CHANA THOMPSON

Krista Pompey - The Becoming

 

 

Chapter 2 - The Miracle

(continued)

 

 In the school parking lot, Justine’s Cherokee Jeep was parked in its usual spot. Inside sat Justine in the driver’s seat with Gianna and Adonia sitting behind her. She was looking down at her nails. As soon as she saw Krista coming, Justine angrily got out of the car.

  “The school called me, I was just on my way inside. I had to leave my manicure before it was finished. Now, only half of my hand is done,” said Justine irritated, looking her up and down. “You look fine to me. What a waste of my time!  I’m going to have to walk around looking like this until I get another appointment. I can’t even put gloves on because it’s not cold enough….”

  “I feel okay, just some kind of blackout in history. But the nurse seems to think I’m fine, and I feel good so I don’t think it’s anything to worry about,” interrupt­ed Krista, while walking the rest of the way to the car alongside Justine.

  Justine was barely listening. She was looking down at her hands again.

  “And then I drove here in such a rush, I almost had an accident. Imagine if I would have had an accident! I just finished paying off my car! Someone cut right in front of me without blinking. I almost had an accident! And when I’m driving and look down for something, what do I see...these nails. What an afternoon! I’ll be happy when Stella gets home to take care of her own children!”

  Krista’s friends had dispersed at the beginning of the parking lot before she neared the car. They promised to call each other in the afternoon in case someone needed help with the homework. Krista watched them in the distance head off in different directions home, wishing she were with one of them.

  “Well, at least you can still go to school tomorrow! Imagine if I were to be trapped in the house the whole day with you. Between staring at you and my nails, it would just drive me up the wall!” said Justine, getting into the car.

  “Can we stop off at the supermarket and pick up some fruit before we get home? I just drank water, but I would feel much better if I had some fruit,” Krista wanted to know, while she was getting into the car. It was better to ignore the rest of the stuff Justine was saying.

  “I already went shopping after I brought you girls to school. I bought pears, apples, oranges, bananas, and some Breyer’s Butter Pecan ice cream, which I bought just for me,” said Justine as she got into the driver’s seat.

  “We have ice cream at home. Cool!” said Gianna smiling. She only heard the word ice cream. Their mother didn’t buy it much, so it was highly desirable among the girls.

  “I want some, too,” said Adonia, “even if it has pecans in it.”

  “Didn’t I say it was for me?” said Justine, and they could tell from her tone that she meant it. She turned around looking at them as though they were crazy.

  “What happened to you at school?” asked Gianna, looking curiously at Krista.

  “Sort of blacked out in history,” said Krista, in a don’t-you-worry tone.

  “You probably didn’t eat anything at lunch! Kids are so picky nowadays. When I was a kid, we were happy with whatever food was put on our plates. We didn’t ask if it had meat in it or complain if it was fried. We just ate the food,” said Justine sharply, in a ‘kids nowadays are just not grateful’ voice.

  “That’s what everyone keeps asking. I had a vegeta­ble soup and a veggie burger that were really yummy. But I haven’t been eating the desserts, because they are all made with eggs,” Krista told them.

  “You stopped eating desserts with eggs?” asked Justine, looking at her as though she had totally lost her mind. “No wonder you’re passing out at school. Your body isn’t getting enough iron and proteins. I’m going to talk to Stella as soon as she gets home. She needs to put an end to this nonsense!”

  “Mommy also doesn’t eat meat, Justine,” said Gianna, even though she knew it was a waste of time arguing with her. “That’s why she serves us lots of dishes with green vegetables, beans, fresh nuts and salads to make up for the loss of protein we would otherwise get in meat.”

  Before she could answer, Gianna asked Krista, “Since when did you stop eating desserts with eggs?”

  Gianna and Adonia wanted to know because they all enjoyed their cakes, cookies, and various other desserts made with eggs. It was hard to find them anywhere without eggs. There were a few things in the supermar­ket and nothing in the bakery. One had to go to a health food store that was not around any of the stores they usually went to, or one had to bake oneself.

