Miracle Woman Read Online Free PDF Page A

arranged to meet Evie later in the week for coffee.
    Dishes and laundry and mess were all there waiting to greet her as she stepped through the door of 552 Mill Street. Putting on an old Paul Simon CD to cheer herself up, she set to her household chores, trying not to notice the silence of a house absent of children. An image of each of them sitting at a desk and learning comforted her. She made a long phone call to her mother and read four chapters of a novel that had been languishing behind the range of cookery books in the kitchen. A dark and depressing story of family secrets that she was really in no mood for, so she put it aside yet again. She resisted the urge to click on the remote control, knowing that if she did she would waste an hour or two watching some stupid soap or mindless TV game show. The day dragged on as she counted the time until she was to collect Alice and hear all her news.
    Sunlight splattered the pavement as Alice Kathleen McGill skipped through the school gates, smiling gap-toothed, triumph written across her face. Martha was pleased at such happiness as she rushed to greet her.
    â€˜Becky and Gary and Lisa are all in my class!’
    The very air was electric with currents of expectancy, seconds later balancing out and calming as parents and children were reunited.
    As she bent down to hug Alice, Martha was aware of heads turned in her direction, of being the subject of whispers and gossip and nudges.
    â€˜You heard, Martha healed the Lucas boy!’
    â€˜Fifty people saw it! She just laid her hand on him and got him breathing again.’
    â€˜Martha McGill, you know the woman that drives the silver Volvo, is some kind of healer, saved the Lucas boy’s life.’
    Embarrassed and not wanting to get into conversation with anyone, Martha grabbed Alice’s new dolphin schoolbag and began to walk quickly toward her car.
    â€˜Mrs McGill, Mrs McGill! Please wait up!’
    Martha turned. A woman with a son of about eight and a small boy sitting in a stroller was coming towards her.
    â€˜I’m sorry to disturb you. My name’s Ellen Glass. My son Karl is in the third grade with Susan Lucas’s boy and this here is Mark. I heard what you did for Timmy the other day. Susan says it’s a miracle he survived, and that likely he would have died excepting for you.’
    Martha felt awkward and unsure of what to say.
    â€˜Well, I don’t mean to interrupt, I know you must be busy, but I wonder if you could look at my son, help him?’
    Martha hadn’t a clue what the skinny woman with her hair tied up in a streeling ponytail was talking about, or what she was expecting.
    â€˜Listen, Mrs Glass, there’s been some kind of a mistake. I don’t know what you heard about the other day but whatever you heard, it’s wrong. It’sa mistake. I’m not able to cure or heal people, really I’m not!’
    â€˜My boy needs help, Mrs McGill, honest he does. He’s got asthma real bad and I’d try anything, anybody, if I thought it would help him.’
    Martha let out an exasperated breath. What did this woman want from her?
    â€˜I’m not a doctor or nurse,’ she told her.
    â€˜I know that. He’s been to them all! Paediatricians! The hospital and all sorts of doctors. They keep on trying him with different medicines and sprays and inhalers, but he just keeps wheezing. Sometimes he wheezes so bad I get scared. I have to get up in the middle of the night and use a nebulizer just so that he can get enough breath to sleep.’
    â€˜I’m sorry I can’t help you,’ Martha insisted. ‘I truly can’t.’
    â€˜I get scared! Please, Mrs McGill, Martha, please try it, just lay your hands on him.’
    Martha laughed, hysterical almost, hoping that no-one could overhear this crazy lady who’d pushed the stroller almost across her. Alice’s eyes were huge, questioning, confused. How could anyone possibly