Christian Romance: Heaven on Earth... [4 Beautiful Christian Romance Stories] (11 page)

“This is all we could manage to rustle
up in two weeks. Hopefully, you’ll find all this to your liking?
Well, I suppose the others will be coming over tomorrow morning, to
welcome you. Well Dr. Johnston, goodnight.”

And before she could get a word in, or
even just ask him his name, he had closed the door behind him and
she could hear him lock up the front doors to the
clinic.

Karen glanced at the clock; it was
already 1:25 am, and she was so exhausted. So she washed up, put on
her pajamas and fell to sleep immediately.

************

Karen woke up at 7:30, feeling fully
rested. She toasted some bread and made coffee.

She was halfway through her breakfast
when she heard a knock on her door. She opened the door and found a
young, African American woman standing there with a big smile and a
bowl.

“Hello, you must be Dr. Johnston. I’m
Emille Goudet. I’m a representative of the parish and I also teach
5th grade science in Brickwater County Elementary School.” she
said, extending her hand and Karen reciprocated.

“Oh it’s very nice to meet you Emille,
you can call me Karen. Would you like to come in?” and Karen opened
the for her.

“We were supposed to be here waiting
for you, but I live over by Cameron, and it’s about 45 minutes’
drive from here. We decided to come back in the morning, but Father
Roger couldn’t come, there was some trouble in Cameron you
see.”

“Oh, that’s fine. We got here past
midnight already. I had no idea it was going to be such a long ride
and I was exhausted, all I could do was sleep.”

“Well, I welcome you to Vignon, and I
brought you some tuna casserole. I could show you around later on
if you like. When do you think you’ll be able to start in the
clinic Miss Karen?”

“Oh, in fact, I could start after
lunch once I make a full inventory of what you have here. I brought
a few supplies but they won’t last long for a whole parish, so I
think I’ll start with that.” Karen said with a smile.

“Well, since it’s Saturday I can
definitely help you with that. But I think you should take a walk
around first, you know, see Vignon before you start. It’d help you
get a feel of the town.”

“That’d be great. Thanks a lot.” So
Karen finished her breakfast and they took a walk around the town.
Emille showed her the little market and the small shops around the
square. People were very friendly and kind, everyone was smiling,
but the poverty was evident. The streets were full of potholes and
the houses were all rundown, there weren’t many people in
town.

“This place fell apart when the
Plantation closed 25 years ago. There were no jobs and all people
could do was farm what little land there was to farm, there’s
hardly a market. There’s no high school around here, they have to
go to the next county for school and most people here just can’t
afford sending out their kids and pay for room and board for them
too. Father Roger had a tough job, but people keep faith around
here. They didn’t have much of anything, but they always had God.
It’s a good thing Gage came when he did though. He really helped
the people. Why, we couldn’t have made that clinic you’re staying
in if it wasn’t for him.”

“Oh, you had a benefactor? I thought
that was the state’s program?”

“No, the state didn’t do that; it was
Mr. Fortier who paid for everything. He worked on it and had a few
hands to help him. He wanted to give back to the community he said.
He was a big time lawyer a few years go, but he came back here and
started all sorts of stuff. He was the one who had the elementary
school built for Brickwater. He fixed up the Church and now he got
us a doctor. He’s a good man.”

“He sounds like a great man. I would
love to meet him someday and thank him for building my new home.”
Karen said with a smile, but Emille paused and looked at her
questioningly.

“What do you mean you want to meet him
someday? Girl, you already met him.”

“What? I don’t recall. I only met that
stern looking man who brought me here yesterday and that man was
like a brick wall. He never spoke a word to me, he was very
trying.”

“Oh Dr. Johnston, that was Gage
Fortier. He’s the only one around here with a four wheel drive and
the time to spare to go and fetch you. You should get to know him;
he’s actually a very kind and godly man. Every rich girl from
Shreveport to New Orleans all had a crush on him before he flung
himself out here, he’s quite the catch.”

