Bridge to a Distant Star by Carolyn Williford

Author:Carolyn Williford
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: bridge, cancer, Women’s friendships, Tampa Bay (Fla.), Sunshine Skyway Bridge, Fiction, Christian colleges, Missionary kids, Sunshine Skyway Bridge (Fla.), friendships, Bridge Failures, relationships, Christian, Women, Florida, Christian Fiction, Marriage, Missionaries, missionary, Affair, General, Children, Modern Christian fiction, Religious, Disasters
ISBN: 9781434767035
Publisher: David C Cook
Published: 2011-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Book Three

Follow Me

Mid-March 2009

McMaster’s Bible College, Tennessee

The all-too-familiar feelings assaulted Michal again, bullying her mind back to the rolling hills of Ethiopia. She was six years old then—tall for her age and therefore gangly and awkward, freckled, with long blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail. It was the type of fine hair that would not be contained neatly; wispy locks escaped around her face and neck. Tendrils which tickled and exasperated.

The nauseating fear had attacked first. Creeping over her like an aggressive fog, causing her to break out in a cold sweat and her stomach to feel like it was being turned inside out. Panic was its accomplice, robbing Michal of any capacity for rational thought; she felt paralyzed.

Images flashed like a spastic slide show. The battered brown suitcase, her grip on the handle so intense that she watched her knuckles turn white. The hem of her dress, the tiny stitches of thread. The toes of her worn tennis shoes. Her dad’s deep-set dark brown eyes, filled with weariness and disappointment. Her mom’s light grey eyes, stern, reproachful. Attempting to control Michal with the sheer force of their intensity.

She could smell the dew of the morning mingled with the pungent exhaust from the idling old station wagon. Feel the heat of the sun on her head and shoulders, the scratchy upholstery against the tender skin of her thighs, the irritating wetness above her lip, evidence of a runny nose, her emotions barely held in check. She heard the irregular rattle of the car’s aging engine, her own sniffs and hiccups.

Snatches of dialogue came in an onslaught against her ears. They erupted like gunfire, and she cringed.

“Please, Daddy. I could have school right here. Mommy can teach me.”

“You have to go—it’s what’s best. Most importantly, it’s what God wants.”

“But maybe … maybe God’s wrong this time.” As soon as she let the words slip out, she knew she’d committed a grave mistake.

Her father leaned down on one knee, looking her right in the eyes. Narrowed his gaze. “Never say that again, Michal. You know God reveals his will to us. After we’ve prayed and sought him through Scripture. He’s never wrong, never. God will take care of you, don’t you believe that? Your mom and I are trusting God. Now it’s your turn to trust him too, Michal.”

“But what if I get sick? Who will put a cool cloth to my forehead?” In her rising anxiety, her questions came faster, her words staccato and sharp: “What if my tummy doesn’t want food again? Who will make a special broth and feed it to me?” The tears formed suddenly, pushing out of her eyes and running down her cheeks. “Who will—?”

Her mother’s voice now. “Michal, enough. We’ve been through all this. I would come if you got really ill, but you’re not going to. You’re going to be fine. This is God’s will, Michal, and you will stop this right now. Be brave like all the others before you—like your grandpa when he was your age.

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