“I just wanna know what I did to deserve this. What did I do?”

He didn’t say anything.

He’d always been quiet, ever since she’d come to know Him. And especially since everything started going downhill with Daryl.

“I can keep askin’, can’t I?”

Her voice echoed off the tin walls. A tin voice in a tin house.

“I’m not going to stop askin’.”

Maybe He knew that.

It wasn’t going to change His mind.

“I’m not talking about going to Nashville and singin’. I’m not talking about those dreams I used to have. I’m talking about livin’. I’m talking about trying to just live. Is that too much to ask? Is it?”

Nothing.

Nothing but silence.

Silence and that stark naked Christmas tree just sitting there in the corner. Sitting and staring at her.

“Why won’t you talk to me? Why won’t you tell me? I just want one answer. I just want something. I want to see a little tiny fraction of hope in this place. In my life. In our lives.”

Nothing.

“Please.”

Still nothing.

“If I gotta get on my knees, I will. Lord, You know I’ll do it.”

And that was exactly what she did.

She continued talking to Him, even though it sure seemed as though He wasn’t listening.

But Lynn wasn’t giving up and she wasn’t letting go.

God heard her, and she knew that.

Even if He wasn’t answering, He heard her.

And maybe—just please, God, maybe—He would answer one of these prayers and let a door open and let hope seep on in.

As Poor as I Am

Monday morning brought the reality of going to school again. The reality of Vic and the basketball team he continued not to be a part of. The reality of the whole Facebook thing that Thomas had been able to sorta forget over the weekend. The reality that Christmas was twenty days away.

Regardless of whether he actually received the presents he’d listed for the Angel Tree program, Thomas knew that he was going to get one very big and very wonderful present soon: time off from school. A couple weeks, in fact. And that would give him more time to try to find a job, something he’d been working hard at ever since Mom lost hers.

If only I can make it through the next two weeks.

Since discovering the Facebook thing, he’d tried to shrug it off. But that just wasn’t working. He might act cool and carefree, but he was anything but. All he wanted was the school year to be over. He wanted to wake up and find himself twenty-four years old living in a new state with a new life.

Instead, he found himself approached by a familiar face and voice in the silence of his bedroom.

“Whatcha doing?”

Sara usually didn’t bother him in the mornings unless she wanted something. And usually when she wanted something, he didn’t have it to give to her. It was a very simple relationship, one that involved him saying “Can’t help you out” over and over.