During the first few weeks in the
little clinic, Karen grew to love the town and its people. Like
Emille said, they were poor, but they had God in their lives, which
gave them hope and a reason to smile. Many of the children were
malnourished, and some older people who worked the farms would get
a bit sick, but it was all very manageable, although they were
already running low on vitamins. There was a bit of drinking in the
Town, but never to an extent where anyone got seriously hurt, but
Karen knew her work would come in the winter months, when
infections were most common and people’s immunity was not as
strong. What occupied Karen the most was teaching Ava, Emille’s
sixteen year old niece, the basic tasks of a nurse. Ava was a
sophomore, but she stayed over in Vignon for the weekends and Karen
had resolved to teach her all she could about nursing.

Ava was an avid student and Karen
liked her very much. She and Emille also grew to become fast
friends, with Emille coming over in the afternoons and they’d have
a quick chat.

Although Karen would never
admit it, she found herself thinking more and more about Gage
Fortier, the man who drove by the clinic every morning to head off
into town and hardly ever spared her a glance. Emille told her they
were fixing up houses that were in the worst shape. Again, Emille
would regale her with stories of the great kindnesses of Mr.
Fortier.
Why is he acting so strangely
toward me?
Karen almost felt like Gage
Fortier was trying to evade her, though she didn’t think he had a
special reason to come to the clinic anyway.

The door to the clinic opened slowly
as Karen was showing Ava how to bandage a broken wrist. An old
wizened woman came in.

“I’m here for my checkup, new doctor.”
the old woman announced to the room it seemed.

“Granny Mae, I thought you said you
weren’t coming.” Ava said as she scrambled up and ran to her
grandmother.

“I said I was busy, and now I ain’t.
That’s why I came child. Now doctor, just check if I still got all
my parts working properly.”

Karen got up and smiled at the old
woman. “Call me Karen granny, come over by the table here and I’ll
take good care of you.”

15 minutes later, Karen was telling
Granny Mae her findings.

“You’re heart’s beating as if it were
an 18 year old’s, your blood pressure is normal, and your lungs are
powerful to say the least. You’re quite the healthy specimen
granny.” Karen said as she put the blood pressure cuff back in the
bag. “I can give you some vitamins and I would recommend adding
some calcium in your diet, but there’s not much more I can do for
you.”

“Well, that’s all dandy then Doctor.
Mind if I sit here a while, Gage’ll be coming to pick me up later.
He’s taking me home later. Such a sweet man…why if I was 50 years
younger Id…”

“Granny, don’t say those things in
front of Dr. Johnston! This is so embarrassing.”

“Oh hush child. The Doctor knows what
I’m talking about. Right Dr. Johnston?”

“Please granny, call me Karen, and no,
I don’t know what you’re talking about as I’ve never been formally
introduced to Gage Fortier. He seems a bit off, but I know he’s
done great things, but I haven’t exchanged more than a few words
with him.”

“Oh, Gage is a man with a lot of
heart, but he keeps it hidden. He’s gotten hurt before Karen, and
it’s hard to get up from that. It’s been 3 years, but I can see the
boy’s still hurting.”

These words felt like cold
water on Karen’s head; they reminded her of Brent, of those six
years.
That’s odd,
Karen thought,
I haven’t thought of
Brent in the past weeks at all.
She tried
to conjure up an image of Brent Blake, the man she had loved for
six years, but Brent’s cold blue eyes and blonde hair were replaced
with brown piercing eyes and dark hair.
What is wrong with you Karen, you hardly know him.
But she couldn’t it, the image that came to mind
was Gage Fortier, the sullen man who was somehow an angel and a
brick wall at the same time.

A few hours later, there was another
knock on the door. Ava went to open it and there was Gage, looking
stern and hardly making eye contact with Karen.

“Let’s go granny Mae. It’ll be getting
dark soon.”

