Chapter 11. Miracle

Abraham placed his gentle hand on top of my shoulder as the scene before us dissolved and I came back fully into myself, a few uneventful seconds later.

I became aware then that my body was still resting against my beloved willow tree, that there was the soft sound of the water behind me and that my best childhood friend, Dawn, was kneeling before me, her hand gently caressing my hair while I finally gathered all my senses.

Without stopping to think about the oddity of my actions, or that I might be offending anyone, I passionately pushed Dawn's hand away from me, took her arms in mine, and shaking her a bit, asked, "How was it possible for me to come to be? How could an infertile woman give birth to a child when her body had been damaged beyond repair?"

I don't know why I was acting so weird now, given the positive feelings I had had when Abraham and I had left my happy parents but somewhere deep inside me there was this major movement that told me even bigger mysteries were about to be revealed, and I just wanted to find them. I almost felt like a hungry child waiting to be fed.

Dawn pulled her arms from my grasp and gently caressed my cheek, helping my chaotic emotions to calm down a bit. Then, once I was calmer, I saw as Michael approached the two of us and suddenly his hand extended towards mine. Without even a second thought, fully trusting him, I placed my palm in his and allowed him to pull me up from my spot.

Without a word between us or from any of the others for that matter, Michael and I began moving towards the porch of my house and then I realized that as if they were part of a scene on a movie that had been frozen, my two earlier arguing parents still remained where we had left them. The whole situation around this scene came back to me as if it had not been interrupted by two major events and I soon focused on the fact that my two parents were now active again.

My mother had finally stopped trying to get away from my father and the two simply embraced as utter sadness enveloped them.

"I... I just want to be a mother so bad Stefan! I know that all you say is true and that I am being unfair to God. I am very sorry about that and I hope He can forgive me. But, tell me, how can someone not lose their faith when something like this happens? All I want is to be granted a child; that is all I beg from God."

My father's hand, which was now gently caressing my mother's head, suddenly took my mother's face by the chin and pulled her up to look at him. The two stared intensely at each other, both with tear-stained and pain-ravaged faces, and then my father said softly, "I know that God has already listened to your prayer and just as He made it possible for us to meet, and for you to recover from your trauma, He has a plan in this front. We can only trust that He will listen and answer to our prayers, granting us this greatest of wishes for both of us."

My mother stared at my father for a few seconds, sorrow overflowing her eyes, but then I literally saw as all fight left her and she nodded her head in agreement.

My head turned towards Michael and I am not sure what my eyes must have been expressing, but I am pretty certain that it was something close to shock and probably defiance. However, as it had been my experience over and over with Michael, he only had to look at me once and my soul settled immediately and opened like a flower towards the sun, ready to receive whatever it was it would receive.

"Do you trust me, Emily?" I suddenly heard Michael asking me while through the corner of my eye I was able to gather the change in the environment around us both. A sort of pitch-dark sphere had enveloped both Michael and me, leaving the others outside, and yet, it was not a sphere where silence reigned. On the contrary, there were different sounds around both of us. However, two stood out: there was a loud heartbeat, and a rushing sound as if water were moving all around us.

Because fear struck me, I turned to look at Michael, and I realized that he was once more emitting a very soft sun-like glow. I nodded my head in response to Michael's earlier question; I knew he did not need anything else from me.

"See," Michael said and his voice resonated all around the sphere. My eyes naturally followed Michael's command and as soon as I allowed them to focus on what was happening around me, I almost fell to my knees. The sphere had stopped being an empty and pitch-dark place with only surrounding sounds. Now, I could feel life moving around it and I was sure that I was about to witness something unique in this whole experience. Sure enough, I was not disappointed.

Moving a bit away from me, Michael, still softly glowing, put his hands up towards what I assumed to be the top of the sphere and it was as if the universe itself with all its stars had answered to his silent call. Tiny sparkles glowed around us and made me aware that the sphere was alive filled with an energy I could not even try to describe.

Suddenly, I saw as Michael's pointer fingers still raised up, moved towards each other. Looking up, I saw as two little sparkles moved towards one another as Michael's fingers had done and came together to form as one.

To my utter astonishment, Michael began to float away from me and towards the newborn star and soon took it into his hand as if it were the most precious gem. Then, he began to descend towards where I was, and when he was right before me, he extended his hand to show me the tiny new light.

I could not believe my eyes, or what I had just witnessed, but I knew, somehow, that I had been given the answer to my earlier question. Michael did not say anything, only smiled at me as he held the precious light, and then, his hand opened up to release it. As soon as he did so, the newborn star rose up towards the top of the sphere and borrowed within it.

The lights disappeared and the sphere turned dark once more. However, I became aware of a huge change around me. Now, instead of one heartbeat and a rushing sound, there were two heartbeats sounding in-sync and my heart swelled at the thoughts that began to run around my brain.

"Come on Em, time to go. It's time for you to learn where that precious gem went," I heard Michael suddenly whispering softly against my ear, bringing my attention back from the wondrous miracle I had just witnessed. Because that, without a doubt, I was sure of; I had just been made a part of one of the greatest miracles ever. I pulled myself together again and looking at Michael's beloved face, I nodded smiling.

The sphere began to dissolve around us while Michael and I were holding hands and staring at each other, both smiling like fools, our souls now even more tightly bonded together after having witnessed the beauty that we had just witnessed.

That is how the other three found us as we emerged back into the backyard of my old home. I did not know even how to begin to explain what I was feeling at that moment, but what I could say for sure was this; hope was definitely now budding inside where once there was nothing more than a dark void.

All of our heads turned at the same time towards the small ranch house as we heard a yell of joy emerging from one of the second-story windows facing the backyard.

"The time has finally come," I heard Abraham saying as he and Emmanuel looked at each other with a knowing look, and then they stared at Michael. Dawn approached me, and taking my hand into hers, pulled me gently towards this new scene of my old life. I followed her meekly and without question, now wishing more than anything to continue on this, the biggest and most important journey of my life, towards discovery.

As we entered the house and walked up the stairs I was able to discern my mother's soft cries and my father's shout. As we finally arrived in the second story of the house, near to my parent's bedroom, I saw as my father rushed around like a chicken without a head, his entire being radiating an entirely different set of emotions than the ones I had witnessed before. It was at that moment that the experience at the sphere gained its meaning and I understood what the answer to my question was.

Sure enough, when the five of us entered my parent's bedroom I saw my mother, her face totally transformed by joy, sitting down on the bed while her hands held a pregnancy test stick that marked the turning point in my parents', and especially in my mother's, lives. While my father kept going from room to room in the second story of the house, evidently talking to someone on the phone, his body emitting rays of passionate energy, my mother simply looked at her stick, her hands shaking.

Then, her face rose up towards the wall that stood opposite the bed, and where I knew my parents had their precious crucifix and the image of the Holy Mother, and with a fresh rush of tears, and joy emanating from every pore in her body, I heard her saying simply, "Thank you for listening to my prayers. I now have the most precious gift I could have ever received."

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Wow, one of my shortest, yet most intense chapters. Please let me know how you like it. How about we keep walking with Emily, see what we find alongside her?