Miracle Woman (18 page)

‘Yes!' he hollered.

Gina jumped up to run in and check, and recheck, the positive results clearly indicated by the line of blue in the test tube.

They were going to have a baby!

They were going to have a baby!

Overcome with emotion she began to cry.

Martha was thrilled to hear Gina Forrester's good news but was reluctant to claim any credit.

‘I know this would never have happened but for you, Martha. I had all but given up hope of any chance of motherhood. You know Bob and I will always be so grateful for what you've done for us.'

‘Gina! This is
your
baby, yours and Bob's, it has nothing to do with me.'

‘You helped,' insisted Gina stubbornly. ‘I know that!'

‘Your body healed itself,' she suggested gently. ‘That's all.'

That night when she told Mike about the Forresters' impending parenthood she could see a wary look fill her husband's eyes; he seemed unsure of how to react in front of her.

‘Good for Bob, if that's what he wants. Another kid – even if he's almost old enough to be its grandfather.'

‘Mike! They both want this baby very much.'

‘They're just both a bit long in the tooth, that's all I'm saying.' He shrugged, hitting on the TV remote control.

Martha, although she had said little about her own involvement with Gina, was hurt by his kneejerk retort and his insensitivity to the others' feelings. She wondered as she tried to get to sleep how two people could live in the same house, raise a family, share the same bed and yet be such poles apart. She herself couldn't begin to fathom it.

THE FLICKER OF
candlelight in tiny ceramic pots all along the driveway lit up the darkness and greeted them with a warm welcoming glow as Martha and Evie rang the doorbell of Kim Hamilton's one-storey home.

Although she felt exhausted after spending most of the day visiting Cass and trying to heal a very depressed middle-aged man who'd only recently lost his job, Martha felt a night out with her friends would do her good, so after checking the schoolwork and Alice's reading, she dressed and got ready to go out. As she put on her pale blue top and a pair of soft blue pants with a fine cream crochet cardigan, Mike protested about her going out again. Pulling a bit of her hair up off her face and spraying herself with the reviving scent of Farouche she felt almost ready for anything.

‘Kim's expecting me and I can't let her down,' she explained to Mike.

Her dish of garlic and tomato chicken had defrosted while she was out and she added some wholemeal Irish brown soda scones that she'd baked the day before, knowing they always went down well. Taking a bottle of wine, she kissed the girls goodnight and ran out to Frank Hayes's car. She and Evie would get a cab back later.

Kim lived about a ten-minute ride away in a bright ranch-style home in Brookline. She'd managed to hold onto the house as part of her divorce settlement and was pleased to still have her home even if she couldn't manage to hang onto her philandering rogue of a husband. Her two kids were spending the night with their dad so they had the place to themselves.

The house was ablaze with candles too, a log fire crackling in the grate.

‘You bet there's candles,' laughed Kim. ‘When the kids are here I daren't light one in case Nick tries to play with it but tonight he and his sister are at their dad's and we can have candles and wine and whatever.'

They set the food up in the kitchen, Martha peeking under the foil cover at Evie's speciality: beef jerky and cheesy potatoes. Mmm!

Jenny Erskine, who lived near Kim's, had picked out a few mellow CDs to put on the sound system and opened what she said was a really good bottle of chilled Californian wine.

Martha wasn't a great wine buff but when she took a drink from her glass she had to concur.
There, sipping her wine, she enjoyed the company of her old friends, her legs curled up under her on Kim's low squashy sofa in front of the log fire, everyone helping themselves to chips and dip as they chatted and caught up on each other's news while the food warmed up. Ruth Briggs, an old work friend whose son Shane was in school with Patrick, greeted her warmly, asking after Mike and the kids.

Kim fussed around them all: she looked different, younger, dressed in a wraparound turquoise skirt and a tight beaded top, which showed off her great figure. Her light brown hair hung loose around her face and her eyes were emphasized with a tracing of kohl. She looked content, happy even, the pain of her marriage break-up finally beginning to diminish. The old Kim Martha had gone to college with was reappearing.

