Free B00CCYP714 EBOK by R. E. Bradshaw Page A

they’ll come get us when we can see him.”
    A nurse came out of Mackie’s room, just as Ernie finished. “She’s right. His heart is beating normally again and we have him closely monitored. Y’all go on down to the waiting area. The doctor will come out to talk to you.”
    “Thank you, we’ll do that,” Ernie said, acting as spokesperson for the group.
    Rainey was happy to have someone else take charge for the moment. Ernie was never one to wallow in misery and she wouldn’t allow those around her to do so either. She held out her hand to help Rainey from the floor.
    “I’m glad you’re here, Ernie,” Rainey said, standing up.
    “Well, somebody had to come down here and straighten you all out. Nothing worse than a bunch of negative energy around sick people. A little positive attitude goes a long way.” She paused and tilted her head, a puzzled look crossing her face as she gazed at Rainey. “You know, when I saw you on TV, I was trying to figure out what that was in your hair.”
    Rainey’s hand went to the green slime embedded in her curls. “Weather likes to throw strained peas and anything else she can get her hands on.”
    Ernie looped her arm through Rainey’s, as they started down the hall, following Thelma and Junior. “Well, I know she doesn’t have your DNA, but that child is the spittin’ image of your personality, and to that I say—you are in for a hell of a ride to adulthood.”
    It crossed Rainey’s mind that maybe this was it, the other shoe dropping. If so, it was working out okay. Mackie might be down, but she felt sure he would pull through this. If he was going to die, she reasoned with herself, a few minutes ago would have been the time. She hung onto that hope, telling herself maybe this would inspire Mackie to get into better shape, start watching what he ate, and live to be one hundred. By then, maybe Rainey would be ready to let him go.
    Deciding not to share her thoughts with Ernie, Rainey smiled down at the small gray-bunned woman on her arm, replying to the prediction of future parental woes with Weather, “Let’s just see if we can stop her from throwing food first. We’ll worry about the storms to come, after she’s out of diapers.”
    “Oh, throwing food will be the least of your worries with that one.” Ernie said with a chuckle. “There will be rainy weather in your future, you can count on that.”
    Rainey laughed. “Clever word play there. Probably should have given that weather theme a bit more thought when we named her.”
    Rainey’s attention was unexpectedly drawn back to the trauma room, where Mackie’s heart was now beating again. The sudden sense of approaching doom returned in a rush. Immediately, her father’s voice was inside her head, whispering, “Watch your back, Rainey. There’s trouble.” She stopped walking and stared back at the door of the room.
    Ernie stopped with her. She knew Rainey well enough to recognize when something wasn’t right. She also knew to respect Rainey’s intuition. “What is it, Rainey?”
    “Dad,” she whispered. “He’s trying to tell me something.”
    Rainey did not feel strange admitting to Ernie that she heard her father’s voice at times, and with good reason.
    Ernie squeezed Rainey’s arm. “I’ve heard him lately, too. There’s trouble.”
    Rainey knew Ernie talked to her dead father, often hearing her carry on whole conversations with him in the office. They were very close friends, more like brother and sister than employee and employer. Rainey was not sure to what extent her father’s spirit participated in Ernie’s conversations with him, but Ernie did credit Billy with finding lost objects on occasion. This was new. Ernie had never passed along a warning from the beyond before. Rainey attributed the messages from her father to her own mind associating him with her instinctual knowledge. Because Billy Bell spent so much time telling his daughter to listen to her inner voice, she was not at