Page 6 - Good News January 2012 paper

Continued from p. 1 down on a small table beside his
Continued from p. 1
evening countryside. “Give me
the flashlight and repair kit. I'll
just disconnect it. Put the emer-
gency brake on, will you?”
A dog howled somewhere in the
distance. An owl hooted. It was a
starless night. Fyodor glanced at
his watch with a groan. “Ten
o'clock at night. We'll never get
any sleep.”
Even in the poor light of
the flashlight Ivan could see it was
the universal joint. With a grunt of
effort in the small space he finally
scooted his body under it. He
rummaged in his kit for a wrench,
then managed to take the joint
apart. The instant he felt the shift
of the truck he knew Alexi had not
put on the emergency brake. With
a lunge he tried to roll out from
under the truck as it moved
forward. He let out a desperate
shout: “Reverse!”
The strange thing in the
next few minutes of pain was that
he was aware of everything. The
rear wheel crushing into his carrying her basin and cloth with
shoulder and chest, the horror on
Fyodor's face, the churning of the
engine as Alexi tried repeatedly to
get the tow truck to reverse. The
smell of tire rubber and oil filled
his nostrils in the intense dark
under the truck. From the corner
of his eye he could see the
flashlight where it had rolled onto
the road. In the tiny spot of its light
small insects began to fly. Pain
was ripping through his chest,
strangling his breath. He was
perfectly aware that Alexi couldn't
get the truck into reverse. Surely
soon he would be with the angels.
“Jesus.” “Jesus.”
With a slight jolt, the engine
roared and the six pairs of wheels
rolled back. Ivan pulled himself
away from the truck and collap- sank back into their private Smiling in wonder at the reality of
sed onto his mangled arm and
chest in the road.
***
When he opened his eyes, a hot
sheet of pain seemed to be
burning into him. A small group of
doctors beside his bed came into
focus and beyond them a white
wall and a narrow window cur-
tained in sagging white cotton. He
tried to speak, but his mouth was
crusted with fever.
One of the doctors bent
over him with interest, reading the
question in his eyes. Her voice
was kind. “You have been into a grief from which he could
transferred to Simferopol Military
Hospital, Ivan Vasilievich Moise-
yev.” Her expression remained
unchanged as she pulled the
thermometer from under his arm.
A nurse began bathing his
face in cool water. He tried to suck
the moisture from the cloth as it
touched his lips. Smiling, she
held a glass for him to drink. The
slightest move seemed to fling
open floodgates of pain. The
shallowest breathing took enor-
mous effort. His eyes followed her
hand as the nurse set the glass
When my spirit was overwhelmed
bed. His right arm was lying
outside the covers. He stared at it
in astonishment. The whole hand
and wrist and the part of the arm
he could see not covered by a
sling was a dusky grey. It seemed
unattached to his body. It was
impossible for him to will the
smallest movement in the swollen
fingers. With his left hand he
reached through the pain and
touched the right wrist and back
of the hand; it was ice cold. The
rest of his body was fiery hot.
With the nurse raising him
to a half-sitting position he moved him into bed. A great joy
thirstily gulped more water. He
could see he was in a large ward.
Some of the patients appeared
very ill with dripping bottles and
tubes and whirring machines with a wet cloth as he sank into a
attached to them. Some slept.
Others were convalescing, stoop-
ing like old men from bed to chair
or cautiously sitting up reading. A
few watched Ivan intently.
The nurse moved away,
her. Ivan closed his eyes and
began to pray.
By the time of the evening
meal a surgeon came to tell Ivan
that surgery was scheduled in the
morning. A specialist had been
sent for to perform the operation.
His right arm that was so frighte-
ningly cold was to be amputated.
Part of his crushed lung would be
removed.
Ivan watched the doctor
leave the ward, stopping at brought his right arm down face.
occasional bedsides as he weari-
ly made his way to the corridor.
His white coat moved from one
patient to another, pausing, slightly tanned from his work in
nodding briefly, the back of his
shoulders stooped in fatigue.
When he had gone, the patients
struggles with depression, or
pain or loneliness. A desperate
rejection of the surgeon's words
swept through Ivan's mind. His
heart pounded against his injured
lung. He began to be horrified at
the thought of his body without an
arm.
“Hear my prayer, O Lord!
And let my cry for help come to
Thee. Do not hide Thy face from
me in the day of my distress;
incline Thine ear to me; in the day
when I call answer me quickly.”
