Looking for Miracles (2 page)

A battered mailbox alerted Mike that the turnoff to the trailer was ahead. “Hold on to your hat. Things are about to get bumpier.”

“Like that’s possible.” Their heads nearly hit the ceiling of the big truck. Even Dogg gave a deep “woof” of discomfort when they settled back into the ruts of the nearly nonexistent lane to the house.

They jounced down the ruts for almost a half mile. At the end of the ruts was a single-wide mobile
home in poor condition. There were lights on behind two of the windows. At least that was encouraging.

Looking at the mobile home, anger rose in Mike. He wondered how anybody, even a thug like Gary Harper, could let his family live out here. Couldn’t he have provided something better when he was alive? The aluminum siding of the trailer was gray and dented. Two cracked concrete blocks served as the only stoop at the front door. The whole place had such an air of neglect, Mike wondered if anyone would answer the door, even with the lights on.

Carrie got out of the truck cab and coaxed Dogg to stand up. The big German shepherd looked back at Mike with a questioning look. He didn’t shake off the fabric antlers, but he seemed to beg Mike to do it for him.

“Sorry, buddy. You let Carrie do that. Now go to the door with her.”

The dog leapt down with a resigned air and followed Carrie. Mike shut off the engine and got out to stretch his legs. Carrie went up to the door and knocked.

She stood, head cocked, for a long time. “There’s somebody in there. I can hear them,” she said, turning her head toward Mike.

“Kids?” Mike asked her. He hadn’t thought of
that possibility. He breathed a silent prayer.
Please, no kids. I can handle anything else, but no kids
.

Carrie knocked again. “Franklin County Fire and Rescue. Please open the door,” she called loudly. Now things were getting serious.

“I can hear bumping and scraping inside. I wonder if…”

Before she had time to say anything else, the door swung slightly open. From where Mike stood, he could tell that it was blocked from opening all the way. Carrie looked back at him, her pale complexion paling even more. “C’mon, Mike. I need backup here.”

He was at the door in an instant, heart racing. Mike was hoping for some beefy accomplice of Harper’s, a big guy he could take out by brute strength. No such luck. Instead, a small boy with wispy blond hair stood in the doorway. He looked to be maybe five years old.

The child struggled with the chair that blocked the door. “Had to get it to unlock the chain. I can’t reach the chain by myself. But the chair’s heavy,” he said, panting, as he tried to push the chair away. “I’m Tyler. Are you here about Mama?” he asked, still struggling with the chair.

“Let me,” Mike said, picking it up with one hand and getting it out of the path of the door. “Can we come in?”

“Sure.” The little boy motioned them in. “Mama says you guys are her miracle. She says the baby’s coming. Are we going to get to ride in a police car?” His blue eyes sparkled with anticipation.

Carrie was already pushing her way down the narrow hall from the trailer’s main room to the bedrooms. “Something better, Tyler,” she said over her shoulder. “How do you like trucks?”

“Cool.” The boy grabbed Mike’s hand. “Come on and get Mama. She likes trucks, too.”

At the touch of the small boy’s hand, time telescoped for Mike. He went down on his knees next to him, looking at the boy. He saw so much.

There was more in this moment than a slender child in battered blue jeans and a sweatshirt. For Mike Martin there was a reliving of a very similar scene. In a scary instant he knew what was behind that boy’s wide blue eyes. Here the kid was, trying to get help for the most important person in his world, wanting reassurance that everything would be all right.

For this child it probably would be. Mike looked into his eyes. “We’ll go take care of your mom. It’s going to be okay, Tyler.” How he wished with all his heart that somebody had taken time to say those words years ago, when he’d been the boy in blue jeans.

Of course in his case, any such reassurances would have been a lie. Nothing anybody did that cold morning long ago could have made everything all right again in Mike’s world. For the child in front of him there was still a chance. So for this child, Mike had to fight his horror, his fear, and deal with the situation. He stood up.

“Take me to your mom. Ms. Collins doesn’t know much about babies.”

Tyler looked at him in disbelief. “She’s a girl, isn’t she? I thought they all knew about that stuff.”

