Free Shattered Justice by Karen Ball Page A

protest and Kyla’s indignation. He made one last round through the barren house. It felt so sad … a skeleton of a life that used to be. Pausing in each room, he let the memories drift over him. Good memories. Memories that he’d keep with him always. Memories that gave him the strength to do what he knew he needed to do.
    Until, that is, he came to the bedroom he and Sarah had shared. There, the memories were overwhelming, bringing back his loss with renewed sting. He leaned against the wall, taking in the bare room.
    Early this morning, the moving truck pulled into Dan’s driveway.His sisters arrived mere minutes later, and the day raced by as he supervised the hauling and loading of his and Sarah’s life together.
    The kids had recovered from their stint in miracle land and were back to normal—aggravating each other at every opportunity. But they managed to keep their exchanges on a mostly friendly, bantering level, which Dan appreciated.
    Now, standing in his bedroom, Dan felt the weariness bore into him. He rubbed at his throbbing temples. How could he say good-bye to this place?
    To this life?
    How could he—
    “Daddy?”
    He turned, schooling his features into some semblance of peace before he met his daughter’s eyes. “Hey, kiddo. I thought you were outside with your aunts.”
    “I was. But Aunt Annie said she thought it was hard for you to leave. So I came to help.” She looked around, wrinkles forming a question mark on her brow as her hand went to the pendant at her neck. “There’s nothing here, Daddy.”
    He followed his daughter’s gaze. “You’re right. And you know why?” He knelt beside her. “ ’Cuz everything that matters is going with me.”
    “Can we go see our new home now?”
    He touched his nose to hers, then stood and held out his hand. “You bet we can.” With her hand nestled in his, he led her from the room, his steps sure and solid.
    If only his heart felt that way as well.

SIX

    “Sometimes when you think you are done
,
it is just the edge of beginning.”

N ATALIE G OLDBERG
    “The L ORD longs to be gracious to you.”

I SAIAH 30:18 (NIV)
    “YOU FEEL THAT?”
    Dan turned to his son. “Feel what?”
    Aaron sat as far forward on the seat as his seat belt would allow. “I’m not sure. I just got a kind of … charge, I guess. Excitement. Like we’re goin’ on a real adventure.”
    “An adventure.” Dan mulled that over. “Yes, I guess you could say that. Starting a new life is definitely an adventure.”
    “Look, Dad! That’s where we turn, right?”
    It was, indeed. Dan turned the moving truck off the Crater Lake Highway, just opposite the Sanctuary Ranger Station. His sisters and Shannon followed him in Dan’s car. Just after turning off the highway, he came to a large, rustic sign at the side of the road.
    The wooden sign hung from a frame of logs, and large letters were burned with artistic precision into the weatherwornmarker. Aaron read out loud: “Welcome to Sanctuary, A Little Bit of Heaven on Earth.”
    Dan looked at his son. “Sounds pretty good.”
    Aaron glanced at the tall evergreens all around. “It’s sure not like Central Point or Medford.”
    A pang of worry plucked at Dan’s innards. He drove on. “Does that bother you?”
    “Nah.” Aaron grinned. “I was never that crazy about living in town anyway. Besides, I bet we get snow for Christmas up here!”
    Relief brought a smile to Dan’s face. “I think you can count on that.” From what he’d heard, December usually brought as much as a foot of snow up here. All the years they’d lived in the Rogue Valley, Aaron and Shannon had prayed for snow at Christmas. Unfortunately, the white stuff rarely fell on the valley floor, so Christmas after Christmas they were disappointed. A few years there was actually a dusting on Christmas Eve, and both kids ran outside to scrape up what they could into snowballs. But a real snowfall? It just hadn’t happened.
    There should be snow