2

Steve sighed heavily as he walked into his empty house. He spent the afternoon--and a good part of the evening--advocating God and all the ‘religious mumbo jumbo’ to his sister. He didn’t think he would actually get anywhere with her, but he had to try. She opened the door. True, mentioning the vision was how it all started, but maybe that was a good thing.

What Steve didn’t expect, however, was for Christina to turn the conversation around on him.

“I don’t know, Steve. I mean, how could you still believe in God knowing He took your wife away after being married for such a short time?”

“That’s a good--”

Christina cut him off. “I mean, you’ve always told me that He wants the best for us. How was that the best for you?”

“I don’t know, Chris.” Steve sighed and rubbed his forehead. “I don’t know. But I do know that God has His reasons and I’m going to let Him sort it all out.”

Christina didn’t seem convinced. Little did she know that Steve was becoming less convinced as well.

“But what if she’s right, God? I mean...I’m not exactly your biggest fan right now. How can I tell her that you love us when I’m not sure I believe it anymore? Why did she have to die? Why?” Steve didn’t care that he was in tears. He knew Christina was right. He did need to grieve over Danielle. No matter how long it took.

“Stephen, it was her time.”

Steve looked around. “God?”

Silence.

“Oh, that’s great! You talk when I don’t want to hear You and then when I want to hear from You, You’re nowhere to be found. Why is that? Is this all a mind game?”

In a moment of anger, Steve picked up a framed picture of he and Danielle shortly after they were married and hurled it. It hit the wall, shattering into many pieces, which caused Steve to cry even harder. He was so engrossed in his emotions that he didn’t even hear the phone ring.

“Steve, you there? It’s Elizabeth...Yates. Look, I know it’s late, but I just got this feeling that I needed--”

“Liz?”

“Oh hey. You are home.”

Steve smiled self-consciously. “Yeah. I, uh, I--” How you do tell someone they interrupted a good cry?

“It’s okay.” Elizabeth didn’t need an explanation. “You weren’t sleeping, were you?”

Steve shook his head. “Nope. So you were saying you needed something?”

“Oh.” Elizabeth chuckled. “Um, I just kinda felt that God, you know, was telling me to call you.” She wondered why she was so nervous. This was her brother-in-law. He might as well have been Elizabeth’s own brother for how close they were.

Elizabeth was the one who introduced Danielle to Steve. Steve and Elizabeth were in the same Abnormal Psychology class in college and they attended study groups together. At one such group meeting, they were the only two who showed up. They ended up talking for about three hours about God, their families, and music. After a few more study sessions, they found that their friendship was growing and began doing things together outside of the study sessions. Steve never believed that he could find someone he clicked with so well. Elizabeth was more than happy to have Steve as a friend. It seemed like the answer to her prayers. One night, when Elizabeth and Steve were studying at Elizabeth’s apartment, Danielle came home and Elizabeth knew that it was love at first sight.

“Why’s that?” Steve asked, breaking into Elizabeth’s journey down memory lane.

He heard Elizabeth take a deep breath. “God’s still here. He hasn’t left; even though you think He has. He loves you, Steve and He loves Danielle too.” She exhaled.

“But why did she have to die?” Steve asked, his tears beginning to resurface.

Inexplicably, Elizabeth began to cry. “Stephen, she did what she needed to. You, on the other hand, have other people to touch. Can you do that?”

“I don’t know.” Steve said between sobs. “I don’t know.” His voice was lowered to a whisper.

Elizabeth smiled. “He will help you.”

“Thanks Liz. Your timing couldn’t have been better.”

She chuckled. “I just do what I’m told. Looking for explanations can get me in trouble.”

“Believe it or not, that’s a good quality.”

“I know.”

Elizabeth’s airy laughter made Steve smile, but it also made his heart ache. She sounded just like Danielle and sometimes the constant reminder got to be too much for him to take.

“I probably should let you go for now. Thanks for calling.”

“Anytime Steve. I need to get ready for bed anyway. I’ll talk to ya later.”

“Goodnight.” Steve sighed and hung up the phone. He moved to pick up the shattered picture frame and his body crumpled against the wall. He laid his head in his hands and did the only thing he could think to do: pray. “Lord, I miss her. I miss her so much. It’s like I can’t breathe. I still don’t understand why You took her from me. She was such a good person and I loved her so much.”

The tears started coming again, but he didn’t care. He needed to get this out. “She didn’t deserve to die. She was so young. She had her whole life ahead of her. Wasn’t there any way I could have saved her? I really thought she had beaten the cancer. Why did we even have to meet? Why did I have to fall in love with her?” He sighed and lay flat on the floor. “Lord, I’m asking You this one thing. I never ever want to fall for anyone else again. This pain is just too much. I can’t remain focused on You if I’m carrying all this around.”

