Halfway to Forever Read Online Free PDF

afraid.
I’m okay … I’m okay …
The handcuff still cut at her wrist, but her hand relaxed and she closed her eyes. In a few minutes she drifted off to sleep.
    Thinking about flowers and butterflies and clouds.
    And an invisible Daddy who loved her even if no one else did.

Four
     
    T he headaches were getting worse.
    Jade’s hands trembled as she took two painkillers from the bottle in her purse and downed them with a glass of water. As she swallowed she glanced around the hospital cafeteria & The edges of the room were blurred.
    She squinted. In fact, the edges of everything were fuzzy. Not enough to trigger panic, but enough to frustrate her. Was this all the faith she could muster? An unshakeable sadness over losing a baby? Discouragement at not being able to get pregnant? Depression strong enough to affect her vision and give her headaches?
    She sighed. Not much of an example of faith, especially when she had the miracle of Ty and Tanner at home to remind her daily of God’s amazing power.
    The medicine started working, and the lines became crisper. Jade took another drink of water, then smoothed out the wrinkles in her nurse’s uniform. She walked to the closest table, steadying herself on an occasional chair along the way, and sat down. The nausea was back … Maybe it was from the medication.
    Or from the one thing she dared dream.
    Either way, in seven hours she’d have the results. Her period hadn’t been regular for a while, but the past cycle had been completely absent. Susan at the lab had been more than happy to process the pregnancy test. But Jade needed to work her shift before she might know the answer. No matter how she was feeling.
    Help me get through the day, Lord …
    Jade stood and glanced at her watch. One o’clock. Time for Brandy Almond’s chemotherapy.
    Jade’s head still pounded with every heartbeat as she made her way down the hallway to the children’s cancer ward. There were times when she questioned her sanity. It was one thing to work in the general children’s ward as she’d done when she was just out of high school. Kids with kidney problems or bad cases of tonsillitis.
    Cancer was something altogether different.
    Still, there was nothing more rewarding than giving sick children the gift of hope, and Jade seemed to be able to do that better than anyone at Mount Sinai Children’s Hospital. Because every now and then, children survived cancer’s attack. They grew stronger and healthier, and their hair grew back.
    And once in a while those children would go home to live normal lives.
    As far as Jade was concerned,
every
child had a chance to go home. Brandy Almond was no exception.
    It was nap time at Mount Sinai, so the hallway was quiet. None of the children were touring the ward in wheelchairs or sitting around the schoolroom table or building castles with wooden blocks in the playroom.
    On the nurse’s station, there was a tray stenciled with Brandy’s name. On it were three pills and a bag of liquid poison that would kill the leukemia cells—along with the cells Brandy needed for eating and breathing and living. Jade took the tray and set her sights on a room four doors down the hall. The girl was a high-school track star and the oldest child in the children’s cancer wing, and she regularly complained about the fact.
    Without making a sound, Jade let herself into Brandy’s room. A rerun of
I Love Lucy
whispered from the television. Brandylooked up, her eyes dark and sunken, then shifted her gaze back to the TV.
    “You’re supposed to be sleeping.” Jade smiled and set the tray down.
    “I’m not three.”
    “No, but you’re sick and your body needs rest.” The bag hanging over the girl’s bed was empty. Jade replaced it with the full one from her tray and crossed her arms. “How are you feeling?”
    Brandy’s eyes welled up and she looked out the window. “Fine.”
    Jade’s heart went out to her. It was prom week at Thousand Oaks High School where