Grace in the Shadows by Christine Dillon

Author:Christine Dillon
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780648129646
Publisher: Links in the Chain Press

29

Esther looked at her father over the top of her crossword. As usual, he’d bought two copies of the morning paper, and they were having their monthly competition. It used to be a daily event, and she was out of practice. She didn’t want to be sitting here. She wanted to talk to Mum and find out if she’d heard anything from Rachel.

“Esther, I don’t enjoy winning if you’re not concentrating.”

“Sorry, Dad.” Esther forced her mind back to the task. It was hard to sit in the same room as her father. What kind of man not only never mentioned his older daughter but forced his wife to do the same? How had he stood up in the pulpit, week after week, with such secrets on his soul?

If she didn’t make some effort, her father would start asking probing questions, and she couldn’t risk being interrogated. Esther nibbled the end of her pencil. Two down, twelve letters, the formation of a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound it describes. She knew this one, but how was it spelled? She jotted various spellings on the side of her newspaper. Onamatopea. Onomatopeia. She was still missing a letter. Esther wrote in the letters she was sure of and kept going. Amazingly, her father only beat her by two words.

While they competed, Mum had laid the table under the beach umbrella in the garden. She’d made her famous roast chicken, pine nut, parmesan, and mango salad.

A normal father would have asked Esther how she was coping with ongoing tiredness but for him, she wasn’t recovering from cancer. To even admit Esther had ever had cancer was to admit that God hadn’t listened to his prayers for healing.

“How’s work?” he said. “Any more awards or promotions?”

Work was one of his few safe topics.

“I’m unlikely to ever win ‘employee of the year’ again. That’s once in a lifetime, and the only way to be promoted again would be for me to become head of a department.”

“Well, that shouldn’t be beyond you.”

He never understood her lack of ambition. She loved physio because of the patient contact. Promotion would take that away. “The roles are all filled by perfectly competent people.”

“Maybe you should change hospital.”

“Dad, I like where I am. I can cycle to work. Besides which, I’ve been sharing about Jesus with one of the other physios.”

William beamed. “That’s my girl.”

“Why don’t you tell us about how that came about?” Mum said, even though she’d heard this all before.

Her father cleared his timetable when Esther came to visit. Did he still hope things between them could get back to their easy pre-cancer camaraderie? He’d been proud of her. Was that how he’d been with Rachel too? Or had they clashed from the beginning?

“Brenda met a patient who talked about Jesus in a natural way and wasn’t afraid of dying.” Esther couldn’t mention Naomi. “It made her curious. Brenda knew I was a Christian and asked me some questions. She was interested enough to agree to meet up with me again.

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.