14 "FLUSH THAT STUFF"

14 "FLUSH THAT STUFF"

It was hard to manoeuvre the stretcher up the little stairway into the apartment, and Nita imagined how much simpler it was going to be when they moved her corpse back out.

Nita's mother with Colton and Suzanne made her comfortable and then, a little hesitantly, they all left. Nita was alone with her medical attendant, the Buddhist girl.

"Bring me all the medication I have," Nita said immediately, mouthing the words carefully.

The girl was puzzled, reluctant. Nita repeated herself.

She came back with an armload - all the medication Nita had been taking in the hospital. There were pain killers, sedatives, cortisone, Valiums, phenobarbitones - a massive amount of medicine.

"Empty them all down the toilet," Nita told her, "and flush them down."

The girl's eyes widened. She was astonished and afraid. Nita was her responsibility, hers alone. There were no more doctors to call, no bells to ring, no oxygen - nothing.

"I can't do that," she finally responded, still amazed at the order. She knew what Mrs. Edwards would say when she found out. "Mistress will get very upset with me."

As the girl watched her lips, Nita looked at her squarely. "Now I want you to know something. It's just you and me here, nobody else, and I am the boss. You follow my instructions and obey my orders. Now go flush that stuff."

If God were going to heal her, she did not want medication robbing His glory. If He were not, then why not get it over sooner?

"And furthermore, this is between you and me," she added emphatically. She knew her mother would panic; she was already unnerved about the whole move.

"You dare not discuss this matter with anyone."

Besides, someone was bound to think she was trying to commit suicide. The nurse nervously flushed everything.

Sometime after midnight on New Year's Eve, after the watchnight service at Colton's church, he and Suzanne came to Nita's apartment and gently woke her.

"Happy New Year," Suzanne whispered.

Nita smiled wryly. The new year held no real promise of happiness for her, and the greeting sounded hollow.

Colton served her communion. Then Suzanne spotted the last of Nita's Christmas gifts, still unopened, so she opened them for her with as much gusto as she could engender.

But Nita was sombre.

The deathwatch continued. Nita's brother Ted, nine years after leaving Sri Lanka, arrived on a flight from London, and was met at the Colombo airport by his mother and an uncle. He had always been the essence of calm and good sense, but as he passed through customs, Mrs. Edwards noticed his hands were trembling.

Nita awoke at nine o'clock that evening and focused on a nice-looking gentleman by her bed. Ted had been there for half an hour, weeping uncontrollably, clutching her deformed little hand, methodically prying open the crooked fingers, watching them curl up, and prying them open, again and again. As she awoke, he leaned over and kissed her. Nita couldn't help but recall the same brother at her father's funeral, so solemn and sedate, so in control.

She still had the first gift he ever brought her, when she was two - a little piggy whose ears she had promptly chewed up. She and Ted had been good friends. She was a tomboy, and Ted called her his little brother.

He had followed her progress from afar, keeping tabs on her schooling, her growing athletic prowess, her victories, her travels. He had watched from England with pride as she grew into a beautiful young woman. And now he was shattered, as he watched her suffer, listened to her coughing and wheezing. She was wasting away. He hurt for her, more than he had known he could ever hurt.

Life had changed abruptly with the move to the apartment. If Nita choked for air, if her heart stopped, in every emergency, prayer was the only remedy. It was administered in varying doses by Colton, Suzanne, their boys, Sandy, and Nita's mother.

Without the medication, Nita's pain increased, and the attacks came more frequently. Surely her body would soon cave in, just from abuse.

And yet, now, as she lay here alone, hour after hour, the spirit of sadness gave way, and her spiritual pipeline grew clearer than ever before - a beautiful, wide-open channel of communication with her Lord. As she prayed and listened to God - they grew closer and closer.

It was the most splendid fellowship she had ever known, as she unburdened her heart and unleashed her sense of self, and He ministered His perfect love to her. It was as if He were her Daddy, back on the front lawn at the big house, and they were talking over some simple childhood problem ... something her daddy could solve.