Healing Ruby: A Novel

by Jennifer H. Westall

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  For the next hour, I watched over Hannah, praying she’d be all right. Although she had stopped bleeding, she’d already lost so much blood that I was afraid she still might not survive. I did what I could to stay busy, cause every time I was still for more than a minute, all I saw was Matthew turning his back on me to leave. I sat by Samuel for a while, holding the baby so he could rest. But as the shock wore off, and the pain in his arm set in, he began to cry.

  “Miss Ruby, they’s got to be something to help it,” he said.

  The baby started to cry as well, and I was afraid he needed to nurse again. I bent over and spoke softly into Samuel’s ear. “I’ll go see what I can find to help us.”

  I pushed myself up and took the crying baby with me to find someone that might be able to help us. When I stepped into the hallway, I was met by chaos. Nurses and doctors scrambled between rooms and beds. The injured littered all parts of the modest hospital, not to mention the families waiting anxiously by their sides. I’d never seen so many damaged lives at one time.

  I tried to stop a nurse a couple of times, but each one flew past me claiming they’d be with me in a moment. I bounced the screaming baby in my arms, trying to comfort him. But bouncing does nothing for an empty stomach. I made my way back down the hall. As I passed a room to my right, a doctor suddenly came barreling out and nearly plowed us over. I jumped out of his way as he grabbed my shoulders to keep us both from tumbling.

  “Whoa!” he said.

  Then we took a good look at each other, and I saw it was Dr. Fisher. I wrapped an arm around him and hugged him. “I’m so glad to see you!”

  “Ruby, are you all right?” he asked. “Are you hurt?”

  “No, no. I’m fine. Hannah’s with me, and she needs help real bad. Do you think you could help us?”

  He grimaced. “Show me where she is.”

  My heart soared with hope as I led him to the end of the hallway and then the back corner of our room. When I reached the bed, I turned around to make sure he was still with me.

  “The baby seems to be doing fine. I delivered him myself. Can you believe it? Right on the side of the road!” Dr. Fisher’s face was somber, but I kept on going. “Samuel here’s got a busted wrist, maybe broken. But Hannah’s the one that took the worst of the twister.”

  He sighed and walked around the bed, carefully looking her over. He paused at her left arm, gently lifting it from the table. He frowned over at me. “She needs a surgeon.”

  “But you can at least do something, can’t you? That’s a whole lot better than nothing.”

  He lifted his hands and tried to quiet me. “All right, all right. Listen. I’ll get her bandaged up best I can. I’ll stabilize the arm until she can get into surgery, but it’s going to be a long wait.” I started to thank him, but he quieted me again. “I can’t do anything though until I go around the room and see if I can help any of the white folks first. I’ll do it quick as I can. Meantime, I’ll send a nurse over with some things to care for those wounds and to help you with the baby.”

  I wasn’t too sure about another nurse coming over and looking at us like we had some kind of infectious disease. But the woman who approached me several minutes later didn’t appear to be a nurse at all. At least, she wasn’t wearing a uniform of any sort. She was dressed plainly and seemed about my mother’s age. She smiled at me, which took me off guard after the greetings I’d received so far.

  “You must be Ruby. Dr. Fisher said y’all needed some help with lacerations and such. I’m Vera.” She glanced down at the baby. “May I?”

  I hesitated, waiting for her to really see Hannah and the baby, and make the connection. But she never even flinched.

  “It’s all right,” she said. “I just want to see if we can get him to nurse.”

  I let her scoop him out of my arms. She took him over to Hannah, and looked back at me. “Let’s get her propped up.”

  She pointed me to a closet where I found two extra pillows. As I adjusted her, she groaned. I took that as a good sign. Vera tossed me a blanket.

  “Roll that up and lay it around her waist.”

  I did as she said, and she propped the baby on the blanket. Then she helped him find Hannah’s. I took over supporting him as Vera went around Hannah’s body cleaning and dressing her wounds. She never made one mention about Hannah’s skin color, and that made me more curious than I could stand. So I had to just ask her.

