Pearl of Great Price (36 page)
Read Pearl of Great Price Online
Authors: Myra Johnson
Tags: #Christian Books & Bibles, #Literature & Fiction, #Romance, #Contemporary, #Mystery & Suspense, #Women's Fiction, #Contemporary Women, #Contemporary Fiction, #Religious & Inspirational Fiction, #Christian, #Mystery; Thriller & Suspense, #Religion & Spirituality, #Christian Fiction
“Stiles? Julie Stiles.” The beleaguered nurse behind the front desk scanned the waiting room through smeared bifocals.
“Here.” Angie waved the clipboard with the paperwork she’d been filling out. Balancing Julie Pearl on her bony hip, she worked her way over to the desk. The nurse took the clipboard and gave it a perfunctory glance before directing Angie through a side door.
Another nurse, this one noticeably more compassionate, showed Angie into an examining room. “What’s the problem with this sweet little thing?” she asked in her lilting Oklahoma drawl.
“She’s just so weak. Losing weight, no appetite, pale as a white cotton sheet.” Angie stroked Julie’s hair—or what remained of it. The few downy-soft strands barely covered the little girl’s head anymore. “I’ve tried to take good care of my baby”—she sniffed, her lower lip trembling—“but I’m scared I’m doing something awfully wrong.”
The nurse gave her an appraising, but not unkind, look. “Let’s see what’s going on with your little one.” She shook down a thermometer and tucked it under Julie Pearl’s armpit. “I’m sure the doctor will want to run some blood work, maybe a few other tests. You have time to stay awhile?”
Angie bent over her precious little girl and kissed the cool, dry forehead. “We got no place in the world to be but here.”
~~~
The late-afternoon sun slanted through the streaked front window, casting garish shadows on the few remaining clinic patients. While Julie Pearl dozed in Angie’s lap with her thin legs stretching onto the empty chair next to them, Angie struggled to keep her eyes open. Surely the nurse would call for them soon. She wouldn’t leave here without answers.
The inner door creaked open. Angie’s head snapped up. The tall, sandy-haired doctor who’d examined Julie Pearl that morning frowned in their direction. “Ms. Stiles, bring Julie on back.”
This time Angie hugged her baby girl close as she perched on the edge of a pink molded-plastic chair. “What’d you find out, doctor? Is it serious?”
The doctor cocked his hip against the side of the examining table and heaved a sigh. His drawn expression registered frustration, disappointment, accusation. Angie shrank back.
It was true. Whatever was wrong with her baby was all her fault.
“Things could be a whole lot worse, Ms. Stiles, but your daughter’s condition is treatable. Bottom line, she’s malnourished. She’s suffering from a severe vitamin deficiency.” He selected several brochures from a display rack attached to the inside of the door, then passed them to Angie one by one as he explained the information she’d find within.
From a cupboard on the opposite wall he retrieved several sample packs of children’s vitamins and slipped them into a small paper bag. “One a day, with breakfast. A
healthy
breakfast, not leftover French fries or white bread and jelly.” With a stern look, he added, “By all rights I should report you to Child Protective Services. This borders on child abuse.”
“No, please! I’ll do everything you said, I promise. I love this baby like—oh, doctor, Julie Pearl’s my whole life.” Tears streamed down Angie’s face. She should have known she wasn’t cut out to be a mother. Things had gotten bad enough while Ray was still around. But alone, broke, living in shelters? What chance did she have?
And the headaches sure didn’t help. They just kept getting worse. She ought to ask the doctor about them. Maybe he could give her something.
No, if he knew she was sick, he’d have CPS take her baby away for sure. First get Julie Pearl all better, then Angie would worry about herself. She ran a trembling hand over the pale pink scalp. “What about her hair? Will it grow back all pretty again once she’s better?”
“Yes, yes, of course.” A tiredness tinged the doctor’s voice, suggesting he’d seen cases like this too many times to count.
~~~
“Okay. I’ll be home soon, Daddy.”
Outside the 7-Eleven, Angie gazed down at the green-eyed toddler clutching her leg and lightly touched the soft, springy fuzz of golden curls.
Oh my Julie-love, my precious little turtle dove.
The doctor in Tulsa had been right—a couple months of vitamins and healthy eating, and Julie Pearl’s hair had grown right back, only instead of soft and straight, it came in all curly and thick, so much like Angie’s now that no one—especially not Daddy—would ever guess the baby wasn’t her own natural child.
C
HAPTER 43
Present Day
I don’t know how long I sat there at the end of the driveway, the VW engine rumbling, exhaust fumes drifting through my open window on the cool April breeze. Did I really care what this flimsy sheet of paper could tell me? As Renata had always insisted, she didn’t need a piece of paper to tell her what her heart already knew.
So what difference could it make, seeing the results for myself after all this time? I knew with more certainty than ever that it couldn’t change who I was, or who I was about to become—Mrs. Micah Hobart. Above all, it wouldn’t change my identity as a beloved child of God.
But curiosity got the better of me. With clumsy fingers and a trembling heart, I unfolded the report.
And when the tears finally subsided—tears of grief, tears of relief, I honestly couldn’t say—I refolded the page and methodically tore it into confetti-sized pieces. With my left hand dangling out the driver’s-side window, I hit the accelerator. I spread my fingers wide and watched the fragments float away in my rear-view mirror . . . float away on the breeze like a hundred weightless pearls.
T
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EARL OF
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RICE
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A
BOUT
M
YRA
J
OHNSON
Award-winning author Myra Johnson writes emotionally gripping stories about love, life, and faith. Her Heartsong Presents romance
Autumn Rains
(November 2009) won Romance Writers of America’s 2005 Golden Heart for Best Inspirational Romance Manuscript. Myra is also a two-time finalist for the prestigious American Christian Fiction Writers Carol Award.
Myra’s writing career was launched with her first short story sale in 1985. Since then her stories, articles, and devotions have appeared in more than 30 publications. Abingdon Press released her debut novel,
One Imperfect Christmas
, in 2009.
Myra and her husband of 42 years have two married daughters and seven grandchildren. Originally from Texas and most recently Oklahoma, the Johnsons moved to beautiful North Carolina in 2011, where they share their home with two cuddly (and very spoiled) pooches. Myra writes full-time and is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, serving as the 2013-2014 president of ACFW-Charlotte Chapter. She is also a member of Romance Writers of America and the online RWA chapter Faith, Hope & Love. Myra is represented by the Natasha Kern Literary Agency.
Myra publishes a quarterly e-newsletter with the latest news about her books. Subscribe through her website at
www.MyraJohnson.com
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YRA
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OHNSON
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ROM
H
EARTSONG
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RESENTS
F
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B
ARBOUR
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UBLISHING
(3-in-1 comprising
Autumn Rains, Romance by the Book,
and
Where the Dogwoods Bloom
)
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ROM
A
BINGDON
P
RESS
When the Clouds Roll By
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Whisper Goodbye
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Coming Fall 2014:
Every Tear a Memory
(Till We Meet Again: Book 3)
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