Midnight Rescue / The Proposal / Christy's Choice

by Catherine Marshall

I wish Miss Alice were here, Christy thought. When I get home, I must ask her advice.

  When I get home?

  Christy smiled.

  Screeeeeech!

  It was a sound like a saw going through metal. Christy could feel a shuddering vibration rattle the entire train.

  Screeeeech!

  Out the window, Christy saw sparks being thrown up from the brakes.

  A man walking in the aisle was suddenly tossed forward, knocked to the floor at Christy’s feet. Christy was thrown hard against the seat in front of her. Handbags and luggage flew over her head. The air was filled with a thousand grinding, ripping, tearing sounds, all at once.

  Screams! People all around were screaming! The train car tilted far over to the left, then lurched heavily back to the right.

  Boom! The car turned over. Up was down and down was up. Christy fell to the ceiling. Then the floor jumped back up and hit her. Bodies were being tossed everywhere, like straws in a tornado.

  The car slammed against a tree. One entire side of the car was peeled away, like the skin of a banana. Cold wind blasted in.

  Christy felt herself flying through the air.

  Thirteen

  Christy flew, weightless, through the air. She fell, down, down, down. But when she hit, her landing was soft. Thick bushes had cushioned her fall.

  She took a deep breath—a gasp, really. She was still alive! Alive and surrounded by flowers. It seemed ridiculous somehow.

  She struggled to her feet. All her limbs were still working, and she breathed a sigh of relief. But as she looked around, her relief was short-lived.

  The entire train was off the tracks. Fortunately, none of the cars had gone over the edge of the cliff.

  But half the car she had been riding in dangled precariously over the side of the cliff. Most of one entire side had been peeled back to reveal the interior.

  Christy gasped.

  “Are you all right, Christy?” It was David.

  He came hobbling over to her. His ankle had been badly twisted. He took her in his arms and held her close.

  “Yes, I’m fine,” Christy said. She raised her voice to a shout. “Ruby Mae? Bessie? Neil?”

  “Miz Christy? Help!”

  “That’s Ruby Mae’s voice,” Christy said.

  David pointed. “It came from over there.”

  Christy rushed over, followed more slowly by David. They found Ruby Mae wedged between two big rocks. She was unhurt, but stuck.

  “I cain’t get loose, Miz Christy!” Ruby Mae wailed.

  “Here, let me help you,” Christy said. She tugged and pushed at the rocks. They were too big to move much, but it only took an inch to allow Ruby Mae to wiggle free.

  “Christy!” Doctor MacNeill came rushing over. His left arm appeared to have been hurt. It dangled limply at his side.

  “Neil!” Christy cried in relief.

  “Doctor,” David said. “Thank God you’re alive. Is your arm hurt?”

  “A simple fracture,” the doctor said. “Painful, but not dangerous.”

  “Bessie,” Christy said. “Where is Bessie?”

  They scanned the faces of the others who had climbed or crawled from the train car. Up and down the tracks, people were walking around aimlessly, looking stunned. Some were bleeding. Some were crying out in pain and fear.

  “We have to find Bessie,” Christy said.

  Just then, they heard a pitiable cry. “Help me. Someone please, help me!”

  Christy froze. It was Bessie’s voice. It had come from inside the train car—the train car, which even now dangled over the precipice.

  “Bessie! Hold on!” Ruby Mae cried.

  “I’ll go in and get her,” David said.

  “I doubt you can, not with that ankle,” the doctor said.

  “Better than you, with that arm,” David said. “Besides, Neil, you’re probably the only doctor here, and there are people who need medical help. If something happens .

  . .” David managed a brave smile. “Better I go over the edge of that cliff than you, Doctor.”

  “Someone help me!” Bessie wailed again.

  David turned away quickly and hobbled toward the car. A strong gust of wind blew up the valley. Christy saw the rail car tilt, as if it would plunge off the edge. She held her breath. The car came back to rest. But it was balanced as precariously as a teeter-totter.

  David reached the car and rested against the jagged, torn opening. He started to hoist himself up, but then his grip failed and he fell back. He landed hard on his already strained foot.

