Love Redeemed (31 page)

Sure enough. It seemed to take hours—maybe even days—but the sirens wailed in the distance.

Gott, not her too. Please not Sarah too. Take me. Take me. I'm no good, but take me. Please Gott, take me instead.
Phoebe lowered her head into her hands.
I understand it's Your will, not mine, but please, please don't take her. For Hannah's sake, save Sarah. For Mudder and Daed's sake, leave her and take me. Mudder couldn't bear it. Hannah couldn't survive it. Take me. They'd rather it be me and so would I.

She prayed against the backdrop of Sarah's wheezing. Her attempts to breathe seemed to get weaker and more strangled—or maybe they were drowned by Hannah's steady hiccupping sobs.

The ambulance careened to a stop, sirens still shrieking, on the other side of the road. Roscoe whinnied and reared. “Whoa, whoa. Nee, not now, Roscoe, not now.” Phoebe clamored from the buggy and ran as the paramedics opened the double doors in the back.

“Help her. A bee stung her and she can't breathe.”

The paramedic had to wrench Sarah from Hannah's grip. The little one didn't want to let go. Phoebe peeled her fingers from Sarah's arms. “It's okay, Hannah. They'll help her. She'll be fine.”

She would be fine, wouldn't she? Phoebe had prayed for a little girl's life before and not received the answer she so desperately wanted.
Gott, please.

The paramedics laid Sarah on a stretcher. They moved in concert. Measured, unhurried, but with no movement wasted. In seconds Sarah had a mask over her tiny face and the first paramedic injected her with medicine. “It's epinephrine to combat the anaphylactic shock,” he said. “Your little sister is allergic to bees.”

That part they had figured out. The individual words meant nothing to Phoebe, but she understood their import. Sarah would live. She could only nod while Hannah continued to sob.

“We have her stabilized. The swelling in her throat will go down now and she'll start to breathe more easily.” The man nodded to the other paramedic and they picked up the stretcher and shoved it into the ambulance. “We need to transport her to the hospital where we can keep her under observation. Are you her mother?”

“Nee—no. Our parents are in town at a doctor's appointment.”

Before the paramedic could say more, Luke Shirack rode into sight along the dirt road that led from his farm. “We heard the sirens. What's going on?” He pulled up on the reins and stopped next to the ambulance. “Everyone all right?”

“It's Sarah.” Would he be upset she'd used the phone without asking anyone's permission? She hadn't given it any thought at the time, but there'd been no one to ask. She raced through the highlights. “She has to go to the hospital.”

“Quick thinking.” He sounded pleased with her. His gaze flickered toward the back of the ambulance, then to Hannah. “You two go with her. Stay together. I'll call Doctor Glatt's office and get word to your parents. And I'll make sure your buggy gets back home.” He turned to the paramedic. “Is that all right with you?”

The paramedic nodded. “We don't want to traumatize the little girl
any more than necessary. She'll need her family on the ride in. If you can get a hold of her parents and have them meet us at the hospital, that would be good. We'll need their signature on a bunch of paperwork.”

Luke tipped his hat at the man and then dismounted, already focused on making the necessary phone call.

Thankful to have someone else in charge of making these decisions, Phoebe hauled Hannah into the ambulance and climbed in after her. Their first time in an ambulance. She hoped it would be the last. She clasped Sarah's hand in hers, but the little girl seemed to be drifting in and out of sleep, worn out from her ordeal. The swelling began to recede as they drove into town and the sweet baby face began to reappear.

Phoebe bowed her head.
Thank You, Gott.

Thank You.

Chapter 29

K
atie scanned the crowd in the New Hope Medical Center emergency room. Most had their gazes glued to a television set on a shelf hanging on the wall overhead. A boy moaned and vomited into a trash can. A woman sat with a girl who had a bloody bite on her face. Two men argued about a basketball game while one held his arm to his chest.

