Baby Shoes

by Lynne Gentry

  Etta May’s silver brows disappeared under her weed-wacked bangs. “And still smart as a whip according to your Momma.”

  Embarrassment crept up Maddie’s neck. “Y’all haven’t changed a bit.” Maddie cringed at how quickly her Texas drawl had returned.

  Nola Gay raised a jar of pickles in salute. “Leona, your young’uns have done you proud.”

  “Maddie!” Grandmother came out the front door holding tightly to Cotton, Maddie’s favorite church janitor. Roberta Worthington had traded in her stiff salon-tease and her pursed lips for an easy wash-and-go cut and a warm, welcoming smile.

  Maybe coming home wouldn’t be the torture she’d put off for four years.

  “Hey, Grandmother,” Maddie waved back, surprised at her genuine pleasure in seeing the woman she’d spent most of her life avoiding. “Cotton, you still driving that old truck?”

  “Bessie’s runnin’ like a top.” Everyone knew Cotton could afford a fleet of new pickups after his brilliant investment strategies had made him and the Harpers filthy rich. “Had to put a new clutch in her after you learned how to drive.” He nodded toward her Porsche. “I see you still love speed.”

  Maddie shrugged, remembering her recent interstate loss. “She’s responsive, but I bet your Bessie could smoke her on the line.”

  “Well, that’s a bet I’ll take you up on,” Cotton said.

  Maddie scanned the porch again.

  No Parker.

  Feeling disappointed that he wasn’t here to greet her was stupid. She knew better than to expect him, even if he was in town.

  “How was your drive?” Maxine asked, nodding toward Maddie’s new car.

  “It’s not a Cadillac, but it got me here.”

  “Your momma’s been worryin’ about you for the past two days.” Maxine continued to commandeer the conversation in her typical my-husband-is-chairman-of-the-church-board manner. Or was he? Maddie hadn’t asked Momma what happened after that Sunday Maxine melted down and accused Howard of having an affair. From their smiles, either the couple had actually made peace or they were just grateful they’d come to the end of years of intensive marriage counseling Momma had put them through. The last time Maddie had seen Maxine she was sedated and broken. Seeing her whole and hopeful was a pleasant surprise.

  Maddie shifted in her heels. “Nellie in town?”

  “She’s out at Parker’s ranch helping Kathy with the chores while Ryan is laid up,” Maxine said. “She’s anxious to see you.”

  Nellie doing manual labor was almost as hard to imagine as Nellie being glad to see her.

  “We can’t figure out what’s keeping Parker,” Etta May said.

  Maddie smoothed the interest from her face. “Was our wandering county extension agent supposed to be here tonight?”

  “Should have been here days ago,” Nola Gay said. “We took some pickles out to Parker’s parents this afternoon. His mother is worried sick.” Nola Gay held up her mason jar. “These are the last of the crop Parker saved from those nasty beetles.”

  Memories of Parker patiently helping two old women protect their cucumber crop flashed in Maddie’s head. “Hasn’t he called?”

  Before Nola Gay could answer, Ivan Tucker squeezed Maddie against her mother. “Would you two mind hugging again?” Ivan raised his camera. “I wanted a candid shot, but I got Leona’s backside in the first one, and I know better than to print a wide angle on the front page.”

  Everyone laughed. Momma blushed and waved Ivan off.

  “Hug her again, Leona. Hug her,” Maxine shouted.

  Aunt Roxie, Momma’s best friend and Maddie’s only reliable link to the outside world while she was growing up said, “Hell’s bells, Ivan. Give them a minute.” She raised her long fingers to her ruby lips and blew Maddie a commiserating kiss.

  “I’m happy to hold my baby until the cows come home.” Momma handed Maddie’s suitcase off to David and wrapped her in another breath-robbing embrace.

  Laughter bubbled over despite Maddie’s concern for Parker’s delay. “I wish Daddy could have been here.”

  “He would have been so proud.” Momma swallowed hard. They’d never really talked about Daddy’s heart attack and Momma’s summoning wave to David meant they weren’t having that honest conversation now. “Y’all, let Aunt Madison see how much my grandbabies have grown.”

