Sandy, the nurse who came daily to care for Anna, had arrived early this morning, and she went to Erin’s side to help her to her feet. Erin walked to Anna and put both hands on her face, rubbing her thumbs back and forth as if she needed to touch her to believe her eyes. “Anna. How can this be? How can you walk?”
Instead of answering, Anna placed her arms around Erin, who was now openly weeping.
Sandy had been staring at Anna, her eyes wide and her mouth partially open. When Erin began crying, she seemed to snap out of her reverie. “I’ll call Dr. Hartman.” She hurried out of the room and to the front porch, clutching the phone she’d pulled from her pocket.
Suddenly Jacob’s brain caught up with his heart. The enormity of what they were seeing smacked him, causing him to collapse onto Anna’s bed.
A miracle.
Anna had experienced a miracle. She was healed. She was walking. His mind kept repeating those things, as if doing so would make the believing easier. He didn’t need to believe, though. He only needed to look at the beautiful girl standing a few feet from him.
Everyone was talking at once. Erin was crying and Mammi was practically dancing a jig. Samuel had one arm around his wife and the other around his niece.
Jacob wanted to fall on his knees. Tears coursed down his face, and he reached up to wipe them away. He couldn’t be dreaming. He tasted the salt of his tears and heard the weeping of Erin. He glanced at the floor and saw the track of mud he had left. Glanced across the room and saw the egg shell in a puddle of yolk.
This was real.
And Anna? She stood in the middle of it all, as a shaft of light broke through the window and bathed her in its rays.
His Anna was standing, watching him.
He didn’t understand it, couldn’t explain it, and would never have predicted it. But somehow, Anna was healed.
CHAPTER 42
Anna had trouble processing all of the emotions surging through her heart.
She might think she was dreaming but for the looks of wonder on Erin’s, Samuel’s, and Jacob’s faces. The nurse seemed almost afraid, and she had quickly fled the room. Mammi, she accepted the mystery of what had happened better than anyone—as if what she’d longed for, hoped for, and prayed for had finally come true.
No one wanted to believe that she could dress herself without assistance. She asked them to send the nurse into the room to disconnect the PICC line.
The nurse came in a bit breathless. She’d always been kind, orderly, and efficient. Anna guessed she was in her mid-forties, possibly fifty. Neither large nor small, she always wore plain-colored scrubs. She was not an overly sentimental woman, but she now looked completely shaken.
“I called Dr. Hartman. He thinks you’re having involuntary muscle spasms. He thinks—”
Anna reached out and touched the woman’s arm. “I experienced the spasms in rehab. I know what they are like, Sandy, and they are not like this. I can walk.”
The nurse gulped and sank into the chair beside Anna’s bed.
“He’s coming. He’s coming to see. I told him—” Her hands waved toward the window. “And he’s coming.”
“I appreciate your taking care of me all these weeks.” Anna smiled and kept her voice calm and low, trying to settle the woman’s nerves. “The reason I asked for you is that I’d like you to remove my IV.”
The nurse shook her head, as if she didn’t understand the request.
“My fever is gone. I’d like to be able to move—to walk about—freely.”
“But those weren’t Dr. Hartman’s orders. He said…” She met Anna’s eyes and nodded slowly. “All right. If you insist.”
“I do.”
The process took a few minutes. Sandy cut and removed the sutures that held the line in place. She slowly pulled the catheter out, and then she covered the incision site with sterile gauze.
“Can you put light pressure on it for me?”
“Ya. Of course.”
Sandy covered the entire area with a dressing. She nodded when Anna asked if she was finished.
“Do you need help?”
“Nein. I’m fine now. Would you tell my family I’ll be out in a few moments?”
Sandy looked as if she might argue. Anna didn’t wait to hear. She stood and walked to the bathroom, where she quietly but firmly shut the door. In all honesty, she needed a few moments alone.
To look at her feet. To feel the wondrous miracle of being able to stand. To fall to her knees and thank God for what He had done.
When she stood and began to dress, she reveled in the feeling of being able to put on her own shoes and stockings. She was just pinning her kapp when a tap on the door reminded her that her family was waiting to see her.
“Are you okay?” Erin opened the door and peeked inside.
Anna was standing in front of the sink, running water over her hands. She looked over at Erin before she reached forward and turned off the water. “I can’t tell you how good it feels to be able to stand in front of a sink and wash my face. To feel the floor again. To move about. It’s… it’s truly amazing.”
Erin nodded but remained silent.
Anna walked toward her, stopping a few feet shy. “Aenti, I can’t thank you enough for taking such wunderbaar care of me.”
Tears cascaded down Erin’s cheeks. She nodded, clasped Anna’s hand, and together they walked to the kitchen. When they entered the room, Anna saw that everyone was sitting around the table, except for the nurse, who stood in the doorway—watching her with unbelieving eyes.
“I’m starved,” Anna said.
Suddenly everyone was talking at once. Jacob jumped up and dragged her chair to the table. For nearly a year that chair had sat in a corner of the room. She’d been in her wheelchair instead. But she wouldn’t need that anymore. She would never have to sit in it again.
