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- Story Listed as: Fiction For Adults
- Theme: Inspirational
- Subject: Miracles / Wonders
- Published: 02/01/2021
Germy's Touch
Born 1960, M, from Bellevue/ NE, United States.jpeg)
Jeremy stood on the ridge, looking at the creator's beautiful canvas laid out below him. The forest was silent except for the rustling of the leaves. Much of what was growing beneath the trees was still fairly green, but the leaves had begun to change into a beautiful bouquet of colors in contrast. It was late October, and the sunny day made it comfortable for the little girl playing in the yard to be wearing only a sundress. Tracy had been playing outside for less than ten minutes, when she saw a rabbit nibbling on grass in her back yard. She got quite close to it and lay on the ground watching the little creature's jaws working a hundred miles an hour on the tasty green blades that would soon be brown. It was so funny and fascinating to watch that Tracy was truly enamored.
Mom was in the living room reading the paper, and it wasn't unusual for Tracy, who was just four years old, to be unattended in the fenced in area for short periods of time. The little girl’s new chum suddenly became spooked and ran through the fence. Tracy, mesmerized by the furry little bunny, made her way through the gate and followed it across the small field, and then into the woods. She trailed her new friend twenty feet, or so, past the tree line. For the first time since she left the safety of her yard, Tracy looked around, and immediately panicked. She was disoriented because most of the ground vegetation was too tall for her to see over. She decided to follow her footsteps back out, but got turned around and walked deeper and deeper into the woods. Jeremy watched from his vantage point as the little girl became hopelessly lost and then made things worse by not stopping and waiting for someone to look for her. She began to cry before screaming for her mommy. She was too far away for anyone in the house to hear her, so help didn't come.
It wasn't long after Tracy had announced that she was ‘going out back to play’, that mom poked her head out of the back door and called her daughter's name. It only took her a moment to step out and, with a little urgency, begin to look for the little girl. Tracy didn't play tricks on mommy and daddy, so her mother knew she wasn't playing a game of hide and seek. She walked around the outside of the house looking before she began to call her daughter's name repeatedly. Tracy was still walking towards home, or so she thought, when she came up to the edge of a ravine. Before she saw it, she found herself tumbling to the bottom.
It was getting dark and Tracy's mom was waiting for her dad and her husband to get there. She had looked everywhere and it never ‘dawned’ on her that little Tracy would be brave enough to walk into the woods. As the little girl lay in the bottom of the ravine shivering, Jeremy was sitting next to her. She couldn't see him, but did start to feel warmer, and suddenly calmer. Mommy stood in the back yard praying, and screaming Tracy's name, while dad and grandpa checked with the two or three houses within walking distance of theirs to no avail. No one thought about the creek, because it had been dried up since late summer, and Mommy and Daddy had warned her of ‘monsters’ living there. After the two men met back at the house, they found flashlights, and walked into the dark woods. Tracy's mom and dad loved being surrounded by nature after living in the city all of their lives. Mommy was having second thoughts now that her little girl had disappeared so quickly and completely. She cried as she continued praying.
With a phone call to the sheriff, and her mom, there were many people praying for the beloved little girl's safe return. Tracy had fallen to sleep, so Jeremy pulled her head onto his lap and sang to her while stroking her hair. As he sang her favorite hymn from Sunday school, he smiled while listening to the prayers of more than a dozen people in the area.
As they waited for rescuers to arrive, Jeremy watched two coyotes take up positions on opposite sides of the large ravine. The two predators cautiously approached their human prey from both sides. She would be an easy mark for the clever animals, so Jeremy looked ‘inside’ for guidance. Pretty soon, the two were running full tilt down towards the helpless, sleeping girl. Suddenly, both of them stopped in their tracks, stood very still for a moment, and then retreated back up the sides of the ‘pit’. When they had gotten closer to their victim, the overwhelming scent of a large, female, brown bear interrupted their hunting. When they caught site of the massive animal, sitting with her rump nudged against their now-canceled dinner, the beasts thought better.