  “Just recently. This week. I sensed them in the cake and just couldn’t eat it. I’ve got really sensitive to food this last week,” said Krista.

  “I’m sure you’re not eating much has something to do with it. I’ll talk to your mother at home. I can’t keep coming back and forth to school because you’re not eating properly. If it keeps happening, Stella is going to have to come from work to get you. It’s not going to be my responsibility if your mother lets you eat like that,” said Justine, only half-concentrating on the conversa­tion. Her main focus was on the road now.

  The girls talked about food for the rest of the ride. From time to time, Justine made a comment. As soon as they got into the house, everyone went into the kitchen to make a snack.

  Justine had some ham from the deli in the refriger­ator. She tried to get them to put some on their sand­wiches. As usual, they all declined, and Justine started muttering again about ‘unhealthy eating habits for kids.’

  Sitting afterward at the kitchen table, the sandwich­es were totally delicious and it was a nice break after the long day at school. Clearing all remains of food, the three girls took their homework out and put it on the table to do.

  Krista had math, German, and language arts. It was all pretty easy. Strangely, it was recently becoming much easier for her to understand everything. She quickly wrote out the answers, all the ideas smoothly flowing from her.

  Her sisters were also working on theirs.

  They worked together in silence. Gianna disliked it when anyone spoke when she was concentrating. Unless one of them wanted to start an argument with her, they were to stay quiet as well.

  Within a short time, Krista was finished. She got up and left her two sisters still working on their homework.

  Justine was sitting in the living room watching talk shows. In front of her was a big bowl of ice cream that she was eating with chocolate donuts. The way Justine ate it was no surprise that she was overweight. She was talking to the television.

  “You know you’re the father of that baby. Look at it. It looks just like you!” Justine was saying.

  Krista didn’t want to see that on TV. Didn’t actually feel like watching any television at all. Going upstairs into her room, she took out a book she had been reading, and sat with it on her floor. As much as she tried, she couldn’t concentrate on the story. Giving up, she went over to her window, and looked outside. One just saw trees, part of the river, and a bit of the street. Passing cars were visible as long as all the leaves weren’t on all of the trees.

  Krista looked forward to when her parents would come home and Justine would be gone.

  It was evening when the first car turned into the driveway indicating that one of their parents was back. Krista, Gianna, and Adonia, who had been playing Scrabble together in the kitchen, ran to open the front door. It was Mom. Gianna and Adonia threw them­selves around her, totally happy to see her. They had to watch out for the take-out pizza she was carrying.

  Krista took it away from her and brought it over to the kitchen table. She opened it. It was a vegetable pizza.

  Mom came all the way into the house.

  “Hello, Justine! How was your day?” asked Mom with a big smile. She loved coming home. “It’s so good to be home.”

  Justine was still sitting in the living room and had watched one show after the next. The bowl of ice cream was gone and in its place were spicy potato chips. She turned around as Mom came into the living room.

  “Everything was fine except that Krista passed out in school! They called me to come get her. I don’t know why because school was almost over anyway! They made me leave the Nail Saloon early! Look at my hands. They look horrible!” exclaimed Justine, as she stood up showing how one hand was finished and the other wasn’t.

  Mom ignored Justine’s hands. An upset look entered her face. “She passed out? Did the school nurse take a look at her? Has she been eating? What’s wrong with her?” Mom said all at once.

  “Krista! Where are you?” yelled Mom, looking around for her.

  Being nearby, Krista couldn’t but help to hear the whole conversation. She came out of the kitchen and went into the living room where her mother’s anxious eyes examined her from head to foot.

  Another car could be heard. This time it was the sound of the garage door going up and then coming down. Footsteps resounded. Dad opened the door and walked into the house. Gianna and Adonia came running out of the kitchen, but this time with a slice of pizza in their hands.

