“I think that this is the pack that Alyssa was wearing when she fell!” Kelly told him in surprise.
Steve nodded. “Must be,” he agreed, wondering guiltily if he should tell Kelly about what Alyssa had done.
Kelly saw the look on his face and smiled. “It’s okay,” she reassured him. “Alyssa ‘fessed up during our last trip up here about the money she took. “She also told me that you had blessed her out good for going behind the barrier, too. Thank you for giving her some good advice.” Kelly laid the pack inside the duffle bag.
Steve couldn’t stand it. “Aren’t you going to even check to see if the money’s still there?” He asked.
She shook her head. “It can wait…” suddenly, she looked up at Steve, comprehension dawning on her face. She looked up at the dangling rope and back at the day pack. “You were trying to find it for her, weren’t you?” She exclaimed. “That’s the reason you and Pete were here last week!
Steve shrugged in answer. “That’s what I thought, but I think God had another purpose. Anyway, I’m glad that Alyssa told you the truth at last.”
He picked up a branch and swiped at the rope that dangled a few feet beyond his reach.
“Careful,” Kelly breathed as Steve stretched dangerously far over the edge toward the rope.
Steve hooked the rope safely and drew it back toward their ledge. His eyes widened in disbelief as he got a better look at their location in the ravine. He shook his head in wonder. “Kelly, I don’t think that you appreciate just how precise your leap of faith was last night. You need to really take a look at where we are and where we could have ended up.”
The pale shadows of dawn had faded and the sun had risen, shining its light around them. For the first time really, Kelly stared up, and up even higher, trying to trace the way they had fallen in the dark. She inched forward to the edge of their little pocket in the cliff side, looking up and then down, realizing just how huge a miracle it was that they had escaped death. On either side of the tiny ledge where they had spent the night, the sides of the ravine fell away in a nearly vertical drop. Nowhere else was there so much as a handhold for a person to cling to on the sheer cliff wall.
“Dear God,” she breathed, awed that somehow God had guided her forward charge to the exact coordinates of this ten foot wide cradle of safety in an otherwise vertical terrain. Still…
“Steve?” She asked in a small voice, as she watched him sort through the gear in the duffle bag. “You know that I don’t know how to rock climb, and….” She gulped. “I’m pretty much terrified of heights.”
Steve paused and stared at her incredulously. ‘Kelly, you jumped off of a cliff in the dark at a dead run without a rope! How can you say that you’re afraid of heights?”
She smiled weakly. “That was pretty much a God thing,” she pointed out. “I can’t take much credit for it. Normally, I’m quite content to simply look at the view from a safe perch.”
“So,” Steve asked her skeptically, taking her hands. “Are you telling me that you’d rather stay down here?”
“No!” She said emphatically. “I want to go home! –and I want a bath!” She muttered. “A hot one with lots of bubbles.” And then as an afterthought she added, “A cup of coffee and a stack of pancakes would be pretty nice right now, too.”
Steve chuckled. “Just keep telling yourself that,” he said with a smile. “It’s a simple equation. If you don’t want to stay, then one way or another, you will have to climb up.”
“But what if – I can’t?” She asked helplessly in a weak voice.
“Fortunately for you, I’m a natural at this,” He told her, smiling. “Pete told me so, and he never lied to me. He stayed with me until I got my own nerve back, and I’ll be here with you, too, Kelly. I’ll show you everything that you need to do. It will be all right.”
She nodded, trying to feel comforted by his words.
Steve sat back and pulled out the spare nylon harness and carabiner. “Now, I need to explain to you how to use these. I’m going up first. Then, I’ll drop this over the side, and you will need to be able to put this on correctly. Once you’re harnessed, then I can pull you up.”
She looked at him doubtfully. “You’ll pull me up all by yourself?”
He held out a handful of spikes. “I’ll set these as I climb. You can use them as handholds and that will help me to pull you up.”
Kelly nodded, but her face had gone pale with dread.
Steve sighed at the sight of her. “Kelly, God didn’t direct our feet to this aerie last night just to let us fall to our deaths this morning. That’s not how He works!”
