DAWN WILL RISE

DAWN WILL RISE  By Tessa Harvey     Mark strides up the garden path. He is a little anxious about the news he wants to share with Ella. To his surprise, he sees that the lawn, shrubs, even the flowers in their small front garden need more than a little attention. He frowns, annoyed. His parents have taken the boys out for the day. Surely Ella could make a bit more effort.     The twins can't possibly consume the whole day, can they? He sees the door is ajar and walks in, stunned by the clutter of washing, dishes, unmade beds..... Mark realises that children involve some mess, but this....... Words fail him.     He sees Ella asleep in the armchair holding the twins. They cannot fall, snuggled tight in shawls, but sleeping in the day is not Ella's style, or shouldn't be!     A Bible is open to some Psalms by the coffee table. It must have slipped to the floor. The bible! No, this is ridiculous.     What God allows a child to be handic...

DAWN WILL RISE  By Tessa Harvey     Maybe it wasn't too late to pray? When she was six, her kind Auntie Klara had told her about Jesus and asked Ella if she would like to know Jesus? "I'll think about it," Ella had replied, but she hadn't, not really.     Ten years later they were in a different country and she was spending the night with a friend from school.     The friend's mother had come to the bedroom and tucked them both struggling in bed. She really liked that.     But her mother was running an informal day-care, so she said nothing. Sixteen was, after all, too old ....     Earlier Ella had marveled at the beautiful old ghost gums along the riverbank nearby. And when the laughter of kookaburras woke her, she laughed, remembering a song at school in the U.K. about those very birds laughing.     The friend's grown-up sister had given her a bible. Now ten years later she opened it. So many she knew mocked this book, b...

DAWN WILL RISE  By Tessa Harvey     Straight beneath the almost three-year-old was concrete, at least twelve feet down.     "Hello David," she had managed to say calmly. A person had said you do your praying before an emergency. There is little time during an emergency. Well, she had never prayed really since childhood.     "Now David, hold the railing very tight while I come and see. Hold very tight David, and watch me come. Okay?" "Okay," he echoed cheerfully.     "Now David, are you looking at mummy and holding tight? Here I am. Don't let go now!"     She reached down as fast as she dared, not looking down either, totally, totally concentrating. Her arms reached round his little body. Steady.     "Let go now." She lifted him up and over the railing and hugged him. The week before he had stroked a bee to be friends, and been stung. So she explained he must always climb the steps properly. If he didn't and fell, it would ...

DAWN WILL RISE  By Tessa Harvey     Imperfection had always bothered him. He was so tall, dark, handsome and Ella's brains had disappeared out of the window. Only when they were married did his obsessiveness come to bother her.     Both Sam and Molly, his parents, had tried to warn her. So had her own, but Ella was headstrong.     Slowly he had improved with the little boys so messy, so needy, especially after a bout of flu last winter. For two days she had been unwell. Now Mark had more respect for dishes, meals, laundry not perfectly done, even for things not being on time.     Ella could remember in the hospital saying "Dawn will rise!"     It was just on the cusp of the sun coming up. But did it have a deeper meaning? When David was almost three, she was a week away from giving birth and without meaning to, she had climbed up the stairs from the basement laundry without her little son. "Look at me, mum!" David was balanced on th...

DAWN WILL RISE  By Tessa Harvey     The doctors decided not to operate. The babies were growing fast. There was a need to wait, to be cautious. However, the specialist connected to the hospital designed a special pink boot for Dawn so that she could crawl. But Rose cried.     A special bond often develops with twins, and these girls were identical. Mark and Ella could not afford two special boots, but found a pair on the internet that were similar and pink! Both twins were happy - and there was a spare!      Mark worried about how Dawn could walk properly. At the moment they were just crawling, not even trying to stand up yet.     It was funny watching the little girls have crawl races with the brothers urging them on.     Ella smiled at the recollection. Quickly she crept to check the babies in an adjoining room. Both girls as always were close together - and both had kicked off their pink boots!     Ella looked at D...

