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The Gifts
Vol One of The Gifts Trilogy
Patria Dunn-Rowe
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The Gifts
Book One of The Gifts Trilogy
Patria Dunn-Rowe
Copyright © 2010 Patria Dunn-Rowe
Book Cover: Christine M. Butler
All rights reserved.
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Dedication
This book is dedicated to my parents, Freddie & Patricia Dunn, whom I love dearly. Thank you for molding me into the young woman, young mother, and young author that I am today. Without you, this would have never been possible. I thank God every day for the honor of being able to call myself your daughter.
Love Always & Forever…
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I Corinthians 12:8-13:
"For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will."
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Prologue
Dear Ms. Marks,
The Wake Forest Medical School Foundation invites you to be a speaker at the Annual Aspiring Doctor’s, Inspiring Minds Banquet. You were selected, by the Dean of Wake Forest University, as a prime candidate to speak on behalf of students who have chosen to enter the medical field. This will be the first time that a student who has not yet been accepted to the Wake Forest Medical School has been selected to be a speaker. Your drive for excellence and heartfelt passion for medicine upholds some of the core values that the Wake Forest Medical School Foundation was founded upon. We look forward to having you as a speaker this year, and will be honored to have you as a medical student in the future. Please RSVP to the foundation office. Details provided below.
Best Regards,
Cecilia Luciano
Foundation Director
It was hard to believe that tonight was the night, I thought, smoothing the imaginary wrinkles from the thigh of my pencil skirt for the hundredth time. The matching, fitted, jacket hugged my ribs, making it almost impossible to breathe as freely as I wanted. Peeking out into the audience from the side stage, I let my eyes roam the banquet hall, looking for my parents. I felt like a fraud, an imposter, just being at this banquet. The eloquent speech that I’d gladly prepared within a week of first receiving the letter, now jumbled in my head, twisting, turning, and finally getting lost somewhere within the secret that I’d kept from the foundation director and my parents. When I’d first decided to make the change, I didn’t think it would be so hard to come forward and back out of the engagement. I’d planned on giving the foundation enough time to at least find a new speaker to fill the slot I’d taken. That was before my mother let it slip about the sizeable donation they had given to the University. For the last month, my invitation to speak seemed to creep into every conversation we had. The pride in their voices pushing me further and further back into a corner, twisting my stomach, until the guilt caused me to put it off for another day. To them, I had earned the honor of being invited; to me, I had been bought and paid for.
