Read Online Briana's Gift by Lurlene McDaniel - Free Book Online Page A

pastor’s words exactly…my daddy was “asleep and will one day rise up.” I remind Bree what the pastor said. “So what if he wakes up and wants to come home, and when he gets here, we’re gone?”
    Bree puts her arm around my shoulders. “The preacher didn’t mean it that way.”
    “Then why did he say it?”
    “It’s just his way of talking about Daddy being in heaven.”
    “So Daddy’s not coming back?” I cry some more. Bree is almost nine, so I take her word for it, but I just can’t wrap my mind around never seeing our dad again.
    She thinks for a minute. “I have an idea. Go get a piece of paper, and I’ll write down Grandma’s address, and you can put it in our mailbox. That way, he’ll know where to come and find us.”
    I run into the house, find a piece of scrap paper and take it to Bree. I watch her carefully write numbers and letters on it. She hands it to me. “There you go.”
    I grab it, fold it, dash to the curbside mailbox and tuck it inside. I feel so much better knowing we’ve left Daddy a message. I skip back to the porch and hug Bree hard.
    Bree unwinds my arms from her neck. “You know, Sissy, don’t get your hopes up. I don’t believe people are allowed to check out of heaven once they get there.”
    I remember her words all these years later. By the time we have settled in with Grandma in Tennessee and I’ve started first grade, I’ve stopped expecting Dad to show up. People don’t return from the dead. Not then. Not now.

T he next time I see my sister, Dr. Kendrow is leaning over her bed. She smiles at me as I come into the cubicle. “Hello, Susanna. Remember me?”
    “You’re the baby’s doctor.”
    “I will be once she’s born,” she says. “Is your mother with you?”
    “She stopped in the cafeteria to get coffee, but I didn’t want to wait.”
    Dr. Kendrow pulls the earpieces of her stethoscope from her ears. “I was listening to the baby’s heartbeat.”
    “I thought that machine kept tabs on the baby’s heart.” I point to a machine with wires that snake under the bedcovers. I know the wires are attached to Bree’s abdomen.
    “It does, but I listen anyway. Would you like to hear the baby’s heart?”
    “Well…sure. Can I?”
    She places the stethoscope’s earpieces in my ears and the flat part against Bree’s taut skin. “It’s a whooshing sound. Listen closely.”
    I have to concentrate hard, but then I hear it—a soft swishing sound, slight and rapid. It makes me smile. Then I worry. “Is it supposed to beat so fast?”
    “Oh yes. Babies’ heartbeats are much faster than ours. It’s a strong one too. I like what I’m hearing.”
    “Is she ready to be born?” The idea makes
my
heart beat faster.
    “Not yet. Another six weeks or so. Babies gain a lot of their birth weight in their last month. And her lungs aren’t fully developed either. We don’t want her to have breathing issues.”
    Issues.
The word sounds odd. How can a newborn baby have issues? “I know about the layer of cells in the lungs that get a baby ready to breathe air.” I hand back the stethoscope and Dr. Kendrow tucks it into her lab coat’s pocket.
    “You do? How so?”
    “I have a book. It was Bree’s. It tells all about how babies develop inside the mother. I…um…like following along.”
    “Good for you. I was pretty curious myself when I was younger. I drove my parents crazy asking
why
all the time.” She studies me for a minute. “Does your book tell you that a baby can hear in the womb?”
    “Bree read that to me, and that’s when I started playing my flute for her baby. I’m in the school band, and I like playing. I was going to play for her every day. But…but then…” I don’t finish my thought.
    “If you want to bring your flute and play for her here in the hospital, you can,” Dr. Kendrow says.
    “Really?”
    “I’ll clear it with the nurses out there.” She gestures toward the outer room. “You can talk to the baby too, Susanna.