She chewed on her lip and finally nodded. Slowly she exhaled. “You’re right. I trusted Him to save us last night in the dark. I’ll trust him again in the daylight to see us safely back to the top.”
Steve smiled in approval. “Good girl. Now this is what you’re going to do…”
Ch 49
Begin Again
It was late morning when the police car pulled up to the Emergency Room entrance, its lights flashing in warning, but without the accompaniment of a siren. Two hospital attendants waited by the door with wheelchairs, flanked on either side by a group of reporters, who were poised to engulf the occupants of the back seat as soon as their feet touched the pavement.
Kelly and Steve kept their heads down, avoiding the questions and wincing as the cameras flashed like a lightening storm around them. They were too exhausted to try to pose for any pictures, too heartsick over the fate of their friends to even try to be courteous to the mob. They fell into the wheelchairs, and the attendants whisked them through the emergency room ward and into the examination rooms, while the two police officers held the reporters off at the doors.
As soon as his charges were safely delivered, one officer hurried off in the direction of the waiting room, where a solemn group of people sat or slept in the chairs, obviously worn down with stress from the night just past.
Deborah was sleeping, finally, on a couch, her head in her mother’s lap. Hester absently stroked her daughter’s shoulder length, red-gold locks, occasionally plucking out one of the tiny flowers that had adorned her hair for the wedding. Deborah’s eyes were still puffy from all the tears, but for now, her face was peaceful.
Reverend Graham sat hunched in a chair across from Deborah and Hester. His eyes were partially closed as if sleeping, but his lips moved in perpetual supplication. He had sat like that much of the evening when he wasn’t leading the three families in group prayers.
Next to him huddled Lee Ann and Richard Bolton, clinging together in their misery. Richard had survived the blow, although his head was partially wrapped in gauze. Purple bruising had spread across his cheek and nose, making his eyes appear sunken. His good cheek rested on Lee Ann’s hair. The couple held hands like lost children and their eyes were closed. Although they had been silent a long time now, no one was really sure if they slept.
Gracie lay curled up beside her Mama Lora, who seemed to have aged ten years since she had watched the attack at the wedding unfold before her on the viewing screen at Park Headquarters. She had no answers to give her granddaughter, whose face was as pale as Deborah’s, and also streaked with tears. Uncle Pete had fallen right in front of her, his blood spattering her sundress. Fiona was missing and her daddy had not come home at all.
Only one or two people even looked up when the officer strode into the waiting room, his smile so wide on his chubby cheeks that his small eyes seemed to disappear in the flesh.
“They’re safe!” He exclaimed jubilantly. The doctors have ‘em right now, but I drove ‘em in from the Park, and I didn’t see much wrong that a few days of rest wouldn’t fix up real quick!”
Lora Williams let out a choked cry. Her hand went to her heart, and she burst into quiet tears. Reverend Graham slumped forward in his seat, relief washing over him. “Oh thank you, God,” he whispered over and over.
Hester shook Deborah awake. “They’ve found Steve
and Kelly!” She half whispered through her own tears. “They’re okay! They’re both okay, baby.”
Deborah struggled to sit up, her eyes going wide with relief at her mother’s words. She looked hopefully at the officer. “Where are they?” She begged, quickly getting to her feet. “Can I go see them?”
The officer shrugged. “The doctors are checking them out in the emergency ward right now…it may be a little bit before you can get in,” he called after her as she hurried past him and down the long hall.
“Just let ‘em try to stop me!” she retorted over her shoulder in a mutinous voice as she disappeared around a corner.
In Exam Room #1, Doctor Eggert eyed Kelly with exasperation as she spread some lotion on Kelly’s hornet stings. She had sponged off most of Kelly’s abrasions and cuts already, but there was very little that she could do about them. Most were really superficial, despite all that she had endured since David had held her at gunpoint.
“I don’t get it,” she declared, staring over the top of her glasses as if she only half believed Kelly’s story. “You claim you’ve been kidnapped, dragged through the woods, shot at, and even fell thirty feet onto a ledge, but these bug bites and bruises are pretty much the worst thing I can find wrong with you! You want to explain this to me?”