Rianna Lindgard came straight from her busy late dental surgery. Grabbing a glass of reviving wine the minute she sat down, she squashed her tall frame in beside Martha. ‘Sorry, Kim, but I missed the first T and had to wait for the next one,' she apologized, flashing them a perfect white smile. The rest of them instinctively covered their own mouths. She put them all to shame with her healthy lifestyle and as expected produced the most beautiful bowl of tossed salad and some unusual new Thai dish that smelled wonderful.

‘So how you doing, Martha? How's my favourite healer?'

Martha simply grinned, both of them suddenly distracted by the arrival of Kathleen Ryan, laden with flowers for Kim, candy for her kids and an enormous heavy Le Creuset pot full of Prawns Provençal which she was in danger of tipping all over the living room rug in her attempts to hug and greet them all.

‘Will someone get the woman a drink before she does some damage!' joked Evie, tapping the seat close by her. Kim relieved her of the dish and Jenny passed her a glass of wine. Kathleen flung off her jacket to reveal a low-cut top which showed off her cleavage and curves to their plump rounded best. She wore a pair of beige woollen pants, and her recently highlighted blond hair framed a broad face and candid blue eyes. She and Martha had been friends since childhood and Mike and Jim Ryan had worked for a while together.

‘Well, everyone's here now!' Kim clapped her hands. ‘And we'll be ready to eat in about thirty minutes or so.'

Sitting there on the couch, surrounded by her women friends, Martha realized this was exactly the kind of evening she needed. She felt relaxed and at ease and totally comfortable.

Politics, films, gossip, school boards, terrible teens – all got discussed as they sipped their wine and kicked off their shoes and listened and chatted, with Kim flitting in and out to the kitchen to check all was well as the food heated up.

‘OK, OK, everyone! We're ready to eat, come and get it.'

They were like a bunch of kids ambling into the kitchen and grabbing the big plates; the fun of the pot luck supper was going around tasting and trying a bit of everything. Rianna's Thai dish had a weird name; none of them had ever heard of it before let alone tried it, but experimenting was all a part of the evening and if they liked it they'd beg the recipe off her. Jenny had a spicy Mexican bean plate and Ruth had made dessert, a huge glass dish of tiramisu. Kim herself had made a huge pot of creamy Italian risotto with shavings of cheese and mushrooms, which was delicious.

They sat around eating, Rianna after a few drinks telling them stories about some of her worst patients, which had them falling around the floor laughing.

Jenny told them how she had dealt with the problem of her boss pinching her ass in the real estate office where she worked. Borrowing her son's trick shock handshake toy, she had slipped it into the back pocket of her pants before she stepped into his office. OK, she got a bit of a shock to her bum, but it was nothing compared to his.

‘Honest, I nearly wet myself between the shock and laughing, but it was well worth it. I don't think old Dave will be doing it again!'

They all reckoned she had most definitely cured him of his chauvinistic habit.

‘How did you explain it being in your pocket?' laughed Evie.

‘I just acted all innocent and told him I was picking up after my ten-year-old and must have just shoved it in my pocket before I left for work in the morning.'

Martha was too full with the risotto and prawns and cheesy potatoes to be tempted by dessert and helped Kim afterwards in the kitchen with setting out the coffee and cream and sugar.

‘You look a little tired,' mentioned Kim.

‘I feel it too,' she admitted, telling her friend about some of the demands being made on her.

‘Jeez, Martha! I don't know how you cope with it.'

‘You should see the letters I get, I
can't
just keep constantly saying no to them. On Saturday I'm going to visit a twenty-eight-year-old guy with early motor neurone disease in Rhode Island. His parents and girlfriend are devastated by the diagnosis.'

‘God, Martha, are you sure this healing isn't all too much for you?' continued Kim.

‘It is too much for her, only she's too darned pigheaded to admit it.' Evie had come into the kitchen, carrying a load of dirty plates.

