46

The following morning, Saturday, Michele texted Julie to see if there was anything they could do for her. It was hard to know how to handle something like this. Ray and Julie had plenty of family in town and tons of friends in the church. Julie would probably be bombarded by people expressing concern. Michele didn’t want to pile on. She sent just a quick text, telling her no need to reply if things were crazy.

She stood near the patio door as she sent it, in time to see Allan’s car pull into the driveway. He had just made a quick run to the store to solve their coffee emergency. A few moments later, he walked across the connecting sidewalk holding a bag of half-and-half in one hand and a manila folder in the other.

Her cell buzzed, a reply from Julie: Thanks for praying. Just got to the hospital. Haven’t even seen Ray yet. Will call you if I think of something. Right now, job one is trying to keep the kids from freaking out about his surgery. LOL. Just pray. Talk soon.

The patio door opened.

Allan stepped past her and into the kitchen, set the cream on the counter. “I had an idea on the way home. Why don’t I put this in the fridge, and we go out for breakfast? Then we can swing by and visit the hospital.”

She walked toward him. “We can go someplace that has good coffee. How about Panera?”

“Sounds great. Are you ready to go?”

“I can be. Just give me a few minutes.” She headed toward the stairs. “By the way, I just texted Julie. She just got to the hospital. From the sound of it, she’s alone.”

“Then we should definitely go. And I’ll give her this,” he said, holding up the manila folder.”

They were almost to the hospital now. Michele glanced toward the backseat at the folder. “Is that the report about the orphanage?”

Allan nodded. “I know Ray won’t be in any shape to look at it today, but I’m guessing they’ll be keeping him a few days. He’ll probably be bored stiff.”

Neither one of them said anything for a few moments. Allan didn’t want to bring up what he was thinking. He’d been working on not talking about the orphanage very much. Every time he did, he’d use it as a reminder to take an interest in their baby challenges. It was starting to work. Now, only about half his daydreams took him back to Korah and to thoughts of little Ayana.

When he did go there, he’d see the same thing: an image of her squatting by a pile of garbage three times her size, poking through it with a stick. She’d hear him call, turn, and look up at him with those big brown eyes and bright smile.

“What do you think is going to happen now?”

Allan turned toward her voice. “What?”

“Wasn’t Ray supposed to leave for Africa on Tuesday?” she said.

“Yeah. He was. No chance of that now.”

“Wasn’t this kind of an important trip?”

Ridiculously important, he wanted to say. In fact, he had no idea what they were going to do now. “Pretty much. Ray was going to set everything up. Sign all the forms, pay all the up-front fees. Even get with Henok to select the first six children for the orphanage.”

“Is that little girl supposed to be one of them? What was her name?”

“Ayana.”

“Yeah, Ayana.”

“I hope so, but we put Henok in charge of selecting the children. I don’t think he’s talked to any of their legal guardians yet, including Ayana’s grandmother. He was waiting for Ray to get there.” They pulled into the hospital parking lot. “Wonder where we should park?” Signs pointed to the ER.

“Isn’t he there, in the ER?” Michele said.

“I don’t think so. That’s probably where they brought him at first. But I don’t think they’d do surgery there.”

“Well, it’s not that big of a place.”

“I’ll just park near the main entrance. Won’t hurt us to walk a little.” They parked, got out of the car, and headed toward the door.

“Allan, your folder.” They stopped walking. “You left it in the backseat.”

“Oh, right.” He headed back to the car, leaving Michele on the sidewalk. He wondered why she was suddenly taking such an interest in Africa.