And You Call Yourself A Christian by E. N. Joy Read Free Book Online

marriage. Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around? Doesn’t the Bible say that he who finds a wife—”
    â€œOh, Mom, there you go talking like you’re from the South again. Gal? Since when am I a gal? I thought I told you to cut that out once before. Besides, it’s not what it seems. Nicholas proposed to me, down on one knee, ring and all. It’s just that at the time I declined. I was confused. I ... I ...” Lorain sighed and went on to explain a little bit more about the situation and how she was about to show up at the hospital with the ring on her finger. “Look, Mother, I’ll tell you everything; I promise. But right now, I have to get to the hospital and find my husband.”
    â€œThat’s fine, dear, as long as he found you first,” Eleanor said, giving her blessing. “Because the Word says, ‘He who findeth a wife’—not ‘she who findeth a husband.’ So I just had to be sure everything was in order according to the Word.”
    â€œYes, Mother, now, please, I have to go. Kiss my girls for me and let them know that they are about to have a daddy.” Lorain hung up the phone and left her house. She jumped into the driver’s side of her car that awaited her with an open door and drove straight to the hospital.
    Arriving at the hospital, Lorain parked in the visitor’s lot and headed to the ER unit. Most of the staff there was familiar with who Lorain was. Nicholas had introduced her to some of them on the days they shared lunch in the hospital cafeteria. She’d met others the time he’d given her a tour of the hospital, while she’d met the majority of them at the hospital’s Memorial Day picnic just that year. He’d invited her, and she’d brought the boys along. The twins had stayed with Eleanor. The boys had had the time of their lives there.
    â€œWell, hello ... Lorain, right?” a nurse stopped Lorain and asked before she could get to the nurses’ unit.
    â€œYes,” Lorain replied, looking at the nurse’s face, trying to recall the name by face and not the name tag the nurse was wearing. “Jim, right?”
    â€œThat’s right,” he said. “Looking for Dr. Wright?”
    Lorain had to chuckle inside. She was looking for Doctor Wright all right, never even realizing that God had made it plain and clear by sending her a man with the last name of Wright. Sure, it was a play on words, but God had a sense of humor; oh yes, He did. “As a matter of fact, I am looking for Doctor Wright,” Lorain confirmed.
    â€œYou’re in luck. He just got out of a surgery, so he headed outside to—”
    â€œTake a smoke break?” Lorain finished the nurse’s sentence.
    â€œWell, yes. I guess you know the good doctor very well.”
    â€œYes, I know all about the good doctor’s nasty little habit.”
    The nurse leaned in and whispered in Lorain’s’ ear. “Try working on that with him, would you? Doctor Wright is an excellent doctor. I can see him having his own practice one day, and me working for him. But that’s not going to happen if the poor man dies of lung cancer. So try to get him to kick the habit, all right? My future and his are at stake.” The nurse stood up straight and winked at Lorain.
    â€œI’ll do my best,” Lorain assured him.
    â€œGood. You know where the lawn is?” The nurse pointed down the hallway. “Down the hall, go right, second door on your left.”
    â€œThank you, Jim,” Lorain said, then followed the directions he had given her to find Nicholas.
    When Lorain walked outside, she spotted Nicholas standing beside a picnic table where a few members of the hospital staff sat. He was exhaling a puff of smoke. As she walked in his direction, he took one last puff, put the cigarette out, then threw the butt away, all without even noticing that Lorain had approached