and angrier as other children were scooped up by their families. hE saw Mike and Matt’s two mothers wrap their boys in their arms. hE knew that Matt and Mike would grow up together. They would always be there for each other. Matt would always keep his magic eye on his brother. No one would ever split up the M&M’s again.
“lisSsteN tO mE…”
hE whispered to Ms. Lasko about the beautiful buzzy butterfly feeling on her skin, but she didn’t need it anymore. That would leave more merLOT for Nurse Tammy, who had vague memories of falling asleep at work before waking up in the middle of nowhere with the doctor, who figured it must have been a fever dream brought on by the flu. She called her father and told him she would come home for Christmas as soon as she and the doctor helped the town get back on its feet. Her father kidded, “Is that the cute doctor you always talk about?” “Shut up, Dad.”
“listeN tO mE!”
hE screamed into their ears but all they did was scratch hiM away and make the peace they needed to make. Jill and Clark returned home. The old lady returned to the log cabin. She would sit in her room that night and look out at the beautiful stars twinkling like sunlight on the Ohio River. She would see her husband beckon her to come into the water with him so they could be together forever. She would be reunited with him soon. He was such a beautiful boy.
“jerrY! she’S goinG tO fucK thE sherifF, jerrY. thE bitcH iS laughinG aT yoU.”
But even Jerry was beyond hiS reach. After hE had moved Hell and earth to lure him here, all hE could do was watch Jerry utter two simple spineless words…
“Goodbye, Kate.”
Jerry nodded to Christopher. Then, he took his casino winnings back home to Michigan. Back home to Mustang Sally.
“buT goD iS stilL a murdereR, sherifF. goD wilL kilL the woMan you lovE…”
The sheriff looked over at Kate Reese covered in mud and blood. He had never seen anyone so beautiful in his life. He knew they didn’t have all the time in the world, so he didn’t want to waste a minute of it. He wanted to make memories with her. He wanted to have a child with her. He wanted to spend every Christmas and every holiday for the rest of his life with her and Christopher.
“he’lL leavE yoU, katE. jusT likE youR husbanD.”
Kate Reese turned to the sheriff and gestured for him to come and join the family. For a moment, she thought of her late husband. The memories of her life returned but the pain did not. She looked at Christopher, sober and present. His fever was gone for now. So was hers. Children do not cry at happy endings, and he was never going to learn how to do it from her. She kissed the sheriff. She knew she would marry that man. She knew they would be a family. Everyone gets an ending. Whether or not it’s happy is up to them.
“i aM watchinG yoU.”
hE watched the sheriff kiss Kate Reese goodbye and go back to his job to help the town get home without further incident. The sheriff promised himself that in the morning, he would make the drive up to Erie, Pennsylvania, to give Emily Bertovich’s family some peace. But for now, he was needed right where he was standing. The nicE maN watched the sheriff help the crowd disperse and return to their homes safely. It amazed hiM how people always did that. No matter how big the war. How bloody the battle. In the end, the frogs always kept going. Like little seeds sprouting from the soil of a burnt forest. They always went home.
Rubberneckers.
“i aM watchinG yoU.”
hE watched the town leave the clearing and walk back out through the Mission Street Woods. hE looked around at hiS world. Empty. Silent. The tree had fallen in the middle of the forest, and there was no one left to hear it.
Except Christopher.
He was looking straight at hiM.
“i aM watchinG yoU, chrisSstopher,” hE said.
Christopher looked through hiM. To the cloud. The face. The blue moon. The eclipse. The end of days. The shooting stars across the brittle sky. Another. Then another. Every one a daughter. A son. A sun. A soul. A fleck of color in God’s eyes.
“I am watching you, too,” Christopher said.
hE saw Christopher’s mother turn and look hiM right in the eye with all of the fury of Heaven.
“So am I,” she said.
Then, she took her little boy’s hand, and the two walked out of the Mission Street Woods. The nicE maN stayed at the tree for a moment. The last of the tree house was now charcoal on the ground. The smoke rose into the air, and hE followed it.
hE floated into the cloud, rising above the woods. Higher and higher. Until hE saw the clearing and the tree looking back with itS giant angry eye.
hE saw the horizon. The single sun. The earth was the head on the giant’s body. Human beings were the bugs crawling on hiS face. hE looked out into the world. Watching. Waiting. Looking for the next soul.
hE hovered above the town. Following the sirens. hE saw the ambulance race down the road. hE followed it all the way back to the hospital and saw the paramedics rush the gurney down the hall into the operating room.
While the doctors did their best to play God, hE floated down the hallway. hE saw Father Tom resting in a bed. Mrs. Radcliffe held his hand from his bedside. Thank God he is still alive, hE heard the woman pray. Thank God they are all still alive. The mother. The father. The teenage boy. It was a Christmas miracle.
When the girl’s operation was over, hE quietly floated into the hospital room and lay down on the ceiling. hE watched her sleeping. Deeply and peacefully. All day and all night as the world kept itself busy turning.
When Mary Katherine woke up, she looked up into the bright white light above her bed. She looked down at the bandages and gauze covering her legs and arms. Suddenly she remembered the accident. The deer antlers ripping apart her body. But she saved Christopher’s life. Somehow in her heart, she knew Christopher was still alive.
The door opened.
Mary Katherine saw a doctor and a nurse enter the room. Mary Katherine’s eyes were still a little blurry, but she saw that the nurse’s name tag read TAMMY. Behind Nurse Tammy, her mother and father entered the room with Doug. They had escaped from the church. Their nightmare was over.
“Is this Heaven?” she asked.
Everyone in the room laughed.
“No, honey,” her mother said kindly. “We’re in the hospital.”
“You had a close call, honey,” her father said. “We all did.”
Her father choked back tears and held his daughter’s hand. Mary Katherine suddenly felt as warm as if she were in her mother’s kitchen. The doctor stepped up and started explaining the operation to her, but Mary Katherine’s mind drifted on the cloud of painkillers. She heard a word here or there, but she was too focused on her family “blood loss” to put her full attention “ruptured” anywhere else. She just felt so grateful to be alive. To be here with her family and Doug. Beautiful Doug. Maybe she would get into Notre Dame after all. The possibilities of life suddenly seemed “full recovery” endless. Mary Katherine closed her eyes and began to drift away when she felt her mother’s loving hand.
“We will help you, Mary Katherine,” her mother said.
“That’s right,” her father agreed. “We’re in this together as a family.”
“I’ll be here, too, Mary Katherine. You’re not alone,” Doug said.
Mary Katherine was confused. She opened her eyes and looked at her mother.
“Alone with what, Mom?” she asked.
Her mother cried tears of joy.
“They were able to save the baby. You’re still pregnant.”
hE watched as the news spread over the young girl’s face. hE watched as she held her mother. hE watched as the young man professed his love and promised to raise the child as his own. hE watched as the father wondered what his grandchild would be.
A daughter
A son
A sun
A soul
After a few minutes, the doctor ushered her family out of the room to let Mary Katherine get some much-needed rest. After all, she was sleeping for two now. As she lay on the pillow, she felt a little prickle on the back of her neck that she blamed on the air-conditioning. She scratched her neck and curled up into the blanket. She closed her eyes, and right before she fell asleep, she could have sworn she heard a sweet whisper in her ear.