Amazing Grace

There were a lot of twists to Grace's story. Doc Holiday was going to learn them all.

Doc rubbed his tired, itchy eyes and tried to snatch his mind awake. “And don’t forget to get your flu shot..”

He nodded wearily at old Mrs. Thatcher, before leaving the exam room for another five minute long consultation with the next long line of patients. Four day, twelve hour shifts with such short individual sessions were mandated by the clinic’s rules and money supporting them. They made him feel like a human jack-in-the-box.

The only saving grace was his one day a week volunteer service at the free community health clinic where seeing a patient as long as it took was still an option he could count on. Nothing much surprised him anymore but this time did. There was no warning. When he arrived that Saturday, he was greeted with the closed sign and yellow police tape meaning the clinic was an active crime scene..

“Curious.” he said to himself, ducking under the tape and rattling the locked door. “Why didn’t Martha call?”

Martha Stewart was the clinic director and one woman dynamo that kept the place afloat and running. She’d recruited Doc and given his life meaning in doing so.

Doc whipped out his cellphone and speed dialed her. Martha’s familiar voice answered and asked him to leave a message. “Call me,” Doc said. Frustrated but not willing to give up, he speed dialed the police department and asked for Sargent Sam Turpin. They’d been friends since grade school but didn’t talk often now, unless it was an emergency.

“What’s up, Doc/?” Sam’s tired voice brightened with the knowledge of whom he was talking too.

“I’m at the volunteer clinic. Who did what to whom and who’s being held for it?”

“To the point like always. I’ve got about five minutes, Doc. You heard we took Martha Stewart in after the murder, right? All the evidence shows she did it. Been mercy killing since the clinic opened. If you’re involved, best run for the hills before we take you in.”

There was a long pause.

“I’m joking, Doc. I know you too well to tink you’d risk your career over something as stupid as this. One of the patient’s families clued us in. We know this kind of thing is a blessing in some cases and even legal in some states but not in ours. Martha is going down. Sorry about the clinic getting shut down. Maybe you can resurrect it.”

Doc sat down on the cement steps, stunned. He let Sam continue on, filling in the silence while Doc gathered himself back together. He cleared his throat and spoke, “I’m coming down. I need to talk to Martha. She still there or has she been transferred?”

“Still here. Being checked out by one of our consulting psychiatrists. She’s claiming dead relatives of her victims visited her and asked her for help. I”ve got to say the patients she chose where in such pain they couldn”t have lasted long anyway. Stupid to choose them, if you ask me, but you’re the doctor.”

The conversation was interrupted by a figure appearing out of nowhere. It startled Doc into almost biting his tongue. “Hold on, Sam.” But Sam had ended the phone call without further comment.

“You’ve got to save her. She’s not done. We need her.” The woman’s voice was whispery and urgent with need.

“And you are?” Doc swiveled away from the reflection in the glass door to get a better look.

“I’m Amazing Grace. I fund this operation. I don’t like public attention. When people find out I have deep pockets they go crazy expecting me to save the world and their place in it.”

“I can imagine. I’ve heard of you but didn’t know if you were a real person.” Doc stood up, brushed off his pants and offered her his hand.

“Sorry. I don’t like to be touched,” Grace smiled sheepishly.

Doc had meet germ phobic people before and took it in stride. “We’re wasting time. Come with me to talk with Martha and we’ll figure out what to do together.”

Grace’s smile turned into a frozen grimace. “I can’t go there.”

“The police station? You in trouble, too?”

“The jail where they put Martha. It’s an evil place and sucks the spirit right out of me.”

Doc eyed the weird philanthropist. “Why did you put Martha up to this? How did you get her to risk not only her career but the very clinic you made possible?”

“They cried out for help from their innermost being. They said even God had forsaken them in their dire need. I felt so dead inside. It gave me meaning.”

It felt so familiar, Doc could only nod. “Not something I could do, but I understand. You’d best disappear before the police find you or you’ll be in the same spot Martha is in.”

Doc blinked and shook his head as amazing Grace disappeared right before his eyes. Had he just seen a ghost? One who had enough financial resources to start up and fund a medical clinic? And get away with it? What kind of connections would she have to have? It was an impossible situation.

“I was her front, Doc,” Martha said when he visited her in her cell.I helped Martha pass on. Her spirit stayed when she left her body. Her mission wasn’t completed. She’d left everything to me in her will.”

“Time’s up.” The jailer rattled his set of keys.

Faces materialized in the jail cell wall looking first at each other then at Martha and Doc. One spoke, “Time’s up.” It said.

Martha clutched at her heart, clutching wildly at Doc. “This woman is having a major heart attack, get a defibrillator,” Doc demanded of the guard.

“A what?”

By the time one was found, it was too late. Martha was gone.

Amazing Grace and Martha were waiting for Doc by his car in the jail parking lot. “Everything is O.K.” Grace whispered in her feathery voice.

“I’ve given you everything in my will.” Martha beamed a heavenly smile at Doc. “You’ll have meaning in this life and in the one beyond. Just be super careful who you share it with.”

“Be very guarded like I was,” Grace added. “There are the evil ones. They’ll be sensitive to you now, and want to destroy you.”

The two spirits disappeared as Sam came out to see Doc. “What a day, huh? Sad that Martha didn’t live to see the day the state approved her version of legally approved assisted suicide under extreme situations. We just heard it's going to pass into legislation this quarter.”

“Thanks. I wasn’t keeping track.” Doc knew it wasn’t in him to help with something like that. There were those he knew who could and would if he transferred the money, clinic, staff and responsibility over to them. Amazing Grace appeared out of nowhere, nodded, and gave a thumbs up.

“You O.K? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Sam was eyeing his friend with some concern.

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