There was a good thirty seconds of silence.
“Mom?”
“Did anyone see you do it?” Katherine asked softly.
Elizabeth set her drink down on the table and gripped the phone with both hands. “I don’t think so,” she whispered. “My surgery team was prepping when I prayed with the lady. Her—her husband was there, but nothing outwardly happened. The chaos was all in my head. I just left the room after and went to scrub up for surgery. Mom, I didn’t even know what had happened until the lady was in the OR. Everyone just thinks there was a mix-up, because so many patients were coming in from the train wreck.”
Another few seconds of silence, and then, “What about James?” Katherine asked. “He said you were in his patient’s room and that the boy suddenly woke up from a coma.
And that he shouldn’t have. That he was about to be declared brain-dead.”
Which was why James was trying to reach her. They’d always known each other, since their fathers ran a medical practice together. And having grown up on Grammy Bea’s stories with Elizabeth, James was now suspicious about her.
“I—I healed him, Mom,” Elizabeth whispered, closing her eyes against the sting of tears, as the impact of saying it out loud echoed through the silent living room.
“You didn’t, Elizabeth. You couldn’t.”
“I felt it, Mom. I felt them—Esther Brown and Jamie Garcia. I went right inside them and
—and healed them.”
There was absolute silence on the other end of the phone.
“What do I do?” Elizabeth whispered, swiping at a tear running down her cheek. “What happens now?”
“You lie,” Katherine said succinctly. “You can’t have this get out, Elizabeth. Your life will be ruined, your career will be over, and the media will turn it into a circus.”
“I have to leave,” Elizabeth added. “I can’t stay here. I—” She took a shuddering breath.
“I can’t go back to the hospital, Mom. I thought I was going crazy. I could feel people tugging at me, begging to be healed.”
“Oh, baby.” Katherine cried softly. “I’m so sorry. You’re right, you have to leave—but just for a little while, until this whole thing dies down. With nothing concrete to go on, James will have to let it go.”
Elizabeth gripped the phone tighter. “No, he won’t. Not as long as we’re both up for that grant. He’ll use this against me.” Elizabeth sighed into the phone. “It doesn’t really matter now, Mom. I have to pull myself off the grant. Even if we can keep this a secret, I can’t work in a hospital anymore.”
There was a gasp on the other end of the phone. “You’re a surgeon, Elizabeth Hart,” her mother said evenly. “You can’t just walk away.”
“But I can’t go back. Don’t you understand, Mom? It was overwhelming.”
“I realize that, dear. I mean, I don’t understand any of this, but I imagine it must be difficult. But Elizabeth, you’re not thinking straight right now. You can’t know that your career is over. Take some time. You’re right, you probably should leave, but don’t do anything you might regret.”
“Why did this happen, Mom? Why now, without any warning?”
“I don’t know, sweetie. I’m as shaken as you are.”
“How is it possible?”
“It’s not,” Katherine firmly assured her. “You can’t heal a person by will alone, no matter what Bea wanted you to believe. Don’t let her stories affect you this way, Elizabeth. There has to be an explanation for what happened. And I’m sure once you put some distance between yourself and the hospital, you’ll be able to reason it out.”
“Where should I go?”
There was a hesitation on the other end of the phone, a deep sigh, and then Katherine finally said, “You can’t go to the farm. James knows about it, and that will be the first place he’ll look for you.”
“I’ll write a letter to the chief of surgery tonight and have it delivered tomorrow,”
Elizabeth said, deciding she’d figure out her destination later. “I’m going to tell him I have a family emergency and need a leave of absence. I’ll imply that it’s on Dad’s side of the family, so it won’t look strange that you’re still here.”
“I could come with you.”
Elizabeth hesitated. “No, Mom,” she said gently. “I need to get away by myself and think this out. I’ll call you as soon as I find a place to stay.”
“Elizabeth? Are you going to be okay?” Katherine asked softly. “I’m worried about you just heading off all alone, without a plan of some sort or even a destination.”
“I’m a big girl, Mom,” Elizabeth said brightly, trying to sound more confident than she felt. “I promise, I’ll call you as soon as I find a place to stay.”
“I don’t like it,” Katherine said with a sigh. “But I think it’s best, considering your alternatives. You simply can’t stay here right now. Not until this dies down and you’ve come up with a reasonable explanation.”
Whatever that was, Elizabeth thought.
“I’ve got to go now, Mom. I want to pack and get out of here before James decides to come looking for me. There’s too much money and prestige at stake for him to let this go.”
“I love you, Elizabeth.”
“I know, Mom. I love you, too. Please don’t worry about me. I’m very good at taking care of myself.”
“Still, you call me the minute you’re settled. And meanwhile, I’ll take care of James on this end. I still have a few strings to pull at the hospital.”
Elizabeth smiled into the phone. “Then pull them, Mom. I gotta go now. I’ll keep in touch, and you can let me know what’s happening here.”
“I—I love you,” Katherine repeated.
“I love you, too. ’Bye.”
Elizabeth gently set the phone back in its cradle and stared into the fire. She had to find someplace to go, and she had to go now. She stood up, a sudden sense of urgency pushing her into the bedroom.
She dug in the back of her closet, pulled out her suitcase, opened it, and threw it on the bed. On one of her trips from her bureau to the suitcase, her arms laden with clothes, Elizabeth stopped as she passed her computer and turned it on. She continued to pack while it booted up but suddenly had a thought, tossed her underwear into the suitcase, and all but ran to the kitchen.
She walked to the intercom and pushed the lobby button.
“Dr. Hart?” came Stanley’s voice over the speaker. “What can I do for you?”
“Stanley, if anyone comes here asking for me, could you please tell them I’m not home? I don’t wish to be disturbed for the rest of the night.”
“Not a problem, Dr. Hart,” Stanley cheerfully promised.
“That’s why they pay me the big bucks, to make sure no one’s disturbed if they don’t want to be.”
“Thanks, Stan. Oh, and I’m going out of town for a while. Mom will be coming in to water my plants and stuff. Take good care of her for me, would you?”
“You got it, Dr. H. Have a good trip.”
“I intend to, Stan. Thanks.”
Elizabeth pushed herself away from the intercom and headed back to the bedroom. She stopped at her computer and logged onto the Internet. While the modem dialed up, she went to her closet and stared at her clothes.
What should she take? Damn, she needed a destination. She’d bought herself a bit of time with Stanley if James decided to come looking for her. The National Guard couldn’t get past her doorman now that he knew she didn’t want to be disturbed.
Elizabeth went back to her computer and surfed the Internet for real estate ads for houses to rent, suddenly deciding the opposite coast just might be far enough away.
New England sounded good, quaint and unhurried and very, very real. A place in the mountains where she could feel the earth wrapping securely around her.
As her search engine complied listings in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, Elizabeth headed back to the closet and pulled out warm clothes. She returned to the computer and found 846 listings of houses for rent.