Celebrations
The voice outside her bedroom has stopped, the phone call ended, the silence smothering her, making it hard to breath. The door to the Granny Annexe opens, she can tell by the way shoes are scraped on the mat that Richard has come in. Will he come to this side of the divider and tell her what the phone call was about? She can hear his steps coming over, and through the divider she can see his tall form, looking incredible weary. Her heart sinks. The phone call must have been bad news. She leans back into the pillows, clutching the yellow bedspread as tight as she can, to stop herself from crying out, from breaking down. If that was bad news, then Richard will need a strong wife to help him through this storm.
Richard comes round the blue divider, looks at her, and almost throws himself on her. “Oh Tabitha,” he weeps, “Oh Tabitha, that was Dr Dean himself. There is hope, there really is hope! I will need to get to the EA Hospital straight away, bringing my ID number, and Letter of Introduction, he will take photos, and review my case! He says not to despair, that it’s amazing what they can do, and he sympathised with me, saying how awkward it must feel to be a doctor and not being able to help myself!”
He clutches her, sobs shaking his broad muscular shoulders, his broad chest heaving, breathing big gasps of air. “I have been so scared, so worried! I love you so much, I am desperate to have a life with you, I want a family with you, to be all that a husband should be, protecting you, supporting you, cherishing you…instead I’m dying on you! I feel so guilty, so devastated, and now…there is hope, I can finally see this minuscule speck of light at the end of a very long and dark tunnel!”
Getting dressed, getting bags packed, getting transport, getting to the Hospital…Tabitha sighs, so much getting, rushing, moving around. Now they are at the huge EA Hospital, and it has turned into a waiting game. Dr Dean’s secretary has taken their details, ID number, Letters, papers. They have been for photos, and the results were through to the Doctor already, she assured them. There is nothing to be done but wait. Tabitha looks at Richard, waiting patiently in the uncomfortable chair next to her. He looks exhausted! First the party, then that phone call and all the emotions that call brought to the surface, then the mad scrambling about, and now…nothing. No wonder he looks past it!
Finally they get to see Dr Dean. He is very kind and confident, lively and with a great sense of humour. Tabitha is amazed, she found most doctors lose their sense of humour after seeing to many patients, worn down by people’s grumbles and complaints. He tells them that there is definitely hope, and that he might be able to do a Reversal, if necessary, but that he will need a little more information. He gives them a list with information he will need, and a note for the ward where Richard will need to stay overnight, as well as the usual stack of permission papers to sign.
The ward is light and tastefully decorated, based on the second floor, with large windows at the end of each room. Richard installs himself, glad to be able to rest. Tabitha fusses around, refreshing his water, straitening his blanket, moving things, fiddling…until he asks her to just sit, and rest! Tabitha lowers herself in the chair, feeling herself shaking inside, her nerves taut as a tightrope. She just wants to know the outcome, wants the procedure done, wants Richard well!
Late in the afternoon, when Tabitha realises that she will need to get back home soon, the door to Richard’s ward opens, and a doctor comes in, a lady doctor. She is very kind looking, smiles, introduces herself and explains why she is here. “I have looked at your case, and I can see that there are 16 t-shirts missing. We will try and reverse that, of course, but I will just need to look into it a bit more.”
Tabitha and Richard are stunned. T-shirts? Missing? Does she mean he hasn’t got Llama Flu, but just a clothes allergy? “You mean…you mean, if I just wear a different type of clothes, I will actually be alright?” Richard stammers, utterly confused.
The lady doctor smiles, and says, “Well, that might work. You could try it, and see if it works?”
Tabitha speaks up then, her voice strained, lips feeling like rubber and out of her control, “We tried that! We tried it lots of times! As soon as he arrived somewhere new though, the symptoms all came back! I’m sure, we’re sure, it’s a lot more serious than can be fixed by different clothes. I know allergies can be devastating, debilitating, but this seems to be very different from an allergic reaction!”
The doctor listens, makes some notes, and agrees to look into the case a bit more, but she explains that if there is a fundamental disease at work, there might not be much modern EA medicine can do to help. They might just have to learn to live with the bug, or not live as the case may be.
Tabitha leans back in the chair, too shocked to hear or see anything. She barely registers the lady doctor saying goodbye and leaving the ward. She doesn’t hear the nurse telling all visitor to go and let the patients rest. She is just lost to the world, utterly devastated. No hope after all. Richard will always be in Sims Mobile, no traits, never really part of the family, and no friends, for his disease makes it impossible for people outside the family to interact with him properly. He will be living in the house for many generations, seeing them, hearing them, but never really part of them. How absolutely ruinous this disease is, destroying their lives, their dreams…
She finally staggers from the hospital, blinded by tears, her face wet, her heart crushed and grinded to pieces. No hope! No hope, her heart beats with each step. She can’t remember how she got back home, but somehow she finds herself in the little Granny Annexe, in the big double bed with the yellow bedspread. How she hates that bedspread by now, determined to buy another bedspread as soon as she can! Any colour but yellow, she thinks, her head spinning, thoughts floating round and round, making her feel nauseous. She leans back in the pillows, turning them every now and then when the cascading tears have soaked the pillowslip too much.
