Starnes looked toward the other officer, who had been listening to their conversation. He shrugged, and Starnes pulled the radio off his belt.
Two minutes later, Chloe was walking up the lane.
There had been quite the ruckus when the officers let her through. One lady had thrown herself at Chloe. “I need to go with you. I have cancer—brain cancer. Please, let me go—”
The officers had stepped in to pull the woman away. The entire episode had unnerved Chloe, though she noticed that Manuel snapped several pictures of the event.
Now that she was walking toward the house, with the crowd behind her, she allowed her mind to go over what had happened so far.
Someone had reported that Anna was healed. Word had leaked out, as word is bound to do in a small town. And now there was a crowd of folks—some gawkers, some people in search of a miracle—desperate to see her friend.
To think that when she got out of bed that morning, she had feared it would be a slow news day.
There appeared to be no one working in the barn and no one on the front porch. Three cars were parked in the gravel area between the barn and house. One was obviously the sheriff’s patrol car. Chloe thought she recognized the white sedan. She’d seen it there before, so it must belong to one of the visiting nurses. The third car—a black Mercedes with tinted windows—she’d never seen.
She walked to the front door and tapped lightly.
All of the shades were pulled down, which struck her as odd. Usually the shades were up and the windows raised.
Then she saw that the windows were open, allowing a small amount of breeze into the room. But why were the shades pulled down?
Samuel answered the door, stepped closer to the screen, and peered past her. Satisfied she was alone, he opened the door, motioning for her to enter quickly.
“What’s going on, Samuel? Why are all these people here?”
Instead of answering, he nodded toward the sitting room. “Go on in. She wants to see you.”
What Chloe saw next would be forever imprinted on her mind.
Erin and Mammi sat on the couch, hands folded, expressions unreadable. Jacob stood near the wall, fidgeting with his hat and frowning. Dr. Hartman and the nurse stood to the side, deep in conversation. Bishop Levi sat in the chair across from the ladies. And standing by the window, her arms crossed and her foot tapping impatiently against the floor, was Anna.
Chloe felt her world shift, literally tilt, and she shook her head to clear it. She couldn’t be seeing what she was seeing. It wasn’t possible.
Then Anna looked at her and smiled, and she knew it was true.
She hurried to her friend’s side, grabbed her hands, and pulled her into a hug.
Somehow what couldn’t happen, had happened. Anna was healed.
CHAPTER 44
Twenty minutes later, they were in the kitchen at the table, just the two of them.
Chloe had a glass of water, Anna had a glass of milk, and a plate of cookies sat between them.
At Anna’s insistence, Chloe had taken notes.
“Someone is going to put it in the papers. It might as well be you.”
Now Chloe looked back over what she had written. But they were only words on a page—words she expected no one would believe. She glanced up at Anna, who stood, picked up the cookie plate, and said, “I might as well take this to the sitting room. Someone will eat them if we don’t.”
Chloe watched her walk out of the room. She had a thousand questions. She felt shaky and ecstatic at the same time. Her reporter’s brain was fighting with her heart.
How could this have happened?
It was true. There was no doubt about what she was seeing. But how? She’d begun attending church again last winter, at the height of her depression over Anna’s condition. She couldn’t have explained to anyone why Anna’s injury had affected her so severely, but it had. She’d needed to look for answers to her questions about why such terrible things happen to good people. She’d wanted to know what kind of God could allow such a thing. She had hoped to understand all that had happened to her friend.
But church didn’t provide her with those types of answers. It did start her reading the Bible again, though somewhat sporadically. It brought her closer to her mother. It reminded her of the faith of her childhood. But she wasn’t a child any longer, and now she had more questions than ever.
If she didn’t file this story, Eric would probably fire her, and then he’d send someone else to do it. Someone who more than likely would know nothing about the Amish or their customs and beliefs.
