Morning Star (10 page)

Later, after lunch, after Martha Edmonton had picked her five flowers and left for the hospital, the four of them gathered in front of the garden of dark blue roses.

"They weren't here a few days ago. I'm sure of it," Nate said.

Margaret bent down and touched one.

"There weren't this many of them earlier this morning either," he added.

"I'm going to plant a few in the garden in front of the house and I'll take some to the animal hospital when I return to work next week," Cindy said.

Margaret stood up. Her finger tingled where it touched the plant.

"I'd like to take a few back to my garden also if you don't mind."

"Be my guest," Nate said. "As you can see we have plenty of them. We'd better head back. Dannie might be waking up."

"Sleep well?" Cindy asked her when Dannie opened her eyes.

The girl glanced around the room. She spotted Al and Margaret and smiled brightly. "Hi grandma and grandpa," she said before quickly adding "I want to see Morning Star. Let's go."

"Hold on young lady," her nurse said. Martha Edmonton had joined them a little earlier, back from her hospital visit.

"I think you should rest up today. You took a serious spill last night in case you forgot. Take it easy  today and tomorrow, we'll see."

Perhaps Dannie saw the determination in her eyes. In any case she saw fit not to argue the point.

"Okay Miss Martha." 

Dannie turned to her father. "You'll tell him I said hello?"

"I certainly will, as soon as I go out there."

"Let's have a look at your head." Martha propped her up into a sitting position with pillows then gently lifted her head forward. She brushed the girl's hair off to the side and moved in to examine the injury. 

The ten stitches applied at the hospital the night before still held tight but behind them was nothing, no blood, no cut, no sign of injury. The stitches were the only sign that anything had occurred a few short hours before.

She motioned for Cindy to look. Nate came over too. Soon all of them stared at the back of Dannie's head.

"Would someone please tell me what you all are looking at back there?" Dannie asked.

"Would you care to assist me in removing these stitches Mrs. Walker?" Martha said as she appraised Dannie's head. "It appears they are no longer needed."

30 The Journey Of The Three

Dannie rode Morning Star, her father next to her on Betsy. Her stepmother kept pace on her other side on Silver, one of the newer horses in the herd.

They rode in the night, past the farthest reaches of The Rising Sun into the dark plains where no one called home. The last day of September, 1977 had barely begun when they left and now they were near their destination. They could sense it.

September was a month of many events, the first of which began on the Friday of the first week, when Dannie returned to the hospital, her second visit since she had come home.

They left the ranch in the early morning, Dannie, her parents, and her nurse. Al and Margaret made plans to meet them at Walker General.

They were greeted in the lobby with a large floral arrangement. These are for Dannie from Bill and Sylvia Travers, the receptionist said.

Doctors Matthews and Fleming stood by the elevator, coffees in hand, talking. They turned when they heard a commotion behind them. Several doctors and nurses had emerged from a snack area next door. They all applauded when they saw Dannie who graciously acknowledged all with a wave and a smile.

"Looks like our hero's here," Matthews said to Fleming. 

Dannie walked to the two doctors in front of her family and the well wishers surrounding them. She walked briskly and with confidence. Both doctors had heard the girl had improved remarkably but seeing Dannie walk normally shocked them to the core. Matthews, in fact, nearly dropped his coffee, snagging it at the last instant.

"Well, well," Matthews said as the elevator door opened. "Let's head upstairs and get this show on the road."

They waited once again outside of Doctor Fleming's office. They read and talked to pass the time. The mood was lighter then the last time they had occupied this space, but still apprehensive. 

Dannie had shown no symptoms of her disease after the night of the fire. In fact, in the last few weeks, she seemed perfectly fine. Her appetite was back to normal. She began to put on weight so quickly that within a week the thinness in her face, arms, and legs disappeared. Her complexion went from a pale white to a rosy pink. Her leg strength improved and she was walking in longer confident strides with little or no hesitation between steps.

She received visitors from the town and the surrounding ranches and each one accepted a dark blue rose before they left.

While all this happened a new and larger barn grew from the ground up in the ashes of the old compliments of Bill Travers, who insisted on paying for the contractors doing the work.

The horses watched from the corral as the workers swarmed around them no doubt thankful that they would soon be rid of their cramped living quarters.

Morning Star no longer stood watch over Dannie at night. He moved from one barn to the other each night, alternating between the two. Even so, Nate still failed to catch the horse sleeping, and he tried surprising him often. Morning Star was always wide awake.

Dannie took to riding Morning Star daily. She continued to ride the fence line of the corral under the watchful eye of her father, and sometimes Cindy and Martha.

Near the end of the month, on a cool Arizona morning, Nate watched his daughter ride her horse. Martha climbed the wood fence and took the seat next to him. 

