He desperately wanted to speak with Carolyn. He had so much to tell her, but he didn’t know what to say or where to begin. He doubted he would be able to pull her out of the funk she was mired in back in Ohio. He also had to admit that he was afraid that talking out loud to anyone about this experience would somehow shatter it. What if she laughs at me? he thought.

But now his new inner voice pounced with a ready dose of wisdom, interrupting the thought pattern that had been his companion for so many years. “Stop trying to figure everything out,” it advised. “Stop doubting and fearing and start healing!” Mitch loosened his grip on the steering wheel and began his journey home.

Joanna knew she had to choose her words carefully when answering Carolyn’s question regarding the identity of the person who had directed her to come knocking on her door that morning. She knew that sometimes even faithful people could be frightened by the authentic presence of God in their lives.

“Carolyn, haven’t you been speaking to God every day, several times a day, asking for help?” Joanna leaned forward and for the first time Carolyn noticed the cross dangling from the chain around her neck.

“Yes, that’s true. I’ve been going through a very difficult time for months. It all started last Nov—”

“I know about the pain that you and so many others have suffered since that terrible day—”

“It was all over the news,” Carolyn interjected.

“It was, my dear, but I’m speaking about a deeper knowing. Tell me, when you are upstairs, in your sacred spot, on your knees, you believe that God hears you, don’t you?”

“That’s what I’d like to believe, but every day I just fall right back into sadness and grief and I can’t stop all those horrible thoughts.” Then Carolyn looked at Joanna quizzically.

“Wait a minute. How do you know where I pray upstairs?” She felt a little insulted at the invasion of her privacy. “Who are you really, Joanna?”

Joanna threw back her head and laughed. “You are too polite, Carolyn. I was wondering when you would get around to asking that! Let’s just say that I have a very special gift. Sometimes I think of it as more of a responsibility that I have been given. But I believe—no, I know—that God has selected me to help where I can. Though sometimes I’m not able to help, which, I’m sorry to say, was the case with Danny. I just couldn’t reach him. He was beyond my ability to help that night.” She looked away and thought about the moment she was literally driven to her knees that morning in November.

“So, you’re telling me that you knew Danny, and tried to stop him from doing what he did?”