The enormity of what she was about to do sank into her heart like a stone. She was about to file a report on a miracle. How could she do that? How could she possibly find the words to report what she was seeing? And be objective? Well, that was impossible.
Anna walked back into the room. “The sheriff says there are even more people out there. He suggested we go away for a while.”
“Will you?”
“Nein. Onkel has work to do in the fields. Jacob is helping him. Aenti and Mammi? Why would they leave? And Onkel called my mother. She’s on her way here. She promised to take the bus today.” Anna shook her head. “We can’t leave.”
“You could go alone. Go back to your home in Goshen.”
Anna stood with her back against the counter and her hands in the pockets of her apron. Perhaps she didn’t understand the seriousness of what lay ahead, because she smiled and said, “Why would I leave? This is my home.”
“Yes, but… maybe the sheriff has a good point. Maybe it would be the wise thing to do until another big story comes along and folks become distracted and leave.”
Anna frowned and pulled one of her kapp strings forward. “I’m ready to start quilting again, and gardening, and keeping the produce stand—”
“You might be able to do the first two, but there’s no way you’re going to be able to sell produce out of the stand. Do you realize how many people are out there? Not to mention the newspaper and television crews.”
“Media! Oh, my!” Anna nearly laughed as she said it. “You’re all the same, aren’t you.”
Chloe cleared her throat and put on her most serious expression. “I know you’re teasing, but many reporters are ruthless. I don’t think you understand, Anna. Some people will do anything for a story, and this story? It’s big.”
Anna waved her concerns away, but then she sat down next to Chloe and grabbed her hands.
“Don’t you see? It’s as if I’ve been given a second chance. Am I supposed to be afraid of the people waiting in our lane? I don’t feel afraid of anything. I feel marvelously alive.”
Tears pricked Chloe’s eyes.
“I don’t know why, Chloe. You asked me that question. Look back at your notes. I don’t know why me or why now. I don’t understand any of it.” She tapped her feet against the floor. “I only know that I couldn’t stand or walk. My life was changed the day the tornado came across my onkel’s field. And now it has changed again.”
Before Chloe could think of how to respond, Erin walked into the room. “If you two are finished, the doctor would like to talk to all of us.”
“Ya, sure.” Anna squeezed Chloe’s hand, and together they walked into the sitting room.
Dr. Hartman had stepped out onto the front porch to use his phone. The bishop moved from the chair, though now he was vigorously chewing a piece of gum and occasionally blowing bubbles with it. The image settled Chloe’s nerves. Samuel was seated on the couch with Mammi and Erin. Jacob walked over and stood beside her and Anna. Sandy stood at the window, dividing her attention between watching the doctor and staring at Anna. The sheriff had left.
A few moments later Dr. Hartman walked back into the room. He glanced around at each of them, but finally turned his attention to Anna. “I’d like you to come back to Tulsa. I want to run a few tests.”
CHAPTER 45
I don’t want to go back to the hospital. I don’t need to go back
to the hospital.” Anna resisted the childish urge to stomp her foot. She wasn’t a child. She was a woman, and they couldn’t make her go.
“I understand a little of how you feel.” Dr. Hartman stared at the floor for a moment. When he glanced back up, looking directly at her, Anna realized for the first time that he was merely a man. She’d always been a little in awe of doctors and nurses. Of their skill and their knowledge. It was plain from the look on his face that Dr. Hartman didn’t understand what had happened any better than they did. His knowledge and his skill only went so far.
“You’re well now. You’ve been given your life back, and you want to be left alone to enjoy it.”
Anna nodded slowly. That was exactly what she’d been thinking.
“But you couldn’t walk and now you can. I’ve been your doctor since that fateful day you were brought into Oklahoma Surgical, Anna.” He shook his head and the next thing he said was more to himself than to her. “I didn’t read those X-rays wrong. You shouldn’t be able to walk.”
