Free Full Tilt (Rock Star Chronicles) by Creston Mapes Page B

stiffening. Although Everett had contemplated driving the tractor with Millie in the trailer, he decided not to mention the idea to Karen; she would want it to be more personal.
    Karen covered the dog in a navy blanket and helped guide Everett as he carried the body all the way down and up the rolling hills that led to the ridge. Once Everett, out of breath and on his knees, gently laid the collie in the oval-shaped hole, Karen used one of the shovels to chop and jab the dirt that would cover the dog—making sure it was fine, like powder—no stones. Everett helped.
    They covered their beloved collie with the soft dirt until there was a small mound slightly above ground level. Karen marked the grave with three large rocks they’d found nearby.
    “I want to read something.” She reached for the inside pocket of her beige barn coat and pulled out a small black Bible. Everett rested an arm around her back.
    She leafed through the thin pages, her tapered fingers and thin hands pink from the cold. A line of geese honked overhead. “‘Hear my cry, O God; Give heed to my prayer. From the end of the earth I call to You when my heart is faint; Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.’”
    A tear slipped from the outside corner of her eye and hit the shoulder of her coat. “‘For You have been a refuge for me…a tower of strength against the enemy. Let me dwell in Your tent forever; Let me take refuge in the shelter of Your wings.’”
    The Scripture was about more than Millie and the wicked ones who killed her; this was about her infertility, the death of a dream, and their very future—which was going to be radically different than Karen had ever envisioned.
    With the whipping wind, Everett was rocked by an overwhelming sense of inadequacy, as if he wasn’t all Karen needed.
    It was a lie.
    Why do I listen, then?
    “One more,” she muttered, rolling the pages beneath her thumb. “I’ll have to work on this one.” She paused. “‘You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you…’”
    She slipped the Bible back into her coat pocket and knelt, her knees soaking in the wet dirt. Then she looked up, toward the house, finishing the rest from memory. “’For He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good…’”

9
     
    ON THE GLOOMY TREK back to the house, Everett was surprised to learn that Karen hadn’t yet shared the news of her infertility with her parents.
    “I wanted you to know first,” she insisted.
    “Okay. But it’s time to call them.”
    “I know,” she mumbled.
    “Your dad’s gonna feel responsible.” He carried both shovels in one hand and held her close with the other. “And your mom’s going to want to be with you—they both are.”
    Karen was subdued and didn’t argue as they marched through the wet snow toward the house. Everett, meanwhile, recalled the first time he’d met Jacob and Sarah Bayliss at their home in Topeka a little more than a year ago. It was then that Jacob explained the nightmare that had changed their lives.
    Some thirteen years ago, Karen’s father had been the pastor of a large legalistic church. In her own way, Karen rebelled against Jacob’s hypocrisy, pride, and lack of love—she became pregnant at the age of fifteen. To save himself and his man-made ministry, Jacob drove Karen to get an abortion.
    Mind-blowing.
    The night after the operation, in his study, Jacob had an encounter with God—for the first time. On his face, behind locked doors, Jacob cried for hours as God showed him, through that tragic experience, what kind of person he’d been.
    “By His mercy, that’s when everything began to change,” Jacob had explained to Everett. “I asked Karen’s forgiveness, and Sarah’s, and God’s. They were each merciful. I repented and prayed for God to change me, and He began to, that very night. And when I changed, there was a