"You've learned to climb the fence like a pro, Martha," Nate said to her.

"Been practicing," she replied.

They said nothing for a while, watching Dannie ride at a steady and sure gallop.

"You really don't need me here anymore Mister Walker. Dannie's off the machines now and you and the missus can handle her meds."

Nate took his eyes off his daughter and turned to the nurse.

"Martha, please call me Nate."

She nodded in agreement but both knew it would be Mister Walker next time around too.

"Cindy and I have been talking Martha. We'd like you to stay on at the ranch. Dannie would too. In fact, it was her idea."

The nurse watched Dannie. The girl had laid her head on the horse's neck. Martha Edmonton found this to be a true vision of wonder, one of the many she had witnessed in the last few weeks. Just yesterday she received a call from Walker General. Three of her flowers had blossomed. The children in the rooms where this occurred immediately began showing marked improvement in their conditions.

"My husband left me over fifteen years ago. Found another woman, younger, prettier. We never had any children. Never wanted to remarry. Once was plenty for me."

Dannie and Morning Star crossed in front of them. Dannie sat up in the saddle and waved at the two as she passed.

"You and the missus and little Dannie are as close to family as I've ever had."

She turned to face Nate. A tear fell from her eye.

"Guess my landlord will be hoppin' mad when I give my notice. But that's his problem, isn't it?"

"I'd say it is Martha." Nate held out his hand and the nurse shook it.

"Welcome home," he said.

It had taken longer this go round, almost six hours. It turned out there were more doctors involved with the testing, several more.

The doctors, all six of them, entered the waiting area at the same time. Dannie stood in front of them. She was sucking on a lollipop and smiling.

Everyone jumped to their feet, magazines and books went flying. Nate took Cindy's hand. Cindy took Martha's. Al and Margaret embraced.

Doctor Matthews spoke first. "Would you like to tell them Danielle."

"I'm fine," Dannie said, slurring the words slightly due to the lollipop.

"Her tests are completely negative," Doctor Matthews added. "Our tests show normal across the board. Danielle is free of the disease."

An explosion of joy is what Cindy called it later and it was a pretty accurate description of what followed. Dannie barely had time to remove the lollipop from her mouth when she was lifted in the air. Her feet didn't touch ground for several minutes as she moved from one embrace to another. 

After the initial excitement wore down, Doctor Matthews called Nate to the side of the room.

Nate reached out his hand to thank him.

"It wasn't me Mister Walker. I had nothing to do with her recovery. I will not recite to you the history of Dannie's disease, but of this I am sure. Your daughter is the only patient to my knowledge to ever come out on the other side cured and healthy. Truthfully, and I believe my colleagues will agree with this, I feel that this is a medical miracle."

Matthews gazed at the other doctors huddled around the family.

"At some point, with your permission of course, I'd like to run some more tests on Danielle. If we can discover the reason for her recovery we can help other young patients with the disease."

"I doubt your testing will find anything helpful, but I will certainly ask Dannie if she's game."

"That's all I can ask," Matthews said.

"I would like you to visit The Rising Sun at your earliest convenience." Nate began walking back to his daughter. "I have some flowers I'd like you to look at." 

The number of townspeople and neighbors visiting the garden of flowers grew by the day. Many brought vases and buckets to transport the plants back to their homes and gardens of their own. By mid September most of the dark blue flowers that resembled roses  had been pulled from the soil and replanted in homes and gardens throughout the county.

Nate closed and locked the gate to his property. The sign attached to it read: 

SORRY! NO MORE FLOWERS! THEY ARE ALL GONE. 

That wasn't necessarily true. Nate and Cindy had dug up several and moved them into an open field not far from their property line, hoping they would thrive there.

Soon the crowds diminished to just a few. Early one morning Nate rode Betsy to the gate. The time had come to reopen The Rising Sun. He saw an old car parked on the gate's opposite side. The license plate read Wyoming. Inside the vehicle, on the front seat, a man and woman slept. A boy, a young teen from the size of him, lay curled across the woman's lap.

The sound of the gate opening woke the adults. The father promptly opened the car door.

"We're so sorry Mister. It's our son." He pointed to the car seat. "My wife and I, well, we're out of hope."

The woman smiled briefly. It looked like a strain to do so. 

"It's polio," the father continued. "We brought him back from the hospital to rest at home."

Nate looked into the car. In the back seat he saw two long metal braces. He hadn't noticed them before.

“I see you’ve come a long way,” Nate said.

“My son had a dream about a blue rose. In his dream he walked just like you and I. He said he saw a horse too.”

The boy lifted his head from his mother and turned to Nate. “Morning Star, his name is Morning Star.”

"Wait here," Nate said and mounted Betsy.