“Really? I had no idea your law firm could do that,” Susan said, obviously surprised.
“Yes, of course. In fact we have a young attorney, Kathy Thomas, who does little else but arrange such adoptions. She's a fine young woman, and she does a very good job of matching the right couple with the right mother.”
Susan smiled and thanked her father, wishing that she had asked him her questions before the abortion was arranged, when she first learned that Amy was pregnant. And she made a mental note that her father might be a reasonably good source of information in the future as well. But she didn't feel she could call Amy and talk about what she had just learned, since it would reopen the painful decision that her friend had already made.
26
FRIDAY, MAY 26 – Friday morning Janet reminded the kids that she and Richard would both be staying late at the station for the “911 Live” test run, then going out to dinner together. Tommy had a baseball game that night. Susan volunteered to take him, knowing that her parents would be out, and she made it into a date with Drew. But that morning as she ate her breakfast with her family, Susan had the more immediate concern of Amy's upcoming abortion on her mind.
Amy, Bobbie, and Susan met outside Mrs. Simpson's office that morning, and Bobbie made her last-minute plea to Amy, which Amy refused to hear. Shortly afterward Amy and Susan were in the van headed for the abortion clinic, while Bobbie found an office in the PE Department in which to pray.
Susan remained silent, wanting to support and respect her friend's decision, even though her father's words had come immediately to her mind again when she had awakened that morning.
Nepravel was livid. The barrage of prayers for Amy had let up only slightly during the night. With the dawn, they had intensified again. Then the Meredith girl's last minute plea to Amy had been short but powerful. It was lucky that he had followed Amy to school and could be there to combat Truth with the voice of Decisions Made. But the prayers were taking their toll—the voices in Amy were winding down. She was starting to think about the baby again, and about her cousin Catherine, as she rode along in the van with Susan and two girls from Riverside High. This might be touch and go, despite the determined front she had put up only the day before. Nepravel hated their prayers!
And now, worst of all, from his vantage point on top of the van, Nepravel could clearly see what appeared to be the glistening light of at least one angel in the vicinity of the abortion clinic. Oh, great! All these prayers for Amy and the usual prayers from the believers demonstrating in front of the clinic had finally produced the divine intervention he so feared, because his horde was not ready for it. Yes, there he was. A huge warrior angel right over the abortion clinic, his talons poised and his beaks snapping.
As the van neared the abortion clinic and the angel saw the two demons riding on top, he began to fly in their direction. Nepravel, being a liar but not a fool, knew that alone they were no match for one of God's fiercest warriors, and he beat a fast retreat, followed closely by his companion. The angel returned to his position over the clinic, and Nepravel stood off at a distance and cursed. “Now who will tend to the voices in Amy?” he spat.
The van made it through the demonstrators outside the abortion clinic, and the four girls went inside. There they were greeted by an efficient-looking nurse in a crisp white uniform. She welcomed all the girls and began the process of filling out the forms, then starting the blood tests for the two girls who would be having the abortions that morning.
All across the city, members of the Morningside Prayer Warrior team, alerted to the approximate time of the scheduled abortion, stopped whatever they were doing and prayed to God for Amy.
He heard. And, as He promised, He answered. Another angel flew down to the clinic. With the one stationed outside, the second angel entered the clinic to clean out any demons hiding inside. Nepravel cursed even louder as he saw the two lesser demons fleeing through the clinic's side walls.
Amy and Susan were nervous, but they took their seats as the nurse began with the girl from Riverside High. Amy quickly read through the forms, checked the appropriate boxes, and put down the clipboard. Like Susan, she tried to pick up a magazine, but she just couldn't focus on it.
All those people outside—she could still hear them shouting every now and then—were just to try to stop girls like her. They seemed so serious. And Bobbie cried over this baby—fetus—inside her. And Glenn Jamison was praying last week for her. Bobbie was even praying now—maybe Glenn was too. Were all of them right? Could all these people be so concerned if they weren't right? Her hands suddenly became damp, and she felt lightheaded. The voices planted by the demons had almost been silenced by all the prayers. The angels had taken the area, and there were no demons to whisper in her ear or to spin the voices again. She started to think about the toddlers at the playground. She thought again about her cousin Catherine and her two children. Did she herself have the courage to have a baby? Could she do it? Imagine bringing a new life into the world! Her mom might understand after a few days, but what about her dad? What about Billy? What about her life? What a disruption. But surely the baby would be cute, and she could make some young married couple very happy. Maybe she could even visit the child some day…
At that moment the spiritual battle was won by the prayers and by the angels. The demons had retreated. The voices were silenced. Amy was open to hearing and acting on the Truth. But angels only rarely talk to humans.
Susan, who had been wrestling most of the night and all of the morning with her father's information, was flipping through a magazine, trying not to think about what they were doing. Just then, she and Amy heard the whirring sound of the cutter and suction pump slicing into the other girl's baby, and the magazine Susan was holding opened simultaneously to an advertisement with two young toddlers chasing a puppy across a playground.