A half an hour later, daddy ran in the direction of what he thought sounded like his daughter singing; before coming to the place where Tracy had fallen. The singing stopped as he reached the edge of the ravine. He pulled a piece of his daughter's dress from a bush before looking down into the darkness for his baby's broken, and battered body. The little girl's dress was bright yellow, but he wasn't sure that he’d be able to see her. His light finally hit the little girl, and he was sure he had found her. He would never really know how he made it down the jagged, snarly side of the wash so quickly, but found himself at the bottom before he knew it. He knelt down beside his ‘found’ offspring, and thanked the one from whom all things come. The ground under his knees was warm and damp and the smell of something foul and wild permeated the air. He hurriedly scooped her into his arms and made his way out of the hole, and then back to the edge of the woods. His father in law was there to meet him with tears in his eyes, and they walked back to mommy, who couldn't stop crying when her little girl was in her arms again.
With the sheriff involved, family services had to visit the home several times to ensure things were safe for Tracy. She enjoyed the visits from the lady who would ask her questions and talk about her day. Eventually, Tracy's mom and dad were declared ‘good to go’.
As Tracy grew, she never forgot the peacefulness and warmth that she felt as she lay in the woods and fell asleep that evening. Her father didn't help things though. Every time she tested her parent’s will, he would repeat the story about hearing her sing and finding her in the ravine. He would tell her that there was 'something' at work in that ravine, and that she was protected by something that was not of this world. He had nightmares about the overwhelming wild animal smell that permeated the area that night and caused them to throw away her dress when they got her home. A large, scary beast would usually appear in his dreams, and it always jarred him awake.
Tracy was a great student all through school and went on to college to major in social services. She studied hard and, with the great friendship she had struck up with the local Child Welfare Office folks so long ago, she didn’t have any trouble being ‘placed’ in a job there.
The house was littered with trash as well as human and animal feces. Tracy gagged as she walked through the ‘poop minefield’ and thought about the little girl who had lived here with her meth-addicted mom and ‘the boyfriend’. The little one didn't know that normal people didn't live this way. She was only four and hadn't been to school or daycare. She spent her time hoping for her ‘parents’ to leave a scrap of something lay around for her to eat. The cat that lived with them was quick, so she had to always be alert. Her ‘guardians’ didn't sell the diapers that mommy got from the church, but the food and other things were a different story. Belle had learned to change her own britches quickly, but dropped the soiled diapers on the floor afterwards, because that's what mommy did. They hadn't always been this way. Her mom was a good lady for Belle's first three years. She had used drugs in another life, but had cleaned herself up since then. She worked at the small grocery store around the corner and managed to support her daughter without the help of the immature ‘boy’ who impregnated her.
When ‘he’ came into their lives though, things went to shit fast; most recently, with her mom and his drug overdose and deaths. With no grandparents, aunts or uncles to save her from this life, Belle had weathered the storm pretty well. Tracy didn't understand how the poor little urchin survived until she spent a few minutes interviewing the child. “Germy’ comes to me sometimes and tells me things will be all right”. "He says I'll get a new mommy pretty soon and that I just have to wait". “He sings to me sometimes”. She began to sing the song that ‘Germy’ sung to her, and it made Tracy shudder, as she remembered the song all too well from her childhood, and from a terrible car accident she had, while in college.
"Can I help you?” a male voice asked sarcastically. Tracy jumped as she turned around to see a sheriff's deputy standing in the doorway. "I'm...I'm", Tracy started. "The social worker", the deputy said and laughed. "What a freaking mess", he added as he walked towards her. Tracy wasn't happy with being surprised like that and answered, "Thanks for scaring the crap out of me"...then added "jerk", under her breath. The two didn't talk for a few minutes as they walked around the aforementioned ‘poop minefield’ not sure what they were looking for. Tracy pulled open the door of a closet and peered in at a pile of debris lying inside. She looked for a stick or something to probe the pile, but didn't find anything. She desperately wanted to find something...anything that might be of sentimental value to the young girl when she grew up. As she reached down to pick up what looked like a gas can, she heard, "ARE YOU NUTS!?” being shouted from behind her. She stood up straight and glared back at the deputy with a very mean look as he had caught her by surprise again. "What's your problem!?” she asked the smiling man she wanted to slap across the face. "Let’s see what we have in there", he said as he approached the closet and knelt down to get a better look. As he pulled the gas can, along with empty two liter soda bottles and a half full bottle of a clear chemical out of the closet, he shook his head in disgust. The closet was a mess and the deputy laid the stuff he pulled out onto the floor behind him. He stood up and wiped his hands on his pants before smiling at Tracy. "A little meth lab...pretty nasty stuff...better get out of the house", he said and pointed towards the door. "Can you call my office and let them know you found it?”
