Chapter 6: Miracles Never Cease

Just as Liz predicted, Sean had to be taken to the hospital at least three times a week so the other nurses could see him. Martha was getting used to surprising things happening around Sean but she found that she could still be shaken.

There were areas of the hospital that two month old babies couldn't be taken to because of fear of infection but the areas that were available were visited. One ward they could visit was the cancer ward. The cancer ward wasn't an especially pleasant place to visit but the nurses on the ward begged Martha and Sheila to bring the baby for a visit. They had a good visit, and were leaving the ward when Sean had a fit. He started waving his arms and legs and babbling something in baby talk. Sheila stopped dead when Sean started his antics and looked at him and then at the bed they were passing. An old man was writhing on the bed in obvious pain. Tears were leaking from his eyes and a low moan would occasionally escape his clinched teeth.

Sheila looked at the man's chart hanging on the end of the bed and said, "He's maxed out on what we can legally give him with morphine. He's in late stage bone cancer and it's very painful but there's nothing else we can do for him. They should move him to a private room even though he's a street person. He should be able to at least die in peace but we don't have any private rooms available."

All the time Sheila was talking, Sean was straining and reaching for the man. He had stopped waving his little arms and feet, and stopped babbling. Now the only sound he was making was a whimpering sound and his only action was reaching for the man. Martha felt a need, an urgent need, to step closer to the old man's bedside so she did. Sean strained his little arms towards the man's stick thin hand that was clutching the bed rail so Martha bent slightly so Sean could reach him.

Two things happened when Sean's hand touched the old man's hand. Sean instantly became calm, and seemed to relax in Martha's arms. The old man's breath rattled one more time in his chest as he drew a deep breath. He face relaxed. His bleary eyes cleared as he looked at Sean and he smiled before whispering, "Thank you," and died as the breath left his body.

Martha and Sheila backed up from the bed as the alarms started going off when the machines failed to receive the next heartbeat. Sean was softly cooing, and waving his arms as if he was telling the old man goodbye. They were silent when they finally left the ward. By some unvoiced mutual agreement they didn't talk about the incident until they were sitting down to dinner at Casa Cavalla. Sean was in bed asleep and it was just Sheila, Martha, and Ben sitting at the table. Liz and Susan were on shift at the hospital.

"What do you think happened?" Martha asked Sheila, after they explained to Ben the events in the cancer ward.

Sheila shook her head as she pushed some vegetables around on her plate. She didn't have much of an appetite. "I don't know any more than you do Martha," she said in a troubled voice.

"I know you don't know," Martha said with just a little sharper than she intended. That brought a little smile to Sheila's lips. "But what do you think happened?"

Sheila snorted a half laugh and half cry before saying, "What do I think? What I think is insane but, what isn't insane anymore?" She shook her head again, and challengingly said, "OK, try this on for size. What I think is that the man was in mental and physical agony and he was released from it." She was silent for a moment before continuing in a smaller and much more timid voice, "It could have been coincidence that he died just as Sean touched his hand."