Mike shook his head. “That girl knows more about cars than babies. I guess that’s why I’m here,” he told Tyler, only realizing the truth of it as he said it. He’d wondered all morning why he had agreed to drive Carrie out here instead of taking Dogg and going back home the way he should have. Now he knew. Just let me do all right, he said silently.

He looked down at the brave little kid leading him down the hall. It had to be all right, just for him. Mike took a deep breath and pushed through the doorway.

The man Tyler led into the room filled the doorway. Lori felt dwarfed by his presence. He looked calm, though, a lot calmer than Gary would have
been in the same situation. “I’m so glad you’re here. It really is a miracle.”

“Not quite.” The red-haired woman in uniform looked at the man and telegraphed something to him silently. “But it looks like what we came for will have to wait.”

Lori laughed nervously. “Yes, it does. Do either of you have any training in catching babies?”

“Mike does. He used to be an EMT. I mean, I’ve had the basics, in theory, but I’ve never used it. Mike?”

The big man nodded, and crossed the small room. “Sure have. Where are we, Mrs. Harper?”

“Lori.” This was no time to be formal. “And I think we’re at the point where I hope you’re either driving an ambulance or you have a radio, Mike.”

The man’s smile was rueful. “Can’t say I can help you either way. But I do have a cellular phone in the truck. What do you say we call the county emergency guys on duty, who have the real ambulance and radio, and try to meet them on the closest main road? Do you think we have enough time for that?”

“I hope so.” Lori struggled to speak while she felt a contraction building. “With Tyler, things were pretty quick, once they started happening, and I expect it will be quick this time, too.”

“What does the doctor say?” The man’s large
hands were gentle as he helped her off the bed and into a standing position. Lori wished she could avoid his question.

“Nothing. I haven’t seen one,” Lori admitted. His intake of breath was sharp, and an emotion that could have been fear or anger flashed through his dark eyes. “We moved out here before I knew I was, uh, in the family way, and then Gary had the car all day working in Friedens, and after August I never got around to finding somebody…” She trailed off. How could she tell a stranger that there was no money for a doctor? “Will we all fit in that truck outside? I won’t leave Tyler here.”

“There’s no way we’d leave him,” the woman in uniform said. “Not alone, anyway.” She looked at the man. “I was thinking maybe you and Mrs. Harper ought to go on, and the rest of us will stay here until somebody else can come out and get us.”

The man shook his head. “Won’t work. That dog wouldn’t take a command to stay at a strange place without me. How long has it been since you’ve ridden in the back of a pickup?”

When the woman started to splutter, Mike looked at Lori and winked. It was such a conspiratorial gesture that she had to smile through the wave of pain that threatened to fold her double. “There’s no other choice, Carrie. You and the dog can sit in the back. Me and Lori and Tyler’ll be up front.
What do you bet we can make it to the main road in less time than EMS does from their end?”

Lori stifled a gasp as her protector guided her back through the trailer and helped her down from the front door to the hard ground. “Gently, Mike. Hit any bumps wrong and you’re going to have to use those EMT skills yourself, I’m afraid.”

He looked her in the face, all traces of teasing gone now. His dark eyes sparkled with a light that pierced Lori deeper than the pain of the contractions. “I’ll take care of you. Don’t worry.” And somehow, looking into those eyes, she knew he was telling the truth.

Chapter Two

T
his was the strangest trip to the hospital Lori had ever witnessed, much less been part of. The red-haired woman in uniform and the huge German shepherd—was he really wearing reindeer antlers?—were in the back of the truck. It was cold in the cab because Mike’s car phone handset was out the open back window, so Carrie could talk to the paramedics while Mike navigated the bumpy road.

Mike had apologized for having to put the phone plug in the cigarette lighter for power. “I never remember to charge the battery.”

“Lost the charger, probably,” she heard Carrie mutter from outside. Lori had to stop breathing so fast. If they hit one more bump, Tyler was going to get to meet his new brother or sister up close
and personal. Tyler looked so small sitting next to her on the seat, bouncing up and down even though he was belted in.

“Isn’t this cool, Mama?” His eyes shone. From his perspective, it was probably cool. All of Tyler’s passions were involved here: uniformed police officers, big dogs, huge trucks and a man who actually paid attention to him. When she nodded to agree with him, a wave of nausea roared over her.