Tracy was nervous now as she tried to remember if she touched anything or got anything on her shoes. She dialed the sheriff's office and explained what had happened. "Sheriff's deputy?” the dispatcher asked. "Yeah, he came in as I was looking for a ‘drug orphan's’ belongings. The dispatcher sounded worried as she pressed Tracy for details about the meth lab and the deputy. While she was talking to the dispatcher, Tracy realized that the deputy was inside the house whistling the same tune she remembered from her childhood and her initial interview with the little girl.
As the Sheriff Deputy’s car slid into the driveway with its siren screaming Tracy stood at the doorway with tears in her eyes; looking into the now empty house. Next thing she knew, a strong hand grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the doorway, and then against the house. The deputy walked through the door with his shirt over his mouth and nose and his gun pointed inward. Another sheriff's car pulled in behind the first and an old gentleman that Tracy knew well walked up to the house with his weapon drawn. The first cop on the scene walked out coughing and wheezing from the heavy, poisonous chemical fumes that permeated the ‘fouled’ home. He lay down on the driveway as the Sheriff called for an ambulance. Tracy followed after poking her head in the house and gagging on the stench and fumes.
Tracy sat in the living room of the house she had grown up in, and, later, bought from her mom and dad. Her parents had long since moved even farther off the grid. It had been a number of months since her encounter with the mysterious deputy at the drug house. She was trying to read the evening paper. It was hard to see through the head of the little girl sitting on her lap, but she wouldn't have it any other way. She read where the house, her soon-to-be daughter's mom and boyfriend died in last year, would finally be torn down by the new owners and rebuilt. She tickled Belle before hugging her tightly and asking if she needed to ‘make’. While sitting on the edge of the bathtub waiting for the little one to potty, she could hear the timer going off in the kitchen, signaling that dinner was ready to come out of the oven. She kissed her husband as he met her and Belle on the way to turn the timer off.
After eating, then shooing daddy and Belle into the other room, Tracy did the supper dishes and reflected back to when she recounted the story of the ‘mystery’ deputy who saved her from the meth house, to the Sheriff. She remembered his surprised reaction when she told him about the deputy whistling the same song she remembered from her ordeal as a little girl. He dismissed the story as her imagination, and possibly hallucinations from the airborne toxins that had been building up in the house for weeks. He hurried her through her statement, and then rewrote it before filing it away in his desk drawer. They never figured out how she could have been in the ‘drug’ house long enough to kill any healthy, strong adult, without any affects. The real deputy was still suffering the affects of his short time inside. She smiled as she washed the dishes and sang all she could remember of the song the angel and her had in common. She would have to sing it with Belle at bed time to help recall the entire tune.
Across town, the Sheriff was standing outside his shower drying off. When the steam cleared up from the mirror, he looked into it and rubbed his fingers across several, large shrapnel scars covering his chest; from when he served in the Korean conflict. The man, who had no business being alive after all that, whistled a very familiar tune as he walked out of the bathroom.
Jeremiel - Mercy of God. Helps those still living to take inventory of their life, to be able to make positive adjustments.
