Prince Tennyson (3 page)

Mom smushed me to her really hard and really tight. It knocked the words right out of me. But it was okay, because she had begun to rub my back.

“Shh… honey, it's all right…” She said that over and over again until I stopped crying. I didn't even know I was crying that time until I was done shaking and could breathe right again. Then I began to see that I'd been really emotional. It felt like a huge river had just broke right through the wall that was holding it—a huge, gigantic river.

Once I calmed down, Mom held my hands and said very softly, “Okay. Let's see if God is real.”

That's all she said. But I couldn't believe she'd said it.

She must have really loved me, and she must have wanted to remember her prince again. I took that as a very good sign. “Okay.” I smiled.

Mom smiled too. It still didn't reach her eyes, but she smiled. Then she said the best thing ever. “Want to go to McDonald's? I bet you're starving.”

I laughed. I was. “Yes!”

“Great!” Mom got off the bench and held out her hand for me, just like she used to when I was a little girl. “Come on, let's go.”

I bounced off and took her hand. It felt soft and strong. It was fun to hold her hand while we walked back through the park.

I liked it.

***

The rest of the day was really good after that. Mom and I even got to eat ice cream and go to a movie. That was my favorite part, sitting in the movie with her. Mom didn't laugh out loud like she used to when she watched a movie, but she watched the whole thing with me.

For a long time now, Mom hasn't watched a whole movie. Usually she'd start one in the DVD player and then after a few minutes, walk out of the room. I was beginning to think that she didn't like movies at all anymore. But at the theater, I kept sneaking glances at my mom. It was crazy. Two times I saw her smiling during the funny parts. Two times! That's amazing, because my mom doesn't smile at the funny parts anymore.

Maybe she had a good day with me too. I hoped so. She needed those kinds of days. Maybe she'd start coming out of the house more, too. Even come to the soccer games Grandma Haney made me and Hannah play. That would be so cool to see her happy and cheering at our games like she used to.

It was late when we got home. Almost time for dinner. Grandma Haney didn't mind, though. She had a big grin on her face when we came through the door. Cameron was in her arms, and he was grinning too. “Look! Look who's here! Your big sister and Mom,” she said in a really excited voice.

“Mama!” Cameron lunged and kicked to get out of Grandma's grasp. My mom smiled and held her arms out for him. It was cute when he climbed up on her hip and hung onto her like a monkey.

Then Grandma said something I wished she wouldn't have. It took Mom's smiles right off her face. I don't think Grandma Haney meant to hurt Mom's heart, but she did.

You never know what will hurt Mom's heart and make her sad and make her put her baby on the ground and say, “I don't think I'm very hungry. I'm going to my room now. Chelsea, help Grandma with Hannah and Cameron, okay? I'll see you in the morning.”

I looked at Grandma and she looked at me. I knew we were both thinking the same thing.

She shouldn't have told Mom how much Cameron was beginning to look like his daddy.

Chapter Five

I WENT TO CHURCH on Sunday. In the end, I figured it was the best place to start to find out if God was real. During Sunday School this time, they told us to read the Bible to gain a testimony. I wasn't sure what a testimony was, so I wasn't going to even look in the Bible until the teacher said as we were leaving—

“Don't forget, class. The only way to find out if God loves us is to get our own testimony of Him.”

I stopped putting on my jacket when I heard that. Instead, I stared right at the teacher, hard. I couldn't believe what she'd just said. My brain worked overtime trying to figure it all out.

If I read the scriptures, then I would get a testimony. If I had a testimony, then I would know that the Lord loved me. So if I knew that the Lord loved me, then that meant He had to be real, right?

My heart started to beat faster. My hopes were getting up, I could feel them. Quickly I buttoned up my jacket and ran out of the room, right past the teacher. Grandma Haney was waiting for me in the hall. She was talking to two other ladies, but she smiled when I zoomed up to her.

“Well, did you survive again?” she asked.

I nodded my head and then looked really curiously at the two ladies.

Grandma turned to them and said, “Oh, sorry. Chelsea, this is Mrs. Chavez and Mrs. Livingston.” She put her arm around my shoulders and brought me to her side. “And this is Chelsea Tennyson, Tiffany's daughter.”

“O—oh …” The women looked at me sad for a moment, and then smiled funny at my grandma. “Poor thing, losing her daddy like that, and her mom losing it too,” they said.

I didn't like that.

Grandma didn't either. I could tell, because in the next second she was all business again. “Okay, well, Chelsea and I better go. We'll see you later. Goodbye.” Then she turned me around fast and marched me away from there. Even before they could say goodbye.

The whole way home, Grandma Haney mumbled under her breath, so I just looked out the window. I had almost forgotten completely about the testimony thing until we pulled in the driveway. It's a good thing my brain remembered about the Bible.

“Grandma, wait!” I said as she put her hand on the car door handle.

She whipped her head around fast and looked at me with big eyes. “What? What is it?”

I giggled. I know I shouldn't have, but my grandma looked so worried and scared, I couldn't help it. “Sorry. It's not anything bad.” I quickly covered up my smiles and blurted out before I laughed again, “I was just wondering, can I borrow a Bible?”

Grandma freaked out so much her jaw dropped and everything. “What did you say?” she gasped.

I chuckled. Her face was so funny. I'd never seen her look so shocked before. “A Bible. Do you have a Bible in your house?”

Grandma Haney's jaw came back up and her brows went down. “Of course I have a Bible in the house. What kind of question is that?”

“You do. Then—”

“And I guess you can read it as long as you take good care of it. But—why?”

