jane

I sent the wrong version earlier today. This is the correct one.###

When they found Miriam Roth slumped over her kitchen table on Christmas morning in 1986, she was clutching a tiny doll in her right hand and a handmade Christmas card from her 6 year old son in her left. ###
A detective tried to pry the doll loose from her hand, but rigor had set in and he knew he would have to wait for the coroner to work her magic before he could examine it. A patrolman laughed at the doll and wondered out loud if it had something to do with voodoo; it certainly looked strange enough. Though in truth, he had to admit he hadn’t found anything in the apartment to give any indication that she was a practitioner. In fact, beyond the furniture and her clothes, there were no personal items to be found anywhere.####
…Miriam held Noah’s last Christmas card to her in her left hand as she examined the doll. No more than 4 inches tall by 2 inches wide – it was a grotesque thing with a bald head, spooky eyes and dressed more like something from The Outer Limits than the Mexican freedom fighter he was supposed to be. Miriam had made it from pipe cleaners, Styrofoam, ric rac and some old felt she had used in other projects. To top it off, she attached a few strands of Noah’s hair. ###
Noah, directing her every move, had sat next to her as she cut and glued her way to Jacob in the early days of his chemotherapy. Afterwards, Noah was never without it. He told Jacob things he couldn’t tell her: like how scared he was that he wasn’t going to get better and how he would miss everyone and how he wondered what God would be like and would he like him. There had been mixed messages in Church; he wasn’t at all sure about God. Sometimes he was an avenger and punisher and sometimes the God of love. Noah wondered which one he would meet.####
He had been holding Jacob as he drifted into a coma that Christmas Eve a year ago and Miriam had crawled into Noah’s hospital bed to hold them both. ####
She felt guilty leaving Jacob behind to an unknown fate, but there was nothing to be done about it.####
Clutching him now as she drifted into her own uncertain darkness, Jacob’s face lit the way.####