Read Once Upon a Wish for Free Online

anything I can do to help you? Would you like to pray?”
    She looked up at him through stained, swollen eyes and went against her sweet, patient nature.
    “I don’t know you,” she said. “I really don’t want you in here.”
    Her patience was gone. Her hope was gone. If Tatum died, part of her soul would be gone. Sherry stared at the man above her, who gave her a gentle, apologetic smile.
    “I’ll leave you alone,” he said nicely. “That’s all I needed to hear.”
    “I
would
like to see Larry,” she told Gay after the chaplain left the room. Larry was their church’s minister and the man who had married Sherry and David nine years before. Sherry grew up in his church, and he had known and loved Tatum from the time she was born. Sherry had always felt a sense of peace in Larry’s presence, a reassurance that everything would be okay.
    “You’ve got to pray for us,” she said, hugging him tightly when he came into the room with David. “Pray that God’s will be done; pray that we stay strong, no matter what happens.”
    Sure that the words “she’s gone” were waiting just around the corner, Sherry bowed her head and closed her eyes, praying harder than she had ever prayed, crying more than she had ever cried, believing deeper than she had ever believed.
    Larry finished the prayer, and within moments, Dr. Shore plunged through the waiting room doors with a shining smile.
    “She’s okay!” he blurted, explaining that either during the exploratory surgery or during intubation at Medical City, a small holewas poked into Tatum’s lung. Her chest cavity had slowly filled with air, pushing her heart to the side and causing it to beat irregularly.
    “I inserted a catheter under her left armpit to release the air,” Dr. Shore said. “We’ve got her stable now.”
    David and Sherry’s hearts were still racing and settling when Sherry wiped her eyes and smirked.
    Okay, God. I will not doubt you again,
she said in a silent prayer for Tatum’s transplant the next day. Sherry and David said good-bye to friends and family that night and made their way to the ICU to see Tatum.
   8   
    Exhaustion had settled into every bone and muscle in Sherry and David’s bodies and the air around them became thick as they pushed their way down the long hallway. It had only been a matter of minutes since the chaos of the group dissipated, but the silence left Sherry’s eyelids free to fall, and they did. It had been three days since either of them had slept.
    “I can hardly stay awake,” she said as they neared the ICU.
    “Me, too,” David said, suddenly feeling the weight of his head as he struggled to keep it upright. “We’ve just got to hang in there a little longer. Tomorrow is the big day.”
    Sherry smiled and leaned into him as he reached for the door to the ICU.
    “Her meds are maxed out! Call the team in! David and Sherry, we need you to stand back!”
    Shouts from a roomful of doctors and nurses hit them from every direction.
    God, you’ve got to be kidding me!
Sherry screamed in her mind.
When is this going to end?
    She and David backed up slowly, their strength gone, as their daughter’s stable condition crashed before their eyes, once again. Alarms sounded, switches were flipped, and buttons were pressed on every machine hooked to their little girl, and all they could do was watch. They plopped helplessly onto a short couch by the window at the opposite end of the room, took each other’s hands, and bowed their heads.
    “God, until now I have been asking,” David prayed out loud, angry, his voice shaking. “But now I am telling you. You will keep her through the night. One more night is all she needs before her surgery tomorrow.”
    His prayer became a plea.
    “Just give her that.”
    They silently understood that there was nothing more they could do or say. The turmoil in the room continued, with beeps turning to whispers and shouts dimming to hums, as David and Sherry’s bodies