Samuel said, “Let’s pray.” The silence which surrounded her reminded Anna of the dream, of her family joined together there in the field of corn. Suddenly she could feel the presence of each of those persons. She knew, without a doubt, how much her family cared for her and how much she loved them.
The moment was broken by the cry of a bird outside the window. Jacob smiled at her, his eyes glued to her face. She glanced down at her plate in embarrassment. Had she walked into his arms? She had! And he had held her as if he would never let go.
Erin began to pass around the food, though no one started eating until Anna broke open a biscuit and sniffed it appreciatively.
“Butter?” Mammi asked.
“Ya and jam, please. I really am hungry.”
They each began asking her questions, but it was Sandy who asked what was on everyone’s mind.
She’d finally taken a seat at the far end of the table and was clasping a cup of coffee between her hands. Her face was still pale. “How did it happen, Anna?”
Anna dropped the biscuit on her plate and placed her hands in her lap, covering one with the other.
“I know this is real. It must be.” The nurse glanced around at each of them. “I’ve been coming to your home for nearly a month. I’ve seen the X-rays in Anna’s chart.”
Now she looked directly at Anna. “You had a complete spinal cord break—a severe, irreparable, spinal cord injury. How is it that you can…” She swallowed and with great effort pushed on. “How can you walk?”
“I’m not sure.” Anna hesitated, but only for a few seconds. She told them about waking in the middle of the night, about weeping and praying and calling out to God, about her desire to live. She began to tell them about the dream. Before she’d finished describing it, she was overcome by a sense of fullness and joy. She shook her head and said, “Mammi asked me once if I believed in miracles.”
She glanced at her grandmother, who was nodding.
“You were filled with despair that day,” Mammi said.
“I feared—I was certain that Gotte doesn’t bless us with miracles anymore.” Anna tapped her shoes against the floor.
“But I was wrong.”
“So it is a miracle?” Sandy asked.
“What else can it be?” Erin reached for the bowl of scrambled eggs and passed it to Samuel. “She couldn’t walk and now she can. She was ill, on the edge of death’s door, and now she is well.”
Samuel had begun to eat, but he suddenly dropped his fork. It clattered against his plate. “We should tell the bishop.” Without another word he pushed back from the table and hurried from the room.
Erin stood and ran after him. Anna could hear her on the porch. “Call Anna’s mother and tell her, Samuel. Tell Martha about the miracle.”
Through the kitchen window, Anna could see him hurrying across the yard. He didn’t bother to get the tractor or hitch the horse to the buggy. He didn’t look back.
Erin returned to the table.
Sandy was frowning into her coffee now. “But miracles don’t happen. I’ve been a nurse for more than twenty years, and I’ve seen things that are hard to explain, sure. But a miracle? No.”
Jacob nudged Anna’s foot with his under the table. When she glanced up at him, he asked, “Do you think… can you tell if it’s permanent?”
She shrugged. “I was afraid I might be imagining things, but this isn’t a dream.” She put her hand against the table and ran her fingers over the smooth grain of the wood. “This is real.”
They managed to eat breakfast, stopping often to recount their first thoughts, their surprise, their gratitude to God.
Sandy tried to convince Anna to rest. She didn’t want her patient to push herself too hard. “Perhaps you should take it easy until the doctor gets here. Until we can be sure—”
“Nein. I’ve been in that bed long enough. What I’d like…”
Jacob had barely taken his eyes off her throughout the meal. Now he leaned forward. “What is it? Tell me.”
“I’d like to walk out in the garden and in the fields.”
So they did.
Mammi said she was too tired to join them. Sandy wanted to wait in the house for Dr. Hartman. Erin stayed at the sink, claiming she needed to wash the dishes. But when Anna glanced back, she saw her staring out of the window at them. Anna waved, and then she turned back to Jacob.
“You’re okay?” he asked. “You don’t feel tired or—”
“I feel fine. I am. I would tell you if I was tired.”
They walked to the garden. Anna allowed her fingers to trail up and down the plants that had been placed in containers and elevated so she could work on them. “Someone has been looking after my garden.”
“Ya. We didn’t want it to wither while you were sleeping your days away.”
The fact that he could joke helped Anna to relax.
“Those days seemed to drag on forever.” She raised her face to the sun, sat on a bench, and took off her shoes and socks.
“Is something wrong?”
She pushed her toes into the warm Oklahoma dirt. “Nein. I wanted to feel—”
He covered her hand with his. “I understand.”
“You do?” She cocked her head to the side and smiled.
“Yes. I’ve been waiting, Anna. Not for you to be healed. I never thought…” He ran his hand through his hair. “I never thought that was possible. My faith, it should have been stronger.”
“I didn’t believe it could happen either!”
“I should have though.
I should have believed.” He turned to her now, his face colored by his emotions. “But it never mattered. Your injury wasn’t important. All that was important was what I felt for you, and how sure I was that Gotte had connected our lives for a reason.”
She reached out and squeezed his arm. Her emotions mirrored his exactly, but suddenly she felt too shy to admit it. He knew anyway. She could tell from the way he looked at her that he understood how she felt about him.
