Free The Miracle by Irving Wallace Page B

feel good that he was still attracted by me. But, well, I just had a momentary ache at—at what I'm missing. Can we go inside the church?"
    Natale stmnbled along with her Aunt Elsa in darkness, feeling the wooden planks beneath her feet, listening to the shuffling, and the hushed voices.
    After genuflecting, she entered a pew and slowly knelt. Then, to herself, she prayed to the God that she could not believe ever abandoned anyone. The brief rapport with her Maker settled her nerves, made her feel peaceful once more. She pushed herself upright. "Aunt Elsa?" she whispered.
    "Right here."
    "Let's eat."
    She accompanied Aunt Elsa out into the black daylight.
    She held Aunt Elsa's hand as they strolled across the Piazzetta and swung off. Natale tried desperately to revive the scene along the canal. She spoke only once, as they passed the Giardinetti, wondering aloud, "Is the old lady with all the cats still there?"
    "She's there feeding them all."
    "There are nice people in this world."
    As they walked on to the air terminal, around it, and over the small bridge, jostling past people hurrying from the San Marco vaporetto station, Natale kept thinking that if God could find someone to take care of stray cats, why couldn't He show mercy to her by giving

    some doctor a newly discovered means of curing her? It was a rare wave of self-pity and discouragement, and by the time they had arrived at the swinging doors that led into Harry's Bar, she was ashamed and regretful of her lapse, and determined to make the best of simply being ah\e.
    Inside, she was relieved to find that it was definitely cooler, and that there were no crowding bodies or jarring voices.
    "Very few here for lunch today," whispered Aunt Elsa. "We have it almost to ourselves."
    Natale heard the bartender from the left call out, "Good to see you again, Miss Rinaldi."
    "Good to be here, Aldo," rephed Natale.
    Aunt Elsa was speaking to someone, probably a waiter, saying, "We'll take that table in the comer, against the back wall."
    Holding her aunt's hand, Natale went between the chairs and tables, bumping into a few. She felt a pang, remembering the little round lacquered tables and the undersized chairs, and the fascinating people she had met here, and the meals she had enjoyed.
    As they were settling into the comer, the waiter said, 'This is Luigi, remember me?"
    She smiled a real smile, remembering the handsome, dimpled waiter who had always been wonderfully funny and friendly.
    "Luigi, I'm so glad. It's been too long."
    "We heard of your illness. Miss Rinaldi," he said in a gentle undertone. "You will be better one day, believe me. We all pray for you."
    "You're a dear, Luigi, and I'm grateful for your prayers."
    Aunt Elsa's voice came on firmly. "I think two Bellinis are in order, Luigi."
    "Immediately," promised the waiter, fading away.
    Natale sat waiting for her drink of peach juice and champagne, which she needed, heard her aunt scratch a match to light a cigarette, inhaled the smoke that wafted toward her, then listened as Aunt Elsa described the few persons in the restaurant.
    Natale heard Luigi return and set down the drinks. "Two Bellinis," he said. "Enjoy."
    Taking up her glass, Natale drank and found the Bellini cool and refreshing. She heard her aunt unfold the newspaper. "Good old Gaz-zettino," her aunt said. "Let me read you the latest."
    Normally, daily, someone, her father or Aunt Elsa read to her from a newspaper, to keep her alive, involved, part of the distracting world. Today she wasn't in the mood at all. "Not now. I'm not interested now."
    "Natale, you've got to keep up," Aunt Elsa said in a mildly scold-

    ing voice. "You've ..." Suddenly, her aunt's voice trailed off. She was obviously reading something in the newspaper. "Sa-ay, imagine this."
    "What?" said Natale with disinterest.
    'The Virgin Mary. This story from Lourdes in France. The Virgin Mary is supposed to be coming back to Lourdes."
    At first, Natale did not grasp it. "Whatever are