ahead. I appreciate your being willing to pitch in.”
“Hey, I said I do anything I could to help.”
“Thank you anyway.”
“You're welcome. I should be home by seven. And you are eating something tonight.”
“And who’s going to make me?”
“Me.”
“You picking up fast food or something?” He could hear the frown in her voice.
“No. I’ll make you some soup or something. Even I can’t mess that up.”
“I can only hope,” she said with a chuckle.
“Hey. You have to admit that my kitchen skills have improved dramatically over the past couple of months.”
“Yes they have.”
“So apologize for your lack of faith in me.”
“I’ll apologize tomorrow. After I survive your first meal.”
“Ha-ha. Well, I’m here. I’ll see you in a bit.”
“Tell Mom hi for me.”
“I will. Bye.”
A few days on the antibiotics, and her finally being able to sleep now that the cough was under control, had made a world of difference in her attitude. Which did make life a whole lot easier, but Ian had found her irritability extremely amusing, and imagined she’d been behaving much like a petulant child.
As he pulled the key from the ignition and strode toward the door, he recalled the pictures Maddie had shown him shortly after their marriage. He wondered if Annie’s child, when she had one someday, would be as adorable as she had been. But the thought of someone other than himself being the father of that child didn’t set well.
“Hi, Ian,” a tall, chubby blond woman said, meeting him at the door. “Thanks for filling in. I’ve got to pick up my granddaughter from her piano lesson in about five minutes.
“Well don’t let me keep you then. I hope you realize how much we appreciate you helping with Maddie.”
“She’s such a dear. I hope you all know how much we’re praying for a miracle.”
“Thank you. We’re praying for that, too.” And Ian did pray for God to have mercy on her. Every day. Usually several times a day.
“Okay. We’ll see you Sunday?”
“Of course. Drive carefully, Betsy.”
“I will. Give Annie my love.”
He closed the door and walked into the living room, not quite sure what to expect. He hadn’t been over since Paul’s announcement that they were discontinuing treatment because he just didn’t know what to say to her now. But he couldn’t tell Paul no when he’d asked him to stay with her awhile today either.
To his surprise, she was sitting up in her recliner and knitting something. She smiled broadly when she saw him.
“Ian! How nice to see you!”
He bent down to give her a hug.
“It’s good to see you, too, Maddie.”
“Well, sit down. Paul called and told me he’d recruited you to baby-sit while he stopped at the store.”
“I don’t consider it babysitting,” he said, dropping into the chair. “I consider it a privilege, and another opportunity to visit with my favorite mother-in-law.”
“You are a very sweet young man.”
“I am that, aren’t I?” he asked, blowing on his fingernails, then rubbing them on his chest. Maddie laughed.
“Ian, I can’t tell you how glad I am that Annie married you.”
“I’m glad she did, too.” He meant that sincerely. “So what are you knitting?”
“Actually I’m crocheting. And it’s a blanket for my grandchildren. I figure I probably won’t be around when they start arriving so I’d like them to have something I made to hug them when I can’t.”
Tears burned in Ian’s eyes, and he cleared his throat roughly.
“You okay?”
“No. How can you talk about this so casually, Maddie? Like it’s no big deal?” She set the blanket in her lap and turned to face him.
“Don’t get me wrong here. I’d love to be able to live another thirty or forty years. I’d love to hold and spoil every grandchild I’m blessed with. Maybe even a few great grandchildren. Actually I’d be happy just to have many more years with Paul and Annie, and to get to know you better.
“But if it’s the Lord’s will that I have a shorter life than I’d like, I have two choices. I can either fight it, be miserable, and make everyone around me feel bad. Or I can accept it, be at peace knowing that He knows what’s best for me and know I’ll be with you all again someday. For eternity.”
“Because I just do. It’s hard to explain, and yes, Paul finally owned up to knowing that you’re not saved. Yet. But when you finally do accept Christ as your Savior, Ian, your life will change.”
“Did yours?”