When morning comes, Tabitha drags herself out of bed, gets dressed, and prepares herself for the hospital visit, her thoughts drifting through shops selling black outfits. “I will need a mourning dress, and some black every day clothes,” she thinks, exhaustion making her walk slower than ever. She gets to the hospital though, of course she does, however much she wished she didn’t have to be there yet, to just postpone the inevitable a little longer. There is no delaying the meeting though, and soon she is standing by Richard’s bedside. He looks so handsome, yet so poorly, she thinks. Richard clearly hasn’t slept either, the grief in his eyes nearly her undoing.
The door opens, they turn round, and there is Dr Dean! He smiles at them, shakes hands, and sits down at the side of the bed. “I need to apologise,” he begins, “something went wrong yesterday, a bit of a misunderstanding I’m afraid, so don’t worry about my colleague’s explanation. Anyway, I have reviewed your case again myself, and I am convinced that we can do the Reversal. That has some consequences, as you can imagine, but it should also lead to your full and total recovery, if the procedure is successful, that is.”
Tabitha gasps, Richard grips her hand, and both of them stare at the doctor, hope springing up in their hearts again, tears forming, happy tears! They smile at each other, and agree to have the procedure done immediately. It won’t take very long, and hopefully the effect will not be too devastating. “Richard will need to stay in overnight, for observation, to check that the Flu is definitely gone. If he seems clear he may go home, and you will need to observe him there for a day as well. Once he had been clear for the day, he should be recovered fully.” Tabitha wondered how the doctor saw ‘full recovery’, whether there would be any aftereffects of the Flu, any permanent damage… She didn’t really want to ask though, I mean, she couldn’t, could she! He had just given them a ticket to life, so how could she moan about details, and wanting more than was given them?
She wondered though. She wondered all through the operation, when Richard came back to the ward, looking himself, and feeling better already. The doctor said that he was quite sure that the Reversal had been successfull, but obviously only time would tell. Tabitha went home, and still wondered. Richard came home the next morning, having been completely cleared by the Hospital. That evening they knew, they both knew that the dreaded Llama Flu had been vanquished! Yes, there had been some cost to it, some small losses, but nothing they couldn’t recover, really. Now he was here, with her, alive and well! Oh joy!
“The honeymoon can start now!” he whispers into her hair that night, “Where would you like to go? I can’t believe it, I really can’t! My heart feels it could burst any moment, I’m so incredibly happy! After the desolation the bad news brought me, I feel total bliss and exhilaration, and…and so much joy!”
Tabitha smiles, and kisses him back, and whispers, “I know, my beloved, I know. I didn’t believe it then, but that night, that horrible excruciating night, when the lady doctor had taken all hope away from us, a verse came into my heart. I dismissed it, too grieved to even believe it possible. After all, she had been pretty sure of herself, and seemed very smart and competent, so I had no reason to believe this whisper in my heart. It said, ‘Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.’ I was too sad to listen, but it was right! That still, small voice was right, and I am so glad! I’m just overflowing with gratefulness, and I can’t wait to glide through life at your side!”
The honeymoon was glorious, and all that honeymoons are made for, joy bubbling from hem like a spring, infecting everyone around them. Their happiness knew no bounds it seemed, and life was the golden dream that Tabitha had so wished for. They didn’t think anyone in Sims Mobile could be happier than they were, that they had really bumped into the ceiling of joy.
They were wrong. It turned out that joy could grow a lot more, as it did, in sync with Tabitha’s belly! They were expecting a baby, and Tabitha didn’t have to wonder anymore. When Dr Dean had said there would be a full recovery, he really meant it! They were going to be parents, they were having a family after all! Tabitha cried so many happy tears that her Mum started to worry. “I’m sure all these tears can’t be very good for the baby,” she said rather disapprovingly one afternoon, “I think you might have to deal with your happiness in a better way, my dear.”
The months flew by, and then there was the big day, when Richard and Tabitha were able to show their daughter to the world! They named her Eva, ‘the mother of all living’ Tabitha had said, smiling, and crying again, of course! “She is our miracle baby, the blessing we thought we would never have. We feel so, so utterly rich.” She kissed the tiny face, overwhelmed with God’s goodness to them. Yes, they were definitely dancing on the mountaintops again, and not ever would they take any blessing for granted, but would always carefully count them, one by one!
