Leap of Faith by Jenny Pattrick

Author:Jenny Pattrick [Pattrick, Jenny]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780143770923
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand
Published: 2013-04-08T00:00:00+00:00

Billy loves this. All his gloom has disappeared suddenly, unaccountably. He scales the rocky staircase, quick to find the best footholds. At the top he dances along the rim of the escarpment, waving at the other three as they labour up. The air is clear and sharp, the sun on his head. ‘Praise the Lord!’ he shouts at the top of his voice. He feels the closeness of his Lord and somehow Gabriel’s presence, too. He looks up at the steep slopes of the volcano. Here is a fitting challenge. Gabriel said you can conquer anything if you have faith. He looks back, impatient to climb further, and sees figures way below. ‘Here they are!’ he shouts to his friends. Back near the camp the other party, riders and packhorses, are setting off up the valley. They must be going to ride all the way to the rock wall.

‘Come on, slow coaches!’ Billy looks for a track up Ngauruhoe but there is none. It’ll be a scramble on the loose scree, but he’s full of confidence, full of joy! He can’t wait any longer and begins to climb. At first he tries to scramble straight up, hands and feet, but the loose scree makes it difficult; it’s three steps up, two sliding back and his hands, tough as they are from work on the piers, are already bleeding. Now he tries travelling sideways. This is better; twenty steps in one direction and then zigzag back the other way. Loose stones still roll under his boots but he’s making progress. The sheer delight of it, so high, so steep, above everyone in the world! He feels tears stinging his cheeks and would like to sing but saves his breath for the climb.

The other three are following his tracks, zigzagging upwards, where the stones have been settled a little under Billy’s boots. ‘I am leading my friends,’ whispers Billy, ‘upwards; up into the heavens. Look at me, Gabriel. Wherever you are, look.’ He has never felt so happy.

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