There was Hannah. Her head was downcast—she knew better than to watch the TV. Her eyes were swollen and red with tears. Poor girl. She'd been through so much. She was only beginning to get a little better since Lydia's death. Now this. She would blame herself. A simple bee sting. No one could've predicted. Sarah had been stung before and nothing like this had occurred. A little welt, a few tears. That was it. Katie sighed.

Silas strode ahead of her. Nothing about his demeanor revealed the hard words the doctor had delivered to them earlier in the day. The indigestion, the pain, the ache in her arm and her jaw. The nausea. She had been sure it was a combination of her arthritis and the flu, compounded by the pain of Lydia's death. She wouldn't even have gone to the doctor if Silas hadn't insisted. According to Doctor Glatt, she'd had something he called a “cardiac event.” He also said if she didn't change her ways, there would be more to come.

As it was, he had her scheduled for all sorts of tests beginning next
week. He'd wanted to begin that day, but she'd put her foot down. She'd already missed most of the day and she would be at home for supper with her kinner.

So he'd given her three prescriptions to fill. They were in her bag, waiting.

She needed to relax, he said. She needed to take it easy. No prescriptions existed for either of those orders. She wanted to yell at him.
I'm young. I have children. I'm a Plain woman. We don't relax. We don't take it easy.

Instead she'd nodded and smiled and promised to do as he asked. For her family's sake. They'd been through so much. She didn't want to make them suffer because of her own stubbornness.

From the doctor's office to the ER. So much for relaxing. So much for taking it easy. How did one do that, exactly?

Hannah saw them coming and stood. “They would only let one of us in with her so I told Phoebe she should go. She's the one who knew what to do. She did everything. She knew just what to do.”

The words poured from the girl as if she'd been waiting for them to arrive so she could release the burden from her shoulders. “See, she knew what medicine to give her. She knew to go to the phone shack instead of coming to town. She knew just what to do. She saved her. She saved Sarah.”

Hannah sounded surprised and chagrinned.

“That's
gut
. Where is Sarah now?” Silas patted Hannah on the back in a hard, awkward motion that made her take a step forward. “Is she all right?”

“The paramedic said she was fine. They just wanted to keep an eye on her for a few hours, make sure the medicine worked. She's over there in one of those little rooms behind the double doors.”

Silas wheeled and headed to the desk. After a brief conversation with a nurse, he returned with a stack of papers. “You go in,” he said to Katie. “Sarah will want you.” He nodded to the chairs. “Hannah and I will sit here and wait for you while I fill out all these papers and pay the hospital.”

Silas's free hand shot out and gripped Katie's wrist for one brief
second, then dropped. She couldn't have been more surprised if he'd kissed her. He never touched her in public. “The nurse says she's fine. The medicine helped. She'll be released in an hour or two.”

“That's
gut
.”

His gaze held hers for a few seconds. All the words he couldn't say were written on his weather-beaten face. He loved her. He was scared for her. He was scared for himself. He was scared for Sarah and Hannah and Phoebe and the boys. But he also had faith. He had the strength of his convictions. Faith overcame all fear.

She nodded. He nodded back.

Relax.

She followed the nurse through the double doors and down the long, slick, shiny hallway to a tiny cubicle at the end. It smelled of antiseptic and bleach. A man moaned behind a curtain. People talked in soft murmurs that sounded like humming. Machines beeped. Nurses trotted to and fro, their rubber soles squeaking on the tile. She felt as if she'd stepped into another world. What a strange thought for a grown woman. It had been a strange day. She slipped through the curtain that covered the doorway and found Phoebe with her head down on the edge of the bed. Sarah slumbered, her face still swollen, mouth open, lips puffy. She snored a tiny, squeaky little snore.

“Phoebe?”

Phoebe raised her head. “I want to go to Springfield.”

“What?”
Relax. Relax.

“I want to go with Daniel to bring Michael home,” Phoebe whispered. “He needs to come home.”

