Page 80 of The Last Straw

“Millie...honey?”

Millie came awake within seconds and sat up. “Oh, Ray...sweetheart! You must be exhausted, but I am so glad you’re here.”

He sat down beside her and put his arms around her.

“I should have been here sooner. You shouldn’t have had to wait this out alone. Is there any news?”

“Not really,” Millie said. “I finally got to see her at midnight.” Then she put a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming, and took several slow, deep breaths. “Oh, Ray...she’s so hurt. She’s so, so hurt.”

Ray pulled her close, rocking her where they sat as Millie dissolved into tears.

“But she’s alive, baby. She’s alive. And this time yesterday we didn’t know that, right? This is the miracle we asked for. Just to find her alive, and they did.”

“You’re right,” Millie said and then laid her head on his shoulder. “Thank you for coming into my life so many years ago, and for loving me...and sticking with me after Rachel came to live with us, too. You’re always the calm in my storms.”

Ray smiled. “Well, Rachel was in college when she came to us, so it’s not like we had any diaper duty or sneaking out of the house at midnight business to deal with.”

Millie laughed a little, and it felt so good to turn loose of some fear.

“Rachel was never that kid anyway. She’s always known what she wanted, and has never let other people deter her from going after it.”

“Yes,” Ray said. “And that’s why she’s still alive. Because she fought to stay that way. I’m holding on to the fact that she’s going to fight her way back to us now. And when she’s well enough, we’ll take her home again and we’ll love her back. She won’t be the same. Just accept that now. But she’ll be stronger.”

Millie glanced at the time. “I slept through the 1 a.m. visitation. But we can go in at two.”

“Can I go in, too?” Ray asked.

Millie nodded.

“Two family members at a time, and we have to be very quiet. There are some very sick people in ICU.”

Ray nodded. “I just want to look at her and let her know we’re here. You never know how much they can hear.”

“You’re right,” Millie said. “I was so horrified when I first saw her, that it was all I could do to say her name. I’m so glad you’re here. If you’re hungry, the food in the vending machines isn’t awful. We have to wait until six thirty before the cafeteria opens.”

“I’m fine for now,” Ray said. “I missed you. I just want to hold you.”

And so they settled in to wait, keeping an eye on the clock until they could see Rachel again.

Rachel knew nothing. She didn’t know she’d been rescued, or had surgery, or that Millie and Ray were so near. The blessed peace of clean and soft were lost on her. The fluids and food she was getting intravenously were what she’d needed days ago. Fever warred with the antibiotics being pumped into her, and right now it was still winning.

She was safe, and didn’t know.

She had prayed to be rescued or to die.

She needed to wake up so she’d know her prayers had been answered. Maybe that would be the turning point, knowing she didn’t have to fight her way out of that hell now to survive.

She didn’t know there were nurses with her. She didn’t know when Ray and Millie came in, or when her surgeon came in to check on her again before morning.

She heard nothing.

Saw nothing.

Knew nothing.

She just was.

Waiting to be Rachel again.

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