The Girl Who Invoked Fire: Book Two - The Secret Guardians by Rogers Patrick

Author:Rogers, Patrick
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New Summit Press
Published: 2023-05-10T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Michigan Stadium

May 2003

On a perfect spring day, astounding myself more than anyone, I graduated from college. Four years prior, attending college—let alone graduating from such a top university as Michigan—seemed so beyond the realm of the possible that the thought hadn’t even crossed my mind. But the saints have their ways.

For the graduation ceremony, Luke flew in from Texas, where he’d been running training seminars for his new and growing agency, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Afterward, he would stay a week to get me moved to Chicago.

After some serious back and forth with my missing mother’s old friends, the Freemans, and long phone calls with Luke, I had agreed to come on board with Spirit of East West, my mother’s organization. We agreed on a one-year trial period to start, basically an experiment to see if I could help breathe new life into the organization.

However, the job had one big downside. I would still be separated from Luke after four years of living apart. There was a Chicago federal government office he could work out of, but the southern border was where the action was, so he’d be traveling there a good portion of the time.

I sensed that the Freemans had personally underwritten the new East West position. I later learned of their single-minded devotion to keeping alive the movement my mother founded. Even as its flame had dwindled to just a tiny spark, they still had not given up hope that East West would someday rise again. I was grateful to have found these generous and welcoming people. They even came to my graduation, driving over from Chicago. It was as if they were standing in for my parents. Between having them and Luke by my side, the occasion was extra special.

As I walked across the stage in cavernous Michigan Stadium to receive my diploma, decked out in my maize-and-blue cap and gown, I sensed my mother’s spirit at my side. Tears welled up, bittersweet tears, but I smiled through them. Then just like that, the walk was over, and it was as if Ming was finally letting me go, as every mother must do with every child—sending me out into an uncertain world, with love and prayers the only certainties she can offer for the journey.

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