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Back When She Returned Save as PDF
Chapters (48)
  1. TITLE PAGE
  2. COPYRIGHT
  3. CONTENTS
  4. PROLOGUE
  5. ONE
  6. TWO
  7. THREE
  8. FOUR
  9. FIVE
  10. SIX
  11. SEVEN
  12. EIGHT
  13. NINE
  14. TEN
  15. ELEVEN
  16. TWELVE
  17. THIRTEEN
  18. FOURTEEN
  19. FIFTEEN
  20. SIXTEEN
  21. SEVENTEEN
  22. EIGHTEEN
  23. NINETEEN
  24. TWENTY
  25. TWENTY-ONE
  26. TWENTY-TWO
  27. TWENTY-THREE
  28. TWENTY-FOUR
  29. TWENTY-FIVE
  30. TWENTY-SIX
  31. TWENTY-SEVEN
  32. TWENTY-EIGHT
  33. TWENTY-NINE
  34. THIRTY
  35. THIRTY-ONE
  36. THIRTY-TWO
  37. THIRTY-THREE
  38. THIRTY-FOUR
  39. THIRTY-FIVE
  40. THIRTY-SIX
  41. THIRTY-SEVEN
  42. THIRTY-EIGHT
  43. THIRTY-NINE
  44. FORTY
  45. FORTY-ONE
  46. FORTY-TWO
  47. FORTY-THREE
  48. ABOUT THE AUTHOR

“Being completely transparent,” Ray said as he set the gun down next to the two rabbits. He raised his hands in a peaceful gesture. “Please allow me to explain myself.” He gave Phil a second to respond before continuing. Phil looked like he wanted to explode, but he allowed Ray to speak. “I promised to protect you and care for you when we left California. As you know, things have been much more difficult with farming than we’d expected, and our food supplies have dwindled down to almost nothing. Most of you are starving.” His face filled with concern. “I couldn’t let God’s people starve. I just couldn’t.” He waved his hand around at all of us. “Before anyone gets riled up again, I want you to know that I didn’t tell anyone about my plans to hunt, because I knew there would be those of you who would stop me.” He looked at Phil. I didn’t know him well enough yet to read him, but he seemed less angry. His shoulders had relaxed since Ray had started talking. “I had to find a way for us to eat.” He pointed to the rabbits. “And I did. In a minute, I’m going to cook these over the fire, and anyone is welcome to the meat. Please don’t partake if it makes you uncomfortable. I will be giving up my portion of beans going forward to anyone who doesn’t eat meat.”

Will pushed his way through the crowd and stood in front of Ray. “You had a gun, Ray, and nobody knew about it. As far as I’m concerned, that’s a much bigger problem than who’s going to eat these stupid rabbits.”

Ray nodded. “I can see why that would concern you, Will. I stumbled on the gun the other day when I was checking one of the tire springs in the back, and it was tucked underneath the tire jack.” We had a strict no-violence policy, and it went without saying that guns qualified. “One of our old drivers used to take this van on mission trips to the south side. He got robbed three times at gunpoint and started carrying a weapon for his safety. I guess he forgot it was back there, and nobody ever thought to look.” He shrugged, then raised his head to the sky. “Perhaps it was God’s way of doing for us what we couldn’t do for ourselves.”