  “Hello, David!” said Mom, sticking her head out of the living room. “I just found out Krista passed out at school today!”

  “She passed out at school? That’s unusual for Krista. Do you think she ate enough?” asked Dad, immediately concerned.

  “The nurse said that I’m okay. And I ate,” was Krista’s response. She didn’t go into any more detail, preferring to withhold the vision of the Civil War. Who was going to believe that?

  Krista went back into the kitchen and continued eating a slice of pizza she had taken out and put on a plate.

  Justine walked over into the kitchen and looked at the pizza as though they were trying to poison her with vitamins. “You couldn’t have put some sausages or meatballs on one side of it, Stella?” asked Justine.

  “Don’t worry Mom and Dad. They said to watch over me and if anything weird or similar happened, to take me to the doctor. Right now there is nothing to worry about. I feel great,” said Krista between bites.

  “Well, she’s eating now and looks totally healthy and normal,” said Mom, thinking out loud.

  “You’re right, Stella. I don’t think she looks ill at all. And look at that appetite!” said Dad. He sat down at the table and went immediately for the biggest slice he could find. With satisfied bites, he looked around at his family in enjoyment.

  Krista went to get another slice after finishing her first one.

  The smell of pizza filling the room and everyone eating wore down Justine’s convictions. She couldn’t resist and also went for a slice.  

  “This doesn’t taste bad... just needs a little sausage,” said Justine with her mouth full.

  Soon afterwards, Justine went home. Dad was upstairs doing something in the bedroom and Gianna and Adonia were happy they could now sit in the living room and watch something they wanted to see even though they would have to head to bed soon.

  They all liked watching TV in the living room the most, because it had the biggest screen. The screens in their rooms were much smaller.

Krista was alone with her mother in the kitchen who was cleaning things up. Justine didn’t clean here. She was just their babysitter. When Mom came home, there was always a mess waiting for her. It took time, but Mom had gotten Justine in the habit of loading and unloading the dishwasher. Mom was loading the dishes from dinner.

  “After you eat, go in the living room, and relax. Don’t strain yourself at all. It could be your immune system is weak. Gianna! Come in the kitchen!” Mom called into the next room.

  Gianna came in with the telephone next to her ear.

  “Gianna. Get off the phone. Go upstairs and do Krista’s vacuuming. I want her to relax this evening. She can do yours next time,” said Mom as she cleaned the countertops.

  Krista thought for a moment about telling her mother everything happening with her. About It teaching her things. And about all the stuff that was now happening, like the Visions and how the “blackout” had something to do with it. But she sensed it wasn’t time yet. It was a time for her to be strong alone. To find her way and pull the strength out to do what needed to be done. She straightened her shoulders with a determination. As she passed by a mirror in the hallway, the look on her face made her think of one thing. And the only word she could think of was...ready.

  Krista was sitting on the edge of her bed, listening to the Figure speak with a euphoric look on her face. Outside the bright room, the darkness of the night was highlighted by an array of stars. It was showing her how they were all one people on the earth and how every­thing was connected through something like energy fields with another. It was always gentle and kind, ex­plaining the things she could understand as simply as possible. Her role was part of a bigger plan and she should try to fulfill it to the best of her ability. ‘Fight and destroy your enemy FEAR and its companion ANGER, as they will lie to you and reduce your poten­tial,’ It said. And she should remember no matter what challenges may come, or what may seem like a defeat.... ‘EVERYTHING IS PERFECT’....

  This time Krista knew she was awake, and after the Figure slowly disappeared, turned under her covers and went to sleep.

  “Time to get up! Come on Krista, get out the bed!” said Justine loudly to her, through the doorframe of her room.

  “Okay, I’m up. I’m up,” said Krista, as she slowly sat up in her bed shaking the sleep off of her. She stood up and went into the bathroom to clean up before getting dressed. Adonia came a couple minutes later sleepy-eyed into the room.

