Anna's Story - Part 34

Part 34

 

On Monday night after Anna got home from work, the phone rang.  It was Janet.

 

“Hi Anna.  What’s going on?” Janet said, never one to beat around the bush.

 

“What do you mean?  What am I doing right now?  Dishes actually.  Why?” Anna said.

 

“What I mean is that my brother-in-law is acting dopey, and I know him only too well.  Something’s up,” she said.

 

Anna started to laugh and then so did Janet. 

 

“Oh, Janet, you are way too smart,” Anna said.  “John and I have kind of taken a step off the curb, so to speak.”

 

“Seriously?” Janet said.

 

“Yep, seriously.  We went to the mall after church on Sunday and spent the day together.  It was so much fun.  He held my hand and he gave me a kiss,” Anna said, thinking the moment the words came out of her mouth that she sounded like a 16-year-old.

 

“Oh, my gosh.  No wonder.  When he came to get Katie on Sunday, he was in the best mood!  My husband looked at me after he left and asked me if he thought maybe John was using drugs,” Janet said, laughing again.

 

“He said we have plans to make as he starting driving off,” Anna said.  “He is so special, Janet.  I don’t want anything to ruin this.”

 

Tuesday

 

Tuesday was hectic.  Anna had meetings and a committee to gather together to put the finishing touches on the open house.  It had to be special and well organized in order to make the best impression possible.

 

She worked on an order for a sign that would be hung in the gym about the values that the center espoused.  Mr. Collins liked it but hoped that maybe the company would work with them a little bit on price. 

 

At around noon, her phone rang and it was an unfamiliar number.  She answered it.

 

“Miss Smithson.  Anna Smithson?” the caller asked.

 

“Yes, this is Anna Smithson,” she answered.

 

“This is Addleford General Hospital calling.  We have a John Peters here, and his sister-in-law, Janet, asked us to call you,” the voice said.

 

“John?  What’s happened?” Anna asked, her stomach already beginning to churn.

 

“He fell at work and we are treating him here.  Janet thought maybe you’d want to come over here,” the woman told her.

 

Anna jumped in her car and headed for the hospital.  She was driving on autopilot, not really computing where she was turning or why.  But somehow she made it and parked the car.

 

She went to the ER, figuring John would be there.  Janet was in the waiting room, looking shaken.

 

“What happened?” Anna asked, taking Janet’s arms.

 

“He fell off a ladder at work.  I don’t know a lot more than that.  They haven’t come out here to update me and I’m so scared!!  I had to leave Katie with the neighbor,” Janet said.

 

The two women sat down and Janet said that they should pray.  So they bowed their heads, sitting in the waiting room chairs, and prayed an Our Father, a Hail Mary, and the prayer to St. Michael together.  They were still praying when a doctor came down the hall and stood in front of them.

 

“Are you John Peters’ family members?” he asked.

 

“Yes, I’m his sister-in-law and this is … this is his girlfriend,” Janet said.

 

“John is going to be all right, we think.  He has a couple of broken ribs and so he is very uncomfortable right now, but we checked the CAT scan of his head and it looks okay.  Somehow he broke the fall, but we aren’t quite sure how.  Do you want to see him?” the doctor asked.

 

“Yes, we’d like to do that,” Janet answered for both of them.

 

A nurse led them down the hall to a treatment room in the ER and John was lying on the bed, white as a sheet.  He had his eyes closed.

 

“John, it’s Janet and Anna,” Janet told him.

 

His eyes opened up wide and he looked at both of them.

 

“Wow.  All these years and I’ve never done anything so stupid in my life.  I feel like an idiot,” he said, hesitating between words to get in a shallow breath.  “They said the pain meds would kick in pretty soon and my ribs wouldn’t hurt as much.”

 

“John, we were so scared,” Anna said, taking his hand.

 

“Where’s Katie?” John said, suddenly aware that his little girl was nowhere around.

 

“She’s with the neighbor.  You remember her?  The nice lady with the cat?” Janet said.

 

“Oh, yeah.  That was good of her,” John said.

 

Anna stayed with John for several hours, and Janet went home to get Katie and also take care of things when her children came home from school.

 

John slept as the pain meds kicked in, and a nurse came in the room to check him.

 

“We’re going to discharge him tomorrow morning, okay?  We’d just like to make sure that he is breathing deeply enough so that he doesn’t end up with a blood clot,” she explained.

 

When John woke up, Anna explained the situation and he told her that she should go home and get some rest.

 

“I could use a ride home tomorrow,” John said.  “Would that be okay?  That way Janet doesn’t have to try and find someone to watch Katie again.”

 

“Sure, I’ll call your room in the morning and you can give me an idea of about what time.  Maybe Katie can just stay at Janet’s for a couple of days because I’m not sure you’re going to be up to taking care of her.”

 

John agreed, and then he got very quiet. 

 

“John, what is it?” Anna asked him.

 

“Something weird, something I can’t explain,” John said.

 

“Weird?  What was weird?” Anna asked.

 

“Well, when I fell, it was like slow motion.  I remember everything and being up that high I was thinking this could be it.  Then just before I landed on the cement floor, it was like something held me up.  Something … caught me and when I got here they checked my head because they figured I hit it, even though I told them I hadn’t,” John explained.

 

“I’ve read a couple books by a woman who writes about encounters with angels.  It sounds just like one of those,” Anna said.  “It sounds like a miracle.”