Susan could stand it no longer. She looked up at Amy, who was also listening to the machine at work, and said, “Amy, I know this is the worst possible time I could tell you this, and I've tried so very hard to hold it in. But last night my father told me that they have many, many couples who desperately want newborn babies—and they can arrange for everything, all of the medical expenses and everything. I hate to tell you this now, but I think Bobbie is right, that this abortion is wrong. I know it's easy for me to say, but I wish you weren't having it.”
Amy sat quietly, listening to the machine in the other room and looking at Susan, the tears running down Susan's cheeks, and the magazine open on her lap to the two toddlers.
“I… I know. I've gone back and forth myself.” And now Amy closed her eyes as her own tears started to come. “It would be so hard to have a baby. It would mess up my life completely. But then I think about all those little babies and the life that is actually growing inside me, right now, and I hear that machine in there sucking the life out of that girl. And I just go round and round…But maybe if you and Bobbie will help me…maybe I can make it. I don't know. How will I ever tell my parents? Oh, God, please help me.”
Susan moved over and sat in the chair next to Amy. She took her hand. Amy continued, “I…what a mess. If I don't have this abortion, everybody is going to be mad at me.”
“But Bobbie and I won't,” Susan smiled through her tears. “And I don't imagine that God will be either.”
Feeling a new resolve growing inside her, gathering strength from Susan's strength, Amy managed a small smile too. “If I don't have this abortion now, you do realize that you're going to have a lot to learn about with me,” Amy said, squeezing Susan's hand. “Because, ‘I don't know nothin’ about birthin’ no babies.’” She smiled again, breaking the awful tension they had both been under for so long.
Just then the nurse walked in and was surprised to see the two girls holding hands, crying, and smiling. She said, “All right, Amy. We're all set. It won't take long at all, and you'll be back at school.”
Amy interrupted her, “That's OK. I can be back at school much soone
r, because I've decided not to have the abortion.”
“What? But it's all set up. You've reserved our time, and it's unheard of for a girl of your age to stop an abortion at this point. Surely it's the best thing for you in your situation,” the nurse said, trying to sound stern.
“I'm sure you're right. It probably is unheard of. But now you're hearing it.” She smiled, still holding Susan's hand. “I don't want to have the abortion. If it costs me something, I'll pay it. But please just get us back to school, either by that van or a taxi, or I'll call someone or whatever.” And she took the forms from the clipboard, tore them into four pieces, and handed them to the nurse.
“Well, there's a fifty-dollar cancellation fee within twenty-four hours of the scheduled time, so you must pay that.”
Amy let go of Susan's hand, wiped the tears from her cheeks with the back of her own hand, took out her purse, and gave the nurse fifty dollars.
Obviously displeased, the nurse took the money and said, “Fine. I'll get you a receipt. The van will leave in about an hour, after the waiting period following the first procedure.”
“We don't want to wait that long,” Susan said. “I'll call Morningside Church, and I bet Glenn Jamison or someone can come and take us back to school.”
Amy nodded. Susan asked the nurse if there was a phone which she could use. Doubly displeased but unable to fight it, the nurse said, “Yes, I guess there is. Come, follow me.”
Nepravel, standing off at a distance for his own safety, saw the angels over the abortion clinic scream in agony as the first baby was killed. The angels flapped their massive wings and raised their mournful cries to heaven. Nepravel loved it and assumed that both babies were suffering the same fate.
“They huff and they puff,” Nepravel laughed to himself as the spirit of the first baby rose and was taken by one of the angels to her special place in heaven, “but in the end, we always win! We're just too many for them, and we have too many dupes and allies. How long before we control it all!?!” he yelled at the angels.
Just then he noticed the front door of the clinic open, which was most unusual, and Amy and Susan walked out, down the steps and onto the sidewalk, where a brief discussion with the protestors brought hugs and kisses and shouts of praise. A few minutes later a car pulled up and stopped in front of the clinic, and Nepravel recognized Glenn Jamison from Morningside Church, who got out, came around the car, and hugged Amy, then Susan. Then all of them, including the demonstrators, gathered in a circle on the sidewalk and prayed together!
Nepravel was livid. He cursed Richard Sullivan and the Morningside Church. Somehow Sullivan's daughter must have squelched the abortion. He was just starting to think about what he would say at their midnight gathering, when he noticed the remaining angel leaving the clinic, empowered by the prayers of the believers on the street, and heading right for him. Without further thought, he flew as fast as he could in the opposite direction.
Nurse Simpson was sitting at her desk, finishing the week's paperwork, when her door opened and Amy and Susan walked in. Surprised, she looked at her watch and said, “My goodness, how can you be back so soon? That was quick.”
“It was quick…” Amy smiled, obviously pleased, “because I didn't have the abortion. I decided not to. I'm not sure how I'll do it—and I hope you'll help me—but I'm going to have this baby.” And the excitement in her voice was genuine, even to Nurse Simpson.
“You didn't? Why not? And how did you get back here?”
“I called Morningside Church,” said Susan, “and someone came and got us and brought us back to school.”