  Maddie’s beaming sister-in-law carefully lifted the lightweight blanket from the face of the baby cradled in her arms. “She’s asleep,” Amy whispered as she held out little Libby.

  Maddie’s heart raced. Sweat beaded her top lip. Everyone was expecting her to take the baby. But she wasn’t about to embarrass herself by waking the little angel and causing her to scream. Luckily, she’d been trained to think on her feet. She reached into her oversized handbag and pulled out the pink bunny she’d bought at a gas station outside Abilene. Standing as close as she dared, she peered inside the blanket. “She’s beautiful.”

  “Like her momma.” David bounced his son. Jamie giggled and plunged his fingers into his father’s thick hair. The little boy pulled back on the strands like he was stopping a horse. David’s cringe told her the fierce tugs hurt, but instead of chastising his son, he said, “Jamie, can you tell Aunt Maddie, hello?”

  Her nephew eyed her warily, frowned, then shook his head.

  “I brought you a surprise too, Jamie.” Maddie retrieved a plastic helicopter from her purse. She’d agonized between the chopper and the kid-sized firefighter suit. In the end, she’d gone with the gift that would fit in her car’s tiny trunk. Obviously, from Jamie’s wrinkled nose, thinking of herself had been the wrong choice. “Look, the light flashes.” She pressed the button then held out her last-minute offering.

  The curly-headed blond buried his face in his daddy’s hair, sending a clear message: he wanted no part of her or her silly gas station toy.

  “I’ll just let your dad keep it for you, okay?”

  “Sorry, sis.” David hooked one arm across Jamie’s legs to keep him secure and took the helicopter with his free hand. “He takes a while to warm up to folks.”

  “So do I.” Truth be known, she was relieved Jamie hadn’t leapt into her arms. With the maternal gene missing from her DNA, who knew what might have happened. “Momma, what’s going on with Parker?”

  “We don’t know. He said he’d be on the next plane.” Momma shook her head. “That was days ago.”

  “Has anyone tried calling him?” Maddie immediately regretted her condescending tone.

  “Of course.”

  “I didn’t mean...”

  “He’s not answering his phone and no one at the mountain clinic will give us any information,” David said.

  “We don’t need to burden your sister.” Momma wouldn’t win any acting awards. She was clearly irritated that Maddie had come home so prickly.

  Frankly, Maddie was irritated at herself. Getting off on the wrong foot was not going to help her win her freedom. “I want to hear, Momma.”

  “I’m sure he had things to wrap up on his wonderful water project and it’s taking longer than he anticipated.” Momma hooked her arm through Maddie’s. “There’s a plate of fudge inside with your name on it.”

  Thirty minutes later, Maddie was in the process of turning down Bette Bob’s second offering of chocolate fudge and worrying about what could have delayed Parker’s return to the States when Shirley’s cell phone rang.

  The church secretary looked at her caller ID then signaled for quiet. “It’s Kathy.”

  Hush fell over the room. Shirley put a finger in one ear and raised the phone to the other. Maddie couldn’t breathe as Shirley’s face scrunched into dismay. “Oh no...are you sure...I’ll tell them...of course, dear, prayer goes without saying.” She clicked off her phone and turned. The color had drained from Shirley’s face. “They’ve found Parker.” Checking to make sure she had everyone’s attention, she shook her head slowly and added, “It’s not good.”

  Maddie’s stomach dropped. �
��Where is he?”

  “Still in Guatemala.” Shirley gulped like what she had to say next was stuck in her throat. “They say he’s...dying.”

  Everyone gasped, including Maddie, who suddenly couldn’t swallow either.

  David rushed to Shirley’s side and led her to a chair. “Tell us everything Kathy said.”

  Shirley’s head bobbed up and down as she tried to recall the entire conversation. “Someone from that mountain village where Parker’s been livin’ hauled him to the nearest city in the back of a pickup. They couldn’t call Parker’s mother until they got him to the hospital.” Shirley lifted teary eyes. “They think he has the typhoid.”

  All heads swiveled toward Maddie.

