Mother's Promise (46 page)

“That's it,” she heard one of the medical students say. “This is too dangerous.”

Rachel swung her body over toward the place where the rope was caught, freed it, and landed with a thud inches from Raoul's inert body. “I'm here,” she called up and immediately opened her bag and took out what she needed to check the boy's vitals.

In an instant she was lost in her work, oblivious to her surroundings, focused only on calling out her findings, checking Raoul for injuries, and assessing his status. Using one of the clips from her climbing apparatus, she was able to hang a bag of fluids and get an IV started. He groaned a little when she poked him with the needle. She thought it was the most wonderful sound she had ever heard.

He was alive and with God's help, he was going to make it. She pulled out a thin but strong nylon sheet the engineer had given her. “Once he's got that first bag of fluids in him, then we can move him. Wrap him in this and then hitch the ropes to him like so,” he'd instructed her as they'd lowered her into the hole. “Hopefully we can get him through the crevice and past the concrete barrier. Once we accomplish that he'll be home free, and we'll send down the rope for you, okay?”

Rachel set the drip on the IV and then squatted against the rough wall to wait. Above her, she could hear Isabel praying the beads of her rosary.

She sat for a long moment, watching the fluid slowly drip down the tubing. And she thought about Ben. Where was he spending this Christmas Eve? Would anything about the season touch him, bring back memories of what his faith must have meant to him once? Sharon had told her how as a teenager Ben had been a real leader—at school and in the summer camp they had attended. “But not in our father's church,” she had admitted sadly. “He and Dad never seemed to be on the same page.”

Finally, the IV bag was empty. Rachel pushed herself to her feet and unhooked the tubing, leaving the port so that once Raoul was brought to the surface he could continue to receive the vital fluids.

“Call the others. I'm getting him ready for the ascent,” she said.

It took the rescuers nearly half an hour to maneuver Raoul's wrapped and upright body to safety. Then a shout of victory echoed around the opening and funneled down into the hole where she waited her turn to be brought up. She smiled and thanked God for this blessing. Then she heard another sound, nothing so soothing or consoling as the hymn singing or the shouts of celebration. No, this sound was a sharp crack followed by silence followed by a scattering of stones and dust falling from above.

Rachel turned to face the wall and covered her head with her arms when she heard a loud thundering noise that seemed to be coming directly at her. Seconds later she felt the scrape of something sharp and hard brush her shoulder and then land with a heavy thud inches from where she crouched. She waited an instant, aware that above her the celebration had gone silent, and now there were voices calling out for her as the hole around and above her filled with dust and falling debris.

In the sudden shadowy confines, she realized that if she hadn't moved to where she now was, the heavy concrete slab that had broken loose and fallen would have landed right on her.

“Mom!” she heard Justin shriek.

“Rachel!” Hester sounded every bit as panicked.

Her throat was filled with dust and her bag with its bottled water and other supplies was buried beneath the huge piece of concrete. She coughed and tugged on the dangling rope. “Right here,” she croaked.

“Get her out of there
now
,” she heard Pastor Detlef order for the second time.

This time she hoped the others would listen to him.

Chapter 27

J
ustin had never in his life prayed as hard as he did that afternoon. He squeezed his eyes closed and kept them that way, allowing his ears to tell him what was happening with the rescue. A shout of joy from the rescue workers told him that the boy was alive.

“Thank you, God,” he murmured aloud. “Now please please please bring them both out of there alive.”

Was he asking for too much?

He felt Hester's comforting hand on his shoulder, and then he heard another cry of relief from those gathered on the hillside. Opening his eyes, he saw rescue workers grab hold of the boy as he reached the opening. They carefully put him on a stretcher they'd had waiting, and two workers carried the stretcher down the hillside toward the medical tent.

But where was his mom?

Justin broke free of Hester's grasp and started up the hill. “Mom?”

He heard a distant rumble like thunder, but it wasn't coming from the sky. It was coming from the ground. Around him small avalanches of stones trickled down the hillside. “Mom!” he shouted and ran for the place where Pastor Detlef and others were leaning over the opening.