“You mean you didn't get the abortion I set up for you, and then you rode in an unauthorized vehicle during school hours?” Mrs. Simpson asked, her anger obviously rising. “Do you realize that you've damaged our relationship with the clinic, which may make it more difficult for other girls in the future to have the procedure? And if anything had happened to you in that car, I would have been held responsible.”
Amy looked down at the floor for a moment. She was suddenly struck by the bizarre truth that it was OK for her to have an abortion without her parents knowing it, on school time, but it was not OK for her to ride in a car driven by a minister! She looked up at Susan and then turned to Mrs. Simpson. She said quietly, “And do you realize that a baby is still alive inside me, which would be dead now if we had followed through with the abortion? It seems to me like a small price to pay for a human life.”
After Susan and Amy left in the van, Bobbie alternated between praying and reading her Bible in the vacant PE department office. Suddenly the door to the office opened and her two friends walked in, smiling. Bobbie, who had been praying on her knees, looked up and could not believe that Susan and Amy were back from the abortion clinic so soon. As she stood up, but before she could speak, Amy hurried to her and hugged her tightly. While they hugged, Susan came up behind Amy and looked into Bobbie's eyes, smiling. “We looked all over the school, and finally figured out you might be here. Amy didn't have the abortion,” Susan said.
Bobbie couldn't believe it. She started to jump for joy while Amy was still hugging her, then remembered Amy's condition and stopped. So she hugged her tightly and said, “Praise God. Oh, Amy, I'm so happy. I mean I'm so sorry for you. But I'm so happy for you too. What are you going to do? How can I help? I should call the church and tell Glenn.”
“Well, to start with, Glenn already knows, because we called him and he brought us back to school,” Amy said, finally releasing enough pressure to look Bobbie in the eyes. “As for all the rest of it, I don't know. But I've taken you and Susan at your word that you'll help me. I've taken on—I mean we've taken on—a huge responsibility. We've got a lot of things to do, starting I guess with my parents and Billy and this attorney who works with Susan's dad who arranges adoptions, and I really don't know what. I'm so happy and so scared at the same time. I don't know whether to laugh or to cry. Do any of you have any ideas what we should do first?” Amy asked.
“Yes,” Bobbie said. “First we ought to pray. To thank God for what He has done today in your life, and in our lives, and to ask Him for His guidance and protection for you and your baby, starting right now.”
Amy nodded, and the three girls formed a circle in the middle of the small office, held hands, and prayed. For the first time, both Amy and Susan prayed out loud with Bobbie, giving the next eight months to the Lord and asking for His wisdom and protection.
As the regular work day drew to a close, Richard knew he had to leave on time in order to be at TV5 for the warm-up to the test run for “911 Live.” Since they were leaving to spend the weekend in the mountains with the Bryants the next morning, Richard promised himself that he would not take a lot of work home that evening. So for the first time in longer than he could remember, he actually left his briefcase on the floor of his office, next to his desk. He put on his navy blue suit coat, said goodbye to Mary, and left, just a little after five.
As he waited for the elevator with both hands free, he couldn't help thinking of the image of a prisoner, escaping without his ball and chain to weigh him down. I ought to do this more often, he thought, with a smile.
Over at TV5, Bill Shaw was introducing Janet, Tom Spence, and Connie Wright to Bob Grissom and to Mark Pugh, the producer and director, respectively, of “911 Live.” Once the introductions in the conference room were completed, Bill began, “We should have a really good opportunity to test both the concept and the equipment this evening. Mark, Janet, and Connie will be staying here in the studio control booth, directing the show and controlling the helicopter, the reporter/camera teams in the three roving patrols, and the remote control cameras on the emergency vehicles. Since there will just be the three of us actually going out on the street, we'll be in the back seat of a police car on the north side of the city. All the vehicles will be hooked together by a two-channel radio link. Bob and Mark will have a direct link as the network representatives, and I'll have a TV5 headphone through whi
ch Janet and I can talk. Hopefully, after all of this preparation, we'll have some ‘action’ to record.”
“We're really looking forward to this trial run, as well,” added Bob Grissom. “It should be very close to the feel of the national show that starts this fall, and we're delighted to have you folks coming along and helping in the control booth, to add your local spin to whatever happens this evening. I probably don't need to say this, but I do want to remind us that we are all just observers. Whatever may happen, I want us to remain safe and not to get involved. We're there to observe and to report, but not to interact in any way. OK?” he concluded, looking particularly at Tom and Bill.
There were nods all around the table. “Well, if that's it,” said Bill, “the three of us will head out to the north area precinct to pick up the police car they've assigned for us to ride in. Mark, I know you have a lot of last minute things to do here at the station to get ready, as do Janet and Connie. Good luck to all of us.”
As the six of them split up, Janet stopped Bill and said, “I really appreciate the way you've arranged for our involvement in this test run, to get first-hand experience.” Bill smiled and nodded. Janet continued, “Richard and I are planning to go out to dinner after the show, so I invited him to come down and watch what's happening, back in the studio with everyone else from the station who is here. I hope that's OK.”
“Sure, Janet. That's fine. Richard is always welcome. Let's just keep our fingers crossed that everything goes well.” He smiled one more time, then turned and headed out the door to catch up with Tom and Bob.
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