The Price of Betrayal: Chapter one

Chapter One:

    “A miracle, isn’t she?”
   
    Nick glanced next to him and saw the nurse. He looked back into the window to the room to look again.
   
    “Yes, she is,” Nick murmured. He was watching the woman at the head of the group on the other side of the finger-streaked glass window while she read to the group that sat around her. The group sitting around her was filled with children of all ages who happened to be patients.
   
      “She’s here everyday taking time for the children and even the babies in our ward,” mentioned the nurse.
     
      “What are the children in here for?”
   
      “Most of them have either cancer or brain tumors; some have spinal cord and other long-term recovery injuries that require them to stay with us for a while.”
     
      “What time does she usually get done with reading to the children?”
     
      The nurse glanced at her watch. “In about five minutes. You can go to the waiting room down this hallway and I’ll tell her she has a visitor when she’s done, if you wish.”
   
      “No,” Nick replied. “It’s not long. I’ll wait here.”
   
      “Ok,” the nurse looked at her watch again. “If you’ll excuse me, I have to go give a patient their medicine. I’ll let her know that she has a visitor.” The nurse went into the room and Nick saw her go to a small redheaded boy.
   
      He watched the woman while she read to the children. The sunlight from the outside window shined through and shot through her hair making it light like a dying flame. Her face was changing expressions while she read: from panic to surprise to joy. Her blue-gray stormy eyes sparkled as she brought joy and the freedom to imagine to the children.
   
      While he was watching her, he unknowing rubbed his hand across his heart. All of the pain, regrets and hope that he lived with were now going to come to a head.
                                    
                                                ***

    As she read this story, she watched the imagination of the children run wild and watched them focus on something other than their disease or injury and the worries and boredom that came from being cooped up in a hospital. She knew that without something to do, the children would lose hope of recovering and beating their disease.
   
    She had read this story many times while she was a child and it had made her dream about time traveling and what time periods she would have liked to visit: Egypt in the days the pyramids were being built, Babylon when the gardens were in bloom, Rome at the height of the Roman Empire, Ancient Greece, even Regency England. To have seen what was written about and to have experienced it was her dream every time she read the book. She was now sharing these dreams with the children to help give them something to dream about when they needed something to do.
 
      As she was finishing the story, Nurse Anne came in to give Peter his medicine.
   
      '… and as he stepped into the portal to return home, Theo threw him a pendent. “Wear yours at all times and we will still be brothers,” Theo shouted to him. “I will,” Jake replied. He stepped into the portal and the world started to spin. As he looked back, Theo waved at him and in the blink of an eye; he was back in his barn looking at his horse Victory.  “Wow! I can’t wait to see where I go tomorrow!” Jake exclaimed. “Jake, it’s time for supper,” called his mother from the house. “I’m coming Mom,” Jake hollered back. As he goes to shut the barn door, he saw the pendent in his hand. “Brothers till the end,” he said as he slipped the pendent over his head. The End,' she read as she finished the story.
   
    “He really got to keep the pendent?” asked Peter. “Even though it had belonged to Theo’s brother before he died?”
   
      “Yes, he did,” she answered. As she placed the book into her bag, Nurse Anne tapped her shoulder.
   
    “You have a visitor waiting in the hall for you.”
   
    “A visitor? Who is it?” the woman asked.
   
    “He didn’t say his name.”
   
    “He?”
   
    "He, all of his six foot gorgeous fallen angel looks and his brilliant blue eyes.”
   
    “Is that your medical opinion?” she asked laughing.
   
    “No, that’s my feminine opinion.”
   
    “It’s probably another reporter wanting an interview.”
   
    “I’ll be interviewed for the position of his girlfriend,” Anne quipped.
   
    “You’re incorrigible. Can you call over to Infancy and let them know I’ll be a little late?”
   
    “Sure.”
   
    “Thanks.” She picked up her bag and as she said good-bye to the kids, she opened the door.
   
    “Hello Alex,” Nick drawled.