“Bad move, huh?” Mike looked over at her sharply. How could he drive and keep his eyes on the road yet still monitor how she was feeling?

“Bad move.” She held her head still. Things felt better that way. “How far are we from—”

“Meeting the ambulance crew? Tell us, Carrie.” Mike turned his head toward the open back window.

Carrie spoke into the phone, then leaned toward the open window. “Maybe five minutes. You going to be able to hang on?”

“Sure.” Lori gritted her teeth. She wasn’t sure, but she was going to have to be, for Tyler’s sake, for the baby’s sake, even for the sake of the large man driving the truck. He didn’t look ready to deliver a baby.

The next five minutes seemed more like five hours. Lori would have burst into tears of relief when the yellow ambulance pulled up to the truck,
but she lacked the energy. Mike braked and vaulted out of his side of the truck. “Don’t you dare try to get out on your own,” he warned. “Hey, Kenny, Rosa, this lady’s about to have a baby. How about some real quick movement this way?”

Before Lori could say anything, she was on a stretcher pulled up to the cab of the truck. In moments, she was looking up at the ceiling of the moving ambulance while someone with cold, sure hands was assessing the situation.

“Hi, I’m Rosa.” The dark-haired woman smiled. “You’ve got a head nearly crowning here, but you probably knew that already. Mike said to tell you that they’d follow us there and meet us at the hospital. He said not to worry about Tyler.”

“I won’t. Right now I’ve got all I can worry about right here.”

It was there in the ambulance, holding Rosa’s hand, that Lori had to come to terms with what she’d known for months. Gary was really dead. She was really doing this on her own, and it wasn’t getting any easier.

When Lori thought about Gary, she couldn’t feel any pain. Just a sense of peace, something telling her that maybe the most troubled soul she’d ever known had finally found rest.

She wondered if he was watching them somehow, could see what was going on. There was no
time to wonder. Another contraction engulfed her. The ceiling of the ambulance blurred. When they hit a rut on the road she stifled a yelp. “Go ahead and yell if it will make you feel any better.” Rosa was still right there with her. “Anything that will keep you from giving in to that urge to push right now would be welcome.”

Lori managed a weak smile. “I guess you would rather the doctors at the hospital delivered this baby.”

Rosa nodded. “I’ve caught a couple myself, but it’s always good to have help. It would be more comfortable for you in the long run, too.”

“Then I hope the hospital isn’t too much farther.” That ceiling was starting to blur again. This baby was going to be here soon, wherever they were.

“Am I a big brother yet?” Tyler asked, looking around the commotion of the emergency room.

“We’ll find out. It wouldn’t surprise me at all.” Carrie held his hand and craned her neck over the crowd. “You see anything?”

Mike’s vantage point was better, but he still had no indication of where Kenny and Rosa might have taken their precious cargo. “Nothing yet. Let’s ask at the desk.”

“Yeah, she just made it.” The triage nurse came
around the counter and went down to Tyler’s height. “You have a very pretty baby sister. Of course she might look all red and squashy to you, but she looks pretty good to Mom right now. If you wait about twenty minutes more, we’ll get you back there to see her, once we clean them both up.”

Tyler’s brow wrinkled. “How’d they get dirty?”

The nurse laughed. “Well, they didn’t, exactly. But being born is pretty messy.” She looked at Carrie and Mike. “Maybe one of your friends can take you to look at the vending machines while we let your mom know you’re here.”

“Cool. Do they have candy bars?” Tyler looked around for the machines.

“They sure do. And really good chips.” Carrie led him to the small room off the hallway where the machines were. Naturally she’d take the easy part. Mike straightened up.

“Guess that means I’m going back with Mrs. Harper. You say she had a girl?”

The nurse nodded. “At least eight pounds. And she really is pretty. I wasn’t lying to her brother. Rough way to start out life, though.”

Lori looked beautiful but frail propped up in her hospital bed holding a very new baby. They were an oasis of calm in the emergency room. Only a curtain separated the bay that held mother and child
from organized chaos on either side of them. Mike hadn’t looked in the other cubicles, but one seemed to be occupied by someone elderly and quite deaf, while the other seemed to hold a brace of wildcats, or maybe just an unhappy toddler and mother.