Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Minute(s) (as in time) (03/03/11)
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TITLE: Eternity is in It | Previous Challenge Entry
By Betty Farrow
03/10/11 -
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Jill thought back to the minute she answered the phone call. They could pick up their son the next day at three o’clock. In less than 24 hours she would be mommy; Tom would be daddy. Their prayers were to be answered, their lives forever changed.
The required six months had passed quickly and today they would appear before a judge to make the adoption legal. Jill was apprehensive. She would give her life for Roy. Why was the wait so long? What if something went wrong? What if there was an error in the paperwork? What if the natural mother burst in and stopped the proceedings? What if the judge declared them unfit to be parents? What if? What if? Jill didn’t think she could live if Roy could not belong to her and Tom.
The wait was unusually long but the judge had agreed to hear the case between other matters of life and death before his court. So they waited. Finally, the judge’s assistant told them to go in and the three of them faced the judge. Jill and Tom were apprehensive. Roy was unimpressed but definitely enjoying the attention.
Adoptions were usually a pleasant task in a gruesome day. Today was different. The judge had been detained because his teenage daughter had been in his office. It had been just over six months since she had placed her baby up for adoption. “Is it too late to get him back?” she asked her dad, sobbing uncontrollably.
The judge thought about the young couple in the outer chambers awaiting his approval of adoption. Torn between the law and family, a childhood poem came to his mind.
I’ve only just a minute,
Only sixty seconds in it.
Forced upon me, can't refuse it,
Didn't seek it, didn't choose it.
With a heavy heart he comforted his daughter and called for his wife to pick her up. He then went out to meet the happy family.
The poem kept playing through his mind.
But it's up to me to use it.
I must suffer if I lose it,
Give an account if I abuse it
Putting aside his normal speech he asked the couple if they were willing to make the commitment and explained that once he signed the order, they could never disown this little boy, no matter what happened in his life.
Satisfied with their answer, the judge uttered the words, “so be it,” with a voice gruff from the emotion welling up within. “Congratulations. You are the proud parents of Roy Wayne. Take care of him and cherish him every day.” Hastily, the judge left the bench.
His wife and daughter were gone by the time he returned to his office. The judge laid his head in his hands and sobbed just as his daughter had done earlier that afternoon. He sobbed for her. He sobbed for himself. The judge would never know his grandson. Would he be happy? Would he be cared for?
Just a tiny little minute,
But eternity is in it.
Later that night, Jill and Tom looked on the face of their sleeping baby. Their hearts were overflowing with love and joy. He was legally their baby, no one could take him away from them.
Later that night the judge sat beside his daughter’s hospital bed looking at the peaceful expression on her face induced by the sedative the doctors had given her. She had cut her wrists just before supper, but they had found her in time. Another minute and it would have been too late.
Just a tiny little minute,
But eternity is in it.
**Note. My information on the poem shows that the author is anonymous.
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