Steve wiped his eyes hastily with the back of his hand and decided that he really didn’t have the energy to walk to his bed. He tried to sit up, but between the crying and the laying, a pounding headache had developed. Instead, he rolled on his side and picked up the fallen picture. He swept the broken glass from it and hugged it to his chest. “Baby, I know you’re in heaven. Do me a favor; ask God why He took you from me.”

oooooo

Meghan groaned at the mound of paperwork on her desk. She really wished she didn’t have to take yesterday afternoon off to go on another wild goose chase.

“Hey, Meg. Any good news?”

Meghan looked up and smiled at Evelyn Benjamin, her cubicle mate. “Unfortunately not.” She rubbed her legs and picked a piece of lint off of her black skirt before taking a sip of coffee. “I guess I’ll never know what’s wrong with me.” She muttered sadly as she rifled through some of the papers sitting on her desk. “Enough of that. How are you, Evie?”

“Not bad. Thanks for asking.” Evelyn sat down at her desk and began to shuffle through her own stack of papers. “Did you know that Mr. Davidson is coming in today?”

Meghan rolled her eyes and muttered a curse word. “Oops. You know, that man has the ability to make me hate my life even more than I already do.”

“Come on, Meg. You know that once you guys win his case, you’ll be golden. You are one of the best assistants in this whole firm. You’re going to make lawyer soon and I wanna be your assistant when you do.”

Meghan chuckled. “You got it, Evie. So, what’s going on with the Davidson case?”

“Well,” Evelyn sighed and leaned over Meghan’s shoulder, pointing at the paper she was holding. “Mrs. Davidson wants the mansion and two million as a settlement for the divorce. Then we have Mr. Davidson; who doesn’t want to give up the mansion because he wants custody of the kids. Today Mr. D. is coming to present his side and evidence as to why he wants custody.”

Meghan looked carefully at the sheet Evelyn was referring to. “He sites adultery as the reason for the divorce. Well, if that’s true, she’s going to be hard pressed to get those kids.”

“This is only our second meeting with him. The custody hearing is something we don’t need to worry about for awhile.”

Meghan nodded. “True. However, maybe some of this ‘evidence’ will help in the divorce proceedings.”

“And you’re worried about making lawyer in this firm.”

Meghan rolled her eyes. “Please. Mr. Morrison may like me, but I’m ‘young’. You know he wants his lawyers to be over thirty.”

“That’s discriminatory. A twenty three year old who has the experience should be given the same chance as a thirty three year old.”

Meghan nodded. “That may be true, but there is one other thing against me.”

“You’re a woman?”

Meghan laughed. “Okay, two. There’s that, but I only have an Associates degree. If that thirty three year old has even a Bachelors, I’m immediately less qualified.”

“I guess.” Evelyn sighed. “But you’ve been working here since you were fifteen and you’re working on your Bachelors. That’s got to count for something.”

Meghan shrugged. “That I can make a good cup of coffee.” She chuckled sadly.

“Oh come on, you can do more than that.”

Meghan nodded. “I suppose. Not that it matters anyway. There are no openings.” She smiled. “I’ve checked.”

“Ahhh.” Evelyn heard the fax machine beep. She walked over to retrieve the papers it spit out. “Oh my God. Listen to this: ‘Barbara Davidson is counter suing Gregory Davidson, claiming that he emotionally abused her and their two children and he was having an affair with his secretary’.”

“And people wonder why I’m not in a relationship.” Meghan sighed and laid her head in her hands. “It’s going to be a long day.”

oooooo

Steve rolled onto his back and stretched out. He hadn’t intended to fall asleep on the living room floor, but his intentions were irrelevant at this point. He was still clasping the picture close to his heart, but didn’t pull it away immediately. He felt like he was holding Danielle again. He knew he’d have a rude awakening when he snapped back to reality, but he couldn’t let Danielle go just yet…

Steve was glad he took the day off, as he had absolutely no desire to get up, even though it was noon already. The ringing phone disrupted his plans to make the world disappear, however.

“What do you want, Chris?” He grumbled and rubbed his still-throbbing head.

“Afternoon, Grouchy. You need to get over here ASAP.”

“Wha--is Macy okay?” Steve questioned with alarm.

“I expect to see you at my door in twenty minutes.” Click

Steve hung up the phone. “Goodbye to you too.” He pulled on jeans and a T-shirt before brushing his teeth and hair. “I should just move in over there,” he muttered as he grabbed his keys off the table. When he arrived at his sister’s, he found Christina standing on the porch with her arms folded.

