By now Jamie had lost more weight. Her skin was beginning to take on a slightly
grayish tint, and the bones in her hands were starting to show through her skin. Again I
saw bruises. We were inside her house in the living room; the cold was too much for her to
bear.
Despite all this, she still looked beautiful.
“I’m doing okay,” she said, smiling valiantly. “The doctors have given me some
medicine for the pain, and it seems to help a little.”
I’d been coming by every day. Time seemed to be slowing down and speeding up at
exactly the same time.
“Can I get anything for you?”
“No, thank you, I’m doing fine.”
I looked around the room, then back at her.
“I’ve been reading the Bible,” I finally said.
“You have?” Her face lit up, reminding me of the angel I’d seen in the play. I
couldn’t believe that only six weeks had gone by.
“I wanted you to know.”
“I’m glad you told me.”
“I read the book of Job last night,” I said, “where God stuck it to Job to test his
faith.”
She smiled and reached out to pat my arm, her hand soft on my skin. It felt nice.
“You should read something else. That’s not about God in one of his better moments.”
“Why would he have done that to him?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
“Do you ever feel like Job?”
She smiled, a little twinkle in her eyes. “Sometimes.”
“But you haven’t lost your faith?”
“No.” I knew she hadn’t, but I think I was losing mine.
“Is it because you think you might get better?”
“No,” she said, “it’s because it’s the only thing I have left.”
After that, we started reading the Bible together. It somehow seemed like the right
thing to do, but my heart was nonetheless telling me that there still might be something
more.
At night I lay awake, wondering about it.
Reading the Bible gave us something to focus on, and all of a sudden everything
started to get better between us, maybe because I wasn’t as worried about doing something