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known since I was in diapers could be so unrecognizable to me?
    She looked like an angel. I couldn’t seem to make my mouth work.
    Then she began to run the length of the corridor, and when she reached me, she threw her arms around my neck. “I’m so happy to see you!”
    “Me, too,” I managed to reply. “Merry Christmas.”
    She drew back and regarded me joyfully. “Merry Christmas to you, too. Hi, Mrs. Wallace. We’re glad you could come. My mom can’t wait to see you.” Leah backed away and beckoned to us with a hand. She seemed to move in slow motion. “Follow me. It’s this way, just at the end of the hall. Wait until you see the baby. She’s the most beautiful thing in the whole wide world. Josh, you’re going to love her.”
    Mom and I followed her into a private room where Mrs. James was sitting up on a bed, smiling. I’d never seen her look so happy.
    My mom immediately rushed to her side and hugged her. While they gushed and cried over seeing each other again and talked animatedly about the labor and delivery, I spotted Riley, lounging at his ease against the window sill.
    “Hi,” I said with a casual wave of my hand.
    “Hi back,” he replied, flipping his hair out of his eyes.
    “How’s it going?”
    He shrugged. “All right I guess. How’s school?”
    “Same as always. Mr. Gillespie is still talking about bugs in bio class, and Joanie Carruthers is still chasing after Nick Saunders.”
    Looking bored, Riley slowly nodded, then turned his eyes toward the window again.
    I felt Leah touch my arm. “Want to hold the baby?” she asked.
    A shiver of elation moved through me as I turned to face her. There in her arms was her newborn baby sister, bundled up in white flannel. Leah regarded me with excitement.
    “I don’t know,” I replied, taking a clumsy step back.
    My mother quickly took notice of my unease. “Go ahead, Josh. There’s a chair behind you. You can hold her on your lap.”
    I glanced down at a sturdy oak rocker with a yellow flowered cushion. “All right.”
    Setting the gift bag on the floor, I sat down and held my arms out to Leah. Her green eyes held me entranced. There was something wise and all-knowing about the way she looked at me. I felt suddenly weightless, like those snowflakes floating in the air outside the window.
    Then slowly…carefully…she laid the sleeping infant in my arms.
    The baby was tightly swaddled and I found it surprisingly easy to cradle her. I shifted a bit to find a more comfortable position, then began to rock back and forth in the chair.
    “What’s her name?”
    “We don’t know yet,” Leah replied. “Mom was thinking about calling her Amy, but now that we’ve met her, we don’t think that’s the right name.” Leah pointed at the gift bag on the floor. “Is this for her?”
    I nodded.
    Leah turned to her mother. “Can we open it?”
    “Of course,” Mrs. James replied.
    Leah bent to pick it up and removed the pink tissue paper. “It’s a bunny,” she said, lifting the toy out of the bag. “Look, Mom.” She carried it to her mother so she could feel how soft it was, then she returned to my side. “She’s going to love it.”
    My eyes lifted to meet Leah’s, and my pulse slowed to a calm and steady pace. A deep feeling of peace settled over me, as if all was now right with the world.
    Leah smiled. I was immensely grateful to be with her again. I didn’t want to move. I didn’t want her to go. I wanted to stay right there in that perfect place.
    Forever.
    “ Open your eyes, Josh ,” she whispered.
    My forehead crinkled in a frown. I didn’t understand why she would say that to me. What did she mean?
    “ Can you hear me?”
    A light flashed, just like the flashlight beam across the ceiling in the hotel stairwell.
    Then the room began to spin.

Awakening

Chapter Thirteen

    Ravaged. That’s how I felt.
    Pain exploded through my central core and shot down the length of my left thigh. This was followed by a searing burst