  “The toothpaste is almost finished. If you need help getting the rest out the tube, let me know,” Krista told her. “How are you this morning, because you sure look tired?”

  “I am tired. I stayed up later than usual reading the book our teacher assigned to us for the vacation. I figured if I finish reading it quickly, I’ll be finished,” said Adonia with a yawn. Feeling light and silly, she started laughing. The aftereffects of too little sleep were quickly wearing off.

  “That’s right,” replied Krista, while laughing with her. It was hard to remain serious around Adonia. Her laughter was contagious.

  Finishing up, Krista went into her room and got dressed. She put on jeans and a shirt, as usual. Then, going to her jewelry box, she took out a necklace she received on her birthday years ago. Friends of her parents were in India. They brought back different things like beautiful silk safaris and statues of differ­ent Indian deities. One of them was her gift, Rudraksha Beads. The ancient yogis of India considered the beads to be holy and said that when one wore them directly next to the skin they would help the wearer. She had the strong inclination to put them on and keep them on.

  When Krista went downstairs, Justine was putting breakfast on the table. She sure loved to cook! And to eat! That was part of the reason they were late all the time for school. On the table were pancakes and scram­bled eggs.

  “Sit down and eat,” said Justine, then turned around to take orange juice out of the refrigerator. “And don’t tell me you don’t eat pancakes and eggs!”

  Dad was sitting at the table in the kitchen with his newspaper spread out before him. He looked up as she came into the kitchen.

  “Good morning, Krista,” he said, smiled, then went back to reading and eating a mixture of pancakes and scrambled eggs. Dad had gained a bit of weight since Justine started helping them.

  “Good morning, Dad!” answered Krista. She sat down at the table and poured herself something to drink. She didn’t touch the food.

  Adonia came skipping down the steps singing a song she apparently made up. Hopping over to the table, she sat down and continued singing.

  “I’m the queen in my castle and I tell all my servants, hello. Hello! Hello! Hello! Hello! I’m the queen in my castle and I tell all my servants, hello. Hello! Hello! Hello! Hello!” sang Adonia while waving everywhere.

  “Good morning, Adonia!” said Dad in between verses.

  “Good morning, good morning, good morning, everyone! Good morning, good morning, good morning, everyone!” sang out Adonia, while putting one pancake and a spoonful of eggs on her plate. She then poured orange juice into a glass, took a bite, and then sang another line while eating.

  “I’m the queen in my castle and I tell all my servants, hello. Hello! Hello! Hello! Hello!” Holding her fork in one hand, she waved with the other one as she sang.

  “Gianna!” yelled Justine above the singing. “Hurry up or you’re not going to have any time to eat!”

  A muffled answer could be barely heard upstairs. Ten minutes later, Gianna came down with an irritated look upon her face. By then, Adonia took to just humming her melody and making occasional strange sounds.

  “I couldn’t figure out what to wear,” said Gianna, moving with dissatisfied movements. Gianna poured herself a juice then sat down at the table. Justine and Dad were already finished and started getting up. “You’ve got five minutes and not a minute more, Gianna,” said Justine standing up. Justine put some of the ingredients away she used to make breakfast with then left the kitchen to get ready to leave.

  Dad was already dressed. He went to brush his teeth before going to work. The three girls were left alone for a few minutes in the kitchen.

  “I’m so glad it’s Friday!” said Gianna while biting into a pancake. Adonia and Krista were just finished eating and were enjoying a moment of not doing anything.

  “Me, too!” said Adonia grinning.

  “And the vacation! That’s really cool!” said Gianna. The annoyed look about her disappeared.

  “My teacher is giving us a breakfast party this morning! If we want we can bring something, but we don’t have to. Kevin said his mom was baking a cake. Mommy had Justine buy fresh cookies from the bakery section of the supermarket yesterday. I’m going to take them with me and I’m going to save some cookies for the two of you. Okay?” said Adonia almost in one breath.

