Julia was sitting down beside a window which overlooked the entrance of her house. She was worried because her elder brother was sick and her parents took him to the hospital. Earlier in the morning she was playing with her brother when he suddenly collapse and fainted. She didn’t know what to do, so as most six-year-olds do, she started to cry. Her parents rushed into the room and made a few phone calls before driving out to the hospital. Just as she was about to doze off in the morning sunlight, she saw her parents’ car pulling up in the driveway, and her parents got out of the car and made their way into the house. Julia hopped downstairs to greet them but didn’t know what to say when she saw her mother in tears. Finally, she managed to squeak a question. “Why are you crying, Mommy?”

Her mother wiped her tears on her sleeves before attempting to answer. “Sweetheart, your brother has something bad inside him,” she stuttered. “He will have to leave us for a very long time.” At this point, she started crying again. “If only I noticed earlier,” she mumbled, trailing off.

Her father tried to comfort her mother. “We may not have any money now, but we’ll find a way, okay? We’ll find a way,” he assured her, though his voice was hollow and weak.

“Daddy, why do you need the money for?” Julia piped.

Her father seemed lost for an answer, before he sighed and said, “A miracle. We need to buy a miracle.”

Her parents simply sat down on the sofa in silence, thinking of a way to cure their son. She knew she shouldn’t ask any more questions and she didn’t need to. She walked back to her bedroom and opened her cupboard. She pushed aside a neatly-folded pile of clothes and took out a small jar which was kept hidden at the back. “Julia” was scribbled on a piece of paper which was glued to it. She took off the cover and poured out the contents of the jar: a myriad of coins, some marbles and a few bills. She separated the marbles from the money and started counting. After she finished, she counted again, just to make sure. She had saved a total of seven dollars and twenty-five cents. She smiled to herself; that was a big amount of money. She carefully placed them back into the jar and twisted the cap back on. She picked the jar up and walked downstairs. Her parents were still motionless on the couch. She tip-toed out of the house through the back door and made her way to a clinic nearby. Her father had brought her there once before when she was sick and she was miraculously cured within the next two days. All she had to do was drink a spoonful of some sweet syrup. If anyone could sell her a miracle, it was him.

She struggled to push open the doors with one hand. She entered the clinic and stood in front of the reception counter, her head barely visible. The receptionist was busy talking over the phone and didn’t pay any attention to Julia. Julia waited patiently for her to be noticed but after realizing that the receptionist wouldn’t be done anytime soon, she coughed. There was no response. She cleared her throat in the most disgusting sound she could muster. Still the receptionist paid no heed to her. Finally, she took her jar of money and banged it on the counter. The receptionist, clearly annoyed for having her conversation disrupted, asked, “And what do you want?”

“Well, I want to talk to you about my brother. You see, Mommy says he has something bad inside of him and he will have to leave us for a very long time. I love my brother very much, so I don’t want that. I want to buy a miracle so my brother can continue to stay with us.”

“I beg your pardon?” the receptionist asked in a softer tone and putting down the phone.

“My brother,” Julia started again, tears welling up in her eyes. “He is very sick. I don’t want him to leave us. Daddy says we need a miracle, but he doesn’t have any money. So how much does a miracle cost?”

“We… we don’t sell miracles over here, little girl. I’m sorry, but I can’t help you.”

“But Daddy bought a miracle for me here before. Listen, I have the money to pay for it. If it isn’t enough, I will get the rest. So please, just tell me how much it costs.”

The receptionist was speechless. Julia started to cry. The doctor at the back overheard the noise and came out. His friend followed behind curiously.

“What’s the matter?” asked the doctor.

“This girl says she wants to buy a miracle for her brother,” the receptionist replied, not knowing what to do.

The doctor turned to look at Julia. “What kind of miracle do you need?”

“I don’t know,” she replied, trying her best to stop crying. “I just know that my brother is really sick; he has something bad inside him, and we need a miracle but Daddy doesn’t have the money to buy one, so I’m using mine.”

The doctor was dumbstruck. He could guess that it was most probably a tumour, and an operation to remove it would cost any family a fortune. The doctor was silent, but his friend spoke this time.

“How much do you have?”

“Seven dollars and twenty five cents,” she muttered softly, realizing that it probably wasn’t enough and feeling like a fool. “It’s all the money I have, but I can get some more if I need to,” she added desperately.

“What a coincidence,” the man said as he patted Julia’s head. “That’s the price of a miracle to save a brother.”

He took her money in one hand and took her hand in the other. “Take me to your home,” he said. “I need to see your brother and your parents to be sure that I have the miracle that you need.”

The doctor’s friend was a leading specialist surgeon, well known around the world for performing surgeries that had little chance of success, and succeeding anyway. The operation and follow-ups were completed free of charge and her brother returned home and was able to live a normal life. Julia’s parents liked to talk about the chain of events that saved their son. Her mother would whisper, “That surgery was a real miracle. I wonder how much it would have cost.”

And Julia would always smile to herself when she heard her mother because she knew exactly how much a miracle costs; exactly seven dollars and twenty-five cents.What she didn't know was that it also required faith, sincerity and a little bit of kindness from a stranger.

Written by,

Terence