He stood in front of the door, quietly waiting for the response of his knocking. He knew they were there, and the fact that it took them this long to respond didn’t bother him. They would come.
At 17, Joshua Henry McCoy was an average teenager. He went to school, was in the band, had a girlfriend, and made A’s and B’s with the occasional C thrown in the mix. He was a happy kid and a Christian, though very little of that had anything to do with his current status.
Currently he was thinking about his family. He was in a larger family, the middle of three kids, all by the same parents who had been happily married for 30 years. He had a younger sister who was 13 and an older brother who was 24. But these minor details still meant nothing to him.
A familiar woman opened the door, his mother, Sara Jane McCoy. She looked at him, her face stained with tears, and the two embraced in a hug. He himself was beginning to cry.
She took him back into the house, to the back room, where Susan, his sister, lay. She was dead. In fact she had been dead, according to the doctors, for about 7 hours. And he was just getting to see her. She had been sick for about a year, but no one saw this, everyone thought she had been getting better.
Joshua walked over to her, through the cluttered room, his parents, brother, and their doctor all watching. And he kneeled beside it, his tears now falling onto her bed.
“Why God, why did she die?” He whispered to himself, and to his surprise he got a response.
“She isn’t dead.”
He opened his eyes and turned towards the doctor.
“Is that true?” He asked.
The doctor blinked a few times and then looked at the boy, “Is what true?”
“Is she really not dead!?”
The doctor stopped totally taken off guard by this response. The family eyes on him silently, waiting for his response.
“I’m sorry Joshua…but your sister isn’t coming back…”
Joshua looked back towards his sister, and it was then that the voice returned.
“She is only sleeping, child. Leave me alone with her.” It said in the way that calmed the boy unlike any before.
He stood up and headed towards the family.
“Everyone out of the room.” He said confidently.
“What? Why?” his father said, very surprised by the sudden command.
“Because, dad, God asked me to.”
he room went silent, even their breathing took a short reprieve from this bizarre response. The doctor and his brother being Atheist, neither new what to do. But his dad just nodded confidently, his tear stained eyes brightening some.
“Alright Josh, lets go.”
He motioned for everyone out of the room, and they did without complaint, though a few would have defiantly liked to. Josh closed the door behind him and they all stood silently outside of the room. Waiting.
“So what now?” the doctor asked trying to hide is disbelief in this whole situation.
“We wait for her to wake up.” Joshua responded.
His brother couldn’t take anymore and he went for the door.
“This is stupid,” Said his brother, “Let’s just go in there!”
He grabbed the door handle and shook it but the door didn’t budge. It had been locked.
“I locked it.” Joshua said and his brother glared at him.
“You did what? How are we suppose to get in there? This is the only way in and it only locks from the inside you moron! Why would you…would you….” He stopped as tears started rolling down his cheeks and his fists began to clench. “I have half a mind to beat you right-” But he was cut off.
Everyone stopped and looked at the door as the door lock went ‘click’ and the handle began to twist.
“What in the world” the doctor said stunned as the door opened itself.
There standing in the doorway was Susan, fully healed and smiling at them. “Good morning, Jesus says hello.”
The doctor’s eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fainted. His mother began to cry and his father pulled the girl into his arms hugging her tightly. It was at that moment that Joshua’s brother fell down to his knees.
“God…I need you…”