Faithful Heart (30 page)

Dottie Harper was sitting up in bed with her Bible in her hands. The quake had hit an hour earlier, and all she knew about the damage at City Mental Asylum was that it was severe. A nurse had told her that much. No one else in the hospital knew any more.

Was Jerrod all right? What about Dr. Carroll? Had he been on duty when the quake hit? She knew that sometimes he had to be there on Sundays.

She gripped the Bible and closed her eyes. “Oh, Lord,” she whispered, “You’re the Maker and Ruler of this universe. Nothing can happen to any of Your children unless You deem it so. I don’t know whether Jerrod is dead or alive. If … if You’ve seen fit to take him home to be with You, help me to accept it, and give me the strength that only You can give. If he’s still alive but injured, I ask You not to let him suffer. I love him so much, dear God. Please—”

Dottie’s prayer was interrupted when she heard the voice of Dr. Matthew Carroll outside her door. He was saying something to a nurse. The nurse gave a short reply, then the door came open. Dottie was thankful to know Dr. Carroll was all right, but when she saw his face, she was afraid he was about to give her bad news.

“Hi,” he said, closing the door and trying to smile.

“Hello.”

“Nurse Wilkins tells me you’ve been informed that the damage at the asylum was pretty bad,” he said, moving up to the bed.

“Yes. Were … were you there when the quake hit?”

“No. I was in church.”

“Oh, I’m so glad. I was afraid it might have been your Sunday to be on duty. Have you been there? Is … Jerrod all right?”

Dr. Carroll took hold of Dottie’s wrist, cleared his throat nervously, and said, “Mrs. Harper … Dottie … as you know, the asylum was built of stone. And—”

“Doctor, is Jerrod all right?”

Carroll bit his lower lip, closed his eyes, then opened them and said, “No. The entire east wall collapsed. My staff told me it teetered for about twenty minutes. They were dashing into the cells and freeing patients from the chains, trying to get them all out. They were able to get all but eleven. There was an aftershock, and the wall came down. Jerrod … Jerrod was one of the eleven buried in the rubble of the wall. It’ll be days before the city workers can get the bodies out.”

Dottie’s eyes filled with tears and she choked back a sob. The tears spilled down her cheeks, her anguish tearing a gaping wound in her heart.

Matthew Carroll fought his own emotions. He wanted to take her in his arms, but was afraid to let himself get that close.

“Oh, Jerrod!” Dottie cried, and broke into heavy, heart-rending sobs, burying her face in her hands.

The doctor could resist no more. He sat on the bed and wrapped her in his arms. “Dottie, I’m so sorry,” he said.

Dottie took refuge in the security of the doctor’s embrace and gave in to the storm of grief. She pressed her face into his shoulder and wept.

Dr. Carroll held her until her weeping diminished to quiet sniffles, then eased back and tilted her chin up. “Dottie … I hope you don’t mind if I call you
Dottie.”

“No. Of course not.”

He smiled thinly. “At least you have this consolation. Jerrod’s not shackled in a padded cell anymore. He’s with Jesus. And in heaven, nobody has mental problems. His shell shock is gone.”

Dottie closed her eyes and nodded.

“If you want, I’ll be with you when you tell your children,” he said.

“That’s thoughtful of you,” she said. “I appreciate you being so kind to me.”

Carroll wanted to tell Dottie that he loved her, but knew this was not the time.

Dottie thought for a moment, then said, “Certainly they know about the quake in San Bruno by now. Word will spread to the farms. I know what Breanna will do. She’ll come racing in here to make sure I’m all right, maybe even bring James and Molly Kate with her. I would really like to have you with me when I tell them about Jerrod, but you have things to do at the asylum. You can’t stay here just because of me. I’ll have Breanna. She’ll be a great help, I know.”

“I’m afraid there’s another problem,” Dr. Carroll said.

“What?”

“On my way over here, I was told by a policeman that all roads into San Francisco have been blocked by the authorities. They’ll remain blocked until the damage in every downtown building has been assessed. I imagine Breanna has already been turned back.”

“I hadn’t even considered that possibility. I guess we’ll just have to wait till she’s allowed to come to the hospital, and hope she brings the children with her.”

“Seems we don’t have any choice. But if at all possible, I want to be with you when you break the news to the children.”

Jerrod Harper’s first indication that he was still in the world was the sound of fire wagons racing up and down the streets. He shook his head and opened his eyes. There was dust in his eyes and in his mouth. When the fire wagon bells faded away, he heard excited voices close by. He tried to remember what had happened, then it all came back at once.

The earthquake.

Jerrod’s thoughts were invaded by excruciating pain in his left leg. Chunks of stone from the collapsed wall lay around him, making dark shadows. But there was light coming from just above his head. He tried to move the leg, fearing that it might be pinned under some massive stone. He was able to move it, and heaved a sigh of relief.

He thought of what had happened just before the wall collapsed. Two attendants came into his cell, saying the wall was threatening to come down. They released him from the chains and were about to lead him out when an aftershock shook the wall, and it began to topple. The attendants sprang away to save their own lives, and the wall came down, breaking apart as it fell. Miraculously, the tons of stone formed a pocket of protection above and around him, and only injured his left leg.

Jerrod lifted himself to his knees and nearly passed out from the stab of pain in his leg. Gritting his teeth, he crawled toward the opening in the rubble above him. When he stuck his head up, he looked back to what had been the interior of the building
and saw attendants helping inmates out through the front doors.

He was free!

Jerrod climbed carefully out of the rubble and into the alley. There was noise everywhere. He could smell smoke. A building was on fire somewhere near. With all the traffic on the streets, he decided to find a place to hide until dark. In spite of his injured leg, he would sneak to the edge of town and make his way through the ditches and fields to the farm. The fire of revenge burned in his brain. Dottie was going to pay dearly for what she had done to him!

