Miracle Child

People tell me that I write like I talk. Let's talk about my eyewitness account of a miraculous event. I was eleven years young. So I'll show you my recounting from a child's point of view, and as I remember it from that age. I'll show you my observation as if I am addressing you person to person; face to face; in my spoken words; not by a written narrative.

Imagine that you are an eyewitness of a miraculous event, but you don't realize that you're seeing it happen. Attempt to fathom that what you saw was a two year old tot being run over by a speeding train. You see several tons of rumbling iron and steel run over the baby child right before your eyes...yet you are unaware of what you've just witnessed.

Now... imagine that minutes later, you find out what you've just seen, and you discover that the tot is your baby brother.

There! We're on the same page. The stage is set. Now I'll show you my incredible true story.

The year: 1957. The place: Whitesboro, New Jersey: my small country hometown.

It's a balmy summer day. A perfect day for me to just sit courting my muse, and cooling in the shade of the gently fanning boughs of a wild cherry tree.

My home is situated near a railroad line about thirty yards away from the train tracks. Speeding trains of all kinds rumble by several times a day. Today, I thought, things are no different. Meditating in a dreamy trance and watching, "Pal," my dog chasing after my neighbor's cat, suddenly I feel the ground begin to quake.

Not to fret. This simply means that a train is about to pass. Next, a gigantic train engine thundered into view, four passenger cars in tow. No big deal, happens all the time. Except...today something weird is starting to happen.

Unexpectedly, the train begins to slow down...fast. Then come to a complete stop, after skidding down the tracks for about thirty yards or so. Not to fret. Ran out of gas? Caught a flat?

In a flash, I saw the engineer running frantically along the tracks back toward where he began to slam on his brakes. He was wailing, and yelling out indistinct words of horrified excitement.

Curious clamoring people quickly converged from near and far. I leaped to my feet, and hurried to get closer; to get a better look. Then the engineer's words were clear.

"The baby! The kid! The child!" He cried gasping for breath. In eager desire to find out what kid his frantic commotion was all about, and a startling tension befalling me, I inched, a step or two, closer.

The crowd of prying people quickly grew larger. Above the their clamoring a women screamed in a high piercing cry.

"It's a baby!"

Then bellowing above her cries of astonishment I heard a man's voice.

"Oh! My God!"

People began to weep. I dared not move close enough to see why. Dad and Mom were at work.
I didn't need them there to tell me that, by them, my doing that was a big, "NO-NO."

"RATS!" I couldn't see a thing. There were too many people blocking my view.

But...wait...why were they all turning their heads my way? Wait a second. They're coming toward me.
What's this? I saw my next door neighbor pointing at me from the crowd. Somebody, I guess I'll never know who; but I do know that it was a lady, who screamed, grabbed me, and hugged me so tightly that all I could see was red.

Then my head got numb. I couldn't catch my breath, because everybody was hugging me.
They were smothering me. One lady was sobbing bitterly.

"Oh!" She cried. I'm sorry for Carrie. (my Mom,) and you; your family too."

Gary! Gary! I thought. No! No! Not Gary! "Where's my brother?" I asked. "Where's Gary?"

Nobody could tell me. Everybody was spaced out. Apprehension made me get sad. I started getting mad. I ripped myself a path through the crowd. "Where's that train man?" I cried. "I'm asking him where's my brother." I yelled at the top of my voice. "Gary! Where are you? Where's my brother?"

I got over heated. Everything went cloudy. I blanked out. When the black smoke in my head cleared, I was laying in the grass. Miss Hattie, my next door neighbor, sat next to me with my head nestled in her lap. I heard her crying, and she was caressing my head.

The first thing that I saw; was the one and only thing that I wanted to see. I saw my brother. The engineer was hugging Gary. He was cuddling my brother, and rocking him in his embrace.

I tried to jump up. But with the slightest pressure, Miss Hattie was able to hold me down. I was weak.
I tried to speak. I tried to cry. But my shortage of breath would let me do nothing but sniffle. I saw people trying to get near me. Especially my neighborhood peers, my friends. But Miss Hattie wouldn't let them talk to me.

A speechless mesmerized crowd huddled all about. They listened in awe, as the engineer talked to them.

A chilling eyewitness account of what just happened came from the engineer.

"I had almost reached top speed. Suddenly...there...in the middle of the tracks...I saw something.
At first...I thought it was a paper bag. As I got closer it looked like an animal. Then... it hit me...
Holy Heaven... A child!" He sobbed. "I saw the child. Then... I thought; I hit it! I applied full brakes, as fast as I could... But the dammed train kept going, as fast as it could.

"When I saw the child disappear beneath the train my heart stopped. But the train wouldn't stop.

Long after forever the train finally skidded to a screeching stop." He paused for a moment to clear his scratchy throat.

"Puzzled faces glared out at me from the passenger car windows as I ran pass. My passengers were spooked. Some began to exit the train in a hurry, and run behind me, not knowing why. As I passed the train and entered upon the tracks, in the distance between the rails, I could see the child where it lay.

"I...I...I...sprinted. I don't recall whether or not my racing feet touched the crossties before I reached the place where the child lay. MOTIONLESS,"

But lo! The child was breathing."

"There wasn't a scratch on him. But why wasn't he moving?"

"THE CHILD WAS FAST ASLEEP!"

"The heavenly glow of the spectacle was overwhelming. I dropped to my knees, and gently touched the child."

"Goo," was his tiny gurgling response."

"I lifted his little warm body from between the cross ties. That's when he opened his eyes and looked at me. Next, came another, 'Goo'. Then came a, 'Coo,' bursting a big saliva bubble which dangled down in a long slinky string and winded it's way down my arm."

"The baby batted his sleepy eyes as if to discern just who the heck I was. Then came another, 'Coo,'
that sounded like...hey...I don't know you! So... Boo-Hoo. His tears pitter-pattered upon his feeding bib."

"Joyful cheer erupted from the crowd at his wailing. 'He's alive!' Someone cried. Hurrah and applause resounded. Mothers fell to their knees. Dads joined them in awe. My peer friends chattered and whispered among themselves.

The engineer continued. "I wanted to hug the weeping child, but I didn't, for fear that I might joyfully
squeeze the life out of the quivering little twitch. Words cannot express the relief that I felt."

Medical and police sirens blared. Flashing lights turned the air red, white, and blue, as they flickered upon the engineer's face. He seemed to be a kind of celebrity as he passed my baby brother over to para-medics.

Mom and Dad had been notified and instructed to hurry to the medical center from their jobs. Curious people continued to noisily gather.

"The Miracle Child!" They chanted. "We've come to see, and touch, The Miracle Child!"

Soon after there came a hush upon the bustling crowd. There wasn't a sound. Slowly the people began to separate into two parts forming a narrow pathway between them.

Passing through, I saw Mom and Dad slowly walking side by side toward me. Mom, was crying. She had my baby brother nestled in her arms. Dad's eyes were blank, aside from watery beads that had settled on his eyelids. He didn't make a sound.

He winked at me, and pitched me a Dad to Son teary smile. That means that everything is alright,
I thought. I was glad. I was happy. I pitched my teary smile to Dad's smiling face. Miss Hattie let me hop up. I jetted over, hugged my parents, and kissed my brother's face.

To this day...with all our hearts, we thank, "Jesus," that He sent our "MIRACLE CHILD," home to us... ...alive...and well..."AMEN."