The Shadow Wife - Diane Chamberlain [82]
Gabriel suddenly looked a bit uncomfortable at having consumed so much of the attention at the table. “Let’s move on to a more pleasant topic,” he said, looking directly at Carlynn. “You two truly do look alike,” he said, lifting a scallop from his bowl. “It’s hard to say which of you is more beautiful. Are you interested in sailing as much as Lisbeth is, Carlynn?”
“No,” Carlynn said with a shudder. “That was Lisbeth’s passion.”
“We went out with our father one time,” Lisbeth explained, “and capsized. Carlynn got stuck underneath the boat for a bit, and she decided sailing was not her cup of tea.”
Gabriel winced. “I don’t blame you for that,” he said to Carlynn.
“Lisbeth was a much better swimmer than I was,” Carlynn said.
“The same thing happened to my sister and myself when we were kids,” Gabriel said. “We were sailing on this estuary in Oakland when we capsized. She was stuck underneath for a couple of minutes. I dived under and got her, and she wasn’t breathing when I brought her to shore.”
“What happened?” Lisbeth asked.
“Well, she was essentially dead,” Gabriel said. “But my great-grandmother was there. We were having a picnic, and all the aunts and everyone were with us. Granny grew up in the South, in Alabama, and she was a healer.”
Lisbeth and Carlynn exchanged quick glances.
“One of my aunts did mouth-to-mouth on her, but it didn’t work. Then Granny came over and held on to my sister’s shoulders, and said, ‘In the name of Jesus, child, breathe!’”
His voice rose, and when a few of the diners turned to look at him, he grimaced. “Sorry,” he said to his tablemates with a laugh. “I got carried away. Anyhow,” he continued in a softer tone, “my sister started breathing. In a few minutes, she was good as new.”
The three of them stared at him in silence.
Gabriel looked at Lisbeth. “Did I say something wrong?” he asked. “I’m sorry I shouted.”
Lisbeth touched the back of his hand. “That’s not it,” she said. “You didn’t say anything wrong.”
Carlynn was ready to explode with questions, but Alan beat her to it. He leaned forward in his chair. “Tell us more about your granny,” he said.
Gabriel didn’t answer. Instead, he looked at them suspiciously, and Carlynn wondered what they were giving away on their faces.
“What’s going on here?” he asked.
“Please,” Carlynn said. “Just tell us about Granny.”
“Well, she had a reputation,” he said slowly, leaning back in his chair, still obviously confused by whatever strange hunger he saw in their eyes. “She always fixed me up when I was a kid.”
“Do you mean she cleaned your cuts and put Band-Aids on them?” Alan asked.
“Or did she use herbs or her own special poultice?” Carlynn added.
Gabriel shook his head. “No. If I had a cut or hurt myself she would hold me, or put her hand on the place that had been injured, and she’d go into a trance of some sort and talk about God and Jesus, and I’d be better. Everyone in the family turned to her when they were sick. Even the neighbors. Even the white neighbors. I remember wishing she was still alive when I lost my fingers, although I’m not sure she could have done much about that.” He smiled.
“What was the most remarkable healing she ever performed?” Lisbeth asked.
“I think bringing my sister back from the dead was pretty remarkable,” Gabriel said. “But she also cured a neighbor boy’s polio.”
“Was this polio diagnosed by a physician?” Alan asked.
“Yes. And it was very obvious that he had it. He needed to use an iron lung sometimes. But Granny actually moved into his house, into the same room he lived in, and she’d pray with him and…I don’t know what-all she did, but that kid was cured in a month’s time.”
Alan turned to look at Carlynn, and she