Excessica Anthology BOX SET Winter (97 page)

"I
know."

"About
everything... I thought I could handle it. I can't. I don't want to be a
cripple all my life. I just started living. I want to do so many things and now
I can't."

"You've
done great and you know it. It's just a little let down, it was bound to
happen."

"That's
what the shrinks said. I thought I was stronger than that, I thought I could
beat it."

I
squeezed her shoulders and stood up before her and took a step back. "You
are a very strong and courageous young lady, Janie, I admire you for how you
have handled what happened to you."

She
was silent for several long moments before she sat up straight and sought my
eyes. "Will you...can you...try to heal me?"

"I
can try, Janie, no guarantees. It's not me...it's those lights...they are not
fireflies...something else...I don't know what."

"I
told my mom I was going with you. Will it take long?"

"I
don't know. I think I was on that table all night long."

She
reached into her purse. "I better call Raven and have her cover for me and
I'll call my mom," she smiled..."we cover for each other."

As
she spoke on her cell phone I walked to the table and ran my hands across it.
It was not a wooden table, nor plastic or fiberglass. It was thick, like four
inches, and the material was transparent with little flicks of color and
sometimes, if the room was really dark, it seemed to glow. It was long and
narrow, maybe seven feet long and four across. As I ran my hand over the table
the 'fireflies' began to gather in the room. I think I felt them before I
actually saw them.

"They're
here! The lights. Oh...I'm all goosebumpy all over!"

She
took the hand I reached out for her and moved cautiously to the table. "I
don't have to take my clothes off, do I?"

"I
don't think so. I didn't; I just collapsed on the table."

She
took a deep breath; I could feel the quivering through her hand in mine.

"I
had so much pain...will it hurt? Oh, I hope not!"

"I
don't think so. I don't remember anything...no pain, no fear; but when I woke
up, I don't know how to say, I felt happy and complete. It was a good
feeling."

"I
trust you, Mr. Dean...ah, Wes, I can call you that?

"Sure,
that's fine. Are you ready?"

"I...uh,
I guess so. What do I do?"

"Let
me help you up on the table and see what happens."

"Okay,"
she said in a very quiet little voice.

She
stretched out on the table, lowered her head and looked up at the ceiling but
nothing happened. "Maybe I should take this thing off?" She rapped
her knuckles on the fake leg.

"Maybe..."

She
sat up and removed the prosthetic, the shoe on her real foot and handed them to
me. I turned and placed both on the chair she had been sitting in. When I
turned back I saw the glow of the lights at her foot and then at her head.

"Something
is happening, Janie!"

She
blinked and opened her mouth but just nodded and then closed her eyes. The
silence in the room was broken only by her rapid breathing. I was holding my
breath.

The
lights...the glow...moved slowly over her entire body and a good foot above and
below and the tabled glowed beneath her. I listened as her breathing slowed and
her face and body relaxed.

The
glow swirled and rippled and seemed to become thicker and moved in waves up and
then back down over her. I stood watching for many minutes and then finally
pulled the chair next to the table and sat heavily, watching every nuance,
every motion of the lights.

It
was a good hour before the motion and movement stopped. I sat up and stared
wide eyed as a glowing replica of the girl appeared off the table to my left.
On the table the glow covered her body but not the space where her leg should
have been. In the replica that turned slowly before me, both legs were where
they should be. But...and I really stared...she had two left feet. I frowned
and blinked and then removed my shoes and socks, scooted the chair to the
bottom end of the table and lifted my feet to the table, next to her feet. The
lights swirled around and finally enveloped my feet leaving me with a tingling
feeling for a long several moments and then faded. I slowly pulled my feet off
the table and put my shoes back on.

It
took another hour or so before the image of her appeared again, off to the
side. This time they got it right; she had her normal left foot and a matching
right foot.

I
hesitated then reached into my jacket for the flashlight. I clicked it on and
left it on for a count of three and then switched it off.

The
replica faded into nothingness and the light and the glow concentrated on her
right leg above the missing part. It intensified and swirled and pulsed as I
watched amazed until I could no longer focus my eyes. When I looked again, I
gasped and drew in a deep breath as I watched her jeans and blouse fade away
leaving her naked form at rest on the table beneath the ethereal glow. I turned
away.

It
took a long time as atom by atom or molecule by molecule, I knew not which,
began to gather and form beneath her knee. I shivered and stood up and went
outside. I felt frightened and anxious and totally helpless and doubtful of what
I had done. I smoked four cigarettes, one after the other, lighting the next
from the last. I paced and thought and shivered in the chill and then again at
the thought of what was going on inside that building.

The
missing leg now had an outline and a glowing center that vaguely resembled a
bone. Her mouth was slightly open, her eyes moved behind closed lids and it
seemed as though her face was softer and had a benign smile. Her body seemed to
move slightly, undulating slowly or perhaps my eyes deceived me. Again, after
watching for a while I had to go back outside again. I finally fell asleep in
the chair next to her on the table.

I
awoke as I had before, to sunlight moving slowly across the room until it found
my face. I blinked and rubbed my eyes, stretched and stood up. She was fully
clothed again; the lights and the glow were gone. She appeared to be sleeping
with a peaceful look on her face. I stood looking at her as the sun explored
the room again.

I
reached out and slipped my fingers into the open palm of her hand. Slowly her
fingers closed around mine and she took a long deep inhale and let the breath
slowly flow out. "Oh, I had the most wonderful dream..." she spoke
with her eyes closed, "I was running in a meadow and..."

