I only wish there were some way to help Beth. If only there were some medicine for what she has …”
A way to help Beth … Some medicine …
Suddenly I remembered something from science class and an idea occurred to me. I stared at the remainder of the piece of bread in my hand.
“Do we have any old bread in the house?” I asked Jo urgently. “Something with a bit of mold on it?”
The sudden thought I’d had was about something I vaguely remembered learning in science once. Hadn’t penicillin been discovered from mold on bread? Maybe that could save Beth!
“How should I know?” Jo asked, irritable once more. “Ask Hannah.”
I asked Hannah and she did have some moldy old bread.
“Here,” I said, returning to Jo with the bread. “When you sit with Beth, please, please get her to eat this.”
“Moldy bread?” Jo wrinkled her nose. “But why? I should think, if she has any appetite at all, she’d want something other than moldy bread.”
“Please, Jo,” I pleaded, desperate now. “For once just trust me. I think this might help Beth.”
The shadow of death hung over the house.
Even though it was night already and Laurie had left for the train station, it seemed a long wait until midnight, the witching hour that Dr. Bangs had declared should represent a turning point for Beth.
I was back in the closet, urged there by Jo.
“Meg’s been through enough this past week,” she’d said, shooing me along, “what with worrying about Beth and running the household. She shouldn’t have to worry about you too right this minute.”
So back into the closet I’d gone.
“I am so worried about Beth,” Jo said in a loud whisper, almost like she wanted me to be able to hear them, as she and Meg hovered over Beth’s bed.
“We need to trust in God,” Meg said, sounding more confident than I suspected she felt, “and Marmee.”
“You’re right,” Jo agreed.
Hey! What happened to the girl who agreed with me that God would take a good person as easily as a bad person?
I sighed. Looked as though I was the only person questioning authority left in the foxhole.
Then Meg vowed to never complain about anything again if God would only spare Beth.
Me, I was making no vows to God or anyone else, because I knew I’d never keep them.
Or maybe I’d make one, just to myself, that if Beth lived through the night I’d never again mock poor headless and limbless Joanna, not even in my own mind. But no, that wasn’t a big enough trade. If Beth lived through the night, I’d do my best to find a way to be a better person.
“Did you see that?” Meg said in a hushed voice just after the hall clock struck midnight.
I poked my head out and saw a long shadow fall across Beth’s bed. It was as though something had come to claim her.
If I hadn’t been there to see it with my own two eyes I’d never have believed it.
And then …
Nothing happened.
Nothing appeared to change: her face still flushed, her breathing still labored, her body still fighting in its fevered sleep.
We all settled back into our respective positions to wait, some of us more comfortably than others.
One o’clock.
Two o’clock.
Suddenly Jo leaped from her chair. “Oh, Meg!” she cried. “I think she’s dead!”
She began to say good-bye then, but Hannah, having no doubt heard her cry, rushed in.
In the instant before she spoke, I saw the shadow was gone. Somehow, it had receded without any of us noticing.
“She’s not dead,” Hannah said. “She’s only sleeping. Peacefully. Her fever’s turned.”
Her fever had turned? Did this mean, then, Beth wasn’t going to die? That I had somehow saved her? But … but … how had I done it? Was it the Miley Cyrus song? The moldy bread?
Had I invented penicillin?
Dr. Bangs was sent for.
“She will pull through, I think,” he said, adding, “this time.”
I didn’t like his cautious note, but I told myself he was just being careful—malpractice suits and all that. Beth had survived the witching hour, had survived scarlet fever. She’d be fine in time. Thank you, Miley Cyrus! Thank you, moldy bread!
I could almost feel Jo’s eyes boring through the closed door, almost hear the words in her head as she wondered: Did Emily somehow do this?
The others began rejoicing then even though Dr. Bangs was giving instructions on what to do once Beth awoke.
Good thing I was listening!
There was the sound of bells and then Hannah and Laurie shouting