Germy's Touch(John Filkins)
Jeremy stood on the ridge, looking at the creator's beautiful canvas laid out below him. The forest was silent except for the rustling of the leaves. Much of what was growing beneath the trees was still fairly green, but the leaves had begun to change into a beautiful bouquet of colors in contrast. It was late October, and the sunny day made it comfortable for the little girl playing in the yard to be wearing only a sundress. Tracy had been playing outside for less than ten minutes, when she saw a rabbit nibbling on grass in her back yard. She got quite close to it and lay on the ground watching the little creature's jaws working a hundred miles an hour on the tasty green blades that would soon be brown. It was so funny and fascinating to watch that Tracy was truly enamored.
Mom was in the living room reading the paper, and it wasn't unusual for Tracy, who was just four years old, to be unattended in the fenced in area for short periods of time. The little girl’s new chum suddenly became spooked and ran through the fence. Tracy, mesmerized by the furry little bunny, made her way through the gate and followed it across the small field, and then into the woods. She trailed her new friend twenty feet, or so, past the tree line. For the first time since she left the safety of her yard, Tracy looked around, and immediately panicked. She was disoriented because most of the ground vegetation was too tall for her to see over. She decided to follow her footsteps back out, but got turned around and walked deeper and deeper into the woods. Jeremy watched from his vantage point as the little girl became hopelessly lost and then made things worse by not stopping and waiting for someone to look for her. She began to cry before screaming for her mommy. She was too far away for anyone in the house to hear her, so help didn't come.
It wasn't long after Tracy had announced that she was ‘going out back to play’, that mom poked her head out of the back door and called her daughter's name. It only took her a moment to step out and, with a little urgency, begin to look for the little girl. Tracy didn't play tricks on mommy and daddy, so her mother knew she wasn't playing a game of hide and seek. She walked around the outside of the house looking before she began to call her daughter's name repeatedly. Tracy was still walking towards home, or so she thought, when she came up to the edge of a ravine. Before she saw it, she found herself tumbling to the bottom.
It was getting dark and Tracy's mom was waiting for her dad and her husband to get there. She had looked everywhere and it never ‘dawned’ on her that little Tracy would be brave enough to walk into the woods. As the little girl lay in the bottom of the ravine shivering, Jeremy was sitting next to her. She couldn't see him, but did start to feel warmer, and suddenly calmer. Mommy stood in the back yard praying, and screaming Tracy's name, while dad and grandpa checked with the two or three houses within walking distance of theirs to no avail. No one thought about the creek, because it had been dried up since late summer, and Mommy and Daddy had warned her of ‘monsters’ living there. After the two men met back at the house, they found flashlights, and walked into the dark woods. Tracy's mom and dad loved being surrounded by nature after living in the city all of their lives. Mommy was having second thoughts now that her little girl had disappeared so quickly and completely. She cried as she continued praying.
With a phone call to the sheriff, and her mom, there were many people praying for the beloved little girl's safe return. Tracy had fallen to sleep, so Jeremy pulled her head onto his lap and sang to her while stroking her hair. As he sang her favorite hymn from Sunday school, he smiled while listening to the prayers of more than a dozen people in the area.
As they waited for rescuers to arrive, Jeremy watched two coyotes take up positions on opposite sides of the large ravine. The two predators cautiously approached their human prey from both sides. She would be an easy mark for the clever animals, so Jeremy looked ‘inside’ for guidance. Pretty soon, the two were running full tilt down towards the helpless, sleeping girl. Suddenly, both of them stopped in their tracks, stood very still for a moment, and then retreated back up the sides of the ‘pit’. When they had gotten closer to their victim, the overwhelming scent of a large, female, brown bear interrupted their hunting. When they caught site of the massive animal, sitting with her rump nudged against their now-canceled dinner, the beasts thought better.
A half an hour later, daddy ran in the direction of what he thought sounded like his daughter singing; before coming to the place where Tracy had fallen. The singing stopped as he reached the edge of the ravine. He pulled a piece of his daughter's dress from a bush before looking down into the darkness for his baby's broken, and battered body. The little girl's dress was bright yellow, but he wasn't sure that he’d be able to see her. His light finally hit the little girl, and he was sure he had found her. He would never really know how he made it down the jagged, snarly side of the wash so quickly, but found himself at the bottom before he knew it. He knelt down beside his ‘found’ offspring, and thanked the one from whom all things come. The ground under his knees was warm and damp and the smell of something foul and wild permeated the air. He hurriedly scooped her into his arms and made his way out of the hole, and then back to the edge of the woods. His father in law was there to meet him with tears in his eyes, and they walked back to mommy, who couldn't stop crying when her little girl was in her arms again.
