Teresa's Christmas Miracle Ch. 02

"I... I don't know." Dina said. "It's been... days."

"Let's go to the kitchen and get you something to eat." Bonnie said. "We've got some soup... we call it 'Phyllis's Medicinal Chicken Soup', after the lady that gave us the recipe for it, and it's very good."

They went to the kitchen in the back area. As the girl hungrily ate the soup and some bread, Bonnie said "I'm glad you came in. I was in your place when I was your age, molested by an uncle, no one else believing me. But I didn't have a place like this to go. Dr. P. Harvey Eckhart is setting up places like this all over the country. He's a great, wonderful man."

The girl said "What did you do when you ran away?"

"I ran away and joined the circus. Literally." Bonnie said. "It no longer exists, but you don't have to run anymore. Tomorrow we'll begin figuring out what to do for your future. But that's tomorrow. Tonight, you need to get a good night's rest."

After the girl finished eating, Bonnie took her to one of the small cubicle rooms, that had a bed with sheets and a blanket, a table and chair, a towel and a couple of washcloths, and toiletries. She showed the girl where the bathroom and showers were, then let her get settled in before going back to the front.

One more girl saved, she thought to herself as she began the paperwork on Dina's visit. One more girl that Harvey Eckhart and his family's generosity will give a chance to make it. And one more girl that I got to help come in out of the cold. I'm not rich and may never be, but I'm finally able to make a difference. I'm finally able to help...

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

Years in the future...

Fort Huachuca, Arizona. Doctor (Captain) Diane Davenport, wearing lavender scrubs, took her coffee from the kiosk and went and sat down at one of the round metal mesh tables. with metal mesh bench seats around it. The sun was just rising in the east, and that gave her a little bit of energy.

She needed that energy. After a full day of appointments at Raymond W. Bliss Army Health Center the day before, just as her shift ended some idiot Colonel trying to impress someone in order to get his first star (of a General Officer) had called for a MEDEVAC training exercise. After eight grueling hours of driving around in the desert, some deuce-and-a-half plowed into the side of a bus full of troops being carried into the Post, and she had a real medical triage and MEDEVAC to handle. And she led the medical response very well.

Though she was exhausted, she was holding up. She was in good shape, having concentrated on her health and fitness after overcoming the rare disease that had afflicted her and her twin brother David. David had not made it; he had died just a few months after the life flight that had brought them to University Hospital. But what the doctors had learned from his death had led them to create new treatments that were more successful for boys.

She could have received an appointment to West Point, but at the time she was more interested in becoming a doctor. She had been accepted into Vanderbilt's pre-Med program, majoring in Biochemistry and Chemical Biology, a major step in her dream to be a doctor at University Hospital as part of the Croyle Trust research programs. It was almost on a whim that she looked into Vanderbilt's Army ROTC program, thinking she could be a Reserve Officer.

She was shocked when the Colonel had asked her to come into his office, where he made her a tremendous offer: if she'd commit to the Army full-time, she'd receive a full-ride scholarship to both undergraduate school -and- Medical school. "Where do I sign?" she said immediately. And when she told her father, retired Lieutenant General Spencer Davenport, he actually cried for only the second time in his adult life.

She didn't know why she went to Airborne School while an ROTC Cadet. Maybe she wanted to prove she physically 'packed the gear' to pass the physically demanding course. Or maybe to make her father happy. She passed the course. Her father didn't cry that day, but he did make the speech to the graduating class after pinning her wings on her uniform.

When she graduated with her Bachelor's degree, her father didn't cry when he and her mother pinned her Second Lieutenant bars on her shoulders after he swore her in. But she cried two weeks later when her parents were killed in an automobile accident. Now without a family, she went on to Vanderbilt Medical School, and was commissioned an Army Captain upon graduation.

She was sent to Walter Reed for her residency, but requested and received a transfer to Fort Huachuca, Arizona. Her father had been a Military Intelligence Officer before being promoted to Brigadier General, and she felt at home here in the desert.

As she finished her coffee, she looked up... and gasped out loud as she saw the handsome young man approaching her. Broad shoulders, dark red hair, and an air of tremendous confidence about him. He brought back a vague memory of a great man she'd met years ago.

This young man was a Second Lieutenant, and the insignia on the lapels of his Class A uniform showed him to be a Military Intelligence Officer. He was here for his Officer Basic Course, she surmised. Silver Airborne wings were pinned over the ribbons of an Army Achievement Medal and the Army Service Ribbon.

And then she realized that he was walking up to her. Her eyes brightened, her heart fluttered, and her loins melted as he approached her. He seemed to have an aura of light around him, though the sun was not behind him. He had two coffee cups in his hands, and as he came up to her, he put one of them on the table in front of her.

"Double latte, extra sweet?" he asked.

"Yes!" she said in surprise. "How'd you know? Oh... sit down."

He sat down next to her and said "I probably shouldn't tell all my secrets." Then he lowered his voice and said "I gave the man at the kiosk a twenty-dollar tip for telling me your name and what you like in the way of coffee."

"Touché. Very good." she said with a smile. "You're going to be a great Intelligence Officer. The CIA is going to pick you up as fast as they can."

"They already have." he said, also with a smile. "Oh, I probably shouldn't say that, either. But you're going to be learning a lot more about me in the near future, if I don't miss my guess." She smiled even more brightly, enjoying the easygoing conversation, and this man's confidence. She didn't realize it just yet, but this was what they called 'love at first sight'.

"I hope so." she said. "Let's start with your name. Mine is Diane. Diane Davenport."

"I'm Jim." he said. "Jim Troy..."

Finis.