Relax. Relax.
She tucked Sarah's blanket up around her shoulders, touched her satiny soft cheek, and then sank into the chair next to Phoebe's. “Hannah said you saved Sarah.” Katie wanted to say more, but the words stuck in her throat. She was unaccustomed to giving praise. It wasn't their way. But with all that had happened, it should be said. Phoebe needed back her sense of self as a woman who would care for own children some day. “You knew what to do. That's
gut
.”

She was proud of her daughter, but wouldn't go so far as to say so.
Pride goes before a fall. A kind word brings healing.
The two sentiments
squared off inside her head. The loving mudder in her sparred with the disciplinarian. The mudder who had been too lenient and paid a terrible price for it. She pressed her lips together and closed her eyes.

“Mudder, did you hear me?” The urgency in Phoebe's voice forced Katie to open them again. “I need to talk to Michael.”

“Why do
you
need to go? Why can't Daniel do it?”

“Michael needs to know he's forgiven. I've forgiven him.”

“Have you?”

“Jah. I have.” Phoebe's voice sounded stronger than it had in weeks. “But I need to know…Have you?”

Katie leaned back in the chair. Her pulse pounded in her ears.
Relax.

“Are you all right? You look peaked.”

“I'm just tired.”

“You didn't answer me.”

“I've forgiven him. I told you that before. It's myself I have trouble forgiving, but that's not your problem.” Katie faced Phoebe. Her daughter's bun hung halfway out of her kapp. Dark smudges under her eyes looked like bruises. She looked as if she hadn't slept in weeks. Still, she seemed more animated than she had since the funeral.

“I'm not asking him to come back to…to be what we were trying to be before. That's not important.” Phoebe popped from her chair and leaned over the railing to touch Sarah's cheek as if to reassure herself that the child was simply sleeping. “What's important is that he be baptized and return to his faith. There's more at stake than our lives together.”

“You're growing up, daughter.” Tiny steps forward. They would all take those tiny steps forward until they became easier, and they would one day walk with a confident stride toward their future. “It soothes my heart.”

“Will you talk to Daed?”

“I will. You know you're an adult now. You've been baptized.” The words came slowly. Katie couldn't believe she was saying them, but they were the truth. “You could choose to go to Springfield without your daed's permission. You don't necessarily need it.”

“The last time I sneaked around to do something, the consequences
were terrible.” Phoebe rubbed her eyes with fisted hands like a little girl who needed a nap. “I don't ever want to do that again.”

Her daughter had grown up. Katie wouldn't wish the events of the past few months on anyone in the world, but in this moment, in this quiet moment in a strange white hospital world, she could concede one thing. She could see God's hand moving in her daughter's life. With each passing day He honed Phoebe's character, turning her into the woman she needed to be. The flighty, silly girl of the past no longer existed. “No promises, but I'll talk to your daed.”

“Danki.”

“There's something else you should know.” Katie clutched the canvas bag on her lap—the bag with the prescriptions tucked inside it. “You need to know something I learned today.”

Phoebe stiffened beside her. “You went to the doctor.”

“I did.”

“What did he say?” Her already pale face whitened and her voice quivered. “Is everything all right?”

“Everything's fine. I'm going to start taking some medicine to help with my heart.”

“Your heart?” The words came out in a squeak. “What's wrong with your heart?”

“It seems it's a little clogged up.” Katie waved her hand in the air. She'd only half-listened to the doctor's explanation. What difference did it make what started the problem? The good food she cooked and ate. Silas ate the same foods and his heart was fine. She only wanted to know how to fix her problem. How to cure it. But it seemed a cure didn't exist. “I'll take some medicines for high blood pressure and cholesterol and some such other things I don't even understand.”

“And the medicine will fix the problem?”

“It'll help.” She patted Phoebe's hand. “The reason I'm telling you this is because you're the oldest daughter. If I have to go to the hospital or if something happens, you'll be the one to take care of our family.”

“But I'm…I'm not…”

“You are. You showed me today I can depend on you. Daed can depend on you. If I'm not around, he will be lost. Men are. They don't
know anything about baking the bread or canning the corn or teaching Sarah to use the potty. They don't know about laundry.”