The Amish Midwife - By Mindy Starns Clark Page 0,122
I told her, certain that Will would give permission for the release of the files. I handed the phone back to Marta, pulled out my cell, and sent Sean a text saying I needed to talk with him ASAP. Waiting to hear back from him, I listened to Marta’s end of her conversation, thrilled to know that she might be exonerated. I wasn’t sure if the DA would pursue charging her with practicing without a license, even though the state didn’t grant them, but at least it looked as if she wouldn’t end up in prison.
I drove out to check on Hannah and Alice Elizabeth, the name she and Jonas, with Rachael’s help, had decided on. All was well with them. Hannah was happy, a state I hadn’t seen her in since I met her. Rachael was still overjoyed and followed me around like a puppy.
After that I took the long way home, slowing as I passed Klara’s. A van was out front, and I assumed they had hired a driver to bring Ada home. For a moment I considered stopping, but then I decided to keep going. As I drove I called Sean, putting him on speakerphone once he answered. I explained to him what was going on, and we talked through the details of what might have happened the night Lydia died, if she did have an arrhythmia.
“It’s very plausible,” he said. “I had a patient last year with arrhythmia. Of course it was diagnosed, so we knew she was high risk. She ended up with a C-section.” He offered to put me in touch with a buddy of his, a specialist who would probably be happy to sign an affidavit on the subject.
“This means you can finally get out of there, right?” he added.
I wasn’t sure. “I don’t have all my answers yet.”
“Lex,” he said. It was the first time he’d shortened my name, and it caught me off guard. “You’re never going to get all of your answers. It’s time for a new start. Think positively. You’ll love Baltimore, I promise. We’ll have a blast.”
I kept busy over the next few days with pre- and postnatal visits, including one to Paradise to see Susan Eicher, who was doing much better. Her kids were healthy and the ladies from her district had been helping her with housework and her garden. As I left Paradise, I passed right by Lavonne Bauer’s house but couldn’t work up the nerve to stop.
Instead I drove into town to Esther and David’s to check on little Caroline. Simon was the happy little boy I remembered from before he became a big brother, and Esther and David, although they still looked exhausted, seemed much more relaxed than they had for a while.
There were several boxes by the bookcase. “We go to Ethiopia in two weeks,” David said. “Right after graduation.”
I held the baby, settling into the rocker with her, and after a while she closed her eyes. Simon patted her head and then ran off. I closed my eyes too, for just a moment.
My next concern was Ada. I texted her several times but didn’t hear back from her. I’d done some research on hereditary spherocytosis. I knew I didn’t have it, but there was the possibility that I was a carrier. My children, depending on who their father was, could inherit the disease. Normal red blood cells lived for four months, but the cells of a person with HS only lasted three to six weeks. The spleen of a person with it was also frequently enlarged and was sometimes removed—not the case with Ada, as far as I knew. It wasn’t uncommon for the disease to go undiagnosed for years and for the patient to suffer fatigue without knowing what it was from. It sounded as if that was what happened here.
At least the disease wasn’t life threatening. Folic acid and ascorbic acid, which I assumed Ada took, helped. Transfusions were given when needed. Ada could live a mostly normal life, minus too much exertion and contact sports. Another interesting fact was that it was more common in those of northern European descent. That certainly fit Ada—and me, whatever the particulars of our story were.
I contemplated driving over to see Ada on Tuesday, five days after she’d been discharged, but I didn’t feel comfortable with that. Maybe she didn’t want to see me. I could handle being rejected by Klara, but I couldn’t bear being rejected by Ada too.