“Because I want to know if God is real or not.”

“Wow.” Grandma sat back in her seat and looked out the windshield. “Uh, yeah, Chelsea, go ahead and read it all you want.”

“Thanks.” I undid my seatbelt and pulled the door handle, ready to jump out.

“I'll put it on your bed in a little bit and you can look at it while everyone else is watching TV.”

“Okay.” I was out the door and running up the driveway fast, leaving Grandma to think in the car.

I had to wait until I'd played with my little brother and watched Hannah change her doll's outfit about six times and get my soccer uniform from yesterday's game in the laundry room, and then eat dinner, before I could get a glance at the Bible. I thought I was gonna burst from waiting so long.

“Wow.” The Bible was a big, very big, book—with small writing, too. And it looked different inside from any other book I'd ever seen. There were lots and lots of numbers all over the place. It was really weird.

I wasn't sure where to begin, because once I started reading the beginning, I got confused. I wanted to read about Jesus's life and stuff. Like where He was born.

I turned about twenty pages and I still couldn't find where He was born. Wasn't the Bible about Jesus? Why were all these funny-named people in here?

Hmm. I decided to go backwards. Maybe the Bible ended with Him? As I flipped it, I came across the dictionary and then some other part that was called a funny word. But the funny word one was cool, because I was able to look up Jesus and then find places in the book that talked about Him. I noticed there were some boys' names I could read, like Matthew, John, and Luke and stuff. They seemed to talk a lot about Jesus, so after a while of skimming through the Bible, I started to read the part called Luke.

I couldn't understand all of it, because it was written in olden day language, probably like how my grandma used to talk when she was a kid, but I could tell that Jesus was born. Some other things happened, but I wasn't sure what, really—it talked about taxes and swaddling and glory and stuff.

After I read to the big number three in the Luke part, I decided to set the book down and see if I felt a testimony coming.

I waited for a long time.

Just sat there and looked around.

After that long time, I still felt the same. It was weird, actually. I wanted to feel different—I really did—and I couldn't. Ugh.

“Hey, how's it going?”

“Mom?” I was so surprised to hear my mom's voice behind me, I spun around and fell off the bed. Head and shoulders first.

Oomph.

“Chelsea, are you okay?”

“Yeah,” I mumbled. I wasn't, but I definitely didn't want Mom to get stressed out.

“Are you sure?” Mom lifted the lightweight blanket that had fallen with me. “That looked like it hurt.”

“Did it?” I rolled around and tried to find the best way to get up.

“Well, it looked pretty funny, too.”

I froze and glanced up at my mom.

Oh. She wasn't smiling. I had hoped that she was.

With a sigh, I heaved myself to my feet and brushed my hands on my skirt. My shoes were still in the same place where I'd left them on the floor by the bed. It was probably a good thing I didn't have them on. I'm sure they would've flown off and broke something.

That thought made me smile. I know it shouldn't have, but I found it funny.

“So, how's your Bible reading going?” Mom asked as she brought the blanket over to me.

Ack! I quickly looked back on the bed. “Oh, no. Grandma's Bible!” Where did it go?

Chapter Six

“IT'S THE FIRST THING I picked up from the floor, honey,” Mom calmly said as she flipped the blanket in the air and settled it nicely on the bed. “It's over there on the dresser.”

Oh! “Whew.” I sat on the side of the bed that Mom had already smoothed with her hands.

“So, are you going to tell me about it? Grandma says you've been in here a while reading.” She fluffed up my pillow and put it on top of the blanket again. Then she sat on the bed and faced me. “Well?”

“Well…” My eyes rested on the Bible on the dresser across from me. I didn't know how to tell her exactly, so I just said, “It hasn't worked yet.”

“Aww.” Mom slumped her shoulders and nodded her head. “Well, you never know. It may take a long time to find out if God is real or not.”

“Ugh.” I threw myself back on the bed. “Why does it have to be long?”

“I didn't say it
would
take a long time—I just said it
might
.”

“I still think you're right, though,” I grumbled up to the ceiling. “I read and read that whole Luke chapter part—all those little numbers until they came to the big three number. I read that whole thing, and I didn't feel anything.”

I felt the bed move as my mom got off it. I quickly got up on my elbows to see what she would do. She walked right over to the Bible and picked it up. I watched her thumb through it till she came to the middle. Then she stopped.

“Wow, Chelsea. That is a lot of reading you did.” She turned and walked back to sit on the bed, bringing the Bible with her. “A lot of hard reading.” As she looked at the book some more, Mom turned a couple of pages. “Did you understand what was happening? I'm not even sure I can follow this.”

“No,” I admitted. “But I did know that Jesus was born. I read that part.” I sat up and leaned over her shoulder to see where she was at. She was right where I read earlier. I was surprised to see how fast my mom had found my place.

“Mom?”

“Hmm?” Her fingers turned a few more pages and I watched her eyes scan them.

Was she reading? “How did you find that Luke part so fast?” I asked.

Mom shrugged her shoulders. “I don't know.”

I wasn't buying it. As quick as I could, I climbed off the bed and knelt on the floor below her and watched her face.

She moved the Bible and looked at me funny. “Chelsea, what are you doing?”

“You've read the Bible before, haven't you?”

“What?”

“There is no way you could've found that Luke place so fast. I know. I tried.” I pointed right at the book in her hand. “How come you never told me you've already tried to find out if God was real?”

“Oh, honey.” Mom snapped the book shut. “Just because I've read the Bible doesn't mean I know He's real.”