  “Ahhh,” he moaned in pain.

  Suddenly, without even thinking about it, Christy found herself running forward. She ran to David’s side and helped him into a sitting position on a rock.

  “You can’t do this,” she said. “Not with that leg. I’ll go.”

  “Absolutely not!” David said.

  “Christy! Get back here,” the doctor yelled. “That car could slip over the side at any moment.”

  “Yes, I know. That’s why we don’t need any more weight in there than absolutely necessary. And I am smaller than either of you.”

  “I absolutely forbid it!” David said.

  “So do I!” the doctor said.

  “Wonders never cease!” Christy said. “That’s the second time this week the two of you have agreed on something.” Then ignoring them, she called out, “I’m coming, Bessie!”

  Christy clambered up through the torn hole. The floor was tilted at a crazy angle. And as she stood up inside, she could feel the unsteadiness of the entire car.

  Christy looked around and her heart sank. Bessie was at the far end of the car—the far end of a teeter totter that might need only the weight of one young woman to send it crashing over to certain death.

  “Bessie? I’m here,” Christy said. “I’m right here.”

  “Miz Christy? Is that you?” Bessie moaned.

  “Yes, Bessie. Can you move?”

  “No, ma’am. The seat has got me pinned down. It’s all twisted around so’s I can’t move an inch.”

  “Are you hurt?”

  “No, I don’t think so,” Bessie said. “I just ain’t got the strength to get free. Help me, Miz Christy.”

  Christy took two small steps forward. The floor tilted forward. Christy froze.

  What should she do? Bessie was crying for help. But if she moved forward, she might be making a fatal mistake.

  It might be that Bessie couldn’t be helped. Forward or backward? What was the right thing to do?

  “Do the best you can and pray,” Christy whispered.

  “What did you say, Miz Christy?” Bessie asked.

  “I said . . . I said I’m coming, Bessie. I’m coming.”

  Christy took a deep breath. Please, God, let this be the right choice. She walked forward, as slowly as she could. Halfway to Bessie, Christy felt the floor tilt further down.

  But Christy kept going. One step after another. Inch by careful inch. At last, after what seemed like hours, she reached Bessie’s side.

  “I’m here, Bessie,” she said.

  “I’m sorry to put you to the trouble, Miz Christy.”

  Christy almost laughed. Almost. She put her hands around the twisted metal bar that held Bessie down. She pulled with all her might. Slowly, slowly, the bar moved. Then, suddenly, it pulled away.

  Bessie was free!

  “I reckon we best get out of here,” Bessie said.

  “I quite agree,” Christy said. She helped Bessie to her feet. Together, they hobbled up the slanted aisle toward fresh air and safety.

  David and Neil and Ruby Mae were all anxiously waiting for them. They helped Bessie down to the firm ground. Christy climbed down, too, and breathed a huge sigh of relief.

  The instant her feet touched the ground, she heard a scrunching, crushing sound. The near end of the rail car tilted wildly up in the air.

  “There it goes!” David cried.

  The rail car went over the side o
f the cliff and disappeared. For a long moment, the world was still. Then there was a tremendous boom as the car hit bottom.

  “You was almost kilt!” Ruby Mae cried.

  The doctor was squinting skeptically. “That makes no sense at all. It should have fallen over when your combined weight was on the far end. When you went to get Bessie, it should have overbalanced.”

  Christy nodded. “Yes, that would make sense, Neil. And yet . . . that’s not what happened. I wasn’t sure if I should walk the length of that car to Bessie or not. I thought I might kill us both, and that would have made no sense at all. And yet my heart told me the right thing was to go to her. So I did.”

  “How on earth did you know it was the right thing?” the doctor demanded. “I’m telling you it makes no logical sense.”

  “Maybe sometimes right is just right, even if it doesn’t make any logical sense,” Christy said thoughtfully. She sent the doctor an impish grin. “Or maybe, Neil, we humble human beings don’t always know what makes real sense. And then we can only listen for another voice. A voice that speaks to our hearts and guides us in the right direction. In other words, I did the best I could and prayed.”