“Gage Fortier, did you hit your head
while working on that house? Or did you suffer some trauma of the
mind?”

“No of course not granny, why would
you say that?”

“Because it seems to me you’ve
forgotten your manners! Isn’t it true that we’ve been waiting for a
doctor to come here and help the town? That we built this place for
her and YOU bought the supplies?”

“Yes ma’am that’s true.”

“Then why you being rude, boy? We been
praying for a doctor to come and God answered our prayers, but you
ain’t thankful boy. The sweet doctor’s been telling me about how
rude you’ve been and I’d be very much obliged if you would
introduce yourself to her like a proper gentleman.”

By then, both Ava and Gage were red in
the face. Ava went to granny and started pulling her to the door,
but granny wouldn’t budge. Karen could see Gage was having an
internal struggle of some sort, his lips were pursed and he turned
to her slowly.

“Hello Dr. Johnston. I’m Gage Fortier,
I’d like to sincerely welcome you to Vignon. I’d like to ask for
your forgiveness if I was being rude earlier, I don’t know what
came over me,” and he held out his hand. Karen took it reluctantly
but the moment their hands touched, she felt a jolt, it was
electric. She noticed how his hands were calloused, the hands of a
worker, and she felt a wave of tenderness for this kind man who
would try and change a town in his little ways.

“It’s alright Mr. Fortier. You must
have been tired and all. I completely understand,” Karen said with
a sweet smile that seemed to take Gage Fortier aback.

“I’ll see you around Dr. Johnston,”
and he and Granny Mae left, leaving a swooning Ava and a blushing
Karen.

It was a few days later that Karen saw
Gage again, but it was in completely different circumstances. Ava
was in school so Karen was alone in the clinic, cleaning up the
consultation table after having just checked on some women who were
in their 2nd trimester.

“Doctor! Please! We need your help!”
the men shouted outside her door.

Karen ran outside and saw a young
black man who Emille called Luke waving from across the street,
there were other men coming, carrying Gage Fortier, who’s hand was
bleeding and was looking quite pale.

“How did this happen?” Karen asked the
young man.

“It was the saw. My hand slipped and
he got cut.”

“Bring him inside, I need to see the
wound. Why are they carrying him? Are his feet injured as
well?”

Karen saw Luke blush. “No Doctor
Johnston, just his hand. He...he fainted miss, when he saw the
blood.”

“Oh, just bring him
inside.”

The men brought Gage inside and after
looking at the wound, Karen had to make them leave the room. Gage
looked stricken.

“It’s not that deep, and I don’t think
there’ll be any permanent damage, but I will be giving you
something to prevent infection. But you will need some stitches Mr.
Fortier.”

“I… I don’t like seeing blood Dr.
Johnston. And call me Gage, Mr. Fortier was my father.”

“I gathered as much Gage. You can call
me Karen. I have to clean up the wound before I close it, get
ready, this will sting a little.” She proceeded to wash his wound
with antiseptic, Gage looked away, fearing the wound more than the
pain.

“I’d think that you’d be used to these
injuries. But you were a lawyer once right?”

“Yes, I was. It’s was that fast-paced
life that led me the wrong way. I was…Ooowww….” he said, flinching
as she cleaned the wound with gauze and iodine. Karen only smiled.
“As I was saying, I lost track of the important things, so I came
home.”

“You used to live here?”

“Yes, Granny Mae raised me. My mother
and father were…they were busy people,” he said, taking a big gulp
of air as his eyes locked on the surgical needle.

“Woah… umm…could you just…” he
stammered, turning pale.

“This won’t hurt much.
I’ll be injecting you with some anesthesia so you won’t feel a
thing. You might want to close your eyes,” Karen said then, with a
hint of a smile. She nearly laughed when she saw him close his eyes
tight like a fearful child.
I like this
side of him better,
she thought as she
stuck the needle cleanly through the skin of his hand. “You were
saying something about Granny Mae?”