“What is the point of the tests?” Bishop Levi tapped his cane against the floor. “We are thankful for your help with Anna, but she was healed by Gotte. A miracle is not something that can be explained. It’s not something that will show up on your tests.”
“But it will. The MRI will show if her spine is actually healed. And possibly… maybe there is something we would see that would help someone else. I don’t know what. I can’t even imagine, but I also didn’t believe Anna could walk when Sandy called me.”
“It might help others?” Anna crossed her arms. She didn’t want to ever walk inside a hospital again, but if it could help someone who was enduring a lifetime in a wheelchair, perhaps she should.
“How would you even get her there?” Samuel asked. “You heard the sheriff. A lot of people are waiting to catch a glimpse of her. How would you get her off the farm without at least some of those people following?”
“We’ll transport her in an ambulance. The sheriff department would probably provide us with an escort if we need it.”
Samuel shook his head. “We live our life separate—and quietly. I don’t want Anna to be followed around like some movie star.”
“Your Englisch vehicle, it has dark windows, yes?” Mammi had been fairly quiet all morning. Now she pushed up on her glasses, stood, and walked over to Anna, stopping in front of her.
When she reached up and touched her face, Anna closed her eyes. Her grandmother’s love was both deep and wide. It was a miracle in itself.
“Go and help the children, Anna. Perhaps Gotte will use you today. You can wear Chloe’s ball cap over your kapp. If anyone gets close enough to look through the windows, they will only see the ball cap. Perhaps they will think they’re seeing Chloe.”
“Wearing Englisch clothes, disguising herself—I’m not sure that’s something we want to do.” Samuel also stood, now obviously agitated, but Levi reached out and touched his shoulder.
“It’s gut that you are thinking these things through, Samuel. It’s gut that you care about your family as well as your commitment to the Ordnung.” Levi stood, leaned against the cane with his left hand, and ran the fingers of his right through his beard. “But these are extraordinary circumstances, and perhaps we should deal with them as such. I think Ruth’s idea is a gut one.”
Anna smiled at the use of Mammi’s name. Nearly everyone simply called her Mammi, but Levi had known her for a long time.
“Will you do it, Anna?” Dr. Hartman looked hopeful. “Will you come with me?”
“I’d rather not go alone.”
“I’ll go.” Sandy stepped forward. “I’ll be happy to ride in the backseat with you.”
“It would probably be best if you followed in your car, Sandy. No doubt some in the crowd already know who we are and what we drive. They will only see the doctor and nurse leaving. There will be no need to follow us.”
“I could follow in my car if you’d like me to be there with you,” Chloe said. “And I can bring you back.”
Anna squeezed her hand. It seemed they had found a way to fulfill Dr. Hartman’s request.
“That’s a good idea,” the doctor said. “But perhaps you should wait a few moments—so they don’t see a whole convoy of cars leaving at once.”
“I’ll ride in the back with Anna. No one will be able to tell whether I’m Amish or not.” Jacob touched the top of his head. “I’ll keep my hat off.”
Samuel nodded in agreement, and Anna felt butterflies spin in her stomach. She’d been healed for only a few hours, and she was headed back to the hospital.
She glanced over at her quilting, which sat where she’d left it before she’d first fallen ill with the summer cold. The fabric with frogs was pieced together but not quilted. It was folded and waiting for her to return to the task. The quilt was for a child. And this trip? It was for a child too. Anna didn’t know who, and she didn’t know how it would help, but she was learning that she could trust God with the details.
Everyone began moving at once.
Erin went to Anna’s room to fetch her purse. Jacob had been working on the tractor with Samuel before the morning had taken a dramatic turn. He hadn’t noticed before now, but his shirt was covered with tractor grease. He disappeared for a moment and returned in a clean shirt, one he had apparently borrowed from Samuel.
Erin and the bishop stepped out onto the front porch, where Dr. Hartman was once again on his phone.
Sandy retrieved the nursing bag she carried with her everywhere.