“Get back, Justin,” John Steiner ordered.

He looked worried and scared. “Is Mom …”

“She's okay,” John said. “We have to figure out how to get her out of there.”

A thousand thoughts raced through Justin's mind. What if they couldn't get her out? What if she was trapped like the boy had been? What if they were too late?

“Mom?” he shouted and was grateful when everybody else stopped talking for a minute.

“I'm okay, Justin. Do what John tells you, okay? John and Hester will take care of you, okay?”

He tried to make sense of her words. Why would she say something like that? “Mom? You promised,” he shouted, and then he broke down in the tears he'd forced back ever since he'd watched her head up that hillside.

“You promised,” he sobbed as Hester wrapped him in her embrace.

Rachel thought her heart might actually break when she heard Justin calling out to her. It was hard not to cry out to God to stop her son's suffering. But instead she closed her eyes and prayed the prayer she had known from childhood on.
Thy will be done.

And after a moment she felt such a sense of peace wash over her. In spite of the fact that she was pretty certain that she had a broken arm and perhaps other injuries, she felt sure that whatever her fate might be, it was what would be best for Justin. She would keep her promise of giving him a better life.

Hester and John would take Justin if she didn't make it out of here. Hester had told her as much once when they'd been talking about how hard things were for Justin without James.

“Thank You, God, for bringing Hester back into my life,” she murmured and then coughed because her throat and mouth were filled with the dust that continued to fall all around her. If this was to be her death then she was at peace because Justin would have a good life with Hester and John.

Suddenly she felt the rope she was holding grow taut, and her will to survive and care for Justin herself kicked into high gear. “I can climb the wall if you pull,” she called up to the men above her. It would be difficult with only one working arm, but she was determined to do it.

She planted her feet against the wall and squeezed her body past the barrier above. She felt the sharp rock rip her clothing and into her skin, but she was not going to let that stop her.

“Pull,” she called, and then she closed her eyes against the sudden brightness of the sun as she realized that she had finally reached the top.

She held out her good arm to John, wincing as pain shot through her other arm. “Thank you,” she whispered as John and another man pulled her the rest of the way out and helped her to a stretcher,

“Mom!”

Never in all her life had she heard a sound more sweet than Justin's voice.

“Right here,” she answered, and as he buried his face against her chest, she cradled his head. “Right here as long as you need me,” she said.

On Christmas Day everyone stopped working to celebrate. Together they all sang carols and Pastor Detlef along with the local priest led services.

A few days later Justin and his mom and the others were at the San Jose airport. It all seemed like a world away from the little village as they waited for the plane that would take them back to Sarasota.

“Mom?”

“Right here,” she said, and patted his knee.

“I've been thinking. I mean, do you really want to bake pies and stuff for Zeke's café?”

“I like to bake and he needs help.”

“I know but, well, I mean lots of people can bake and lots of people need jobs.”

“I need a job, Justin. We have rent to pay and food to buy and—”

“But what about the kids at the hospital?”

“They have Pastor Paul.”

“They need you, Mom.”

Her eyes flickered away as if she wasn't quite sure how to answer him. He decided to press his case. “And that's not all. They need you—not just those sick kids but Pastor Paul—and Dr. Booker.”

Now she was staring hard at him. “Why would you say that—about Dr. Booker?”

Justin sighed. “Come on, Mom. I may be twelve, but it's pretty clear even to a kid like me that he likes you—a lot. And you like him. I mean, he makes you happy—the way Dad used to.”

“Dr. Booker is a good friend….”

“He's more than that. I overheard Hester saying that he's in love with you.” Instantly he realized that he might have gone too far. Hester—who was seated on the aisle across from them—rolled her eyes and then shrugged when Justin's mom looked at her.

“Well, he is,” she said and turned back to her knitting.

“So, I mean … people get married again after someone dies, don't they?”

“Yes, but …”

“So if you went back to work at the hospital and you and Dr. Booker spent time together, maybe …” For the first time since his father's death Justin found himself excited about the future—more than excited, he felt certain about the future. “It could work,” he said hopefully.

“I'll think about it.”