  The facts of this bacterial illness whirled in her head. “The odds are slim if his vaccinations are current.” No one moved. “He is current, right, Shirley?”

  Finally, Shirley shrugged helplessly. “He’s been gone four years.”

  “A proper course of antibiotics should have him back on his feet in a few days,” Maddie couldn’t hide her wariness at the probability of his case being handled properly.

  Momma’s lips trembled. “And if he’s not had the care he needed?”

  Maddie felt devoured by the roomful of eyes hungry for hope. Improper treatment of Parker’s illness could lead to a perforated intestine or even death. “I won’t know until I get there, Momma.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Maddie didn’t think she’d ever get used to her mother having the means or the hospital connections to charter a medevac plane with one phone call. It was a lucky turn to her mother’s life, but she wasn’t about to entrust her life to chance. She wanted to control her own destiny.

  The pilot’s warning to prepare for arrival sounded in the medically-outfitted cabin.

  She snapped her seatbelt and watched out a small window as the plane dropped through the dark clouds building over the active Guatemalan lava dome of Santa María. The narrow streets of Quetzaltenango snaked around the volcano’s rugged base. Maddie hadn’t seen the crowded mountain city in over a decade. She’d not forgotten how enchanted she’d been by her first glimpse of Central America or how much she’d loved her time here.

  The summer between her sophomore and junior year of college, her parents scraped together three thousand dollars so she could spend two months wiping noses at a small clinic perched high in the jungle. Momma had hoped the trip would reignite Maddie’s cooling faith. Instead, watching people die because of inadequate health care had done just the opposite. How could a loving God take a mother from her children or a child from its mother? If she’d been a doctor, she could have made a real difference.

  It was in these mountains that she’d made the decision to return to college, change her major from family counseling to bio-chemistry, and to put her faith behind her. By the time her father died, her faith was beyond resurrection.

  Now this lush land threatened to change her life again.

  If anything happened to Parker, who could she count on? Not that she’d called on him during the rough ride of her medical residency. But in the back of her mind, she’d always known she could.

  Until now.

  She’d managed to gather a few more facts from Parker’s mother as she waited for the charter to arrive in Mt. Hope. Parker had become ill the same day he was scheduled to begin his journey back to Texas. During a quick call, he’d complained of a bad stomach ache, but he’d assured his mother it was probably something he ate. He couldn’t be far from the outhouse, but the moment he thought he could make the bus ride to the airport, he would. It had been five days since she’d heard his beautiful voice and he wasn’t answering her calls or texts.

  Kathy went on to say that Parker had spent the past few weeks working to clear up a sewage leak which was suspected to be the cause of the typhoid outbreak in the village. When Parker checked in at the poorly staffed and overrun mountain clinic, they’d assured him that vaccinated Americans didn’t get typhoid. So they’d treated him with Acetaminophen and sent him back to his rented room to ride it out.

  Maddie didn’t have the heart to tell Kathy that her assurances about Parker’s vaccinations had been for the benefit of everyone at Momma’s party. Truth was the typhoid vaccine had an effectiveness-rating of less than seventy percent. Arbitrarily deciding Parker had not contracted typhoid was a mistake. Early diagnosis and proper treatment was essential for recovery. She wouldn’t know Parker’s prognosis until she was able to examine him, run some tests, and talk to his caregivers.

  Her attempts to contact Gabriella had been unsuccessful. The beautiful South Texas College nursing student who’d interned with Maddie had found the Lord in these mountains. They’d kept in touch at first...long enough for Maddie to know Gabriella had returned to the small village clinic after her graduation. Maddie could only hope it had been Gabriella who’d attended Parker. Gabriella would have sent him to a medical facility in the city for proper testing and treatment.

  The plane skimmed treetops bent under a sudden deluge of rain. Maddie gathered her backpack filled with her stethoscope and a couple of rounds of antibiotics, just enough to tide Parker over until she had him safely home. The pilot climbed out of his seat and opened the jet door.

  Rain pounded the tarmac. Despite the mid-day heat, a cold ache crept into Maddie’s core. Sloshing around in a jungle sauna to rescue a man who hadn’t bothered to write in four years was not how she’d planned to revive their old friendship.

