Free Jack Staples and the Ring of Time by Mark Batterson

for.”
    Alexia wiped a tear from her cheek as she turned to stare out the window. “He was my very best friend,” she said. “I used to sneak into the cages at night and sleep between Beast and Killer. They looked after me. They took care of me.” Alexia whispered the last words.
    After a moment Jack’s mother smiled sadly. “You see? It was because of you that … Beast was it? Or Killer?” She smiled at the names.
    “Beast,” Alexia said sullenly.
    “You were the reason Beast learned to love people. He loved you so much that he was willing to give his life to save someone like you. He chose to save my Jack because he was thinking of you.”
    Alexia opened her mouth, but nothing came out. Finally, she said, “I really miss them.”
    Jack’s mother smiled and walked over, placing her hands on Alexia’s shoulders. “Ah, Alexia, you are a godsend. It is because of you that Jack is alive.”
    Both Jack’s mother and Alexia had tears in their eyes. And as he thought about it, Jack, too, began to cry. The lion had saved his life. It hadn’t been a mistake; the beast had given its life to save him.
     

Chapter 11
    EVERYTHING IS NORMAL
     
    The following days were anything but normal. After his experience in the woods, let alone what happened in the schoolhouse, Jack was anxious about absolutely everything. He found himself jumping at every shifting shadow or unexpected noise.
    Had any of it been real? Jack hadn’t seen any more slithering fog or moving maps or other Jacks trying to kill him. Is this what it feels like to go mad? he wondered. At least three times a day his mother asked him if he was all right or if he wanted to talk. And he did want to talk, but he was afraid that she might think of him differently. Ethan Wild, the boy who’d gone mad at the schoolhouse, had been sent away, and from what Jack had heard, his family never visited him.
    Besides, Jack wanted to talk to Parker about it before anyone else. But his father and Parker had not yet returned from their trip. Every time he asked his mother where they were, all she said was that the masonry job was taking far longer than expected, and, “They will be home when the job is done.”
    With a beast roaming the woods, almost everyone in Ballylesson spent their days inside. The men still worked their farms, but they kept an ax with them at all times. The women only went out if they needed to pick up food from O’flannigan’s, Ballylesson’s general store. And even then, most were accompanied by at least one ax-hefting man. For the time being at least, all of Ballylesson was living in fear.
    With Mrs. Dumphry nowhere to be found and the beast in the woods, Minister McCarty had canceled school for the “foreseeable future.” Jack wasn’t upset about the school closing; he wasn’t sure he ever wanted to go back to the schoolhouse. What if that strange map was still there?
    A few days after Jack’s experience with the Shadowfog, Doctor Falvey stopped by the house. Jack, Alexia, and his mother were having breakfast in the kitchen. Jack’s mother told Doctor Falvey about the lion. As he listened to the story, the doctor began to grin. When it was finished, he shook his head, chuckling to himself.
    “Ah, these wee children do come up with the most delightful stories.” He winked at Jack’s mother. “I’m surprised at you, Megan, that you would believe the fancies of an orphan girl.”
    Before he could say another word, Alexia had grabbed a ceramic jug of milk and hurled it across the kitchen. The jug slammed into the doctor’s chest, spilling warm milk down his coat and all over the floor.
    “I am not an orphan, and I am not a child!” Alexia seethed.
    Jack watched in wide-eyed wonder to see what his mother would do. She just looked at Alexia for a moment, clearly taken aback. Doctor Falvey was sputtering and more than a little angry as he tried unsuccessfully to wipe the milk from his coat.
    Jack’s mother grabbed a towel and handed it to