  For the next two hours, Christy and David helped Doctor MacNeill see to the injured. Miraculously, no one had been seriously hurt. There were broken legs and bruises and strains, but nothing more serious.

  It took two hours for help to reach them. When it finally arrived, it came from both directions. A small steam engine came uphill from Asheville. It carried volunteers, sent to help. In addition, riders on horses came downhill from the direction of El Pano.

  “Is that Miss Alice?” David wondered.

  Christy squinted. “It is! Although I shouldn’t be surprised. Wherever there’s trouble and folks need help, that’s where you’ll find her.” “Not unlike another woman I know,” David said, smiling at Christy.

  “Good heavens,” Doctor MacNeill said, looking in the other direction. “It’s that young pup, Lance Barclay. And his father.”

  The two Barclay men were among the dozen volunteer rescuers who had come up from Asheville on a spare locomotive. They came rushing over as soon as their train had stopped.

  Just moments later Miss Alice arrived and was glad to see her friends were all well. “I was in El Pano when we learned that the train was late and possibly wrecked. I came to help treat the injured. But I see the three of you have taken care of everything.”

  “Yes, a most amazing little field hospital,” Mr. Barclay agreed. “We received a call from El Pano that something must have happened to the train.”

  “We were terribly worried about you, Christy,” Lance said. “About all of you, I should say.”

  “Yes, I’m sure,” David said dryly.

  “Well, we didn’t want to lose our new teacher,” Lance said.

  Miss Alice’s eyebrows shot up. “New teacher?” She looked searchingly at Christy.

  “Yes, Christy is considering taking a position at the new mission school in Asheville,” David explained.

  “Indeed?” Miss Alice asked.

  “Actually,” Christy said. “I haven’t made a decision. Or rather I should say that I had not made a decision. But now I have.”

  Neil shook his head. “Yes, I suppose the train derailing must look very much like a message from above that you are not to return to Cutter Gap.”

  “What nonsense, Neil,” Miss Alice said. “As though God goes around derailing trains. I rather suspect we’ll find there was a small rock slide. Really!”

  “Don’t keep us in suspense,” David said.

  “I have decided to follow my heart and return to Cutter Gap,” Christy said.

  The doctor and David both brightened amazingly. Lance looked crestfallen.

  “But what about the chance to be with your family again?” Lance asked. “What about your home?”

  “Just before the wreck, I was thinking of Cutter Gap,” Christy said. “And I realized, to my surprise, that when I thought of it, I thought of it as home. Cutter Gap is my home now, as much as Asheville. And David and Neil and Ruby Mae and Miss Alice and all my students, they’re also my family now, along with my parents and friends in Asheville. I guess what’s happened is that I have two homes. And a larger family than I’d realized.”

  “Well, what will we ever do for a teacher?” Mr. Barclay asked. “Who else can we find with your unique experience?”

  “You do realize, Christy, that the Cutter Gap mission may not even survive without funds,” David pointed out.

  “I’ve been thinking about that,” Christy said. “I wonder, Mr. Barclay . . . I have very little to teach anyone about teaching it-self—”

  “Nonsense,” Mr. Barclay protested.

  “But between myself and Miss Alice and David, I dare say we could manage to train some bright, willing teacher. Perhaps if the teacher you find could spend a couple of months with us . . .”

  “You would do that?” Mr. Barclay cried. “You would train our teacher for us?”

  “Yes, she would,” the doctor said suddenly. “And in exchange, you could help support the Cutter Gap mission.”

  “Doctor!” Miss Alice protested. “We give our help freely. We do not charge for our services.”

  Mr. Barclay laughed. “The doctor is a very direct man, Miss Alice. And he’s right. I think we can help each other out. Two successful missions are surely better than one. And the people of the mountains need a mission as much as those in the city.”

  “Yes,” Lance agreed. “After all, many of our poor and ignorant are mountain men, only recently come to the city.”

  Mr. Barclay nodded. “And so are some of our richer and more successful people. In fact, Lance, since we are so near to Cutter Gap, I believe it may be time for you to meet someone very important in our family.”