  “Sure, save me some cookies. None of my classes are doing anything special today, at least nothing that I know of. It’s going to be such a short day that it doesn’t matter anyway. We get out at 12 o’clock. Let’s go put our shoes on, I think I hear Justine coming up the stairs,” said Gianna finishing the rest of a pancake.

  Getting up quickly, Gianna went into the entrance area and put on her shoes. Krista and Adonia followed her. They could also hear Justine moving in their direc­tion.

  “I’m taking my book with me in the car to keep on reading. Watch. I’m going to be finished by this evening,” said Adonia while putting on a shoe.

  “What are you reading?” asked Gianna.

  “Something my teacher told us we had to read during the Easter break,” said Adonia. “We have to write a short book report on it afterwards.”

  “They didn’t give us a book report, just lots of homework. Why don’t they want us to enjoy our vacation? But I sure don’t feel like doing anything now,“ said Gianna emphatically, while putting her jacket on.

  Dad came down the steps. Today, he had a suit on. He normally wore one when he had clients to meet with. Going over to the closet, he took his shoes out. Shoes that were worn every day lay next to the wall and all the others were in the shoe closet next to the front door. Mom, while complaining, would often put shoes away because so many pairs were left outside. It looked messy, but that only really bothered Mom. Justine didn’t care that much.

  Quickly putting his shoes and trench coat on, Dad hurriedly gave Gianna and Adonia a farewell kiss. For­getting her again, he briskly moved off to work. Krista quietly watched him leave.

  Next to Krista, Justine was putting her jacket and sneakers on. Everyone was now ready. Finally, they left the house and got into the car.

  It looked like they were going to be late today, because they should have left the house ten minutes ago. In the car, Justine put music in and the sound of Barry White filled the car. She must be in a really good mood, Krista thought, since most of the time they just heard the traffic report that warned Justine which roads she should avoid.

  Arriving at school ten minutes late, Krista and her sisters hastily said goodbye to Justine. Running into the entranceway of the school, Adonia went towards her building and Krista and Gianna towards theirs.

  Krista had German this morning with Ms. Schmitz, who didn’t like Krista being late, but did like the fact that she was the only student in the class who could speak German fluently. One boy named Markus had German parents, but he grew up here and could hardly understand or speak it. This made the class very slow for Krista and totally boring since almost everything they taught up until now she had learned years ago. Her mother insisted that she stay there, so she wouldn’t forget German entirely. As though she could forget German!!!

  Everyone was sitting in their seats and Ms. Schmitz was already writing on the board. As Krista opened the classroom door, Ms. Schmitz turned to her.

  “Excuse me, Ms. Schmitz, we were running late again,” said Krista smiling apologetically, while walking towards her seat. She sat down. Michael was sitting next to her. He smiled at her as she settled in.

  Ms. Schmitz didn’t answer. She just turned back around and kept writing on the board as though there was no interruption.

  They were doing descriptive words and everyone had to try to describe something in the classroom. Their accents were pretty horrible, but Ms. Schmitz did a good job teaching them how to pronounce things properly. A couple kids were learning quickly.

  Sometimes on days like this, she missed the snowy days of winter. In winter, she would look out the window and watch beautiful, giant snowflakes drift down from the heavens above, thinking every time, no two were alike. One could watch them, pay half attention to the easy lesson, and the time would fly by.

  This morning the sky was filled with a hazy sunshine and she was forced to give more attention to what was being taught. Since these “visitations” had started to occur, it was almost as if she were two people. The world she had always known was taking on an almost surreal nature. The world of dreams was becoming her reality and she had to work and focus to keep things stable around her. Great responsibility had been given to her and she respected gravely the value of her task. She just couldn’t tell anyone what she understood it to be. That was a secret.

  “Krista,” said Ms. Schmitz, breaking through her thoughts, “please describe something in German that is found in the classroom.”