  “Doesn’t it bother you that she’s colored?”

  Vera smiled and kept on working. “No, dear. All those stories about colored folks having strange diseases and such are a bunch of hogwash. I treat people, not skin color.”

  “I haven’t met too many folks that feel that way around here,” I said.

  “Oh you’d be surprised. There’s more you’d think. Just that the loud, angry voices get the most attention.” She rounded the end of the bed and began working on Hannah’s left side. “Most people are reasonable when they stop and think. It’s just easier to stick your head in the sand and say ‘I’ll stick to my side of things and you stick to your side.’ Such a shame though. Instead of finding ways for our differences to enrich each others’ lives, we let fear control and separate us.”

  As she was finishing, Dr. Fisher came over with some more supplies. “Don’t get Vera started, or you’ll never get her to stop.”

  “I think I rather like what she’s saying.” I smiled at Vera as she glanced at me.

  Dr. Fisher shook his head, but he went to work stabilizing Hannah’s arm in a splint. “How did you all get here?”

  “Matthew drove us.” My chest tightened when I said his name.

  “Is he still here?”

  “No. Once we were settled in, he went to check on his family.”

  After Hannah’s arm was set, Dr. Fisher knelt down in front of Samuel, who tucked his arm in tight against his chest.

  “Don’t touch it,” Samuel said. He scooted down the wall a foot or so.

  I couldn’t see or hear what Dr. Fisher said to him, but I saw Samuel’s face change from suspicion to tearful hope. He slowly reached his swollen hand out to Dr. Fisher, who took it gently in his own. He spoke quietly, and Samuel nodded. He squeezed Samuel’s wrist into place, then secured it with a small board and sling. Samuel’s neck muscles strained with his effort to keep from crying, but as soon as Dr. Fisher stood and turned away, the tears came.

  Watching him gave me courage, and I pushed away my own tears. I couldn’t help wishing Matthew would show up at any moment, apologizing for reacting the way he had. But I wasn’t going to let that control my every thought. I just had to figure out a way to numb the pain for a while.

  When Vera had finished with Hannah, she sat down beside Samuel and offered him a pill with some water. “Here, this will make it not hurt so bad.”

  I wished she had one of those for my heart.

  Dr. Fisher offered to take me home, but I didn’t want to leave Hannah and her family. We waited and waited for her to be taken into surgery. She started coming around sometime late that evening, and it was far from pleasant. Her arm throbbed, and she was hurting from head to toe. But she was alive, and that was enough to give me hope.

  Matthew didn’t come back to the hospital. I tried to tell myself that was a good thing, that it meant his family was all right. I didn’t want to think about what else it meant. That felt like knives to my chest.

  Vera came around throughout the evening to check on Hannah, Samuel, and the baby. She was amazing, loving on them like I’d never seen from another white person. She’d look them in the eyes, speak directly to them, and smile like everything. She even showed me how to change the bandages and look for signs of infection. She must have slept at some point, but I didn’t know where, and it couldn’t have been for too long.

  It was morning when the surgeon finally came to see Hannah. He wasn’t outright rude, but there was definitely a difference in how he treated her and how Vera treated he
r. He only spoke to me, never even asking Hannah a single question. But I didn’t make a fuss, cause I figured he was just as exhausted as the rest of us, and the most important thing was for her to get the surgery she needed. Respect could come later.

  While she was in surgery, Samuel and the baby slept on a pallet on the floor that Vera had made them. I was exhausted, but I couldn’t sit still. So I went around the room doing what I could to help. Things had quieted down considerably, but the woman with the scalp injury seemed to be in a lot of pain, along with a couple of others suffering from broken bones and headaches. I brought them water, listened to their stories, and prayed with them.