  She raised her backpack over her head and raced into the canary-yellow cinder block terminal. Spanish stormed her ears. Lucky for her, working New York’s emergency rooms had kept her fluency skills sharp. The addition of modern cash machines in the airport terminal gave her hope that Parker had been sent to an updated hospital and was receiving proper medical care.

  Soaked to the skin and breathing hard from the higher altitude, Maddie searched the terminal’s limited signage. The tempting aroma of spicy food stirred her empty stomach. With the possibility of typhoid in the region, she wasn’t willing to consume street vendor tamales wrapped in banana leaves that could have been washed in tainted water. She turned away from the portable food court and hurried toward the smell of diesel and the swirl of black smoke. The Story twins had reissued their usual warning to stay clear of the chicken buses. According to Maddie’s Google search, a bus was safer than a taxi and since the hospital was clear across town, she didn’t have time to walk. Surely, a country with modern ATM machines had improved its transportation system as well.

  And then, she saw the bus. The dilapidated eight-passenger van belched sooty fumes.

  Holding her bag to her chest, Maddie poked her head through the sliding door. Scents of unwashed bodies, animals, and poverty brought one hand to her nose. She asked a woman to pass her phone to the driver so he could see the text from Parker’s mother with the hospital name and address. The driver passed the phone back and nodded toward the rear of the van. A woman holding a chicken and a man who hadn’t shaved in several days scooted apart and waved her toward the sliver of space.

  “Why do I never listen?” Maddie mumbled in English as she climbed over the legs of a skinny boy.

  When she’d Googled the city’s local hospitals, she was surprised to learn a private hospital had been built in Quetzaltenango since her last visit. She really hoped Parker had been taken to this new facility. It wasn’t much to brag about, but at least it had a couple of five-star ratings and the grainy website video touted modern equipment.

  As the van chugged down a street lined with restored neoclassical architecture dating back to the 19th-century, coffee-boom days, Maddie remained hopeful. Then the van turned a corner. The streets quickly gave way to shanties constructed from tin and cardboard. Parker had been taken to the public hospital...a facility with no stars and multiple warnings against going there unless you were bleeding to death.

  Maddie snugged the backpack against her roiling stomach. The chicken studied her with beady eyes
. If it had been anyone else but Parker stranded down here, she’d be pecking her way out of this deathtrap.

  What had happened to that girl who came home from the jungle intent on saving the world? The thought was a guilty slap to her conscience.

  She had the training. And now, she had the money. But she didn’t have the guts. Parker had done what she’d only talked about. If he wasn’t dead by the time she got to him, she’d kill him for making her face the jungle, poor medical conditions, and so much poverty the entire Harper fortune couldn’t make a dent. The futility of the situation in the heart of Central America had broken her heart then. The lack of progress sickened her now.

  The bus puttered to a stop in front of a peeling-paint bungalow with bars on the windows.

  “El hospital.” The driver shouted over his shoulder.

  Maddie leaned around the chicken and stared at the desolate structure. “This can’t be it.”

  The driver pointed to his empty palm.

  Maddie paid the fare and climbed out. The rain had slowed to a drizzle, but her frizzy curls were beyond saving. Not bothering to raise her backpack, she made her way through the gnarled trees and opened the wooden door. Smells reminiscent of the nursing home her parents used to make her visit once a month hung heavy in the sweltering air. She waited for her eyes to adjust to the dim lighting. A woman dressed in the American equivalent of scrubs was hurrying toward her.

  “Are you bleeding?” she asked hopefully in Spanish.

  Maddie shook her head, dusted off her fluent Spanish, and responded, “I’m looking for a friend.” She pulled out her phone. “Americano.” She presented the woman with her screensaver shot, a picture of her laughing with a tall, handsome man throwing a horseshoe at Momma’s wedding. Aunt Roxie had captured the beautiful moment of them enjoying each other’s company for the last time. She’d texted it as a consolation prize after Maddie finally found the courage to set Parker free. “A patient. Parker Kemp.” The woman’s wary scowl pushed Maddie into Code Blue mode. “I’m his American doctor, and I want to see him. NOW.”