With the sheriff involved, family services had to visit the home several times to ensure things were safe for Tracy. She enjoyed the visits from the lady who would ask her questions and talk about her day. Eventually, Tracy's mom and dad were declared ‘good to go’.
As Tracy grew, she never forgot the peacefulness and warmth that she felt as she lay in the woods and fell asleep that evening. Her father didn't help things though. Every time she tested her parent’s will, he would repeat the story about hearing her sing and finding her in the ravine. He would tell her that there was 'something' at work in that ravine, and that she was protected by something that was not of this world. He had nightmares about the overwhelming wild animal smell that permeated the area that night and caused them to throw away her dress when they got her home. A large, scary beast would usually appear in his dreams, and it always jarred him awake.
Tracy was a great student all through school and went on to college to major in social services. She studied hard and, with the great friendship she had struck up with the local Child Welfare Office folks so long ago, she didn’t have any trouble being ‘placed’ in a job there.
The house was littered with trash as well as human and animal feces. Tracy gagged as she walked through the ‘poop minefield’ and thought about the little girl who had lived here with her meth-addicted mom and ‘the boyfriend’. The little one didn't know that normal people didn't live this way. She was only four and hadn't been to school or daycare. She spent her time hoping for her ‘parents’ to leave a scrap of something lay around for her to eat. The cat that lived with them was quick, so she had to always be alert. Her ‘guardians’ didn't sell the diapers that mommy got from the church, but the food and other things were a different story. Belle had learned to change her own britches quickly, but dropped the soiled diapers on the floor afterwards, because that's what mommy did. They hadn't always been this way. Her mom was a good lady for Belle's first three years. She had used drugs in another life, but had cleaned herself up since then. She worked at the small grocery store around the corner and managed to support her daughter without the help of the immature ‘boy’ who impregnated her.
When ‘he’ came into their lives though, things went to shit fast; most recently, with her mom and his drug overdose and deaths. With no grandparents, aunts or uncles to save her from this life, Belle had weathered the storm pretty well. Tracy didn't understand how the poor little urchin survived until she spent a few minutes interviewing the child. “Germy’ comes to me sometimes and tells me things will be all right”. "He says I'll get a new mommy pretty soon and that I just have to wait". “He sings to me sometimes”. She began to sing the song that ‘Germy’ sung to her, and it made Tracy shudder, as she remembered the song all too well from her childhood, and from a terrible car accident she had, while in college.
"Can I help you?” a male voice asked sarcastically. Tracy jumped as she turned around to see a sheriff's deputy standing in the doorway. "I'm...I'm", Tracy started. "The social worker", the deputy said and laughed. "What a freaking mess", he added as he walked towards her. Tracy wasn't happy with being surprised like that and answered, "Thanks for scaring the crap out of me"...then added "jerk", under her breath. The two didn't talk for a few minutes as they walked around the aforementioned ‘poop minefield’ not sure what they were looking for. Tracy pulled open the door of a closet and peered in at a pile of debris lying inside. She looked for a stick or something to probe the pile, but didn't find anything. She desperately wanted to find something...anything that might be of sentimental value to the young girl when she grew up. As she reached down to pick up what looked like a gas can, she heard, "ARE YOU NUTS!?” being shouted from behind her. She stood up straight and glared back at the deputy with a very mean look as he had caught her by surprise again. "What's your problem!?” she asked the smiling man she wanted to slap across the face. "Let’s see what we have in there", he said as he approached the closet and knelt down to get a better look. As he pulled the gas can, along with empty two liter soda bottles and a half full bottle of a clear chemical out of the closet, he shook his head in disgust. The closet was a mess and the deputy laid the stuff he pulled out onto the floor behind him. He stood up and wiped his hands on his pants before smiling at Tracy. "A little meth lab...pretty nasty stuff...better get out of the house", he said and pointed towards the door. "Can you call my office and let them know you found it?”