“Nice of you to show up.”

He joined her on the porch. “A pleasure to see you too. What’s so important that I had to hurry over here?”

Christina led him inside to where Macy was sitting in a chair, watching cartoons. “Look!”

“What?” Steve gave Macy a once over with his eyes, but saw nothing unusual. “I don’t get it.”

Christina pointed to her daughter’s knees. “This. Nothing. No scrapes, scars, or proof that she fell yesterday.”

“It’s a miracle. Why are you all in an uproar?” Steve was still confused as to the urgency of the situation.

She folded her arms and sighed. “Did you heal Macy, Steve?”

oooooo

At five o’clock Meghan was just about done cleaning up her work area, thankful that this workweek was over. She waved goodbye to Evelyn and Mr. Morrison and drove to her Mom’s house. Alice, Mr. and Mrs. Hennessey’s housekeeper greeted Meghan with a warm smile.

“Hello, Miss Meghan.”

Meghan took off her jacket and smiled at Alice. “Hi Alice. How are you doing today?”

“Good, thank you.” Alice nodded and took Meghan’s jacket. “Your mother and father are in the den.”

Meghan smiled. “Thanks.” She walked into the den and hugged her mother. “Hi Mom.”

“Hi honey.” Joan smiled at her only daughter. “Glad you could make it. The lemon pepper chicken should be ready soon.”

Meghan licked her lips. “Good. I’m starved.” She walked over to where her father was sitting. “Hi Daddy.”

Paul Hennessey looked up. “Hi Princess. Good to see you.”

“You too. Feeling any better?” She asked as she leaned down to kiss him.

He shrugged. “Slightly. The medication they’ve got me on has stopped the nausea, but I’m still congested.”

“Sorry to hear that.” Meghan pouted.

Joan glanced at Meghan. “Honey, have you been sleeping? You look exhausted.”

“I’m fine.” Meghan lied. “Just in some pain today.”

Joan shrugged. She wasn’t convinced. “Okay. Well, let’s go into the dining room. Smells like dinner’s ready.”

oooooo

Steve was dumbfounded. “Healing? You think--” Steve stopped short. Me? A Healer, he thought. The possibility wasn’t totally far fetched; God could do whatever He wants through whomever He wants, but healing? If he was unsure, how could he expect Christina to see things any differently? “Chris, I couldn’t have healed her, okay? The whole thing is just a figment--” Steve stopped himself mid sentence. Was he saying that God was a figment of his sister’s imagination? That was a great testimony. “I--I, uh, it’s a miracle. Plain and simple. A miracle.” Steve nodded his head in satisfaction.

“You may be familiar with all this God and healing stuff, but it’s new to me.” She began pacing. “You know Jeff would flip out if I told him about this. I can’t keep making excuses.” Christina said, her voice becoming edgier.

Without any warning, Macy leaned over and vomited on the floor. Christina ran over to her and pressed her lips to the toddler’s forehead. “Stephen James Spencer. I don’t know what you did yesterday, but Macy’s burning up.” Christina stated, her voice shaking slightly. “What did you do?” she asked, a little more forcefully this time.

Steve frowned. “Me? You’re blaming a fever on me?”

“All I know is that she was fine until your ‘vision’ or whatever.”

“She was not fine, Chris. She fell.”

Christina nodded. “Yeah, and her knees were scraped like they’re supposed to be after a run-in with the cement. Now, there’s no wound and she has a fever. You’ve obviously cast a spell on her.”

“How can you be sure that one thing has to do with the other?” he leaned over his niece and brought his hand near her forehead. He didn’t need to make contact with her skin to feel the heat radiating from her. Steve turned his attention back to his sister and narrowed his eyes at her. “I can understand you being freaked out about the healing thing, but I seriously doubt that after healing someone, God would make them not well again,” he found himself raising his voice in frustration as well. “Chris, she’s two. Two year olds get sick.”

“‘Teve,” Macy looked up at them with tears in her eyes and reached for Steve.

Even though he was extremely frustrated with his sister and just wanted to leave, he knew he couldn’t take that out on an innocent little girl. He took the roll of paper towels off the counter and placed a few over the mess Macy left on the floor. He used another towel to wipe her face before he picked her up and hugged her to him. “Come on, baby girl. Let’s see if a cold bath might help.” He walked into Macy’s room and grabbed some clean clothes while Christina just watched.

“I can take care of my daughter, you know.” She said and folded her arms across her chest.

Steve nodded. “I know, Chris, ” he sighed. “Why don’t you clean up the living room and I’ll play doctor.”

