*****
A couple days later, as promised, Shelly had her party and packed to go home. She was so happy with the balloons and cake, but was saddened that Kristen was not going home with her. She wouldn’t be here to help her friend and put ice on her dry lips and talk to her when she woke up. “I don’t even get to see if the light goes out ten times,” she said to her mom.
By now the nursing staff, as well as most of the workers at St. Theresa’s, were buzzing about the miracle girl whose cancer simply vanished. They were calling her “the miracle child,” and she was becoming a star. Doctors and nurses stopped by to say hello. Parents of sick children asked Carol what she did to make such a miracle happen. “I prayed,” she said. “I asked for a miracle, and I got it.”
Shelly hopped in her wheelchair for the last time and said her goodbyes to the nurses, the doctors, the staff, Dr. Wall, and all of the friends she had met who had come to see her go home. She was happy that she had already said goodbye to Kristen earlier when she was awake.
As her mom pushed her down the hall toward the doors leading out of the hospital and into the fresh, cool, Atlanta air, the code alarm suddenly went off. Doctors and nurses rushed into the room in answer to the alarm.
Shelly’s eyes caught Dr. Wall’s as he ran past her. He paused long enough to look at Shelly, but said nothing and continued on as the crash cart was wheeled into Room 1604. Shelly would remember that moment forever. No matter how her mom or Dr. Wall tried to shield Shelly from this fact, she knew she was going home and Kristen was dying. And there was nothing she could do about it. As her mom whisked her away, Shelly could just barely make out Dr. Wall’s voice barking orders as he tried one last time to save Kristen’s life.