Like Always by Robert Elmer

Author:Robert Elmer [Elmer, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-49939-4
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2007-01-15T05:00:00+00:00

twenty

If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you

could make, who would you call and what would you say?

And why are you waiting?

STEPHEN LEVINE

Only twenty-four hours had passed, and her secret was already out. Partially.

But what could she do about it? Merit climbed the trail above the resort, the one that looked down at the water as it skirted the lakeshore. She couldn't go far this morning, just far enough to stretch her legs. Maybe out to Black-well Point and back.

Pastor Bud knew, and he would share the predicament with God, who, of course, already knew. How long, though, before she and Will had to tell the girls and Michael? How long before her sister and the rest of the town found out?

And then, how long before they all looked at her with the kind of pity reserved for Romanian orphans, hurricane victims, and starving African children with bloated bellies?

Poor Will. He'd already begun to torture himself over this. It hurt her to watch him, almost more than it hurt to think about her own situation.

Oh, but the girls! They were the only thing that made her take the doctor's pen. The only thought that nearly pushed her to close her eyes and blindly sign her name to the permission form. Will had no idea how close she'd edged to the brink ofthat cliff—and the thought of what she'd nearly done made her shake.

But the moment in the doctor's office had come and gone like an icy wind, and she'd done her best to slam and lock the small window of maybe, even as the horrible temptation still beat on the shingles of her soul. Did it matter how close she'd come to destroying the life that grew inside her? That tiny spark of Will that God had fanned to life, probably right here in their new home? She'd counted the days, and it always seemed to add up.

She shuddered at what had almost been and apologized over and over to God for being so arrogant as to even think about sweeping away such a precious gift, like yesterday's trash. She knew better. And now, with every ounce of her strength, she hugged her new life as she walked and gazed out at the lake.

“No one's going to hurt you now, little one.” She knew exactly who she spoke 1:0, exactly where he lived. Though he might not recognize the words, she prayed he would somehow sense the mother's vow behind them. “I promise I'll do everything I can to protect you.”

And when I can't, then what? she wondered for a moment, afraid to think how short her road might now be.

“And if I can't,” she concluded, “then your daddy will.”

Your daddy. Will That made all the sense in the world, just now. It helped to make this vow out loud, as if she stood in a court of law, her right hand in the air and her left on a Bible. As if she stood before the Judge.

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