We put up a clinic. I’d been a salesgirl, cosmetics. I couldn’t point out the place on a map. We went through our church.
I believe in being positive. I thought, Sprained ankles and headaches. In the first hour, a man with no pants and bloated privates carted himself in. He had to use a wheelbarrow. I thought about the rocks in the road.
Lawrence, the doctor, said what we did was we were making a miracle every time someone walked in. For a while I thought that, too, but after a woman with three lumpy toes paid her weekly visit, I always thought our miracles worked a tad slow.
I got woozy pretty easy. A belly hard in one place and soft in another was enough.
I bought a sapphire before I left. We had a shopping tour and a bus drove us to local businesses. Run-down things—of course there are no malls there.
I saw the stone before I saw her, otherwise I might not’ve even tried it on. But I just fell in love with it. She had these real black wrinkles in her lips and some crusty stuff around her mouth. I didn’t know how much it was so I offered her I think a lot of bills. She took the money and said something in her language which I just have to believe to her meant thank you.