Miracles

Chapter 54

~Amari's View~

"Merry Christmas love."
I smile, "Merry Christmas baby." Wyatt kisses me making it feel like we're the only ones in it. But no, we're not the only ones in the world.
There's something wrong. I pull away from Wyatt.
"Babe, we have to go," I tell him as I pick up my stuff. "Why?" He asks, a hint of hurt in his voice. "Did I do something wrong?"
"No, no you didn't." I shake my head. "It's just that, I feel like, I don't know but I think there's something wrong."
"Do you want to call your mom or someone to find out?" He asks with concern. "Yes, that would be great."
We quickly walk to his car. I take my purse and retrieve my phone to find numerous text messages and missed calls from my parents.
With shaky hands, I tap the call back button. Mom answers immediately.
"Amari." She sobs. "Mom, what's wrong?" I ask, hoping that it's nothing serious. If it's nothing serious why would she have texted and called this many times?
"Avisha." She cries more. "She's in the hospital." My eyes burn with unshed tears as I continue to hope nothing bad happened.
"What happened to her?" I ask with crossed fingers.
"She's not breathing." At this, my heart shatters as tears cloud my vision.
"Wyatt, drive as fast as you can, okay? We need to get to the hospital now." I instruct him. He does as he's told and soon we're on the road, zooming past cars.

My sister isn't breathing. My sister isn't breathing. I chant in my head, praying that it's all a dream and that I'm gonna wake up and find Avisha jumping on my bed and telling me she wants to go out and play in the snow. But no, that's already happened. Maybe I can relive today and tell Wyatt not to plan this beautiful date so that I can take care of my sister, then she'd be breathing. That will work, right?
Wyatt places his hand on mine giving me a little bit of hope. "Avisha is brave and she is going to be fine." He assures me. I nod my head in agreement.
Avisha is going to be fine.

We pull up in the parking lot of the hospital and rush to the reception where I find my family.
Teary-face Jaina hugs me tightly. As she quietly sobs into my shoulder. I force myself not to cry as I whisper words to her. "She's going to be fine. Please don't cry, Avisha needs us to be as brave as her. I know she loves you too." Jaina just nods as I wipe her face.
A young man, supposedly the doctor walks towards us. "Parents of Avisha?" He calls.
Mom and dad are quick to respond.
"Is my baby okay?"
"Ma'am, your daughter may or may not make it." The doctor says calmly.
"What the hell do you mean by that?!" I yell at him. "The only person who's not going to make it is you if you don't help her now."
"Miss, please calm down." The doctor says. The nerve of this man to tell me to calm down.
"The patient is in the early stages of lung cancer, stage 0. The good news is, it's curable. She is going to go through surgery." He explains.
"Okay, so she's going to survive?" Dad asks.
"She's not responding to treatment at the moment." He says.
"Can I see her?" Mom asks.
"I'm sorry but you can't see her now." The doctor says. How I wish I could strangle this man. He annoys me so much.

"Look, my parents missed eighteen years of her life. This was our first Christmas together. They didn't see their baby girl grow up, so the least you can do is let them see their baby before you use your freakish tools on her. Please, let them see her for just one minute. Please." I plead with him, going on my knees.
He sighs and reluctantly agrees. "Thank you." I smile, getting off the floor. I think I just caught some hospital germs. Eew!
"Right this way." The doctor leads mom and dad to the room Avisha is occupying.

~Charlie's View~

Sometimes I wonder if I'm a good mother and if I'm meant to be a mother at all. I mean, it took years of trying before God granted me children of my own.
I feel like I've done absolutely nothing to protect them. I lost Avisha for eighteen years. I wasn't there when she took her first steps or said her first words. I wasn't there when she experienced her first period. I wasn't there to advise her and I'm not sure I did a good job with Amari.
After everything that happened to Avisha, I was broken. Looking at baby Amari felt like looking at baby Avisha. They looked so alike. The only difference being that Avisha looks a little bit like me and Amari looks a little bit like Aster.
How I wish I could've protected them both.

Looking at Avisha connected to machines is the most painful thing ever. She's as pale as the sheets she's lying on. She looks so weak, but she's not. She's strong on the inside and that matters most.

Aster holds my hand as I start talking to her. "Hey, baby. You might not hear me but I want you to know that I love you so so much. Daddy loves you too. We all love you very much and we want you to fight, okay? You can do this. You're fearless. We're all with you. God too. He's always been with you. You know why? Because you're His gift to me. Your name Avisha means Gift from God. I was the happiest person alive when you came into my life. I'm still happy because you're great and I want you to wake up. I want to see you smile and ask me questions about God, about anything at all, I'll be very willing to answer." I smile, taking hold of her hand. "We're waiting for you, baby. Please fight for us. We love you."