“Dramatically. My folks were killed in a car accident shortly after Paul and I were married. They’d been Christian’s their whole lives, but I was kind of rebellious and stopped going to church as soon as I graduated.
“After I lost them, I started going back because I needed something. I didn’t know what at the time, but I was hurting bad and I had no peace.”
“So getting saved gave you peace and made the pain stop?”
“I didn’t get saved for probably a year after I started back. And then it still took me awhile before I realized what I‘d received.”
“What did you receive?”
“A Father who cares about me. Maybe He didn’t have skin like my earthly father, but when I started giving Him more of my time and attention, actually listening for Him to speak to me when I prayed, my life changed in so many ways. I got the peace I was looking for. Eventually even the pain I felt at losing my parents faded, and I had the assurance that I’ll be spending eternity with them. That’s a very comforting feeling.”
“Wait a minute,” Ian said, having zeroed in on something that had bugged him for some time now. “How, exactly, does God talk to you? Because I’ll tell you what, it would probably freak me out to hear some big, booming voice coming out of nowhere.” She laughed again.
“I’ve never heard a big, booming voice, if it makes you feel any better. Sometimes He speaks to me through His word. The Bible. Sometimes it’s kind of like a voice in my head. Other times, it’s like I’ll be praying for something and someone will say something, or something will happen, and I’ll just know that was God telling me what I needed to hear.”
“It’s all really confusing,” he mussed.
“Did you ever go to church when you were growing up?” She picked her crocheting back up and resumed whatever it was she was doing with the weird little hook.
“My mom took me a few times. Just at Christmas and Easter.”
“Why did she stop taking you?”
“She died in a car accident when I was ten.”
“Oh, Ian. I’m so sorry.”
“It was a long time ago,” he said, brushing her sympathy off.
“So we have a lot in common, you and I. We know what it’s like to lose someone quickly and without any warning.”
“Pretty ugly thing to have in common, isn’t it?”
“Well, I would rather it be something more along the lines of loving old Doris Day musicals, that’s for sure.”
“Maddie?”
“What?”
“I was reading in that Bible you gave me and-”
“You’re reading the Bible?” she asked in surprise.
“I read it every day, actually,” he admitted sheepishly.
“Why?” She stopped crocheting and glanced at him quickly. “Don’t take that the wrong way. I’m glad to hear that you’re reading it. I’m just curious why you would if you’re not saved yet.”
“Well, at first it was because I didn’t want you to know. So I figured the best thing I could do was read a little of it so I could actually sound like I knew what I was talking about sometimes. When we were talking about God and all that stuff. And then I was kind of uncomfortable going to church and feeling really stupid because I didn’t understand so much of what everyone was talking about.”
“And now?”
“Now- I guess I keep reading because it really is interesting.” He watched her grin, practically from ear to ear and felt glad that he’d put that kind of smile on her face.
“Ian, that’s the Holy Spirit drawing you to God’s word. God is calling you and you’re listening.”
“You think so?” he asked hopefully.
“I do. Now the question is, do you believe what you’re reading?”
“I want to.”
“That’s God again. He’s putting that desire in your heart. You’ve come a long way in a couple of months. I’m so proud of you. It took me over a year to get to where you’re at today. Actually, given that I grew up in the church, it took me closer to twenty years to get there!”
“So this is good? Even though I’m not a Christian yet?”
“It’s wonderful!”
“Maddie?”
“Yes.”
“What I was going to say before-”
“When I interrupted you?”
“That’s okay. I’m glad we talked about this. But there’s something else.” He was truly uncomfortable bringing it up. “I read in the Bible about some things not coming out but by prayer and fasting.”
“Matthew seventeen, verse twenty-one.”
“So you know it.” he said, dejected. If she knew it, she’d probably done it.
“Yes. What did you think about it when you read it?” she asked casually.
“I just wondered if all of us fasted, if that might help. Because I was also looking some stuff up on the internet. A lot of websites say that cancer cells thrive on glucose. You’d be surprised how many of foods we eat turn into glucose in our blood streams.”
