Read Online Miriam's Well by Lois Ruby - Free Book Online Page A

thing about doctors is, they believe that all healing comes from God, maybe through Jesus, I’m not real clear on that, but they say it goes directly to the sick person and doesn’t need an errand boy like a doctor.”
    â€œThat’s cool,” Andy said, “only what happens if she gets sicker and sicker? I mean, like, people die of cancer.”
    I’d thought about this a dozen times, how she could die while she was waiting for God to cure her. Or worse, she could die while waiting for the government and the doctors to fight it out with her family and Brother James. And wasn’t Brother James just like an errand boy, just like a doctor, only he didn’t give drugs?
    â€œHow come you know so much about it?” Andy asked, flexing the earphones he was anxious to put on to drown out my voice.
    So I kept the answer short. “I pay attention. Jesus, it’s on the news forty times a day.”
    â€œI only watch CNN,” Andy said. “Is it on CNN?”
    No, but I had a feeling it would be soon. This thing would be huge. The prairie streaked by, and I couldn’t clear my head of Miriam Pelham.
    Diana slept most of the way back from Dodge. She said she was getting something and didn’t think I should come over to her house. She coughed in my face to emphasize her point. I was always sneezing and snorting because of my allergies, but when Diana got a runny nose, it was like a national health crisis.
    So anyway, it looked like I wasn’t going to be enjoying what I’d looked forward to most that whole week—lying around on Diana’s couch with the only light coming from the TV. And nothing else was going on, so after we dropped Diana off, Mr. Bennet dropped me at the hospital.
    Miriam sat on her bed, dressed in her usual school clothes and with her hair pulled back over one shoulder. She was cutting words out of a magazine to make a collage or something. When I pushed her door open, the breeze made a bunch of her cut-outs fly around the room. “Hi,” I said, chasing the scraps of paper around.
    â€œHow did you do in Dodge City?” she asked.
    â€œWon.”
    â€œOf course.”
    â€œDiana’s a lot better than I am.”
    â€œShe couldn’t be.”
    â€œRight. I lied.”
    She liked my grin. It made her own eyes smile, which was a lot better than those soppy tears from the other night.
    â€œWhat are you doing?” I asked.
    â€œOh, nothing.” She gathered the words into a messy pile and stuffed them in her drawer, along with a bottle of rubber cement. On the bedside table was a small glass of some thick orange-colored juice, with its weight sunk to the bottom. I leaned forward for a whiff of it. She handed me the glass, and I drank some warm apricot stuff.
    â€œDisgusting, isn’t it?” she said.
    â€œThen how come you gave it to me?”
    â€œIt’s been here two days.” She shifted around, and the magazine slid to the floor. I reached over to pick it up and felt the apricot rise in my throat. The magazine was called Young Christian Crusader , and it had a white basketball player on the cover, a guy who looked like he’d never sweat.
    â€œSo what are you doing with the cutouts? Making something—what—a scrapbook?”
    â€œA sort of letter.”
    â€œAbout all this stuff you’re going through?”
    â€œNo,” she said, her eyes dimming again. “Who’s it for?” I thought maybe she was making it for me.
    â€œThis boy I know in Emporia. He’s going to Greece this summer on Teen Missions International. He’s going to put up buildings. It’s like the Peace Corps, only Christian.”
    â€œHe doesn’t get paid for it either, I’ll bet.”
    â€œNot a dime,” Miriam said, smiling again.
    â€œSo, are you going with him?”
    â€œTo Greece?”
    â€œNo, with him, going out with him. Is he your boyfriend?”
    â€œNo, no,