Limping on the bad leg, he made his way down the alley till he came to a small horse barn. Inside he saw a pile of hay in one corner and crawled in behind it. He grinned to himself in spite of the pain. “Just sit tight, Dottie. Your loving Jerrod’s coming to you. And after I kill you, I’ll find that doctor and kill
him!”

As twilight faded into night at the Harper farm, Breanna lighted kerosene lanterns in the kitchen, the parlor, and the hallway. She then went to the second floor and placed a lantern on a hall table. She told the children she was going to give the entire house a good cleaning before their mother came home in a few days. She wanted to get started on the third floor tonight. James and Molly Kate quickly volunteered to help.

Breanna had told the children about the roadblock when she and Will returned to the Reeves place. She assured them the hospital had not been damaged and that their mother was all right. The children had asked about the asylum, and Breanna told them their father could be injured … or worse. They would just have to trust him to the Lord. They accepted that and had talked
about both parents during the ride home.

Breanna was glad the children were eager to help clean. It would keep their minds off the disaster in San Francisco.

When Breanna said they would start on the third floor first and work their way down over the next couple of days, James told her that his mother only cleaned the third floor twice a year. They hardly ever went up there, so it didn’t need to be cleaned now. Breanna insisted they at least clean the corner turret room with the cone-shaped roof.

The large windows were not dirty enough to bother with, but together Breanna and the children dusted the furniture, mopped the floor, and cleaned around the fireplace. Breanna was amazed at how heavy the old poker was that leaned against the fireplace. They didn’t make them that heavy any more. She noted the age of the wood stacked on the hearth and realized it had been a long time since there had been a fire in that room.

It was late when they finally had the turret room polished clean, but before going to bed, the children wanted Aunt Breanna to read them a story. They chose a book from the shelves in the parlor, then turned up the parlor lanterns and sat down, one child on each side of the aunt they had come to adore.

I
N THE PARLOR OF THE
H
ARPER HOME
, Breanna Baylor was reading to James and Molly Kate when a gust of wind slapped the side of the house. She cut off in the middle of a sentence and looked up. A second gust rattled the windows.

James saw the surprise on his aunt’s face and said “It’s all right, Aunt Breanna. We get wind like this every now and then. Daddy says it comes from the ocean.”

“I wouldn’t think it would be so forceful this far inland,” Breanna said. She looked back at the book. “Now, where were we?”

“The big ol’ giant was about to crush the poor farmer’s house,” Molly Kate said.

“Oh, yes.”

The wind seemed to be getting stronger as Jerrod limped into the yard. He paused and studied the house. Lantern light showed in the parlor and in the kitchen. On the second floor, he could barely make out a faint light in the window of his and Dottie’s bedroom.

He grimaced from the pain in his leg as he limped toward the side of the house. He stumbled and fell once, but scrambled to his feet again and soon drew up to the window.

The wind now lashed the house unmercifully. In the parlor, Breanna had to raise her voice slightly to be heard above the howl of the wind as she finished the story.

She closed the book and said, “All right, sweet dumplings, it’s time for little boys and girls to go to bed.”

“Will you come in my room and pray with me before I go to sleep, Aunt Breanna?” asked Molly Kate.

“Me, too?” asked James.

“Of course,” Breanna said, rising from the couch. Suddenly James gasped and pointed to the window. “Look! It’s Daddy!”

The lantern light made Jerrod’s features look ghastly through the glass. Molly Kate screamed and grabbed for Breanna. Jerrod ejected a wild, beastly roar and smashed the window with his fists. Glass showered the parlor floor.

Jerrod struggled to climb through the window. The desire to get at the woman he thought was his wife was so powerful he didn’t realize he was cutting his hands on the shards of glass that still clung to the window frame.

The children stood frozen with terror, eyes bulging.

Breanna grabbed a heavy wooden chair that stood beside the window and swung it in a full arc. The chair caught Jerrod square in the face and knocked him out of the window. Breanna heard him hit the ground hard. She dropped the chair and said,
“James, take your sister and go out the back door! Quick! There’s enough moonlight. Run to Grandpa Will’s house!”

The wind shrieked through the broken window, making the curtains fly. James and Molly Kate stood against the far wall of the parlor, their white faces stark against the dark tapestry.

“Aunt Breanna, you come with us!” James said.

“No,” she said, taking their hands and leading them to the hall. “None of us can outrun your father. He’s out of his mind, and your lives are in danger, too. The only hope is for me to stay and keep him occupied while you two run to Grandpa Will and ask him to bring help!”

Breanna could hear Jerrod mumbling angrily. He was going around to the front of the house. She ran to the front door and shoved the bolt home, then hurried back to the children as she heard heavy footsteps on the porch.

“Hurry, James! Go!”

“But Aunt Breanna, he’ll kill you! Please come with us!”

“No! We can’t outrun him, James. He’ll kill all three of us if I go with you. I must stay and try to hold him off while you run and get help! Now go!”

James took his little sister by the hand and ran down the hall. Jerrod was throwing his weight against the door and screaming Dottie’s name. Breanna heard the back door open and close, then wheeled to see the front door splintering.

Her mind racing, Breanna prayed for God’s help and ran down the hall into the kitchen. She had to find a weapon.
Butcher knife. Where’s the butcher knife?
She had used it yesterday. Or was it the day before? Both children had helped her clean up the kitchen after their meals.
Where had they put the knife?

She heard the front door bang open, then heavy footsteps
coming down the hall. She frantically opened drawers in the cupboard, one after the other. Her hands trembled as she pushed utensils aside, trying to find the knife. At the same time, she detected the uneven sound of Jerrod’s footsteps. Was he limping?