Ray of Hope by Vanessa Davis Griggs

Author:Vanessa Davis Griggs
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: General Fiction
ISBN: 9780758267788
Publisher: Dafina
Published: 2010-12-15T08:00:00+00:00

Chapter 30

And thou shalt command the priests that bear the ark of the covenant, saying, When ye are come to the brink of the water of Jordan, ye shall stand still in Jordan.

—Joshua 3:8

Aalmost a week had passed, and for Sahara, things felt rather quiet for a change. She really loved the swing Andre had put up. She was shocked at how much that swing truthfully affected her. Ma Ray had even gone out, after Andre finished, and tried it for herself. Sahara and Crystal both laughed seeing Ma Ray acting just like them. She was yelling, “Whee!” as she pumped her legs and made herself swing higher. Who would have thought something as simple as two chains and a leather strap for a seat, suspended in the air from an old oak tree resembling an old man, would be the cause of so much joy?

Junebug hadn’t tried contacting Sahara again. He had given her his home and cell phone numbers in case she ever wanted to “get at” him. She definitely wasn’t expecting him to try that Bible study trick again. It had made Sahara laugh, although if anyone should have been upset about Ma Ray crashing like that, it should have been her.

Sahara was the rebellious one. Sahara was the one that did what she wanted no matter what anyone said. Sahara was the one who had tried drugs. She hadn’t cared for it, though. But when you’re trying to be “in,” you’re supposed to act like you like it, or something similar to it. That was also how she’d felt about her sexual encounter.

All the hype the other girls were making about how great it was … totally blown out of proportion. Sadly, it hadn’t been that great to her. She’d felt cheated and cheapened after it was over. She’d felt used. And that was when she learned the real deal behind the peer pressure from other girls to do it. Turns out, it wasn’t this fantasy world the girls who’d done it portrayed it to be. There was nothing magical or spiritual about it at all. Not for her, anyway. Sahara didn’t feel special after the deed was done. Actually, she’d felt like some used-up, disposable thing that didn’t have its same value anymore. She was no longer different, no longer the girl with something other girls no longer possessed. And the guy she’d given her heart and virginity to? Turns out, he hadn’t really cared all that much about her after all. It was a game to him. Like the Wild West, when gunslingers shot someone, then scratched a notch on their belts to keep a running count.

It didn’t mean a thing to him. And it was too late for her to go back, now that it had been done. So she did what all the other girls who had discovered that they’d merely been bamboozled, hoodwinked, sold a bill of goods: She pretended like it was the greatest thing that had ever happened to her.

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