Burned (10 page)

The fog had rolled back in by the time Mr. MacLeod dropped the girls off at the home where they were staying.

Before they got out of the car, Liam reached down and produced a taped-up box.

“Bethany, I meant to send this to you, but then when I knew that you were coming here, I decided to wait and hand deliver it.”

“What is it?”

“I don't know,” Liam said with a shrug. “I mean, it isn't from me. It's from Tagiilima. He asked me to make sure to give it to you. I guess he thinks that the United States is small and cozy like Samoa and that I would bump into you at the market or something.”

Bethany laughed. “Oh, okay, thanks for delivering it, Liam. Thanks for everything.”

The day, which had been nice and warm, had given over to the chilly coastal air that both girls claimed to love if for no other reason than it gave them the chance to wear sweaters and jackets that they never used in Hawaii.

Rather than go into the house, the girls decided to sit on the front steps for a while. “What's that weird smell?” Malia said suddenly, glancing around.

“That's a skunk! You've never smelled a skunk before?”

“Duh? Are you forgetting that we don't have skunks in Hawaii?”

“Oh, yeah!” Bethany laughed. “Well, it's probably far away; if it were nearer we couldn't stand to sit outside. It'll fade in a little bit.”

“Good. I like sitting out here.”

The girls sat in silence for a few moments, then Bethany said, “What a strange past few months this has been. What do they call it? A chain of events?”

“Yeah,” said Malia. “Who could have imagined that all this would have happened?”

“I can tell you that I would have never guessed it on the way to the hospital with you,” Bethany admitted.

“And I would never have guessed it when I was bouncing on the reef in Samoa!” Malia said with a laugh. “I guess it really is true that ‘all things work together for good for those who love God.' ”

“Yes,” Bethany said as she smiled. “It really is true.”

“Well, I guess we prove that,” said Malia.

“Without a doubt.”

The girls sat quietly looking at the fog dance around the streetlights when Bethany suddenly remembered the box she had been given.

“Let's see what's in here!” she said, running to get it.

The box was well sealed, but Bethany was able to use her nails to dig her way through the tape. Undoing the wrapping, she found a neatly folded mat. As Bethany unfolded it she saw that it was trimmed with brightly colored feathers.

“Oh, my gosh, do you know what this is?”

“A repentance mat!” they both said at the same time. Then Bethany noticed the picture at the bottom of the box, along with a letter.

Tagiilima smiled back at her from the picture, his arm wrapped around a beautiful little girl who was holding a tattered
People
magazine in her hands as they sat on the beach.

“No way,” Bethany whispered.

“That's the little girl from the church!” Malia said excitedly.

Bethany turned to the note, written in simple print and painstakingly neat:

Miss Bethany, I send you this
repentance mat to thank you. And to
tell you that because of your words I
no longer need to be under it. I too
lost my wife and had much anger. Like
Mr. Liam. But no more. When Jesus
lifted the mat off me, he lifted my
burden.

“Bethany, look!” Malia said suddenly as she pointed to the picture again — but more specifically to Tagiilima's bare foot . . . and his missing
big
toe
. “We must have been so busy surfing we never noticed before.”

“So that was Tagiilima under the repentance mat at Pastor Samuel's!” Bethany said as a chill went up her spine.

“Not anymore,” Malia said. Bethany felt a sudden rush of tears well up in her eyes. She was amazed and overwhelmed beyond words.

She glanced down at the place where her arm had been and thought of all the ways God had used her since the tragedy. She had believed she was going to Samoa to surf — but God had so much more planned. Not just for her but for all the lives he had touched through her.

“God works in all things, Malia,” Bethany said as a tear escaped and ran down her cheek.

“Yeah,” Malia said, brushing away her own tears. “It's pretty awesome, isn't it?”

one

“My lungs are going to collapse!” Holly Silva gasped as she melted into a human puddle on the park grass. “I can't believe you talked me into this!”

“You're welcome,” Bethany panted as she landed next to Holly with a grin. She never got tired of running at Hanalei Bay. Surrounded by towering green cliffs and waterfalls that seemed to go on forever, it was like having a running trail in the middle of Jurassic Park. Minus the man-eating dinosaurs, of course.

The run had been good for her, she thought, glancing up at the wide blue bowl of sky. Good enough to shake off the cloud that had been looming over her ever since waking from that crazy dream.

“How many miles was that?”

Bethany glanced over as Holly threw her arms wide across the grass. Bethany smiled. The cool thing about hanging with Holly was you couldn't stay in a weird mood for long.

“Miles? More like one mile,” Bethany said, and then laughed as Holly's green eyes widened in disbelief. “It's running in the sand that gets you.”

“It's running in the sand
after
surfing all morning. No wonder Malia and Jenna bailed on us!”

“Malia and Jenna aren't as gullible as you,” Bethany teased. Bethany had to bite her lip to keep from giggling as her friend sat up. Holly's short brown hair was dark with sweat and sticking up all over the place.

“It's winter training, Holly,” Bethany continued when she was able to talk without laughing. “You'll be glad you did it with me when you survive Hanalei Bay when it's fifteen feet.”

“News flash, Bethany
;
I don't like to surf when it's fifteen feet —
you
like to surf when it's fifteen feet!” Holly narrowed her eyes. “And why do you keep looking at my hair?”

“Well . . .” Bethany burst out laughing. “It's a little scary.”

“Ugh,” Holly groaned, running her hands through her hair as her eyes darted toward the cute surfers tossing a Frisbee on the beach. “That's what I get for following you around the bay twice!”