“Fine.” Christina groaned and trudged to the sink.

While Christina was busy with that task, Steve began running the bath water and helped Macy undress. Once she was settled in the tub and happily playing with some Barbies, Steve poked his head out and asked his sister to come sit with him.

“What?” Christina leaned on the doorframe.

Steve softened his face. “Look, I’m not trying to take Macy away from you. I hate seeing her sick as much as you do.” He sighed. “You did call me and demand that I come over here.” He pointed at Macy, who was beginning to get cranky. “Okay, sweetie.” He rubbed some water over her in an attempt to cool her off. “You got any aspirin or Tylenol, Chris?”

“Yeah. You get her dressed and I’ll get some.”

Steve nodded and watched her leave. He pulled Macy out of the tub and wrapped her in a towel. He dried her off and dressed her quickly. He carried her into the kitchen and handed her to Christina.

“Here, baby.” Christina gave Macy some liquid Tylenol. Macy laid her head on Christina’s shoulder and wrapped her chubby arms around Christina’s neck.

Steve smiled. “See? Sometimes only Mommy will do.”

“Don’t you forget it.” Christina joked. She walked into Macy’s room and laid her daughter in her bed. Macy started crying and fussing loudly.

Steve had followed Christina into the room and sighed. “She doesn’t want to be left alone.”

“I know. But she needs to rest.”

Steve nodded. “Well, you are her mother.”

“You don’t approve?”

“It’s not that.” Steve protested. “I--”

“You what?” Christina argued. “Oh, I get it. Since you healed her, you think you’re the ultimate parent and you know better than everyone else.”

He shook his head. “That’s not what I think.”

“Whatever. Next time; don’t even bother touching my daughter. She’ll be fine without you.”

Macy reached out for Steve. “‘Teve.” She whined.

“Sorry, kid.” Steve turned away from her. “I can’t take the blame for this.” He walked out of the room.

“Steve. Stephen!”

He turned around.

“You’re leaving me here with her?”

He nodded.

“But she wants you.” Christina stared at him for a couple of minutes with an expectant look on her face, hoping that Steve would change his mind. Even if Steve was angry with her, he could stick around for Macy.

Steve sighed. “You’re her mother, remember?” He called out after Christina turned back to her daughter’s room. He could hear the protests of the little girl and rubbed his face in the hopes of blocking them out. Should he stay? He couldn’t tell if Christina wanted him there or not, and that frustrated him. Grabbing his keys off the counter, he realized that he wasn’t taking any time for himself. Sure, he felt a little selfish saying that, but what he had said to his sister the other day was true. If he couldn’t even take care of himself, what right did he have trying to take care of anyone else? Macy’s room was quiet and since it appeared that Christina was otherwise occupied, Steve walked out the front door without hesitation, reluctant to turn his head in the direction of Christina’s house again.

oooooo

Meghan rocked herself gently with the hope of alleviating the pain in her legs.

“Meg, is there anything I can do?” Lily grimaced at the sight of her friend in pain.

Meghan tried to smile. “Yeah, pray you don’t ever get anything like this.”

“Um. You don’t believe in God, Meg. That’s Wes’ deal.”

Meghan rolled her eyes. “Then get him to pray.”

“You got it.” Lily laughed and knelt in front of Meghan. “You sure you don’t want to go home? I’ll send Wes with you to take extra special care of you.”

Meghan lowered her head in an attempt to hide the pink tint in her cheeks. She always had a soft spot in her heart for Wes Tanner. “It’s all good. It passed. For the moment, anyway.”

“Okay. As long as you feel okay.” Lily said as she put her sunglasses back on.

Meghan nodded. “I should be used to this by now anyway.”

“Just because you know it’s there doesn’t mean you’ll ‘get used to it by now’ or ever.” Lily said.

Meghan sighed. “Yeah, but no one can find anything. I’ll just have to live with the fact that I’ve has this problem for sixteen years and I can’t put a name on it.”

“There’s no one else you can talk to?”

She shook her head. “Lil, I’ve been all over Australia and the U.S. Twice. I’m just giving up.”

“But, Meg--” Lily sighed. She knew that she was probably just upsetting Meghan and that just because Lily would pursue it more didn’t mean that Meghan wanted to. She had to ask this one question first before she let it lie.

“Have you tried to pray about it?”

Meghan scoffed. “You said it yourself, Lil. Rather tactfully, I might add. That’s Wes’ deal. I don’t really think that God will do anything anyway. I mean, if He wanted to, He would’ve already, right?” She lay back on the lounger and closed her eyes.