#
"You
look exhausted," Sara said when Greg arrived the following night.
They
planned to take Danny to see the Christmas lights at the state capitol, spend
some time together as a family, but a grueling day at the office had zapped his
energy and left him drained.
"Give
me a few minutes. I'll be fine."
"We're
still going, aren't we, Dad?" Danny asked, hopping from one foot to the
other.
The
weariness slipped away as Greg saw the excitement in his son's eyes. "You bet," he said, swinging Danny
up to his shoulder.
The
next hours were the happiest he could remember.
They returned home exhausted but happy.
Reluctantly,
he left Sara and Danny to return to his empty apartment. The silence mocked the laughter he'd shared
with his wife and son only hours earlier.
His footsteps echoed across the carpet as he sank down on the bed, not
bothering to undress. The future rolled
out before him, a depressing picture of loneliness.
For
the first time since he'd been a child, he knelt by his bed. The words felt awkward upon his lips as he
poured out his heart to God.
"Please,
Father, let Sara and me and Danny find our way back together. I don't want to be alone."
#
"Do
you hear?" Prudie asked, unable to hide her excitement. "He's praying. He believes."
Sister
Endurance looked at Prudie with compassion.
"Does he, dear?"
"Of
course he does. Don't you hear
him?"
"His
words come from fear of loneliness. They
must come from the heart if they are to reach heaven." Endurance took herself off, leaving Prudie
alone with her thoughts.
Prudie
paused, listening again. Endurance was
right. Greg's prayer was one of
fear. How could she turn it into one of
love?
#
Greg
jerked up from his knees. He'd heard
something. Music? No, it'd been a voice. "Who's there?"
The
voice came again. "Tell Sara you
love her."
"Who's
there?" he demanded more loudly, squinting into the darkness.
"A
friend."
He
flipped on the lights. "If this is
some kind of joke ..."
"It's
no joke, Greg. Sara and Danny need
you. You need them."
He
was going crazy. That was it. Too much work. Worry over Danny. He waited, but the voice didn't return.
By
the following morning, he'd managed to convince himself he'd imagined the voice
from last night. Almost.
It
wasn't until the elevator ride to his office on the twenty-third floor that he
heard the voice again. "You don't
belong here, Greg. You're not
happy."
He
looked around, wondering why the elevator's other occupants hadn't reacted to
the voice.
"Did
you hear that?" he asked the woman standing next to him.
"No,"
she said, inching away from him.
"Not a thing."
"Leave
this place," the voice said.
"Go home to Sara and Danny."
"Sara
doesn't love me anymore," he said, not caring that people were staring at
him.
"How
do you know unless you ask her?"
The voice was tart with impatience.
Greg
reached his office, smiled at his secretary, and told her to take the day
off.
She
gave him a puzzled look, murmured a thank-you, and gathered up her belongings.
The
resignation took less time than five minutes to type.
He looked around his office. With the exception of a family picture, there
was nothing he wanted to take with him.
Suddenly, he couldn't wait to escape the rarefied atmosphere of Harper
and Cameron.
On
the way to the house, he rehearsed what he'd say. He'd been given another chance. He didn't intend to blow it. He
pushed on the doorbell. When Sara opened
the door, his carefully planned words fled.
"I quit my job."
"You
what?"
"Quit. Resigned.
Left."
She
looked at him in concern. "Are you
all right?"
"I'm
great," he said. "For the
first time in a long time. I'm going to
open up my own office again, practice the kind of law I was meant to."
"I'm
happy for you, Greg."
He
caught her face between his hands and kissed her. "I love you. I never stopped."
"If
it's because of Danny--"
"I
love Danny. But that's not why I'm
here. I'm here because of you. And me.
I want us to be a family again.
If you'll have me."
"Oh,
Greg, if you really mean that ..."
"More
than I've ever meant anything in my life."
#
Prudie
wiped a tear from her cheek, not caring if her wing rusted.
"You
did a good job, Probationer Prudence. We
will overlook that little indiscretion with the voices," Brother Michael
said, the twinkle in his eyes belying the stern note in his voice.
Prudie
assumed her most innocent expression.
"Voices?"
He
stretched forth a wing, and the veil separating heaven and earth lifted. "Look."
Prudie
watched as the scene unfolded to reveal Danny kneeling beside his bed.
"Thank
you for bringing Dad back," Danny prayed in an earnest voice. "He says we're going to be a family
again. Him and Mom and me. Mom started crying when they told me, but I
didn't mind 'cause they're happy tears.
Thanks again." He
paused. "Oh, and thank you for the
baby rabbit. I'm naming him
Rudolph. Amen."
"Amen," Prudie echoed.
"Amen," Prudie echoed.
Well, there you have it. I hope you enjoyed "Prudie and the Christmas Wish."
Jane
I did enjoy it, but I also think it begs to be expanded into a full length book. There's so much potential here!
ReplyDeleteWhat a neat story. I liked this a lot.
ReplyDelete