Chloe pulled the ball cap off her head. It was black with a blue letter on the front. “I’m glad I’m going with you—and I don’t mean so that I can report on it. I want to be there, Anna. You mean a lot to me.” She handed the cap to her friend.
“What’s this for?” Anna pointed to the T.
“Tulsa Drillers, minor league baseball team.” Chloe placed it on Anna’s head. “It’s my good luck cap too, so don’t lose it.”
Anna smiled and started to turn toward the front door, but Chloe pulled her back. “Don’t let the crowd frighten you. Okay? They’re only people—some curious, some desperate—but only people.”
“Got it. They are only people.” Anna hurried out into the sunshine to Dr. Hartman’s car. She and Jacob slid onto the backseat. It struck her as funny to see Dr. Hartman sitting up front all alone. Anna thought of Clarence, the driver of the handicap van. He always sat up front by himself, though she couldn’t imagine much else that the two men shared in common. She suddenly realized that she’d like to see Clarence again. Many of the people who had become important in her life were people she no longer needed. That thought bothered her, and she pushed it away.
They began moving down the lane.
Anna thought she was prepared for what was ahead. She’d certainly seen large crowds of people at the auctions they had held to help the tornado victims and even back home in Goshen, but nothing could have prepared her for the chaos at the end of their lane.
Two officers had positioned their vehicles to allow for a gap barely large enough for their car to pass through. Dr. Hartman must have called ahead, because the officers had been guarding that open space, but at the sight of the black automobile, they moved out of the way.
Instantly the crowd surged forward.
A small scream escaped from Anna. She was sure they would run over someone, but Dr. Hartman simply continued to move forward at a slow but steady speed. When he didn’t stop or even pause, the people parted much like Anna had always envisioned the Red Sea parting for Moses.
There were all manner of people waiting in the hot summer sun. Some held signs.
Help me, Anna.
God is alive.
Repent and believe.
Another hoax!
The signs didn’t disturb her nearly as much as the faces did. The person holding the hoax sign hollered at the person holding the God sign. They converged on each other and for a moment the majority of people were distracted. Dr. Hartman
was able to speed up a little and pull away from the main crowd.
That was when Anna saw that the line of cars stretched well past their farm. That was when she saw the people in wheelchairs, being pushed down the road toward her home.
“Why are they doing this?” she whispered.
No one in the car had an answer.
CHAPTER 46
Jacob hadn’t been in the Tulsa hospital before. He had wanted to visit when Anna was there, but it had seemed that he would be a better help to her by staying at the farm. And at the time he’d barely known her.
That seemed odd to him now.
He couldn’t imagine his life without Anna. Glancing at her as they sped along the Oklahoma freeway, he wondered if she realized that. Did she know how much he cared? He’d confessed his feelings to her on at least two separate occasions, but how could words describe the emotions pressing on his heart? Now wasn’t the right time to try again, especially with Dr. Hartman in the front seat and possible stalkers behind them.
The physician didn’t speak much as they traveled toward Tulsa, though he talked occasionally on his phone through the car’s Bluetooth system. A motorist who had given Jacob a ride back in Indiana had explained it to him. It seemed Englischers spent a lot of effort and money finding ways to do two things at once, but who was he to judge? His life wasn’t exactly a straight arrow.
Jacob noticed that Dr. Hartman glanced in the rearview mirror often, as if to be sure that Anna was still there.
She had been visibly upset when she saw the folks outside her onkel’s farm. Jacob couldn’t say he was surprised at the size of the mob, but then he’d traveled more than she had. He’d seen some strange things. A memory hit him of the time he’d been hitchhiking from one small town in Ohio to another. He’d seen a crowd of folks pulling off from the road. They parked on the grass because the parking area around a small store was full. Curious, he had walked over to see what the fuss was about. A man had been standing under a large tree selling small bottles of water. He claimed the water came from a river in South Africa, and that it had special powers—healing powers.
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