  “A member of our family? Here?” Lance looked around skeptically at the mountains.

  “My great aunt, your great-grand-aunt,” Mr. Barclay told his son. “Her name is Isabelle. Although I believe people just call her Granny. Granny Barclay.”

  “Aha! Then you are related to Granny!” the doctor cried. “I believe I distinctly heard your wife deny any such thing.”

  “Well, Mrs. Barclay is very concerned about what society might think. But as for me, I’ll always be the grandson of a mountain man. And I’m proud of it.”

  “Well, then,” Christy said, “we’d better be going. I have lesson plans to prepare, and I miss my home.”

  “Even the hogs?” Neil and David and Miss Alice asked at exactly the same moment.

  Christy grinned. “Well, maybe not the hogs.”

  About the Author

  Catherine Marshall

  With Christy, Catherine Marshall LeSourd (1914–1983) created one of the world’s most widely read and best-loved classics. Published in 1967, the book spent 39 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. With an estimated 30 million Americans having read it, Christy is now approaching its 90th printing and has sold over eight million copies. Although a novel, Christy is in fact a thinly-veiled biography of Catherine’s mother, Leonora Wood.

  Catherine Marshall LeSourd also authored A Man Called Peter, which has sold over four million copies. It is an American bestseller, portraying the love between a dynamic man and his God, and the tender, romantic love between a man and the girl he married. Julie is a powerful, sweeping novel of love and adventure, courage and commitment, tragedy and triumph, in a Pennsylvania town during the Great Depression. Catherine also authored many other devotional books of encouragement.

  THE Christy® JUVENILE FICTION SERIES

  You’ll want to read them all!

  Based upon Catherine Marshall’s international bestseller Christy®, this new series contains expanded adventures filled with romance, intrigue, and excitement.

  VOLUME ONE

  (ISBN 1-4003-0772-4)

  #1—The Bridge to Cutter Gap

  Nineteen-year-old Christy leaves her family to teach at a mis
sion school in the Great Smoky Mountains.

  On the other side of an icy bridge lie excitement, adventure, and maybe even the man of her dreams . . . but can she survive a life-and-death struggle when she falls into the rushing waters below?

  #2—Silent Superstitions

  Christy’s students are suddenly afraid to come to school. Is what Granny O’Teale says true? Is their teacher cursed? Will the children’s fears and the adults’ superstitions force Christy to abandon her dreams and return to North Carolina?

  #3—The Angry Intruder

  Someone wants Christy to leave Cutter Gap, and they’ll stop at nothing. Mysterious pranks soon turn dangerous. Could a student be the culprit? When Christy confronts the late-night intruder, will it be a face she knows?

  VOLUME TWO

  (ISBN 1-4003-0773-2)

  #4—Midnight Rescue

  The mission’s black stallion, Prince, has vanished, and so has Christy’s student Ruby Mae. Christy must brave the guns of angry moonshiners to bring them home. Will her faith in God see her through her

  #5—The Proposal

  Christy should be thrilled when David Grantland, the handsome minister, proposes marriage, but her feelings of excitement are mixed with confusion and uncertainty. Several untimely interruptions delay her answer to David’s proposal. Then a terrible riding accident and blindness threaten all of Christy’s dreams for the future.

  #6—Christy’s Choice

  When Christy is offered a chance to teach in her hometown, she faces a difficult decision. Will her train ride back to Cutter Gap be a journey home or a last farewell? In a moment of terror and danger, Christy must decide where her future lies.

  VOLUME THREE

  (ISBN 1-4003-0774-0)

  #7—The Princess Club

  When Ruby Mae, Bessie, and Clara discover gold at Cutter Gap, they form an exclusive organization, “The Princess Club.” Christy watches in dismay as her classroom—and her community—are torn apart by greed, envy, and an understanding of what true wealth really means.

  #8—Family Secrets

  Bob Allen and many of the residents of Cutter Gap are upset when a black family, the Washingtons, moves in near the Allens’ property. When a series of threatening incidents befall the Washingtons, Christy steps in to help. But it’s a clue in the Washingtons’ family Bible that may hold the real key to peace and acceptance.