The Presence by Bill Myers

Author:Bill Myers [Myers, Bill]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-310-57226-8
Publisher: Zondervan
Published: 2005-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

you should be ashamed of yourself.” Rachel nailed Albert with a glare. “She’s just a girl!”

“It wasn’t my idea.” Albert turned to the rest of the group. “It was hers. It’s what she wanted.”

“You’re the adult … or hadn’t you noticed?”

“It’s not my fault.” Albert swore again, and again the air rippled. “Oww!” He gripped his mouth but continued shouting through the pain. “I’m trying! Why do you think I was out there? I was trying to get away, to control it. But the harder I try, the worse it gets. You can’t blame me; it’s the way I’m wired.” He motioned to the others around the fireplace. “Just like you can’t blame the preacher here for his issues—”

Preacher Man straightened, trying his best to appear sober … with minimal success.

“—or David with all his junk, or Savannah … or anybody else in this room.” Turning back to Rachel, he added, “Including you.”

She glanced down, very much aware of her own baggage.

“We’re not puppets,” David muttered. He eased himself down on the sofa beside her. His violet light thicker, boiling more intensely. “We have free will.”

“Precisely,” Reverend Wyatt agreed from the opposite chair. His hood was so dense that Rachel could no longer see his face. “And it is that free will, along with God’s Word, that can liberate us all from—”

“No,” Preacher Man interrupted.

Wyatt stopped and looked at him.

“There’s more.” The old man’s voice was clogged and exhausted, but he pressed on. “There’s more than God’s Word … and our will.”

Rachel watched, waiting with the others.

“And prayer,” Nubee reminded him.

“There’s more than prayer.”

With strained patience Reverend Wyatt replied, “And you still say this, even in your condition?”

Preacher Man looked up, holding him with red, watery eyes. “I say it, ‘cause you keep leavin’ out the other ingredient.”

“Which is?” David asked.

Preacher Man turned to him, licking his dry, parched lips. “His love …” He swallowed and continued. “His love for us … and our love for Him. It’s not just the doing. It’s the abiding.”

A moment passed before Savannah spoke from within her bloated light. “Doesn’t look like it’s helping you much, old-timer.”

Preacher Man turned to her, wanting to give an answer, then looked down, obviously having none.

“What about Starr?” Rachel asked, adjusting her cardigan sweater and bringing them back on topic. “Has anyone seen her?”

“She can’t be far,” Albert said. “Not with the electronic leash.”

“You have it all mapped out?” Reverend Wyatt asked.

“All three sides.”

“And the fourth?”

“The bluff. A sheer drop, eight hundred feet to the valley below. No way she could climb down that. But there’s something else.” He looked at David. “Don’t know if it’ll help, but your boy here, he may have found something.”

All eyes turned to Luke, who slouched further.

“Go ahead,” Albert encouraged. “Tell them.”

“Tell us what, boy?” Tension swept the room as they turned to see Orbolitz making his entrance down the stairway, accompanied by his two bodyguards. “So how’s everybody doin’ this afternoon?”

No one responded.

“I gotta tell you”—he tapped his goggles which could

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