Kelly shrugged and smiled tiredly up at her doctor. “I guess I’ve been under the care of a Great Physician all night?” She offered.
Doctor Eggert rolled her eyes. “Christians,” she grumbled in disgust. “You’re a laugh a minute.”
She threw away her sponge and checked the x-ray of Kelly’s jaw one more time, to make sure that David’s furious punch to her face hadn’t cracked the bone, but other than being very sore and bruised, everything on the film checked out normal.
She threw her hands up in the air, as if she was disappointed that Kelly had come through the ordeal in such good shape. “Go, then! A hot bath and a good meal will do you more good than anything I can do for you today.”
“Thanks anyway,” Kelly said in a small voice, slipping painfully off the table and reaching for her clothes.
“No one really expected to find you alive, you know,” Doctor Eggert explained to her with a frown. “Channel 9’s been playing the video of you being dragged into the trees over and over all night. It was some scary stuff. There’s been search party’s out looking for you since dawn.”
“Really?” Kelly said in surprise. “It all happened so fast, I didn’t think anyone had even seen what happened to me.”
“Actually, it got overlooked for a long time yesterday, with what happened to the groom right after.”
A wave of sadness washed over Kelly as her thoughts flashed instantly back to the memory of David’s unwavering hand pointing the gun at Pete’s chest. She wanted to cry again. She would cry, too! Just as soon as she could find a quiet place to collapse in. Slowly, since every muscle in her body ached worse than if she had the flu, she made her way toward the door.
“Do you know – have they found David yet?” Kelly asked, her eyes shadowed with sadness.
Dr Eggert gaped at her in surprise. “I just assumed that they told you already!
He’s…”
“Kelly!”
Deborah’s scream resounded around the ward, and a moment later, Deborah tackled Kelly and wrapped her in a painfully tight bear hug. “We just heard you were alive! We’ve been so worried!”
Kelly held on to Deborah, her tears finally flowing freely down her cheeks. “Oh, Deborah! I’m so sorry!”
“It’s going to be all right. God’s using this for good!” Deborah said firmly, smiling through her own tears. “And you all are safe! We’ve been praying so hard!”
She stepped back and wiped her tears on her sleeve. “Where’s Steve?”
“Here,” Steve answered, stepping out of Exam Room #4, and giving Deborah a heartfelt hug of sympathy. He had a bandage on his arm where the bullet had creased the skin, but as he had joked that morning, it really was only a flesh wound.
Doctor Eggert had followed Deborah into the corridor. She smiled at Steve’s bandage and nodded toward Kelly. “I see that your ‘Great Physician’ missed a spot on him, at least,” she said smugly.
Steve lifted his arm and studied the white bandage. “You mean this little thing?” He scoffed. “I just let Doctor Rawls put it on there to hush him up. I guess it makes him feel like he’s earned his keep, or something.”
“I appreciated that, too, Mr. Williams,” Doctor Rawlins confirmed with a satisfied grin as he stepped out to the examining room beside his patient. “You’ve got to admit, it makes a better conversation piece than that band aid we had on there at first!”
Doctor Eggert’s smile disappeared.
“Can they go now?” Deborah asked the two doctors eagerly. “Everyone’s waiting to see for themselves that they’re okay.”
Doctor Eggert sniffed and made a sour face. “Check with him, why don’t you?” she said sarcastically, pointing in the general direction of heaven.
Deborah took them by the hands and pulled them down the corridor. “Let’s go then. There are some anxious people who want to see you, and one of them is a very impatient six year old!”
As she led them toward the waiting room, Deborah filled them in on the search parties. “Jill and Chuck went back out to look for you at dawn,” she told them. “I hope somebody’s told them you’ve been found!”
Steve laughed. “Actually, they were at Headquarters when we were brought in. They’d just found Fiona at the trailer, and they offered to take her to the vet and get her fixed up – David wounded her, poor thing, but she probably saved my life, showing up when she did.” Steve sighed. “We didn’t really get to talk to them though, our police escort seemed to think we needed to see doctors immediately.”
