CHURCH LADY P.I.: Part # 15 (Waking)

CHURCH LADY P.I. Part # 15

(WAKING)

REMEMBER: This is a mystery and it must be read in order, including the  Introduction, then Part 1, Part 2, etc. Also read the Companion Blog Post from my Personal Blog, "Laura-Lee Was Here" called, "FINALLY FINISHED: Church Lady P.I." There are clues everywhere. (LR)

Even before I opened my eyes I was conscious of a presence. When I did eventually open them I was looking into a face of deep compassion from which two of the bluest eyes were shining. I wondered how long he had been there watching over me, even while I was unaware of it. His name came to my muddled brain and since to speak his name was to make him smile, I did just that.

"Bert."

And then he was gone.

I remember when I was a small child I had a big old 'Tom' cat. He followed me everywhere. He always had to be near me, but he never displayed any emotions for me one way or another. One day I fell off my tricycle, hit my head and lost consciousness. When I woke up I discovered my cat was nudging me over and over with his nose, licking my face all over and mewing at the top of his lungs. He had been too small to move me or help me in any way, but he had never left my side as I lay there and when he saw me start to move he was so over joyed that he just couldn't contain his emotions.

In Marc's case ... same reaction; just different species.

But as pleasant as it was to have Marc making such a fuss over me, I was in a lot of pain and when I let out a gasp, he started yelling for a nurse. I'd never seen him so undone before, nor so expressive in public. When a nurse didn't immediately respond he ran out of the room to grab one.

My breathing was shallow and I longed to take a deep breath, but when I tried to do just that, pain like I'd never known before snatched away the little breath I had and I actually saw stars swim before my eyes. By the time Marc returned with two nurses and a doctor, from wherever he had abducted them from, my mind was clearing "thanks" to all that pain and the first thing I said was, "Sarah?!" and  instinctively started to rise from my bed.

It was a nurse who put a restraining arm on me as the doctor started doing things to me with his hands and a little light. Marc's face came back into focus and he said gently and reassuringly, "She's fine. Sarah's fine. Don't worry."

The doctor asked me about my scale of pain and ordered the nurses to "up" my dosage of this and that. When they scampered out of the room to do the doctor's bidding, with Bert on their heels, and the doctor finally took his leave as well, Marc was sitting in a chair right next to my bed and holding my hand. That's when I noticed how awful he looked and knew that the vigil he had held next to me had been both intense and lengthy. But he waited for me to speak first.

"Did the cabin blow up?" I asked with a raspy voice.

"Yes."

"Mr. Harker?"

Marc just shook his head.

"But Sarah's okay?" I rushed to ask.

"Yes. She wasn't in the cabin anymore and was actually quite a distance away when it exploded. Yet she still did receive some injuries."

My eyes widened. He continued quickly, "The explosion splintered the old wood logs the cabin was made of and some pieces of it have been found as far away as three miles from the campground. But you're the only one who received life threatening injuries."

"Did you get hurt anywhere?" I asked anxiously.

"Me? No. I'm indestructible." He teased.

"Actually," Marc continued, "because I was luring the sentries as far away from the cabin as possible, it saved all three of our lives. Coach Fabre is now one of us. Or should I say, 'one with us'."

I knew what he meant. This Coach Fabre had given his life over to Jesus ... completely. Now he was no longer an 'enemy' to us or to Jesus. And it brought back to my mind some of the final conversation I had had with Mr. Harker, but only in a partial and jumbled way.

I had quoted partly from the book of Romans, chapter 5. "But God demonstrated his love for us that while we were sinners and God's enemies, Christ died for us."  I knew it wasn't exactly that, but something like it.
            { Romans 5:8-11 }

By having his life spared, the coach had been confronted by the ultimate evidence of Jesus' love for us, that he died not just for his "friends" but his "enemies" as well, so that one day we might all be members of His "family".

LINK to Next Part # 16 "Epilogue: Case Facts"




"FINALLY FINISHED: Church Lady P.I." from Laura-Lee Was Here Blog (Companion Post)

CHURCH LADY P.I.: Introduction




Copyright 2015 "The characters and events in this story are not meant to represent any persons living or dead and are entirely a product of the imagination of the writer." LR