“Let’s go and see the corn,” she said, picking up her socks and shoes and carrying them to the porch. She placed them side by side on the bottom step, wiggled her toes again into the dirt, and smiled up at Jacob.
They continued into the fields as the morning sun rose in the sky. The cornstalks were shoulder high. Anna held Jacob’s right hand with her left and let the fingers of her right hand graze the plants. The earth felt delicious between her toes. The sun was a caress to her face. They didn’t talk but rather enjoyed the moments of peace. She couldn’t have said why, but something told her it wasn’t going to last for long.
CHAPTER 43
Chloe was on her way to cover the noon dedication of a new skateboard park in Pryor Creek when she received a call from her boss.
“I need you to get to Cody’s Creek right now!” Eric’s words came out fast and jumbled, as if he had been running.
“Cody’s Creek? What about the skateboard park?”
“Forget that story. I’ll send someone else. Where are you?”
“North side of town.”
“How long will it take you to get there?”
“Maybe an hour?”
“Do it. I’ll have a cameraman meet you outside of Anna’s.”
Chloe had been talking on her phone while driving, something she was loathe to do. Too many people didn’t pay attention while on the road. A call from Eric wasn’t one she could ignore, so she’d answered it. At the mention of Anna’s name, she took the upcoming exit and pulled over in a gas station parking lot.
“What are you talking about, Eric? Why do you sound so strange? And what’s wrong with Anna?”
“So you haven’t heard?”
“Heard what?”
“They’re saying she’s healed.”
“What?” The word came out louder than she intended. Her friend had been through enough in the last year, and her recent illness had left her on the steps of death’s door. She didn’t need rumors like this and the media attention it would bring.
“Our weatherman lives out that way. He stopped in at the Dutch Pantry for breakfast and heard about it. He says there’s a big group of people already at her place.”
“She’s paralyzed, Eric. I was there when the doctor explained that the injury to her spinal cord was irreversible.”
“Great point. You’ll also want to interview the doctor as soon as you can corner him. But first get to Cody’s Creek. I want this story. We’ll run video on our website, and I want pictures for our next edition.” Eric hung up the phone before Chloe could remind him that the Amish did not allow themselves to be recorded on camera. She started up her car, but before putting it into drive she called her mother. The call went to voicemail.
“Mom, something has happened with Anna. I’m headed out there now, but please say a prayer for her. I think this could be bad. It’s not that she’s worse. Nothing like that. I’ll call back with more details when I have a chance.”
She envisioned a dozen different scenarios as she drove toward Samuel’s farm, but nothing prepared her for the sight that confronted her when she turned down the road which led to their lane.
Cars had parked haphazardly down both sides of the road. She noticed Manuel, their photographer, standing beside his old pickup and waving at her. He’d somehow managed to save an area big enough for her to park in. By the time she got out of her car, he’d retrieved his camera equipment.
She opened the back door of her car, grabbed her purse and, as an afterthought, a ball cap. They might be standing in the sun for hours. The last thing she needed was a sunburn on her scalp.
“What’s going on?”
“No idea.” Manuel adjusted the ball cap he always wore. “Some are saying she’s healed. Others are saying it’s a hoax. The police department arrived thirty minutes ago to keep folks off the property.”
“Good grief. What is wrong with people?”
“Aren’t you curious? It’s not every day you get to see a miracle.” Manuel grinned at her as they hiked toward the entrance to Samuel’s farm.
“Is that supposed to be funny?”
Manuel hitched his camer
a bag up higher on his shoulder. “Don’t know. The whole thing is kind of freaky.”
Chloe had to remind herself that Manuel was barely out of college. He couldn’t possibly understand how disturbing this type of public attention could be to an Amish family. Instead of trying to explain, she said, “Catch B roll of the crowd and police officers. Remember, no photos of the Amish.”
“But Eric said—”
“No photos, Manuel. We’re going to do our job, but we’re also going to respect their wishes.”
They both stopped abruptly when they came around the corner of the lane.
There was a large group of people, more than a hundred if Chloe were to guess, standing on their side of a police barricade. The crowd seemed to be half Amish and half Englisch. Everyone’s attention was focused on the house, which could barely be seen from where they stood.
Manuel glanced at Chloe, and she gave him the okay sign. They would only be catching the size of the crowd and the back of folks. She knew from experience that Amish didn’t mind having their pictures taken as long as they weren’t identifiable in the photo.
Chloe noticed reporters from several of the big newspapers and even a few television crews. All were on her side of the barricade. Two sheriff’s deputies stood at the barricade to make sure no one crossed the line.
Chloe pushed her way through to the front of the crowd.
“Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you to step back.” The man looked to be in his forties, had a crew cut, and wore a name tag that said “Starnes.”
“Officer Starnes, I’m a friend of the family—”
“Uh-huh.” He stared pointedly at her press pass.
Chloe yanked it off. “Yes, I’m with the paper, but I’m also Anna’s friend. I need to be in there.”
“Sorry, miss. The boss’s orders were no one passes these barricades, especially press.”
“Please, call. Call your boss and ask him. Tell him to ask Anna. She will want to see me.”
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