Free Healing Tides by Lois Richer Page A

there. Frustrated, Glory pressed on, struggling to make her weary body keep giving. At three-thirty in the morning, after checking on Bennie for the third time, she took a break on the patio with one of the nurses, savoring the cooling breeze combined with the flavor of strong tea laced with thick cream.
    “This shortage of staff is too hard on you doctors,” the nurse murmured.
    Glory nodded, tilted her head back and rested it against the chair and watched a spider climb up a pagoda-style landscape light.
    “I hope Ms. Wisdom can find someone else soon. At this rate, you and Dr. Steele are going to get sick and there won’t be anyone for the children. He’s just like you—stubborn as a mule. Won’t take even a moment off.”
    Glory frowned, sat up. Far out over the ocean lightning speared the water. The wind picked up, rustled the palm leaves surrounding them. Camellia blooms tumbled down, showering both of them in pink petals.
    “At least Dr. Steele is home sleeping.” Glory brushed the blossoms from her lap, took another sip of tea, hoping there was enough caffeine to keep her eyes open.
    The nurse hooted with laughter.
    “I wish he was sleeping. Then he’d be a little less difficult to get on with in the morning.”
    “Where is he, then?”
    “With Sister Philomena.”
    “Oh. Visiting.” That could hardly be as stressful as this.
    “Sort of. She’s just gone through her first round of chemo and she’s not feeling very well. But then at eighty-seven, that’s hardly surprising.”
    “She has cancer?”
    The nurses nodded, her eyes sad.
    “Dr. Steele noticed she was flagging last autumn, and when she wouldn’t go to Honolulu for tests, he took her himself. We could hardly believe it when he told us. How could God let a sweet precious woman like that get cancer?”
    “I don’t know.”
    “Just doesn’t seem right to me. Thank the Lord she’s got Dr. Steele sitting by her bed through the night, caring for her.”
    So that’s where he’d been.
    “Couldn’t she have a private nurse?”
    “She could, I guess. If one would come. Nurses are in short supply in Hawaii, Dr. Cranbrook. Just like everywhere else. They can pick and choose where they want to work. Most don’t choose an isolated place like this, even fewer choose an old woman in a shabby house with no money to pay them.”
    “Of course she’s poor. I didn’t think of that.”
    “She had some money to retire on, but Sister Phil gave every cent she ever got to keep this place going. I’m pretty sure Elizabeth and Dr. Steele chip in, though neither would mention it.”
    “I see.” Glory remained outside after the other woman had left, pondering the situation as the wind cleared her mind. So Jared Steele was nursing Sister Philomena all night and trying to work a regular day, as well.
    She had to do something. It was obvious things couldn’t go on as they had. Everyone was overextended.
    “Lord,” she whispered. “Can You help us?”
    No answer.
    “I’ll just sit here for a minute and wait for You to tell me what to do.” She relaxed against the chair back so she could watch the black clouds scud across the sky, see the storm build over the white-capped water. What could a few minutes hurt?
    Glory exhaled and let her tired muscles relax. Just for a minute.

     
    “Dr. Cranbrook, may I ask what you’re doing?”
    Glory startled, blinked. Jared’s face loomed above her, his mouth carved in a deep frown, eyes bloodshot, skin pasty.
    “Dr. Steele. I was going to ask you the very same question.”
    Glory risked a quick look over his head to the far wall at the clock and suppressed her gasp. Six. Judging by the pink-tipped clouds, it had to be morning. She’d been bandaging a cut at 6:00 p.m., which meant someone had let her sleep out here all night. And her neck knew it.
    “What question? What are you talking about?”
    Every muscle in her body ached, her head throbbed and her mouth tasted like ashes mixed with raw