‘Evie, that's not fair!' protested Martha, who had to admit to herself that she was finding it harder and harder each day to cope with the constant demands being made on her. She was lucky that Mike had a good job because of late
even the gas bill had gone through the roof with all the driving she was doing and, though she had good friends who would collect and take care of the kids if she was stuck, she had occasionally had to pay a baby-sitter.

‘Come on, you can't be in the car every day travelling long distance to see people: you should organize it properly and let them come to you with their aches and pains and troubles.'

‘Some are too sick to travel,' she reminded her friend.

‘Martha, is there anything that I can do to help?' asked Kim.

There was her friend only getting her own life straightened out after a messy divorce and custody battle and offering to help her.

‘No, thanks, it's fine,' she murmured gratefully.

‘Hold on a minute,' suggested Evie. ‘Kim's a flyer on the computer. Maybe she could help with printing out letters dealing with some of that vast correspondence you get.'

‘I'll help with the letters if you want,' said Kim.

Martha was unsure – but having someone to help, even for a few hours a week, would take some of the pressure off her.

‘Only if you're sure you want to.'

‘Yeah, for sure, it'll probably make me forget about my own petty troubles.'

‘Thanks, Kim, it's so good of you.'

Carrying the wooden tray back into the living
room with the coffee and mugs she guessed the others were already discussing her.

‘To be able to lay your hands on someone and ease their pain or change the course of their illness is a pretty incredible gift,' said Rianna. ‘Something the rest of us can only try and understand. It's just so awesome and weird that I guess we don't know what to say or do about it.'

‘Come off it, guys,' begged Martha. ‘I don't want anything to change between us, we've all known each other for so long. For God's sake, Evie and I went to school together and Kathleen and I were virtually in diapers together. It's bad enough I've been sacked from the Animal Shelter.'

‘You
what
!' screamed Jenny.

‘Yep, they said they would prefer if I stopped volunteering as too many people were phoning the centre trying to get me and that the phone lines were too busy and the other attendants found it distracting.'

‘The small-minded shits!' Kathleen responded.

‘Perhaps they were right, I dunno.'

‘And Father Eugene had a go at you the other day after mass,' added Evie.

‘Don't mind him,' laughed Kathleen, ‘he's just jealous cos nobody's asking him to lay his hands on them!'

The candles were beginning to burn lower, their light casting shadows around the room as the
night drew in and Martha opened her heart to her closest friends.

‘Mike and the kids resent it, I guess they don't understand that I just can't walk on by and pretend none of this is happening to me, when it is.'

‘Mike's probably just worried for you, honey, you know what he's like. He's one of those protective men.'

‘I know that, Kathleen, I know that.'

‘Maybe doing the healing at home isn't such a good idea,' suggested Ruth, her brown eyes serious.

‘That's what I told her in the kitchen,' added Evie. ‘She needs to find someplace out of the house, a separate space from the kids and family. Someplace those who need healing can come to her.'

Martha had to admit it sounded good and might ease some of the stress and tension caused by trying to work at home and having constant callers to their door. Looking around the room at their concerned faces, she could see her friends' belief in her and acceptance of this calling.

‘Am I crazy, do you think?' she asked them.

‘No!'

‘No way!'

‘You've been blessed by the spirit,' joked Rianna, ‘which I guess beats drilling holes in teeth any day of the week!'

‘Rianna,' warned Evie.

‘I get to inflict pain on some of my patients while you manage to ease it. Martha, I envy you your gift for it's sure something I could do with.'

‘You need any help, just call on me,' interrupted Ruth.

‘That goes for me too,' insisted Rianna.

‘I'm as free as a bird,' joked Kathleen, ‘now that my kids have decided they've outgrown their poor old mom and want to be independent.'

That night they pledged their friendship and support for what she was doing and she knew she only had to lift the phone and any one of her female friends would be there for her.

Driving home in the cab at almost 12.30 a.m. with Evie, she expressed her gratitude.

‘Evie, had you and Kim something to do with all this amazing show of support?'