DAWN WILL RISE 

By Tessa Harvey

    A young man asked to come to visit the next day. Would late morning be convenient? He was from the hospital.
    By this time they had about a hundred questions and Mark had even stayed home away from work - with permission from the management or what? Ella was going to ask. Mark seemed to be changing. His wife prayed a bit, but thought perhaps he is growing up but never would say so (unless provoked).
    The young man, to their surprise, was carrying a medical bag and wore the ubiquitous hospital stethoscope.
    His mission was to discuss post-operative care. The twins stared at him, then smiled. Andrew Harper smiled back, introducing himself as one of the children's doctors.
    As he was expected, the lounge was in reasonable order and they all sat down on various mismatched couches. The children began to play together, though David declared solemnly he would be a doctor one day. "Me, fly," suddenly interrupted Dawn.
    Mark's phone pinged. Checking it, he abruptly said "I am needed," and left. Ella was incensed , but listened to the doctor.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

DAWN WILL RISE  Part 2: HEROES      It was like a scene from hell, flames rising behind him, drawing closer, roaring, rearing like so many dragons - unstoppable. Mark felt a terror of fear engulf him. Then two things happened - the woman collapsed with her baby and a tiny wombat (he thought it was) staggered to the small boy. He grabbed it, wrapping it in his torn filthy shirt.     As the huge truck paused, the boy ran to the man high in his cab and yelled: "Stop, stop or I will kill you, you mean bastard!" With little fists clutching the singed animal, he beat hard on the truck door, and then turned and held his baby as well. "Help my mum, you drongo!! Move!!"     It was a nightmare but the man's fear backed off. Keeping his engine running, fearing it would not start again, he left his haughty high seat, grabbed the woman, hefted her somewhere in the back sleeping area, threw in the pernicious pest of a kid together with the baby and the animal. ...
Read more
DAWN WILL RISE  Part 2: HEROES      Ella drove over the dusty playing field so she could quickly access the concrete playground with its basketball nets to one side.     Her car pulled up well away from any children, but most had been hustled to their classrooms. It seemed to the young mother that her four children stood alone - except for the small one who was clinging to the gutter of the girls' changing shed for sport.     The boys' shed was on the other side of a wall and Simon ran around to climb up to help.     Dawn was snagged by her pants on a roof projection and was clearly going into shock, which meant she would soon lose her tenuous grip of the fragile guttering.     Ella hurried over, but was suddenly almost knocked off her feet by a man barrelling fast across the concrete towards the child. Meanwhile Simon was reaching for Charlie.     The man was Mark and he jumped higher than he had done in his life bef...
Read more
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 ...
Read more