“You can be really proud of Gracie, Steve. She’s behaved like a trooper despite all the chaos. But what happened…?” Deborah started to ask more questions, but then she stopped herself. She sighed. “Never mind. Let’s wait until we get back to the waiting room. You look exhausted, and everyone’s going to want to hear the whole story. There’s no point in repeating the details over and over.”
She squeezed their hands again. “I’m just so glad you two are alive! When they found David’s body and the empty gun, we thought the worst! He’d collapsed on the trail in shock. The wasp stings nearly killed him! If one of the first responders for Pete hadn’t had an epi-pen in his kit, he’d have died on the spot,” she told them solemnly.
“He’s alive?” Kelly whispered, her eyes widening in apprehension.
“Alive, and in pretty bad shape right now. But don’t worry, he’s locked up,” Deborah reassured them. “They caught a lot of the incident on tape, so he won’t be getting out any time soon.”
“The – incident?” Kelly met Steve’s eyes over Deborah’s head. For a bride whose husband had just been murdered in front of her, she was acting so calm! Too calm, really. Something didn’t seem to add up.
“Deborah?” Kelly asked hesitantly. “How are you doing?” Her voice was filled with gentle concern.
Deborah paused, the shadow of yesterday’s events flickering starkly over her features as she stared at nothing in particular. Grief choked her voice when she spoke. “Yesterday evening was horrible,” she whispered. “You can’t imagine - he just fell at my feet!”
She raised her tear filled eyes to Kelly and Steve. “One minute we were laughing and then – there was blood everywhere! Why would anyone want to do something like that?” She asked them helplessly. “I would never have believed David could do – that!”
At last Deborah’s strong front dissolved into tears of wild grief, and Steve and Kelly cried with her. They stood in the hallway, oblivious of the nurses and patients who had to walk around them, and comforted each other as the grief and sadness poured out.
Steve held Deborah in his arms as Kelly rubbed her back and cried, too, her head resting against Steve’s wounded arm. He didn’
t care. It was a relief to finally give in to the tragedy and pain of losing Pete.
The storm of tears eventually slowed to a trickle. As they hiccupped and sniffled together, Steve said in a choked voice. “He was my best friend, Deb. He never gave up on me, even when I was just plain nasty to him. I’m so glad you two found each other. He deserved to have those few months of true happiness with you before he died.”
Deborah went very still against his chest. She raised her eyes and looked in horror from Steve’s face to Kelly’s. “They didn’t tell you?” She exclaimed, taking in their blank looks in shock. “Pete didn’t die! Chuck and the paramedics were able to stabilize him and get him to the hospital in time!”
She laughed at the slowly dawning comprehension on their faces. “He’s alive!” She repeated to them joyfully. “It will take awhile, they said, but he’s going to be okay!”
Steve’s knees turned to jelly, and he had to lean against the wall for support. He closed his eyes for a moment in joyful acknowledgement for yet another miracle. Once again tears fell freely from his eyes, but this time they were tears of thanksgiving.
He felt Deborah reach out and take his hand. She pulled them both down a different corridor. “You must have thought I was the worst wife ever!” She giggled and hiccupped all at the same time. “Come with me and you can see for yourselves.” she told them.
“They operated to remove the bullet immediately,” she explained as they rode the elevator to the third floor. “That was the scary part. It was touch and go for a little while, and when he went into surgery, we didn’t have any idea if he would survive it. I waited for hours, but when they wheeled him into recovery around two o’clock this morning, he was able to squeeze my hand, and I knew he’d make it then!”
They got off the elevator and she led them through the doors to ICU, as if she worked there. The nurse on duty looked up with a frown on her face, ready to scatter the invaders, but as soon as she saw Deborah, her face broke into a smile, and she nodded at Steve and Kelly as if she knew who they were. She put a finger to her lips and pointed to the third window. Deborah nodded and whispered excitedly to her friends.
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