Mercy of St Jude by Wilhelmina Fitzpatrick Read Free Book Online Page A

baby…he’s gone.” Then he whispered in a voice that didn’t quite believe what it was saying, “He’s dead.”
    Annie’s skin shot up with goose bumps. Beth’s baby would not have been baptized and so would not be free of original sin. Annie envisioned an endless line of tiny souls drifting within a vast empty space, stuck in Limbo, hanging around with no place to go, no home, no fluffy clouds, no Jesus to belong to.
    Lucinda sat Luke next to Annie. “Stay with him, okay. I’ve got to go see Beth.”
    Lucinda wasn’t gone long when Annie heard a noise down the corridor. When she looked up, she was surprised to see Mercedes hurrying towards them.
    â€œHow is everything?” Mercedes’ voice was rushed and anxious. “How’s Beth?”
    Annie tried to speak but instead started to cry. Mercedes touched her cheek and gestured for her to move over. Then she put her arms around Luke and held him.
    Annie imagined Lucinda holding Beth and comforting her just as Mercedes did Luke. Annie could not remember the last time she’d felt her mother’s arms around her.
    There was a whispering sound next to her. She glanced over.
    â€œDear God, forgive me,” her aunt prayed. “I am so sorry, so very sorry.”
    In that moment Annie forgot her own misery. Never before had she seen such a picture of pure grief.
    The hospital that serviced St. Jude was located in Harbourville. Many citizens of St. Jude, Sadie Griffin included, felt the facility should have been located in their town, which, at almost four thousand people, was the largest in the area. They resented having to travel four miles for medical attention. Sadie, who had never driven a car, did not like having to spend three dollars on a taxi to have a doctor examine her feet.
    Witch! God, I’m some sick of her. Sick to the death.
    Sadie slammed her purse onto the chair.
    Frigging Lucinda. Practically knocked me over yanking that car door shut. I hadn’t grabbed that fence post, I’d been face down in the dirt.
    She flung her coat on top of her purse. “Make you sick.”
    â€œWhat’s wrong?”
    Sadie spun around. Gerard was studying at the kitchen table.
    â€œFrigging Hanns.”
    What’s he doing home?
    â€œOh Ma, they’re okay.”
    â€œOkay? How can you say that, the way them brothers acts? Picking on you all the time, calling you names. Especially that no-good Aiden.”
    Little prick, shouting at my boy, “Queery Gerry, your father’s a fairy.” And then hurling rocks at him. Gerard got the mark on his lip to this day.
    â€œSure Ma, that’s years ago. I don’t pay him any mind nowadays.” “Like to pay him a piece of mine. Just like I did that Frank with his hand in the collection plate. I told Father, indeed I did, but he said there wasn’t much he could do, my word against Frank’s.”
    A Griffin’s word against a Hann’s more like it, I felt like saying. But sure it weren’t Father’s fault, I knows that.
    â€œAh, what odds about them,” Sadie said. “Why you home, anyway? Thought you had work to do for Herself while she’s away.”
    Sadie knew it would annoy him to hear her refer to Mercedes as Herself. She didn’t care. She’d had quite enough of the Hanns for one day.
    â€œShe left me a note saying I better study for my test instead. She paid me anyway, said it was a bonus or something. She’s really good to me, you know, Ma.”
    â€œA right martyr.”
    If he starts in about what a saint Mercedes is, I’ll throw up. I’ll lose that lovely piece of meatloaf I had for lunch before that frigging Lucinda tried to rip the hand off me. It’ll go right down the toilet. It really will, I swear to God.
    â€œâ€¦ don’t think I should take that money, though,” Gerard was saying.
    â€œThat one got lots of it, she won’t be missing a