  Krista wanted to describe something interesting about the class in general, but she knew this would be too hard and everyone would look at her as though she was trying to be a show-off, so she said instead: “Mein Kugelschreiber ist schwarz und sehr leicht,” which meant, ‘My pen is black and very light.’ Krista hoped that was easy enough.

  “What is a ‘Kugeleiber’?” asked Lisa, annoyed and pronounced totally wrong from across the room.

  “We’ve gone over that word MANY times, and once again it is a pen,” said Ms. Schmitz patiently. German was not a language that caught on easily.

  “Why don’t they just use the word ‘pen’? It’s much easier!” said Lisa even more irritated. Recently, every­thing Krista said and did was starting to annoy Lisa more and more and she always had something to say about her. Lisa had even started giving her really mean looks as though Krista was doing something to torture her. The Figure had said there would be many who had a problem with her. Well, Krista guessed Lisa was one of them. Toni, who Krista didn’t think had a problem with her, just went along with what Lisa would say. Sometimes Toni looked a little ashamed, but she never said anything against Lisa.

  Michael gave her an encouraging grin. It was nice sitting next to him. Sometimes she would give him the answers when he was stumbling around in the ‘What are they talking about?’ zone. He was a sweet, tall boy with brown eyes and a few pimples that never went totally away. His parents were from Puerto Rico and he was fluent in Spanish. Michael enjoyed learning German, even though he could hardly speak it.

  “How did you say that word again?” asked Michael.

  “Ku-gel-schreib-er...” Krista said slowly to him.

  “Ku-ga-schreib-a?” he asked.

  “No, Ku-gel-schreib-er!” she said again slowly.

  “Ku-ga-schreib-a?” asked Michael again, almost re­peating it totally the way he had said it the first time.

  “That’s close,” Krista said and smiled at him.

  Ms. Schmitz turned back to the board and was writing a few more descriptive words down. Krista looked back out of the window. A bird was flying by. It flew onto a tree and sat there looking in the direction of the school. Another bird landed on a branch close to the first one, then they took off together flying out of view.

  Before Krista knew it, the bell was ringing and it was time to go to their next class. In the hallway, the students were pouring out of most classes (where there was no double period) and going to their next class. She and their little group were talking happily about the upcoming vacation as they moved in the direction of the gymnasium. They just had to be in the locker rooms when the bell rang, not changed into their sports clothing. They had another five to seven minutes to get changed before the PE teachers started blowing their whistles and screaming out threats to those who took too long.

  Turning around the corner, leading into the corridor that led to the gym door, Krista saw her. It was a fifth grader who walked with a crutch. The girl was stricken with a spinal defect from birth and was walking slowly to her next class.

  Krista knew it was her.

  Leaving their group that kept walking through the locker room doors, Krista slowed down. The corridor was emptying out. Krista ran over to the young girl as she walked with the one crutch as fast as she could in the direction of her classroom.

  “Maria...” Krista said her name softly.

  Maria turned to look at her.

  “I’ve been sent. It is time for you...” Krista said looking her deep in the eyes. Maria stared at her trust­fully with a look of relief. She balanced the crutch under her arm and stretched out her hands towards her. Krista moved close to her and took her hands for not longer then a minute. A strong current of force passed through both of them. Maria uttered a slight scream then sank slowly to the floor. Krista looked helplessly at her. The crutch lay abandoned on the floor.

  Krista couldn’t leave her here alone, as the corridor was now empty, so she sat next to her and waited. The bell rang. She was going to get in trouble at PE, but it didn’t matter to her. No one passed down the hall where they were in the next fifteen minutes.

  Footsteps could be heard in the distance. They would be here within the next few seconds. Krista hurried as fast as she could into the locker room, the door just closing as she heard the exclamation from the teacher who found Maria sitting on the floor. The sound of footsteps running for help could be heard.

  Krista changed her clothing as fast as she could and walked into the gym where the classes had been divided into four lines to do lay-ups in basketball.

