Page 142 of Other Side Of Never
“Are you okay?”He asked, his big hand gentle on my bowed head.
“He’ll stay?”I begged.
“He’ll stay.”
I nodded.“They’re, uh, keeping me really busy.There’s so much suffering.How do you do it?”I asked.“It’s my nature.But I try to get you all to help each other.And I have people who work hard for me.”I tilted my head to look at Him.“Like priests and pastors?”He wagged His head back and forth.“Some.Here let me show you one of my favourites.”I slanted a glance at him.“Are you allowed to have favourites?”He shrugged.“Who’s going to tell me I can’t?”
Opening His hands, he opened a circle like a porthole on the side of a ship.Inside, I watched a janitor walk the halls of a deserted school, her hand dragging along the lockers.
“Listen,” He urged.
Over and over, she murmured, “Cover, protect, bless, keep, guide, heal, be near.”
“And bring safely home to me,” He added.
With those words, I fell into a deep sleep.
“Open your eyes,” He demanded softly.“I want to show you something.”
Spreading open the heavens like a curtain, he showed me Wren, Max’s old girlfriend, sitting on the floor clutching the bear I bought her.
“Aaron is the reason you’re here.”
My eyebrows flew up.“I thought it was to help my family.”
“It is.And you’ll do that through him.”
“Is Wren going to be okay?”
He smiled.“Watch.”
Her cries burst forth like a child’s until, like a child’s, they wrung out.
“Why do we hurt each other so much?”I asked Him.
“You don’t know you’re not meant to fight alone,” He murmured.
Gradually, her breathing slowed, and she burrowed under an old Sage Ridge fleece blanket.
When her cell phone rang, she snapped it up.
Max’s name flashed across the screen.
“Answer the phone, Wrennie,” I urged.
You don’t know you’re not meant to fight alone.
Her eyes flared wide with panic, and I began to lose hope, but then her lips curved in a small smile.
She picked up the phone and tried to speak.
“Wren?Tweet?”Max’s concerned voice broke the silence.“Are you okay?”
“Max,” she whispered.
“Wren.”His voice guttural, he demanded, “Tell me you’re safe.”
“Safe,” she hiccoughed.
