Clora's House of Gathered Up Children

[PacNorWest]

#1

The war lasted three years. Three years of hand to hand combat, mortar shelling's, IED's, road side bombs and crippled people filling homes that were so happy they came back alive.

The soldiers returning weren't happy. They all carried deep scars. Some scars were on the outside, no one came through without wounds, but all carried scars inside, and they crippled the worst.

It is dehumanizing to listen to the screams of wounded soldiers, friends and brothers, and not be able to help them, because you yourself are so wounded you can't crawl to them to give aid.

Sometimes all you could do was hold their hand so they didn't die alone. Every member of the clan was put in this position, and to tender hearted people that lived and breathed Clora's faith, it took away part of what made them human.

One by one they straggled home, praying for the gentle care and prayer their bodies and souls needed.

Open arms greeted them and prayers were sent to heaven for their return. All of them needed the time and space to do nothing but try to come to terms with what they had seen and what they had to do. Sitting in the sun, the spring unfolding in silent glory all around them, was part of the therapy Clora and Mark used.

Finally the only members of the clan left out in the great void of war aftermath, were Tess and Bruce.

No one had heard from Tess in almost a year; and Clora tried to search mind after mind to find her beautiful daughter. Always she could feel Tess was alive, but in a unknown place.

Bruce was close to being released, and he didn't care if he ever did another surgery on a wounded person. The destruction in wounded lives had numbed him to the core.

He was requested to look in on a soldier that had knifed in the back during one of the last battles of the war. The woman was laying on her stomach so the oozing and serum bubbling wound was open to the air. He was prepped and ready for one last surgery, when he happened to look at the soldier's name.

Bruce had Tess Linderman on the operating table.

[kua]

Oh PAC! Talk about starting with a bang! Whew, but with Dr. Bruce Tess has a better than average chance of recovery. Waiting with baited breath for the next installment.

[sssarawolf]

Thank you Pac. You pacced yourself well. I can't help it either I do the same thing.

[PacNorWest]

#2

Bruce worked on Tess with the same care he had used on Clora. Who ever had knifed Tess, slipped the blade between her ribs on the right side, missing her lung by a hair's width. The attacker had been startled by Tess's sudden lashing out with her own knife, gutting the man while she carried his blade in her back. In all, the super human strength fueled by adrenalin had allowed Tess to knife and shoot three of the enemy that had infiltrated the command center.

Where the others had frozen in fear, Tess acted. She might have paid with her life for her act of bravery, if Bruce hadn't been there. The surgeon that had operated on soldiers for days at a time with no relief or sleep, put back together the daughter he would have been proud to call his own.

Bruce sat with Tess for three days while her mind and body struggled to decide to live or die. Always a scrapper and a fighter, Tess was wanting to live, but twice she stood in the blinding light reaching for the arms of Jesus.

Each time she was sent back, there was work for her to do on earth.




Bruce took her home in an Army ambulance. His perk for saving a brave soldier that had saved seven other lives. The ambulance tooted at the gate, the compound in heavy lockdown.

Clora was cleaning up a mess that Luke had made, when she cried out, "it's Tess. Dear God in Heaven Tess is hurt bad." and she went running outside, frantic in her mother's pain and emotion.

Mark hit the gate opener, and the Army OD colored Cadillac hearse rolled in the yard. Carefully Tess was unloaded and the blanket rearranged to cover her bare body on the gurney. Bruce had commandeered the gurney, the only way to move Tess around and heavily sedated his patient so she wouldn't break open the delicate repair.

All of the wounded soldiers and their Father saluted as Tess was rolled in the house and down the hall to her room.

Clora was in a frenzied, deranged state of mind as she held the sheet on Tess as Bruce moved the girl to her room.

"Will she live," Clora begged Bruce for information, hardly breathing as she waited for his answer.

"50 - 50," Bruce had said, as he checked the wound again. "Lady skin is finer and thinner than what I'm used to working on, and there is much internal damage from a large knife. Mark, Clora; Tess is a true hero, she saved seven people from death while she carried that knife in her back. She killed her attacker and three others, and no one knows how she did it. She was amazing." Bruce whispered softly.

Clora was already touching Tess's face and praying, on her knees on the floor, asking God for a miracle. Mark was ramrod straight with tears in his eyes and a voice that couldn't speak for the lump in his throat. He sank down beside Clora and put his hand on the gurney, hiding his face on his upper arm.

Benny came in the room and knelt by the other side of the Gurney, touching Tess's shoulder and praying silently. His head was low, but Bruce noticed there were tear splotches on the floor. If Tess was going to make it, she would make it now.

Trish came running from their cabin. She had been sleeping after a double or had it been a triple shift. She couldn't remember. Bruce was home and she needed to touch her man and make sure he was real. He opened his arms and she threw herself into them, breathing, kissing, touching and crying all at the same time.

Big ole mean and clumsy Bruce from the tenements of Chicago, buried his face in his wife's embrace and cried.

[sssarawolf]

Well there goes my dry face again, Thank you pac.

[Dosadi]

Thank you Mrs. PAC

I'd add more, but my eyes are to misty

so

Just Thanks!!!

Dosadi

[Siskiyoumom]

I think that your stories dear Pac are meant for specific folks who need encouragement, healing, hard core instruction and an dose of hope.

I am so glad that you post the stories here and that you are taking a bit of time for your own refreshment of your heat and soul.

Nice to see the new posts in your new story and I look forward to wear this story is going.

Hope you have a most pleasant rest of the week and have much joy and laughter, even in these perilous times.

[ted]

Lot of that going around Dosadi. Thank you Pac, you must be super woman, got caught up already. lol!

[Rabbit]

Thanks Pac. I didn't even have time to experience withdrawal pains. LOL

[OldArcher]

Thank-You, and God Bless You, and Yours, Mrs. Pac... Thank-You for giving, and sharing, so much of what God has to give...

Maranatha

OldARcher

[Dare7]

PAC!!!! I thought we had to wait. Can't say much more than thanks because, out of the blue, the fresh chopped onions on my chili dog were extra potent tonight. The welcome home salute made them at least twice as pungent as when Dr. Bruce discovered who was on his table!!!