Pieces of You Read Online Free PDF Page B

of mine!”
     
     
    Martin gazed at his father with tears streaming down his cheeks. He noticed an abrupt change in his dad, a visible tensing of his body. It almost seemed as though he was trying to escape from whatever held his body and mind captive.
    Without taking his eyes off his dad, Martin listened to the doctor’s report.
    “We now believe your father’s semi-comatose state is an overdue reaction to an undiagnosed, long-term, thyroid problem and not directly related to the infection or the kidney problem. It would have improved his chances for a full recovery if the original diagnosis had been accurate. We still hope…”
    ‘Would have improved’; those words hit Martin in the pit of his stomach and he shut out everything else the doctor had to say. ‘When are you going to wake up, Dad? I don’t know what to do. I called Mom but she doesn’t know what to do, either. I feel like I have to be strong for Clare, but I can’t keep it together much longer. Please don’t leave me now.’
     
     

8
IMPLAUSIBLE EXPLANATIONS
     
    “Come back, please come back; whoever, or whatever you are! Zachri! I’m pleading for you to return. I’m terrified by this total isolation. It feels like I’m sliding into obliterating blackness. I’m sorry I doubted you. I admit my cowardice.”
    Zachri reappeared and Mark sensed a protective shield surrounding his body once again; at the moment that he saw Zachri, verses from the 33 rd chapter of the Biblical book of Job reverberated through his mind:
    ‘Yet if there is an angel on his side as a mediator, one out of a thousand, to tell a man what is right for him; to be gracious to him and say: ‘ Spare him from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom for him ’— then his flesh is renewed like a child’s; it is restored as in the days of his youth. He prays to God and finds favor with him, he sees God’s face and shouts for joy; he is restored by God to his righteous state. ”
     
    “Mark, I asked you earlier to try to get in touch with the sensations you’re experiencing. If I am merely mortal, you have reason to feel uncontrollable panic. However, once you accept that I am what I profess to be, a messenger, a spirit sent by God, you will experience unaccountable peace. How do you feel right now?”
    “I guess I’d say it’s somewhat like how I felt during my last MRI when I had to lie perfectly still for what seemed like hours. I was so thankful that they gave me a sedative. It melted away all the tension of being trapped in that cylinder.”
    “What you experienced then was drug-induced; this is not. Your present security is a gift from the Creator of the universe. You already know of His love for His creatures. Why is it shocking that He sent me to you?”
    “Why is it shocking?! I have only read about angels visiting humans when they had some extraordinary news to pass on; like to the shepherds when the baby Jesus was born or to the Virgin Mary to inform her that she would soon be pregnant. So far you haven’t given any indication that anything so profound is happening to me. If you truly are a spirit, then why am I, a very ordinary man, the recipient of a supernatural visit?”
    “You seem to believe that you have to earn everything good that comes your way. I told you, when we first met, that I was summoned to fulfill a request for your healing. Have you never read that when you ask in faith, you receive?”
    Well, yeah, but I’ve tried it several times in the past, and it didn’t work.”
    “Your girlfriend asked, believing she would be heard.”
    “If Janie trusts in you, I guess I shouldn’t be quite so skeptical. And it seems like I don’t have much more to lose. Okay, free my body from this comatose state and let’s get going.”
    “No, Mark, I did not suggest that. The journey I’ve offered takes place only in the spirit. Your body will remain where it is as you travel back in time to your turning points.”
    “That’s