Twice Blessed. Barbara Cameron

friend glowed with happiness, especially when she looked at Abram. And Abram looked at his fraa with such love . . .

      The headache began as they were eating some of Rachel Ann’s strawberry-rhubarb pie. A ball of pain seemed to come out of nowhere, searing, causing tears of pain to run down her cheek. Katie dropped her fork and pressed her napkin to her eye.

      “Katie, you allrecht?” Rachel Ann asked, touching her other hand.

      “I’m—headache.”

      “Can I get you some ibuprofen or aspirin?”

      “Danki. But I need to go home.”

      “Schur. Daniel?”

      He scooped up a last bite of pie and stood. “I’ll get the buggy.”

      “I’ll go with you,” Abram said, following him.

      “Are you sure you don’t want something for your headache?” Rachel Ann asked quietly at her side.

      Katie pulled her cell phone from her purse. She tapped the display and then frowned when Rosie didn’t answer. Tucking the phone back in her purse, she stood and swayed a little. “Nee, I have to get home. Something’s wrong with Rosie.”

      “Rosie? What makes you say that?”

      “I—just feel it. You remember, like that time she had appendicitis when she was at our grossmudder’s.”

      “And you broke your finger and she knew.”

      Rachel Ann took her arm and walked with her to the front porch. Daniel pulled the buggy up in front of the house. When he saw Rachel Ann holding her arm as she descended the stairs, Daniel got out and hurried up to her.

      “Is the headache that bad? Maybe I should take you to the emergency room,” he murmured as he helped her into the buggy.

      “She thinks something’s wrong with Rosie.”

      Katie felt Daniel staring at her. She glanced at him and saw disbelief. “Just call her. I’m sure she’s fine.”

      “I tried that. There’s no answer.”

      She turned to Rachel Ann who’d been joined by Abram. “Danki for supper. I’m sorry we had to leave early.”

      “No problem,” Rachel Ann assured her, and Abram nodded. “I hope Rosie’s allrecht.”

      “Supper was wunderbaar, Rachel Ann,” Daniel told her. “See you both at church on Sunday. Gut-n-owed.”

      He guided the buggy down the drive and paused where it met the road. A car drove past, its headlights illuminating the interior of the buggy. “So you’re having some—what, some sort of premonition about Rosie? What is it, a twin thing?”

      She’d talked of such things with Rachel Ann but never shared it with Daniel. Now she could see that was probably wise. He was looking at her skeptically as he waited to pull on to the road to her house.

      Katie shrugged. “I can’t explain it. Sometimes we just know if something’s wrong with each other. Some people call them twin flashes.”

      She rubbed at her temple. The throbbing in her eye was easing a little, and the tearing had stopped.

      A short time later he pulled up in the driveway. The buggy had barely come to a stop, and she was leaping up and running up the steps to the house. The minute she unlocked the front door she was calling out Rosie’s name.

      “Katie?” Daniel followed her into the house.

      She stopped abruptly and waved her hand at him. “Ssh, I hear something.”

      There it was again, a faint mewling noise that sounded like a kitten. Katie rushed toward it, into the kitchen. It was empty. “Rosie?”

      Then she saw her, sprawled at the bottom of the steps leading up to the second floor.

      “Rosie! Mein Gott! Rosie!”

      Chapter 3

      3

      Katie knelt on the floor and touched Rosie’s throat with trembling fingers, searching for a pulse. It was there, faint but steady. A thin trickle of blood dripped from a cut high on her forehead.

      “Daniel, call—”

      He had his cell phone in his hand. “Already calling them.” Turning away from her, he spoke into the phone. “Hello? Yes, we need an ambulance.” Turning away, he told the dispatcher the address.

      “I’m here now, Rosie. It’s Katie. Everything’s going to be okay.” She dug in her pocket, found a handkerchief, and pressed it to

       the cut.

      Rosie’s lashes fluttered. Her eyes opened. “Katie?” She blinked. “Why are there two of you? Is that you and me?”

      “Oh no, Daniel!”

      He came to kneel on the floor next to her. He took her hand.

      “Why is she seeing double?” she asked him, turning to look at him, the bloodstained handkerchief in her hand. Tears ran down her cheeks.

      “She hit her head. I’ve heard that someone can see double after they hit their head. Calm down, the paramedics will be here in any minute.”

      Just as he said, the paramedics arrived a few minutes later. Katie stood out of the way while they did a brief exam on Rosie, carefully scooped her up and put her on a gurney, and wheeled her out to the ambulance.

      Hours later, Katie sat in a cubicle in the emergency room holding Rosie’s hand as they waited for results of her tests. Funny, thought Katie. Her own headache had vanished the moment she discovered Rosie lying there at the bottom of the stairs, a basket of laundry spilled at her feet. Fortunately, Rosie had stayed conscious and told them that she’d tripped going upstairs and hit her head, not fallen down the flight of stairs. She hadn’t had to have x-rays to check for broken bones.

      “This is silly,” Rosie complained. “I want to go home.”

      “You might have a concussion.”

      “I just have a bump on the head. I want to go home,” she repeated. “Please?”

      “Just as soon as the doctor says it’s allrecht. Promise.”

      Sitting here, worrying over how pale Rosie looked, she felt very much older than her schweschder at that moment. She’d had some bad moments waiting. At first, every time Rosie closed her eyes Katie had talked to her, urging her to stay awake until a nurse happened to be in the room and told her that it wasn’t true that you had to keep people with a head injury awake. They’d been together since the very beginning, had slept together in the womb and spent most of every day working together and being a unit.

      Katie had never thought about what it would be like without Rosie in her life, but as time ticked on and she sat waiting with her, she thought about the possibility and she shivered.

      “Cold?” asked the nurse?

      “Yes,” she and Rosie said at the same time.

      The nurse smiled, left them, and returned with two blankets that had been warmed. Bliss, thought Katie as she thanked the woman. She wrapped one around her shoulders while the nurse tucked the other around Rosie.

      The minutes ticked on and fear edged into her mind again. God is here with us, Katie reminded herself and began praying.

      The doctor walked in a few minutes later and introduced himself. “Rosie, you have a mild concussion. I’m going to let you go home with your sister here if you promise you’ll take it easy and no going up and down stairs for a few days until you feel steady.”

      “Promise.”

      “Doctor, what about her seeing double?”

      “If she continues to have problems bring her back. Otherwise, the double vision should fade pretty