Somehow Ivan had to get
out of bed. He felt himself falling
neither pray nor hope. In a rush of
anguish he heaved himself to the
edge of the bed and threw his legs
over the side. He staggered wildly
for balance as pain blackened the
room. Desperation gave him glass of water. Daylight streaked
breath.
Every eye in the room was
fixed upon him in fear and
astonishment.
“I cry aloud with my voice
to the Lord; I make supplication
with my voice to the Lord. I pour
out my complaint before Him; I
declare my trouble before Him.
cally for the thermometer in the
within me, Thou didst know my drawer of Ivan's table. He opened
path. I cried out to Thee, O Lord; I his eyes and gazed sleepily at her.
said, Thou art my refuge, my The thermometer remained sus-
portion in the land of the living. pended in air as she stared
Give heed to my cry, for I am fearfully at him. In an instant she
brought very low.” was gone.
A passing nurse stopped Rapid footsteps in the
in the doorway and entered the ward roused him a second time.
room slowly. The surgeon was standing beside
“Bring my soul out of the nurse. Some other doctors
prison, so that I may give thanks were hurrying into the room.
to Thy Name; for Thou wilt deal Everyone appeared startled.
bountifully with me.” Ivan sat up defensively.
Guiding Ivan with her hand What was happening? Suddenly a
under his left elbow, the nurse feeling of glory rolled over him. He
had sat up! He stared at his hands
seemed to shake his body. Ivan in front of him. The sling lay on top
smiled suddenly. “Thou wilt deal of his covers at the bottom of his
bountifully with me.” He remem- bed. He began breathing deeply,
bered the nurse wiping his face entranced. He rubbed his hands
together, then separated them in
blessed darkness. wonder.
The doctor was frightened.
*** He groped for words. The nurse
It was six o'clock in the morning backed slightly away from the
when he awoke. For several bed. Finally, in a shaking voice,
moments Ivan lay motionless, the doctor spoke: “Shall I take
trying to hold onto the sweet your temperature, comrade
lightness of a dream... Moiseyev?” Ivan flushed with
Gradually he became happiness. “Of course I don't
aware that he was lying on his need my temperature taken,
back instead of hunched on his comrade doctor.”
uninjured left side. His breathing The surgeon continued to
was quiet. Cautiously he took a stare. Finally he put the medicine
deep breath. His arms were folded on the table. Hesitantly, his
above his head and he was able to fingers probed Ivan's right hand.
gaze at the ward still wrapped in Gently lifting the sleeve of the
sleep. Quietly he began to give hospital gown he glanced at the
praise to the Lord for the enor- arm, his eyes returning again and
mous relief of this dream. He again to the radiance of Ivan's
carefully from behind his head to “I saw that you could not
his side. It was perfectly whole, heal me.” Ivan noticed that the
the fingernails pink, the flesh still nurse's face was white and that
she had been joined by a small
the harvest fields. With both crowd of astonished employees.
hands he raised himself to a “And I turned to my heavenly
sitting position and got out of bed. Doctor, Who healed me last
night.”
the dream, he lightly punched his “Look!” With a grin, Ivan
pillow and patted the side of the pulled back the blanket and stood
bed. He waved one arm above his on the floor. “Last night I was very
head playfully, then the other. ill. My temperature was high.” The
With his hands on his waist, he nurse began to tremble as she
did a few deep bends. nodded.
In a supreme happiness he “Now I shall show you
knelt in prayer at the end of his what my God can do.” Ivan
bed. Softly he whispered praises. handed the thermometer to the
“Praise the Lord. Praise doctor, who shook it down and
the Lord, O my soul. I will praise placed it under Ivan's tongue.
the Lord while I live. I will sing Some of the patients in the ward
praises to my God while I have my were gathering around the bottom
being. The Lord opens the eyes of of the bed. Others were calling
the blind; the Lord raises up those softly from bed to bed, trying to
who are bowed down; the Lord discover and report what was
loves the righteous. Praise the going on.
Lord.” The doctor removed the
Eventually the man in the thermometer. “The temperature is
bed beside him began to moan. normal, Moiseyev. Obviously.
Someone on the other side of the However, please return to your
ward was struggling to reach a bed.”
It was difficult for Ivan to
the slate-coloured sky in the comply. He wanted to jump, to
window. shout, to fill the ward with the
The lifelikeness of the praises of God! When the small
dream amused Ivan. With a sleepy group of staff had finally gone, he
sigh he crawled into bed. He raised himself on his elbow and
imagined himself floating into a began telling the electrified ward
delicious sleep. what God had done while he slept.
*** [VANYA, A True Story by Myrna
The day nurse reached mechani- Grant, Charisma House, 1974].