“Hey, there he is! Hey, Terry!”

The tall, dark haired young man turned to see the three freshmen running towards him.

“Could you please explain to us how you beat the professor’s trick question?”

He smiled. “It was just lucky. I was trying to analyze the situation, so I tried looking at it from the shipper’s point of view, and I couldn’t make any sense of it. That told me that I had misunderstood the real question. When I looked at it again, I could see that the professor was really asking an entirely
different question.”

“He was surprised when you brought it up in class! ‘Mister Prince, well done, sir!’ You really made an impression on him!”

“Yeah, almost as cool as that impression you made on Jimmy Davis when you scored that goal on him at the soccer game!”

“That was so cool! I was sure he was going to block the shot, and you made it look so easy!”

“Maybe it looked like that, but Jim Davis is a great goaltender. I thought he might have blocked it, too.”

Everyone was startled when a Campus Security officer drove up in his golf cart, calling Terry’s name.

“Terry Prince? Would you please come with us? I’m sorry, but there has been an incident, and the city police need to talk to you.”

Terry got in with the Officer, who was quiet on the short ride to the Campus Security Office.

When they got there Terry was surprised to see his fiancée’s Great Aunt Ruby in the office. She was quite old, but wore her years fairly well, although Terry could see that she seemed much more tired than he had ever seen her, and her eyes seemed very bloodshot. His heart began to pound wildly. Where was Jenny? He was very afraid.

“Miss Ruby? What’s going on?”

“Be strong, boy, 'cause this is gonna hurt. That little Coffee Shop was robbed today, and the thief, he took Jenny as a hostage. She’s been raped, and he beat her up, really bad. She’s in the hospital, but Terry, they don’t think she will make it through the night!” She broke into tears, but Terry just held her and patted her back, quietly.

His entire world had fallen apart. He and Jenny had been friends since they had met at the grief counselor’s office after the death of their parents in a catastrophic flood, three years ago. They had supported each other through all the funerals and the counseling.

She loved his deep amber eyes that seemed to gleam with a little mischief. He could sit with her forever, stroking her chocolate brown hair and talking about everything that came to mind. His favorite thing was her smile. She always put her whole heart into her smile, and no matter how depressed he felt, her smile fixed almost everything.

When they got to the hospital, Terry couldn’t go into her room. The Doctor had told them of the list of injuries she had received. He told them that he didn’t know how she could have survived as long as she had, but Terry knew.

She was waiting to say goodbye to him.

Ruby sat with him and held his hand. She knew that Terry lived for her grand-niece, and she feared for him. Something told her that without her, he would soon be gone as well. Her heart ached for the two of them.

A pretty young nurse with a name tag that read “Leslie” came out of intensive care, and told them that there might be very little time left. Her eyes were red, as she knew how hard it was going to be on the gentle young man. Leslie hated this job sometimes, as the emotions often overwhelmed her.

She knew the young couple from school, and she couldn’t believe that God could be so cruel as to destroy two such happy lives.

Ruby had an idea, remembering something her Granny had told her long ago. It was not going to be an easy thing to arrange. Still, it just barely might be possible, if He was willing, that is, and if it suited His purposes. She knew what had to be done on her part, but all she could do was pray, for now.

Gently , she put her hand on Terry’s shoulder, and then slowly but firmly led him into the room.

He knew that he had to do this. He had to let Jenny go, but saying goodbye was almost more than he could bear. As they went to her bedside, Terry took a last look at Jenny and broke down, falling to his knees and praying silently with all of his heart for God to take him, too.

Ruby gathered her strength, took Jenny’s hand in her ancient left hand and Terry’s hand with her right, and said three quiet words. Suddenly, the room exploded with a light that nearly blinded Nurse Leslie. Shielding her eyes with her hands, she tried to make out what was happening. A fifth being stood in the room with them, and she caught a quick glimpse of the most loving face she could have ever imagined. Leslie knew that she would never in her life see anything so beautiful. It was more than she could stand, and she lost consciousness.

She awoke to the concerned face of another Nurse. There was no light but the muted morning sunlight coming through the window. All of the electricity seemed to be out, even the emergency backups, and it was very quiet. On the bed were two bodies, but they were nearly unrecognizable as such. They weren’t burnt, but they seemed to fall apart, as if they were nothing but powder. The Doctors believed that they were the bodies of Jenny and Ruby, but what had happened to Terry?

When Leslie told her story, she left out the vision of the fifth person, but she knew that her life had changed irrevocably. She decided right there that she would become a hospice nurse, in the hope of someday getting another glimpse of that face that she had seen just before she had passed out.

As the Hospital staff began the process of investigating the event, and cleaning up the ICU, a beautiful young brunette woman with dark amber eyes, hair like melted chocolate and a smile that made everyone feel better walked out of the Hospital. She wore a coral sweater over a cream blouse with a beige skirt that almost came to her knees, sheer hose and low beige heels. She stopped to help an elderly man get his wife out of her wheelchair and into her car.

“Hello, my name is Terri, you seem to be having some problems, and I would like to help, if I can?”

Something about this lovely girl made them trust her. Her eyes seemed to glow with Intelligence , friendliness, and perhaps just a little mischief.

This was going to be different, she thought.

From deep inside of her mind, another voice inside of her giggled. "And you don’t even know the half of it, yet!"

Terri smiled, and everything was all right, again.