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As soon as they arrived at the church, Missy burst
from the front seat of the sedan. She heard Detective Johnson shouting behind
her, but she ignored him. One of the patrolman came rushing at her, but Missy
turned at the last moment, sending them both sliding on the slippery sidewalk.
She recovered her balance even as the officer went down with a sharp crack of
flesh against ice.
She ran to the front of the church, at first confused
by what she was supposed to see. Then Joselyn's bulky form, wrapped in Missy's
own coat, became clear against the backdrop of the large plastic candles that
had never played a part in the original tableau, 2,000 years ago. Even the
nativity had gone modern.
She could hear Joselyn singing "Rock-A-Bye,
Baby" over and over again in a soft voice.
She wanted to run forward and shake the truth from
Joselyn, but Missy remembered that the woman was unstable. Instead, fighting all
her motherly instincts, she eased forward cautiously. "Hello, Joselyn."
Joselyn looked up, and her dark eyes were warm. A soft
smile curved her thin lips, and she looked younger still. "Hello."
"Do you remember me?"
Joselyn never lost her dreamy expression. She was
kneeling on the ground, in three inches of snow that grew heavier by the minute.
Her repetitious version of the lullaby continued to issue from her lips, and she
was looking down at the creche. "Isn't he beautiful?" she asked,
abruptly ending at "Rock-A."
Missy's heart stuttered, then resumed pounding
furiously when she saw the faintly-baby shape lying in the manger. Please don't
let it be the statue of Jesus, she prayed silently as she knelt on the other
side of the creche, quickly soaking the legs of her jeans. She heard a faint cry
issue from the mounds of blankets, and she barely resisted the urge to snatch up
Corey. The fear of Joselyn's reaction held her back, but she didn't dare wait
much longer. Corey had been exposed to the elements for too long, as it was.
"He's swaddled, just like Jesus." Joselyn
touched Corey's forehead, abraded an angry red from the harsh kiss of the wind
and the frozen indifference of the snow that fell from the sky. "He
returned home to God."
Confused, Missy found herself asking,
"Jesus?"
Joselyn shook her head. "Martino. He's gone to
God; just like Jesus."
Slowly, Missy reached into the creche. She saw
Joselyn's face tighten, and she settled for touching Corey's tummy through the
wad of blankets Joselyn had wound around him. "This isn't Martino, Joselyn."
She blinked, then slowly nodded. "He is a gift
from the Wisemen. More precious than frankincense, gold, or myrrh."
Struggling to keep her voice steady, Missy again
asked, "Do you remember me, Joselyn?"
Joselyn studied her with a blank expression.
"I've never seen you before."
Missy nodded insistently. "Yes, you have. Don't
you remember coming into the shelter yesterday afternoon? I brought you to my
home. My husband was there, and my son. Caleb and Corey."
Joselyn shook her head, but her blissful expression
wavered.
Slowly, Missy lifted Corey, cradling him against her.
"This is my son, Joselyn."
"No! He's a gift from the Magi..." Her voice
faded as she seemed to slowly sink back into herself. Another expression briefly
slipped over her face, silently speaking of incomprehensible suffering and a
world of pain. A mother's anguish. "Martino," was the last word she
whispered, before she began to rock back and forth. Once more, she resumed
singing the same verse of the lullaby, over and over.
Missy struggled to her feet, careful not to drop
Corey. As she made her way back to the police cars parked against the curb,
Detective Johnson came to meet her. He walked beside her, assisting her over the
icy patches, until they were enfolded in Caleb's arms. Sobs escaped him, echoing
through the ear Missy had pressed against his chest. She felt tears on her
cheeks for a few seconds, before they froze in the blustery wind.
She resisted when someone reached for the baby, until
she realized it was a paramedic. "Are you taking him to the hospital?"
"I'm going to check him over, but we'll probably
take him in." He must have seen the panic in her expression, because he
hastily added, "Just as a precaution."
"I want to ride along."
He nodded before he carried Corey over to the back of
the ambulance.
"That was crazy, Mrs. Benson. She might have been
dangerous."
Missy looked at the rumpled detective. "You said
she didn't have a violent past."
He shook his head, then sighed. "It was a foolish
thing to do. You could have endangered your son, not just yourself."
Ignoring that, Missy asked, "What will happen to
her?" She watched as another paramedic bundled Joselyn into a blanket and
slowly led her to the ambulance parked closer to the congregation of police
cars.
"She'll be remanded to a state facility until a
diagnosis is made. Hopefully, we can get her family involved with her
treatment."
"You don't sound optimistic," Caleb said.
Detective Johnson briefly looked down at the leather
bound notebook in his hand. "Her husband filed for divorce on grounds of
abandonment. According to what we can piece together, he remarried last year.
They just had a child."
Their conversation was interrupted by the EMT.
"He appears to be okay, but we want to take him to the hospital. As I said,
as a precaution." He handed Corey back to Missy. "It will be okay for
you to hold him on the way over."
Caleb and Missy followed the technician to the
ambulance. Caleb got in first, then took Corey as Missy clambered inside. They
sat side by side on a bench built into a small alcove as the second paramedic
climbed into the passenger's side of the cab.
Missy laid her head on Caleb's shoulder. "We
almost lost him tonight. All my fault..."
"You can't blame yourself, Missy. You just wanted
to help that woman."
"No good deed goes unpunished."
Ignoring her sarcasm, Caleb said in a soft voice,
"And no act of kindness goes unrewarded. Corey is back with us, and Joselyn
will finally get help. That wouldn't have happened if you hadn't opened your
heart."
She frowned at his interpretation of events. Corey
stretched, pressing his leg against her arm. "You really think that's
true?"
He nodded, taking her hand. "It might not be a
traditional miracle, in that sense, but some amazing stuff happened tonight. If
you hadn't come into Joselyn's life, who knows what might have happened to
her?"
"Yeah..." She knew her hesitancy to accept
his reassurance was still obvious.
"I think, maybe, you-just by being the good
person you are-might have saved her life."
Could that be true? Missy wanted to believe that being
charitable was the right thing to do. She allowed Caleb's voice to quiet her
self-recriminations as she held Corey tightly against her. He was safe in the
arms of his mother. That was all that mattered.
The End
©2003 StoriesByEmail.com
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