 DAWN WILL RISE By Tessa Harvey     Mark brought the two little boys to the sunny hospital room to see their mum and sisters.     "Why have we got two babies?" asked David, frowning. Mark explained. "Oh, I remember there are two big boys in the High School who look the same. I didn't know girls could do that!"     Ella rolled her eyes but said nothing. "Do you like them, Simon?" she asked her youngest son. He was frowning, looking upset. It was a warm day and the babies wore only nappies. He pointed to a foot. "Tiny bit broken," he said sadly. "Why?"     The doctors said they can fix it soon," answered his dad, looking sad also. "Aunty Jan will pray," David assured him firmly and so will I. What are their names?"     Ella answered, smiling "What about Harry and Thomas?" The boys really laughed. "Those are boy names."     Mark had an idea. "What do you think of Rose and Dawn, Ella? Boys?...

DAWN WILL RISE  By Tessa Harvey     "She's crippled," Mark said to Jan and her husband, Tony. "Crippled!"           "Hang on," argued Tony, "it's just a twisted foot, mate. The doctors say it can be fixed when the baby is older. C'mon, cheer up. Your wife's alive, the babies are alive. Don't be seeing Ella with a misery-face."     Tony is a good bloke, thought Jan. I would have been a lot blunter. Aloud she asked "How are the boys?"     "Oh, real excited!" Mark cheered up. "They can come with my mum and dad tomorrow."     It had been a harrowing few hours. The hospital had contacted Mark and asked him to come in. Ella was having trouble. He had called Tony to see if he was able to come with him.     Tony, a small dark-featured bloke of Welsh parentage had instantly agreed. Jan had looked after her own children and followed later when they were in school.     To save the mother and babies, an e...

DAWN WILL RISE  By Tessa Harvey     Jan saw the doctor's stricken expression. "Go with my sister," she pleaded. Mark and Ella did not go for later scans of the baby because they wanted a surprise. "Don't blame yourself. Medically, you may still help Ella."     Quickly, mumbling thanks, Dr. Bailey gathered his medical equipment. The older male paramedic looked capable and composed, but the younger female was finding the situation difficult. It was her very first emergency. She was relieved the doctor was accompanying them.     Ella felt she was drifting. Perhaps her baby had been born? Someone held her hand. Mark? Why hadn't he come? Still she relaxed, trusting the staff to help her.     Mark was at home with Jan. He felt his wife and child were dying. Broken sobs wracked his strong frame. He felt a coward not to have gone with his wife in the ambulance.     Jan had tidied up as best she could and gone home to her own family. Tony, h...

  DAWN WILL RISE By Tessa Harvey     It was taking too long. Their other two babies had slipped relatively easily into the world. His parents had taken them away yesterday with promises of a trip to the local zoo and a new brother or sister soon.     in the small homely, the doctor told Jan "I have called for the ambulance. They won't be long. Could you stay and give directions, please, Jan."           He quickly swallowed a few sips of his tepid coffee and hastened to the bedroom upstairs.     Ella was murmuring something about a platypus, happy because some frogs had stirred up breakfast for him in the pool.      Dr Bailey, puzzled, felt her forehead. No fever. "It's the bathroom soap," explained Jan. "It looks like pictures in the patterns."     "Yes," whispered Ella faintly. "On the other side a tired mummy sheep with a new baby lamb: only the pain is coming back for there are twins...."  ...

DAWN WILL RISE  By Tessa Harvey     Ella braced herself on the bathroom sink, a hand on each cabinet corner. She stared at the Christmas soap. Circular in shape, it was a swirling mix of carmine, vivid green, bright white.     She and her son, David, five had "seen" a white horse (unicorn?) dancing in the foaming sea-surf under a deep red sunset sky. That was one side. Simon, Ella and Mark's three year-old had pleaded to say what was on the other side. He looked hard.     "Froggies splashing in a pond," he shouted, delighted. "Green froggies!" Ella fancied she saw a little marmoset also, peeping through jungle leaves and smiling shyly. it made her smile, then she gasped - the pains came roaring back!     "Come on Ella," begged her sister Jan kindly and helped her to the wide bed. "I will get Doctor Bailey."     Mark came back to help his wife, hold her hand, trying not to look worried. "Help her God," he pleaded silently.