Read Online The Red Gloves Collection by Karen Kingsbury - Free Book Online Page B

“Earl, I don’t think—”
    Earl waved his hand and cut him off. “I know there’s privacy rules, but I don’t need her last name or phone number. You can make the call.” Earl’s fingers began to shake. “You don’t understand.” He licked his lips and grabbed two quick breaths. “I was terrible to her, rude and mean and … and just awful.”
    The muscles in D.J.’s jaw flexed. For the first time since Earl had met him, the man wasn’t smiling. “You want to apologize to her? Is that it?”
    “Yes. Her and her parents. And I want to thank Gideon.” Earl’s heartbeat sped up. “You have no idea … ” His voice drifted. “That little girl changed my life.”
    “Oh, I have an idea.” This time D.J.’s smile barely lifted the corners of his mouth. “I’ve known Gideon for a long time. She’s a special little girl.”
    Earl’s stomach hurt with the thought of the child going another minute without knowing how sorry he was—how much he appreciated her gift. “Call her, then, will you? So I can tell her what I need to say. Apologize to her and her parents. Make things right. Please?”
    D.J. opened his mouth but no words came out. From somewhere deep within him came a sigh that seemed to last a minute. It was the kind of sigh one might expect from a man who’d spent his life working with street people, a man who probably had very little in the way of worldly success.
    But not D.J.
    In years of taking meals at the mission, Earl had never heard the man sigh.
    He knew what was coming. D.J. would politely send him on his way and he’d never see the girl again. Never apologize to her or tell her parents how wrong he’d been. That couldn’t happen. He couldn’t bear it! “Please. I need to talk to her.”
    “You can’t.” D.J. locked eyes with Earl. “Gideon’s sick. She’s in the hospital.” His gaze fell and with it, Earl’s heart. “They don’t know if she can be home for Christmas.”
    The child was sick? Hadn’t she been healthy a week ago at the mission dinner? “You mean like the flu or something?”
    “No.” D.J. looked up. His face was pale. “She has cancer, Earl. Leukemia.”
    “What?” Earl grabbed the door frame to keep from falling. “Since when?”
    “She was in remission a week ago.” He bit his lip. “But she’s worse now. A lot worse.”
    A pit the size of a bowling ball filled Earl’s gut. His head was spinning and he shuffled across D.J.’s office to the nearest chair. “I did this.” His words were barely more than a mumble. “It’s all my fault.”
    “No, Earl.” D.J. took a few steps closer and put his hand on Earl’s shoulder. “Gideon’s been sick for a long time. The doctors knew her cancer would come back eventually. They just hoped it wouldn’t be this soon.”
    Earl squeezed his forehead between his thumb and forefinger. Now the poor child was lying in a hospital bed, knowing that one of her last acts of kindness had been rejected. Since last night, he’d wanted to pick up the phone and tell her how sorry he was, how thankful. But it was too late. He could hardly call her at the hospital if she was that sick.
    “It’s not your fault, Earl.” D.J. cleared his throat. “These things happen.”
    Earl felt a hundred years old as he struggled to his feet. He locked eyes with D.J. “Is there anything I can do?”
    “We can pray.” D.J.’s eyes grew watery. “She needs a bone marrow transplant but her family can’t afford it. Without that, her chances … well, they aren’t good.”
    The seedling of an idea sprouted in Earl’s mind. “How expensive is it?”
    “The transplant?”
    “Yes.” Earl’s heartbeat doubled. “How much does it cost?”
    “Tens of thousands of dollars, Earl. More than you and I will ever have.”
    “Actually … ” Earl considered his words carefully. He didn’t want to sound like a lunatic. “I have some money put away.”
    “What?” D.J. uttered a curious chuckle and studied Earl. “How much