  Robert, a young man near the front of the room who couldn’t have been more than seventeen or so, had lost both his parents and two younger sisters when a tornado ripped through their house. It flung the ten-year-old twin girls into nearby trees, breaking their necks. They found his mother half buried in a field about a quarter mile away. Her ribs had been crushed, puncturing her heart. His father had been slammed into a tractor from a neighboring farm and killed instantly.

  Listening to Robert, reminded me of how blessed I was to still have my whole family in tact. He seemed so broken, yet so grateful for the life of his two younger brothers. He didn’t even talk about his own injuries or how scared he must’ve been. He was focused on getting back to his brothers and making sure they could stay together. I held his hand and prayed with him, and told him I’d come back by before he left.

  Just as I was saying my goodbyes, Brother Cass appeared at the foot of his bed, with the same stern, disapproving expression I’d become accustomed to. “Young lady, this is neither the time, nor the place for your brand of magic.”

  I gave him my best smile. “Well, hi there, Brother Cass. Anything I can do for you?”

  “You can move along for one thing, Miss Ruby. Robert here is well taken care of, and his church family is seeing to his needs.”

  I looked down at Robert. He looked between Cass and me with curiosity. “You two know each other?”

  I placed a hand on his arm. “It looks like you’re in good hands. I’ll keep you and your brothers in my prayers. God bless you.”

  I walked to the end of the bed and around Cass without saying a word. Seemed strange, but I didn’t feel so much anger toward him anymore. Just mostly pity. I was content to walk away and leave him be, but apparently he was not content to be left.

  As I stopped by another patient’s bed on the other side of the room, Cass came beside me and gripped my arm. “Maybe you should leave these good folks alone. Like I said, this is poor timing for your trickery.”

  I pulled my arm away and faced him. “Since when is offering someone who’s suffering some basic kindness and prayer considered to be trickery or magic?”

  He wagged his finger at me. “You may convince others or even yourself that your intentions are honorable, but I know otherwise. I won’t allow you to take advantage of this situation.”

  “Look, I was minding my own business and you approached me. So what is it you want? Why are you even here?”

  “To make sure the upstanding members of my congregation are all right, and to meet their spiritual needs. And for those poor souls like Robert, who did not escape God’s judgment, even though they may not be of my own flock, to offer spiritual guidance in restoring a right relationship with the Father.”

  “Judgment? You think the tragedy Robert is facing is some kind of judgment from God? For all the people all over Alabama today that are waking up to crushing loss, you see that as God’s judgment?”

  “Most certainly—”

  “For what? For working too hard? For doing anything at all to make barely enough money to scrape out a living for their families? And many of them not even able to do that. You’re as twisted as one of those tornadoes.”

  I didn’t want to listen to another word from that man. I’d made peace with his assessment of me, and I had no desire to continue defending myself. I turned my back on him and walked over to the pallet where Samuel and the baby were beginning to stir. I went to the table next to Hannah’s bed and got another pill for Samuel. I took it over to him, along with a cup of water.

  “How’s the pain this morning?” I asked him as I knelt beside him.

  “Better, but it’s still throbbing pretty good.”

  He swallowed the pill and leaned back against the wall. I picked up the squirming baby and laid him across the bed. As I began unwrapping him from his swaddling, Cass took up a defensive stance right across from me. I did my best to ignore his presence, hoping he’d slink away once he got the message. But he was determined to torment me.

  “Once again, Miss Ruby, you fail to see the true nature of God. He is just and righteous. He does not—cannot—tolerate sin. That may be a harsh message in your eyes, but it is no less the truth.”

  I slipped the wet diaper from the baby, and thought about throwing it at Cass. Just the picture of it landing on his face made me smile to myself. Instead, I laid it to the side and began fastening a clean one in its place. Once the pins were secured, I wrapped him in his blanket and pulled him up to my shoulder. Only then did I look Cass in the eyes.

