Tommy studied the guy. Was he here for himself or waiting for someone he loved?
The man glanced up and nodded as Tommy took a seat against the adjacent wall. The look in the man’s eyes said this wasn’t about his own health. He was waiting for someone. Maybe the future hinged on whatever news the man might hear today.
Same as Tommy.
From the floor beside him, the man lifted a thermos, unscrewed the lid and took a sip. “Still hot.” He set it down again.
Tommy nodded. He didn’t feel like talking. What was taking so long? A magazine, that’s what he needed. He sorted through the ones spread out on a long coffee table separating the rows of chairs. The one on top said: CLIMATE CONFUSION? GLOBAL WARMING OR AN ICE AGE?
Tommy thumbed to the article. Something about a Greenland iceberg gaining size over the last few years, and temperature readings cooling in the depths of the ocean. He closed the cover. The last thing he wanted was to read about the climate while Annalee was a few doors away sliding in and out of some metal tube. Poor girl. She hated elevators. The scan must’ve made her feel terrible.
Scripture. That would help. He pulled his phone from his jeans pocket and opened his Bible Promises app. A quick scroll and he found what he wanted. Love. Bible verses on love.
I have loved you with an everlasting love…
For God so loved the world…
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God…
Every line, every word spoke to him. God loved him… and He loved Annalee. Tommy’s breathing slowed and he settled into the cushioned seat. This was mono, nothing more. Everything was going to be fine. The doctor was just being thorough, making sure he didn’t miss anything. God wasn’t going to let anything happen to her.
She was too good. She had too much to do for Him.
Tommy stretched out his feet and laced his fingers behind his head. The man across from him looked up. “You waiting for someone?”
“I am.” Tommy looked at the waiting room door and then at the man. “My girlfriend’s getting a scan.”
A crooked smile tugged at the man’s lips. “Mine, too.”
The old man had a girlfriend? Something about that put Tommy at ease. He leaned forward. “How long have you two been dating?”
“Oh… we’re married.” The man winked at Tommy. “Fifty years. She’ll always be my girlfriend.”
Tommy chuckled. “I like that.”
The smile faded from the man’s face. “Etta’s fighting cancer.” He clenched his fists and relaxed them again. “This scan… it’s her last chance. If the cancer is worse, then… there’s nothing more they can do.”
“Oh.” Tommy had no idea what to say. “So it could be… good news today?”
“That’s the hope.” The man glanced at the waiting room door. “It’ll take a miracle.” He crossed his fingers and tapped both hands on the wooden arm rails of the chair. “Hoping the stars line up for her.”
All his life growing up, his parents had taught Tommy and his siblings to pray for divine appointments. They didn’t need to go to a foreign country to be smack in the middle of a moment only God could set up.
A moment like this one.
“I’m Tommy Baxter.” He stood and shook the man’s hand.
“Ernest Jones.” The man gripped his knees. “You can call me Ernie.”
“Okay.” Tommy didn’t have to ask God for the words. He knew from experience the Lord would give them. “Mister Ernie, you mentioned it’ll take a miracle. Are you a praying man?”
The expression on Ernie’s face changed. “There was a time. In my younger days.”
“Oh.” Tommy took his time. “What changed?”
“Life.” The older man narrowed his eyes. “People get sick. They die. It makes me mad.”
“Yes…. My grandma Elizabeth died way too young. Cancer.”
The spark faded from Ernie’s eyes. “See what I mean?”
“Right.” Tommy nodded. “I remember something my aunt Ashley told me. She lost her third baby at birth. But the few minutes she lived, everyone in the family gathered around the hospital bed and prayed over that little girl. We sang and celebrated her.”
Ernie’s face softened. “That’s sad.”
“Before the birth, my aunt knew her baby was sick. She and my uncle were ready.” Tommy kept his eyes on the man’s. “My aunt had come to believe the miracle was even getting to hold her little girl at all.”
“Yeah. That’s what people tell themselves.” Bitterness colored the man’s tone. “I say the little girl should’ve lived. That is… if God was watching over her.” He looked off. “If people were praying.”
Tommy thought for a moment. “I guess it’s all in the way you look at it. If God isn’t real… then what?”
The door opened and a different tech wheeled an older woman into the waiting room. She had shoulder-length silver hair and her eyes immediately turned to Ernie. Tommy hurried to hold the door. At the same time Ernie was on his feet, moving to her wheelchair. “Was it better this time… less scary?”
Tommy wanted to watch the two of them, love personified. But he had an idea. He grabbed a piece of paper and pen from the receptionist and scribbled down his email address. Then he waited not far from where Ernie was still helping his love, Etta, get situated.
The man started to push her wheelchair toward the door when he seemed to remember Tommy. He turned to him. “I take it you are a praying man, then?”
“I am.” Tommy handed the slip of paper to Ernie. “I promise to pray for your wife… if you’ll let me know how the test comes out.”
The man hesitated at first. But then he found that lopsided grin again. “I’ll do it.” He took the paper and patted his wife’s shoulder. “Etta, this is Tommy. My new friend.”
“Hello.” She looked back and smiled. “You seem like a good one.”
When they were gone, Tommy did what he’d told the man. He asked God to give Ernie and Etta a miracle. For two reasons. So Ernie would know that God was real and that He cared about every person, every prayer.
And so that the man might have a little more time with his girlfriend.
Tommy checked the time on his phone. Still another fifteen minutes before Annalee’s test would be finished. If he married her the way he planned to, one day they might be back in an office like this and Tommy might be talking to some young gun about his girlfriend of fifty years.
His Annalee.
He had never planned to have a serious girlfriend through high school. Tommy had been too focused on sports, too busy with his peers and his family. Back in middle school, guys his age with girlfriends always seemed to be pretending. Acting older than they were. Back then the girls towered over the boys and no one could drive.
Made more sense to spend his free time dribbling a basketball.
But all that changed his first day at Northside High.
Tommy leaned back in the waiting room chair. He had taken theater class because it counted as a music elective. That and two of his buddies from the team had also signed up. The rowdy social kids sat in the front that day. Ms. Elmer told them they were going to do a production of Annie Get Your Gun, and she expected everyone to participate.