Tracy was nervous now as she tried to remember if she touched anything or got anything on her shoes. She dialed the sheriff's office and explained what had happened. "Sheriff's deputy?” the dispatcher asked. "Yeah, he came in as I was looking for a ‘drug orphan's’ belongings. The dispatcher sounded worried as she pressed Tracy for details about the meth lab and the deputy. While she was talking to the dispatcher, Tracy realized that the deputy was inside the house whistling the same tune she remembered from her childhood and her initial interview with the little girl.
As the Sheriff Deputy’s car slid into the driveway with its siren screaming Tracy stood at the doorway with tears in her eyes; looking into the now empty house. Next thing she knew, a strong hand grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the doorway, and then against the house. The deputy walked through the door with his shirt over his mouth and nose and his gun pointed inward. Another sheriff's car pulled in behind the first and an old gentleman that Tracy knew well walked up to the house with his weapon drawn. The first cop on the scene walked out coughing and wheezing from the heavy, poisonous chemical fumes that permeated the ‘fouled’ home. He lay down on the driveway as the Sheriff called for an ambulance. Tracy followed after poking her head in the house and gagging on the stench and fumes.
Tracy sat in the living room of the house she had grown up in, and, later, bought from her mom and dad. Her parents had long since moved even farther off the grid. It had been a number of months since her encounter with the mysterious deputy at the drug house. She was trying to read the evening paper. It was hard to see through the head of the little girl sitting on her lap, but she wouldn't have it any other way. She read where the house, her soon-to-be daughter's mom and boyfriend died in last year, would finally be torn down by the new owners and rebuilt. She tickled Belle before hugging her tightly and asking if she needed to ‘make’. While sitting on the edge of the bathtub waiting for the little one to potty, she could hear the timer going off in the kitchen, signaling that dinner was ready to come out of the oven. She kissed her husband as he met her and Belle on the way to turn the timer off.
After eating, then shooing daddy and Belle into the other room, Tracy did the supper dishes and reflected back to when she recounted the story of the ‘mystery’ deputy who saved her from the meth house, to the Sheriff. She remembered his surprised reaction when she told him about the deputy whistling the same song she remembered from her ordeal as a little girl. He dismissed the story as her imagination, and possibly hallucinations from the airborne toxins that had been building up in the house for weeks. He hurried her through her statement, and then rewrote it before filing it away in his desk drawer. They never figured out how she could have been in the ‘drug’ house long enough to kill any healthy, strong adult, without any affects. The real deputy was still suffering the affects of his short time inside. She smiled as she washed the dishes and sang all she could remember of the song the angel and her had in common. She would have to sing it with Belle at bed time to help recall the entire tune.
Across town, the Sheriff was standing outside his shower drying off. When the steam cleared up from the mirror, he looked into it and rubbed his fingers across several, large shrapnel scars covering his chest; from when he served in the Korean conflict. The man, who had no business being alive after all that, whistled a very familiar tune as he walked out of the bathroom.
Jeremiel - Mercy of God. Helps those still living to take inventory of their life, to be able to make positive adjustments.
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Gerald R Gioglio
02/08/2021Thanks for the mystical journey with the angel of Mercy. Nice work.
ReplyHelp Us Understand What's Happening
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Louise Bader
02/08/2021A story of miracle and wonder. I was reminded of the guardian angel stories I was told about as child. Enjoyed reading this story.
ReplyHelp Us Understand What's Happening
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JD
02/07/2021Another great angels story, John. It's always nice to believe that there are angels among us, watching out for us in our times of greatest need.... turning into smelly protective bears when there are coyotes coming for us. Thanks for sharing this lovely inspirational story on Storystar. Happy short story STAR of the day to you! :-)
ReplyHelp Us Understand What's Happening
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Mary Eileen Callan
02/02/2021You wrote an Interesting account of one of the helping angels. Thanks for sharing this good news story.
Reply
COMMENTS (5)