  “What you say may be true in part,” I said. “But you only see one side of the coin, Pastor. You’re so focused on God’s judgment, you miss his mercy altogether. He is patient and slow to anger. Yes, he will judge humanity someday, and we’ll all have to face him and answer for our choices. But in the meantime, we all have to live on this earth together, and we’re supposed to treat each other with compassion. Cause you know what? Every one of us is messed up in some way. There’s not a one of us that’s got the right to stand in the place of God and pronounce judgment on another soul.”

  “I beg to differ,” he said. “But I am most assuredly called to make right judgments in accordance with his Holy Word.”

  “No. You’ve confused discernment with judgment. You’re called to discern right from wrong, and to point the way to salvation in the Gospel. You are not called to swing the sword of God and condemn men whose hearts you know nothing about. Only God knows a man’s heart.”

  His mouth dropped open for a moment before he closed it into a tight line. I took that as an opportunity to keep on preaching to the preacher.

  “You know, Brother Cass, it says a lot that you pride yourself so much on the fact that your entire congregation escaped yesterday’s tragedy with all their lives. But what about my friend, Hannah? What did you call her once before? A harlot? What about her boy there, Samuel? What about this precious baby I delivered right there in the woods? God saved them too. Does that mean Hannah’s just as virtuous as your precious saints? Does that make them equal?”

  I’d have sworn that man’s forehead was close to popping wide open. “Young lady, I will not stand here any longer and listen to this nonsense. You may know enough of the truth to fool others by twisting it around and dressing it up with compassion, but you will never fool me.” He pointed his finger right at the baby on my shoulder. “And this abomination will not be tolerated. Judgment day will come.”

  He turned and stomped away, and I was reminded of how powerful his influence was in our community. I pulled that baby tighter to my chest, afraid my tongue may have just set ablaze something even worse than before.

  Once Hannah was out of surgery and stable enough to travel, Dr. Fisher drove us all out to Colony to find her relatives. She told him where to go, and we found her mother and father not far from the church where she’d grown up. Their house was nicer than I’d expected. It was small, but sturdy and had a little creek running through the backyard. Samuel headed for the water immediately, which gave me hope he’d be happy there.

  Dr. Fisher talked with Hannah’s parents for a while about her care, while I helped her get settled into a bedroom in the back. I realized she had nothing but the hospital gown to her name, which saddened me more than I could bear. I sat down next to her on the bed while she nursed baby Isaiah, feeling compl
etely useless.

  “Hannah, what can I do to help you?”

  She gave me a weak smile. “Don’t you know you done give me all I need?” She looked down on Isaiah with such love, you would’ve never known the circumstances that brought him into this world. “You were right all along, Miss Ruby. God sent you to us. And now you done what he wanted, so it’s time to let go. We’ll be all right. Don’t you fret.”

  “All that work we did, all the food we saved up. Seems like it was for nothing.”

  “Now I know you don’t really believe that. You brought me and Samuel more than food. You brought us hope when we’d run out. You brought us healing, and forgiveness. I know I said a lot of things to run you off, but I want you know how grateful I am.”

  I wondered if she even realized how much healing she’d gone through. “I’m grateful too. God opened my eyes to so many things. You once said that there’s two sides to this war, and that Samuel wouldn’t belong on either side. Maybe he’s not meant to. Maybe he’s the proof that there’s hope for all of us. That someday we can get past all the fear and hatred. Maybe someday we’ll see each other for what’s inside our hearts. Cause in the end, when I’m standing before the Lord, I know beyond all doubt that you, my sister in Christ, will be standing with me. Seems like that’s all that should matter.”

  Hannah smiled, her eyes gleaming. “Sounds mighty nice the way you say it. But I still think you the craziest white girl I ever did meet.”

  We laughed together, and a realization hit me. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you and I were just a couple of friends spending the afternoon together. What a crazy world that would be, huh?”

  The baby finished nursing, so I put him on my shoulder till he burped. Then I swaddled him in his blankets again and laid him down beside Hannah. I figured it was time to let them get some rest.