Suddenly
she jerked her hand away and sat up with her arms crossed over her breasts and
her hands over an open mouth. "Oh, my God!"

I
went quickly to her side and she flung both arms around me and clung tightly,
gasping for air, her chest heaving.

"It's
okay, you're okay..." I tried to soothe her.

"I
didn't know where I was at first and then I remembered and I knew. Mr. Dean,
I'm afraid to look, did it work? What happened?"

I
kept holding her close until she relaxed her arms a slowly and cautiously
raised and turned her head.

"Oh,
my God! It's there! My leg is there! I can feel it! I can move my toes! Oh,
Wesley, Oh, God!"

She
burst into tears and sobs and flung her arms around me again and clung and
cried until she could cry no more.

The
look on her face as she swung her legs over the edge of the table and gingerly
placed weight on both feet was beyond description. A look of faith and belief
and disbelief and wonderment and doubt and tears and smiles and nervous
laughter as she clung to my arm and then let go, standing unsupported.

She
took a tentative step and then another and picked the artificial leg off the
floor where I had left it. She cradled it in her arms, to her chest and lifted
her eyes to me. "I don't believe it. How can I ever thank you? Oh, Mr.
Dean, I don't know what to say."

I
cupped my hands around her cheeks and smiled down at her. "Your face says
it all, Janie, it says everything." I traced my fingers along her forehead
and the corners of her eyes. "You had two pain wrinkles here, and a bunch
of little ones here and here." I said as I touched her face. "They
are all gone."

"Gone?"
she exclaimed, "gone!"

"Gone;
as in not there anymore. You look just as you did when I first met you two
years ago, a lovely young girl."

She
pushed the artificial leg away from her and then pulled it closer to her face.
"I can read the model number on the foot! I couldn't before...not without
my reading glasses. Oh, Wesley, you fixed my eyes too! Oh, my loving God!"

Tears
welled up in her eyes again as she dropped the leg and clung to me.

No
one said a word...at least not to me, but I know she told her mother and a few
other people in the market. I could feel it in the looks I got; not like
before. I maybe should have done more...but what I saw...what happened...to her
and to me, was beyond what my little mind could comprehend. So I set it aside,
all of it, the lights, the old farm house, my daughter...I set it all aside and
went back to work on the great American novel.

I
was even making some progress, after weeks of writer's block. I made my three
times a week walk to the market, ate, drank, slept, wrote...did my normal
routine for almost three months.

There
was a knock at the door...and there she was. I didn't even think she knew where
I lived, but there she was.

"What
a surprise!" I said, as I opened the door wider and invited her in.

"Hope
you don't mind?" she said.

"Of
course I don't mind. Can I get you something?"

She
smiled at me and all at once I knew. There is a certain healthy, complete glow
about a gravid woman. I kept my lips together.

"No,
I'm fine. I just wanted to...see you...say hello...outside the market."

I
smiled a dorky smile and nodded, "Uh, okay..." I made an exaggerated
look at her new leg and then focused on her eyes. "What's up?"

"I'm
gonna have a baby!"

"Uh,
okay..." I was searching for words, thinking why she would tell me...why
she would tell me in this way. "Well...ah...congratulations! Guess you and
your boyfriend got back together?"

She
gave me a look that I can only describe as a 'Madonna' look, not the pop singer,
but the El Greco painting. There was a faint illusive smile on her lips.
"I'm still a virgin."

Well,
I suppose you can see me blinking my eyes and feel me searching for words; none
came.

"The
doctor did the test, I really am pregnant but he said ah, well, I am partially
blocked, uhm,...well, you know...down there..."

Still
no words came to me.

"I'm
three months along. Counting back, it happened when I was with you."

Saucers
would not describe how wide my eyes were. "I swear! I didn't touch
you!"

She
reached a hand out and touched my cheek. "Oh, I know. It wasn't you. It
wasn't any one."

I
could only shake my head and stare at her, wide eyed. "What are you
saying?"

She
smiled, almost condescendingly, upon me. "The baby will be born almost
exactly on Christmas Day."

I
still did not get the whole picture.

"My
name is Janie Marie, Jesus and Mary, don't you see?"

My
blink rate broke the machine. All I could do was shake my head, back and forth,
again and again.

She
smiled. "I didn't think you would understand. My Pastor said it was the
second coming of Christ. The Virgin Birth, the Immaculate Conception. I have
been chosen."

She
smiled again and as she went out the door, turned her head and spoke over her
shoulder. "I just wanted you to know."

I
didn't see her much after that, not for a while. The Church bought the adjacent
piece of land to the old farm house. They relocated the power lines separating
the two properties; the lights would not or could not move under or anywhere
near the magnetic field created by transmission lines.

She...they...set
up a clinic, a healing clinic, just down the road. The traffic got so bad they
closed the road and built a new highway that curved around the old one. People
had to make appointments and pay to see her and the 'lights that healed'. It
became a National phenomena, TV crews, helicopters, evening news...another
bleeding hand statue seen by little girls.

Then
it went all quiet as December thickened. When it was finally silent, I walked
across the meadow toward the flickering candle light of her clinic, her house,
her stable and manger. She went the whole way.

She
smiled at me, huge in her final week. "I thought you might stop
by..."

"You're
not the grocery clerk, high school girl I used to know." I tilted my head
toward her.

"I'm
worth about twenty million dollars, they tell me." She matched my tilt and
extended her hands palms up. "Who'da thunk it?"