The Promised Land by Elizabeth Musser

Author:Elizabeth Musser
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Women’s Fiction;Christian Fiction;FIC042000;FIC044000
ISBN: 9781493428250
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2020-10-12T00:00:00+00:00

ABBIE

I should have been better prepared. I thought I had planned well, but the storm came out of nowhere. Now I’m sopping wet, and I’ve already slipped and fallen twice. I sit down on a rather uncomfortable rock, exhausted, a mixture of sweat and rain dripping from my brow and a thin trickle of blood sliding down from a scrape on my knee.

Evidently every other pilgrim had enough sense to stay off the trails today. Sitting on the rock, annoyed with myself for my poor choice, a memory surfaces that I’d prefer to forget.

“We have to move the party inside. It’ll be okay. You can’t control the weather, Abbs!”

Bill held me tight, but I fought to get out of his arms, furious that my seated dinner under tents in our backyard for his office buddies and their spouses had to be moved inside.

Bill’s idea had been to reserve a room at the Club. “Nice and simple, Abbs.”

But I wanted it at the house and then, when the crazy storm practically flooded the backyard an hour before the guests were to arrive, I rushed around in rain boots and a windbreaker, desperately trying to redirect the water and screaming at Bill and Bobby and Jason to help me, for heaven’s sake!

Why was I always making them pay for my craziness?

A thunderclap shakes me from my self-incrimination. Then a bolt of lightning splinters the sky, frightening but eerily beautiful. A song from church, a simple melody with profound words, whispers in the storm: Be still and know that I AM; even the wind and waves obey my will. Why do you fear? Where is your faith? Lo, I am with you forever and always. Be still.

I get back up, rattled with all this noise in my head. I do not want to hear any more voices, encouraging or recriminating.

I make it down another steep slope, my legs wobbly with the effort. The trail veers to the left, and I find myself in a copse with the ruins of a stone house where a group of laughing youth are huddled together. They’ve created a makeshift tent with their ponchos and walking sticks. I notice the kerchiefs around their necks. Scouts! I’ve run into a troop of French Boy Scouts. Twelve of them.

I’m dripping wet, but they are dry.

“Madame! Are you alone?” a boy asks in French.

“Oui.”

A young man, evidently the leader, says, “Come under the shelter. You can stay with us until the storm ends.”

I am so grateful that I have to force myself to keep from hugging this man.

“Would you like some bread and chocolate?” another scout asks.

I almost laugh out loud. Bread and chocolate. The proper goûter for every French kid. Yes, yes, I want this simple snack!

Before long I’m perched on the ruins, under the makeshift tent, eating a wedge of dark chocolate that’s been stuffed inside a thick slice of baguette. When they bring out thermoses filled with hot chocolate, I can’t help but smile. The French are always prepared with food and drink.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.