Bethany smiled as she turned her gaze towards the rocky shoreline on the other side of the bay. Suddenly, her smile faded a little and she felt a shiver go up her back. Why couldn't she shake that dream?
There was something about those rocks —

“So, tell me why you like torturing yourself like this.” Holly said, interrupting Bethany's thoughts.

Bethany leaned back in the grass and thought for a moment. “Remember last January at the Big Surf?”

“I remember you were the only girl crazy enough to go out.”

“Well, I got caught by flat rock in a cleanup set. I was pinned to the bottom for the first wave, rolled around by the second, and finally broke surface for a breath after the third wave — ”

“Exactly
why
I don't surf the bay when it's fifteen feet!”

“No, you don't get it! What I'm saying is, I was a little freaked out — but not like I would've been if I hadn't trained. If you
know
you can handle a couple of wave hold downs, then it isn't as scary . . .” Bethany's voice trailed off as she thought about the dream again, and she wondered if it meant that she needed to train harder — be better prepared.

She glanced over at Holly who was quiet for once, with a thoughtful look on her face as she studied the sky. Bethany wished Holly would say something — anything — to lighten the mood.

“Hello?”

“I was just trying to figure out what's worse,” Holly said finally, her grin reappearing. “Training with you or being wiped out by a massive wave.”

“Very funny.”

“I gotta get up and find something to drink,” Holly laughed, then groaned as she slowly rose to her feet. “My body hates me, and we still have the car wash to do!”

“Let's head into town. I'll buy you a bottle of water for being such a good sport,” Bethany offered.

Holly arched a brow at her. “Good sport?”

“Okay . . . for running with me!” Bethany added. They both laughed.

“Ready to stagger to the store?” asked Holly.

“You stagger, I kinda feel like jogging.”

“Bethany, you are such a show-off!”

Bethany grinned, feeling her spirits rise. “Catch up, and I'll let you in on an idea I have for the car wash!”

“I'm probably going to regret this!” Holly called out and then ran to catch up.

They were guzzling water in front of the Big Save grocery store when Bethany's mom arrived to shuttle them to the church car wash.

“I don't know how you girls do it,” Cheri said as they scrambled into the van. “I have a hard time keeping up as the driver!”

“You reap what you sow, Mom. Isn't that what you always tell me?”

“Hmm.” Cheri pursed her lips in thought as she backed out of the parking space. “I wonder what the wash-me bandits are going to reap?” She grinned at Holly in the rearview mirror. “Any ideas?”

Holly blushed, but Bethany burst out laughing. Her mom had spotted all the dirty rear windows they had written
wash me
on as they headed into town.

“We'll reap business for the car wash — for the mission trip.”

“So we can go build homes in Mexico for those less fortunate.” Holly added with a hopeful grin.

“Uh, huh,” Cheri said and then did a double take in the rearview mirror. “Okay, how did you two manage to get
my
back window without me noticing?”

Cheri shook her head in amazement, and Bethany and Holly broke into a fresh round of laughter.

“Is this the third or fourth car wash?” Holly asked once she caught her breath.

“Third,” Bethany said, glancing over the seat. “I just wish there was something else we could do. It feels like it's taking forever, and I've been dying to go on a mission trip since I was little!”

“Too bad we're not
trustafarians
.”

“What?” Bethany and her mom said at the same time and then laughed.

Holly grinned. “You know, hippies with Rastafarian hair who live in the jungle and only come into town to get money out of their trust fund accounts.
Trust-afarians.
Get it?”

Bethany and her mom groaned. Holly was almost famous for the crazy way she described people. If she didn't know of a term, she was happy to make one up.

“Check it out,” Holly said, suddenly pointing to the side passenger window. Bethany turned in time to see a long black limousine in the lane next to them. “
They
should be at our fundraiser!”

“No doubt,” Bethany said slowly as she watched the limo pick up speed to pass them. She was suddenly caught off guard as the face of a teenage girl turned to stare back at them. She was pretty in a polished kind of way, with dark hair cut in a shiny bob and fair skin. The girl noticed them watching her and quickly looked away.

“Probably a
celebutante
,” Holly added knowingly.

Bethany grinned and shook her head just as the girl glanced up to the sky. Bethany was struck hard by the sad look on the girl's face.

I wonder what it is that's made her so sad?

Something about the girl tugged at Bethany —something she couldn't put her finger on — like the way her eyes kept being drawn back to the rocks at Hanalei Bay. Like her dream.

It wasn't that she thought people with money couldn't have problems. Her friend Liam and his dad had been through some really bad stuff — until they found God. Even now, they still dealt with the same things everyone worried about, prayed about. But what if someone didn't know God? What if what they owned was all they thought they had? “Is that it?” Andrea looked out the window of the limousine to the west as an awesome view of towering cliffs with waterfalls free-falling down to a slip of white sand and ocean opened up before them. Colorado had some cool-looking mountains, she thought, but
nothing
like this.

“Yeah, that's it, kiddo.”

Andrea turned around, surprised at the hint of excitement she thought she heard in her mom's voice. Her mom glanced up from the map she'd been squinting at and smiled — a smile that Andrea couldn't ever remember seeing before. For a moment, she almost looked and sounded kind of young.

Maybe.
She tried not to hope too much, but she yearned to have a real family that hung out together. She thought of the blonde girl she'd seen in the van, hair blowing in the wind, with such a huge smile on her face. The lady driving had the same kind of smile. They looked like they were having fun together.