  One of the PE teachers, Ms. White, left her group and came over to Krista.

  “You’d better have a late note with you!” said Ms. White loudly, while looking directly at Krista. Krista shook her head no. “You know coming so late without a note is going to affect your mark, Krista?” With that, Ms. White ran back to her group and shouted, “Get on my line, now!”

  “Why did you disappear?” Susie asked her quietly. There were two other girls between them, so Krista had to come out of the line to answer her.

  “I had something I had to do,” answered Krista just as quiet.

  “Ms. White seemed to be pretty angry with you,” whispered Susie, under the sound of the bouncing bas­ketball.

  “I’d better stop talking because she is going to get even angrier if she sees me,” said Krista, going to her spot just as Ms. White turned around and looked at the line of girls.

  “Aim for the BASKET, girls!!! The BASKET!!!!” yelled Ms. White while blowing her whistle to indicate to the next person that it was their time to go.

  They were drilled in different areas of the court before tired and sweating they went back into the locker rooms. Quickly changing their clothing, they left for the next class.

  As they left the locker room, they could see down the hall someone being carried into an ambulance. A small crowd of teachers and personnel where standing before the ambulance as it took off. Then, slowly talking among themselves, they filed back into the school and went to their various rooms.

  Susie and Fawn looked on. They were as interest­ed as the rest of the students coming into the hallway. Everyone started talking about it, but still went as fast as they could to their next class. They were no excep­tion.

  “What do you think happened?” asked Susie.

  “Someone probably had an asthma attack. That has happened here before. The ambulance comes, revives them the best they can, then off to the hospital,” replied Fawn, still staring at the ambulance.

  “That sucks,” said Susie. “I’m glad I don’t have asthma.”

  “And to have it happen right before the vacation and we’re finishing early! Everybody knows the best time to get sick is at the beginning of the week!” said Fawn.

  “But that’s an asthma attack! You can’t plan that. We better hurry up or we’ll be late for class,” said Susie, as she quickened her pace. The rest of the small group did as well.

  Krista just listened. She didn’t say anything. Keeping pace with the others she kept her thoughts to herself.

  They piled into the history class just before the bell rang. Some of the students were sitting at their desk, others were standing around talking, and some were looking out the window. Mr. Reed was not there.

  Around ten minutes after the class should have begun, Mr. Reed came into the room lightly sweating and excited. Everyone sat automatically down and the formally buzzing room quieted down.

  “Since today is a very special day in our school, I’m going to skip the history lesson I planned.” Everyone’s ears perked up. What could be so special for Mr. Reed not to give his lesson? Everyone knew how much he loved talking about history.

  “I’m going to tell you about this because the parents have been informed and to be honest something like this is not going to stay a secret very long.” Someone raised their hand. “No questions right now,” he said to them, “let me finish the story. Just a short time ago, one of our students was found lying on the floor uncon­scious. An ambulance was immediately called. As I was told, within minutes consciousness was regained. As this person spoke with the emergency medical technicians, they couldn’t determine anything wrong. But you see, during the time they were speaking, this person stood up and walked over to a school bag that lay not far away.

  Now this doesn’t seem special, but this student was born with a birth deformity in the spine and couldn’t walk without a crutch! Now, here this student was… walking! When it was noticed, this person was stunned, but kept standing. Our student is being examined in the hospital as we speak to see if this was a temporary shock situation, or if it will be permanent. Regardless, it’s a MIRACLE! In our school!”

  Everyone started talking at once to each other and calling out questions to Mr. Reed.

  A festive mood entered the classroom. Unnoticed in the lively atmosphere were two students without an animated look upon their face. One was Krista, who didn’t even look surprised, and the other, looking around the class with a look of disdain on her face, was...Lisa.

  Mr. Reed opened up two bags of chocolate bars and distributed them to the class. The rest of the time was spent discussing the concept of miracles and if they even existed at all. Science vs. Faith. Which one was it?