“I almost think I remember hearing something about that,” Maddie murmured, as though trying to recall what it might have been. Then she shook her head and asked, “Did you make any conclusions about what you read?”
“I did. If I was ever diagnosed with cancer, I’d go on a distilled water and organic protein fast. I’d also be popping vitamins and herbs all day long. For at least two weeks to see what happened. I’d probably pray like crazy, too.”
“Hmm. Ian, you know what? I’m going to pray about that.”
“You will?”
“I will. And if God doesn’t tell me no, I may give it a try.”
“If you do, I will,” he promised. “And I’m pretty sure Annie and Paul will, too.”
“You know,, Ian, Maybe God brought you into our family for a reason.”
“You think He would have done that?”
“I think it’s a distinct possibility.”
“Maddie?”
“Hmm?”
“Do you think God hears prayers from people who aren’t saved?”
“I think He does.”
“But He probably listens more to people who are, right?”
“Probably.”
Ian mulled that over for a few moments. Then they heard Paul’s key in the lock.
“You let me know if you decide to give it a try, okay?”
“I promise.”
~~~~
Ian sat the tray containing Annie’s supper on her nightstand, and then helped her sit up comfortably by propping a couple more pillows behind her back.
“You know, I could have come downstairs,” she sighed, as he placed the tray over her legs.
“But it’s much nicer this way. Admit it. You like being pampered.”
He stood there like a little boy waiting to be praised for a job well done, so Annie obligingly picked up her spoon and took a bite of the soup.
Something wasn’t right.
It tasted like cream of chicken soup, but it sure didn’t feel like cream of chicken soup. It felt like cream of chicken pudding. Which could only mean that he’d neglected to read the directions on the can. The directions that would have instructed him to add water or milk. Or a combination of both.
She smiled weakly and forced herself to swallow the lump of soup that was on her tongue. A entire spoonful of it. That went down like she imagined a worm might.
“Mmm. Thank you, Ian. This was so thoughtful of you,” was all she could manage to say.
He beamed with pleasure. And just stood there. Was he going to wait for her to finish the whole bowl? Oh she hoped not, because it had been all she could do to get the first bite down without gagging.
“You know what would be wonderful with this?” she asked sweetly. “A few crackers. Do we have any?”
“Yes,” he apologized with a frown. “I’m sorry, Annie. I forgot. Hang on.” With that he quickly left the room.
She took the opportunity to pour some of the milk from her glass into the bowl, quickly stirring it. Unfortunately she couldn’t add all it needed or it would have spilled over the edges, but at least it was thinned down to the consistency of gravy now. Hopefully he wouldn’t notice that the bowl contained more soup than when he brought it up.
Chapter 12
Ian hung the telephone up in a daze. Though it had taken her five days, Maddie had just called to say she’d prayed about it, and discussed it with Paul, and they were prepared to do the prayer and fasting for at least two weeks.
He collapsed on one of the stools at the kitchen bar and buried his face in his hands.
What if this was just a stupid idea that was going to kill Maddie quicker? Why hadn’t he kept his mouth shut?
He jerked the phone back up and dialed Max’s cell phone number with fingers that shook.
“Max? This is Ian McCann. Do you have time to talk to me for awhile?” he asked without preamble.
“Sure. On the phone?”
“No. I need to see you. If you aren’t busy.”
“I’m still at the church. Come on over.”
“Thanks, Max!” He jumped off the stool and almost ran to the back door before remembering that Annie was in the other room reading her Bible. “Annie, I’m going out for awhile,” he called. Then not waiting for a response, slammed out of the house.
All the way to the church he prayed over and over that Maddie not have to pay for his stupidity. What made him think he had any sort of solution to any problem of that magnitude, he’d never know. Maybe Max could go talk to them and explain that.
But Max wasn’t having any part of that.
A Fine Mess Page 13
