Emmanuel Book One

Matthew wondered what was bothering John, but decided that this wasn’t the right time to ask. Luke and Mark looked at him with bewildered looks on their faces. He silently mouthed, “Let it go.” At this point, John was about thirty yards ahead of them, so they picked up the pace to catch up. They caught up to him just as they reached the point on their walk home when they would take a short cut through a wooded area that would take them to Forest Street, where they all lived. They could have continued on Main Street for another half mile or so before turning onto Willow Avenue, which led to Forest Street, but by cutting through the woods, they could get home about ten minutes faster. The path through the woods led to a vacant lot adjacent to Matthew’s house, a lot often used by the neighborhood kids to play pickup football and whiffleball games throughout the year. The first hundred yards into the woods, the path was straight with a downward slope. Tall trees loomed over both sides of the trail, providing much needed shade. As the path twisted to the left, it was intercepted by a small creek that was roughly four feet wide. They would always jump across the creek without ever giving it a second thought. This day would be different. John reached the creek first and leapt across with ease, followed by Mark and Luke, who kept walking. Matthew jumped across last, and when his right foot landed, it came down on the edge of a tree root, which caused it to turn inward. His entire body weight came down upon it as his ankle rolled to the inside. Matthew heard a snapping sound as sharp pain went up his leg. He fell to his right side and screamed. He reached down and grabbed his ankle while he rolled onto his back. The other three were about thirty feet ahead of him. They turned around when they heard him cry out and saw him writhing on the ground in agony. Immediately running back to him, Mark shouted, “What happened?” “I landed wrong and twisted my ankle. I think it’s broken. I heard and felt it snap!” As soon as John reached him, he dropped to his knees beside him and said, “Let me see.” He took Matthew’s ankle in his hands and applied a small amount of pressure to it. Matthew screamed out, “That hurts!” Tears filled his eyes. He didn’t want to cry in front of his friends but was having difficulty holding the tears back. Very calmly, John said, “Okay. We have to get you home. Is your dad home from work yet?” Matthew grunted, “He should be.” “Good. We’ll help you walk and then your dad can take you to the emergency room. Hopefully it’s not broken.” Even as he said that, he noticed Matthew’s ankle already showing discoloration and swelling up like a balloon, giving him no doubt that it was broken. “Luke, get on his other side and help me lift him up.” Luke moved over to Matthew’s left side. Matthew put an arm around each of the shoulders. They were about to lift him up when Mark, who was looking up the path, asked, “Who’s that?” They all looked in the direction that Mark was looking. Walking toward them was a man who looked to be in his thirties, with shoulder length, shaggy brown hair and a scruffy beard. He was about six feet tall and relatively thin. He was dressed in blue jeans, white sneakers, and a gray hoodie, which looked out of place on such a hot day. With a soft voice, the man asked, “What’s wrong?” John answered, “Our friend hurt his ankle. It might be broken.” “Let me take a look.” John moved out of the way and the man bent down by Matthew’s side. He put his hands around Matthew’s ankle, both hands in a cupping position, one on top and the other on the bottom so that his hands were surrounding Matthew’s ankle, he lifted his head, looked to the sky, and then closed his eyes. Luke looked worried as he asked, “What are you doing?” At first, Matthew wasn’t sure if he was comfortable with this total stranger coming up to look at his injured ankle, but as soon as the man knelt next to him, he felt a sense of peace come over him. He didn’t know why, but he trusted him. Immediately after the man wrapped his hands around his ankle and looked to the sky, Matthew felt a warm sensation go through his skin, all the way down to the bone. Within seconds, the pain was gone. With a perplexed look on his face, Matthew asked, “What… What did you do?” Luke chimed in, “What happened? What are you talking about?” Matthew looked at Luke. “The pain is gone.” Now Mark was confused. “What do you mean?” “Just like I said. The pain is gone.” Looking back at the man, Matthew asked, “What did you do?” The man calmly met his gaze and said, “Get up and walk.” Matthew slowly climbed to his feet and took a few small steps. He continued to test it and put more weight on it. “This is amazing! I feel no pain at all.” He looked back to the man and asked, “How did you do that?” The man just smiled. The other three watched with stunned looks on their faces. Matthew asked, “Who are you?” “You can call me Emmanuel.” With that, Emmanuel turned around and walked away in the same direction that he had come from. The four friends watched him walk away without saying anything. Emmanuel disappeared around a bend in the path. After a few seconds of silence, Matthew shook his head as though he was coming out of a trance. He started running after Emmanuel, calling out his name. The other three followed after him. Matthew looked around frantically for the man, but he was nowhere to be found. “Where did he go?” They were all trying to understand what had just happened. John asked, “Is the pain really gone?” “Yes. I don’t know how, but when he touched my ankle, I felt heat go through and the pain left me. I can’t explain it, but it feels great now.” Mark asked, “Who is that guy? Have any of you ever seen him before?” The others shook their heads and looked up the path to where they had last seen Emmanuel.