47

TWO MONTHS LATER

The front porch at Mrs. Springer’s house looked the same as it always had—a couple of wicker chairs, a small round table, and off to the right, a porch swing suspended by long chains. Yet, Brandy realized as she walked up to it, this place felt different now.

The first time she’d come up here, it had been against her will to have dinner with one of Grandma’s friends and her snobby granddaughter. In times after that, it had been a place where her overly demanding coach would disappear after doling out Brandy’s workload for the day. Then it became a place of hope. A place where maybe, just maybe, there was the slightest glimpse of some sort of bright future waiting for her.

Now, as Brandy reached up to knock on the door, the place seemed full of strength. She doubted Sabrina saw it for what it was, but it could be nothing else.

Mrs. Springer opened the door. “Hello, Brandy.”

“Hi, Mrs. Springer. I’ve got a graduation present for Sabrina I wanted to bring by.” Brandy extended the wrapped box, somehow feeling as though she had to prove her words.

“Come on in. Sabrina and her mom are upstairs packing up her stuff. I know she’d love to see you.”

Brandy climbed the stairs to Sabrina’s room and found the door was open. Cookie was standing at the closet, door open, holding up a handful of shirts on hangers. “What about these?”

“Uh, sure.” Sabrina was sitting at the little wooden desk near the window, loading some books into a box at her feet.

“Hi.” Brandy walked up to the doorway, wondering if maybe it had been a mistake to come over.

“Hi, Brandy. Come on in.” Sabrina wiped her forehead. “How was your run this morning?”

“Good. I did a long one out toward the old Stewart place. Nice day, lots of flowers, cows mooing, the usual.”

“You are working so hard. I think you are going to be amazing.” Cookie held up a couple of shirts. “Keep?”

“Sure.” Sabrina nodded. “She already is.” She spoke the words quietly, but with clear conviction in her voice.

“What did you say, dear?” Cookie looked up at her.

“I said she already is. Amazing.” Sabrina smiled toward Brandy now, who had never felt more unworthy in her life.

She shook her head and walked over and sank down onto the bed. “This is wrong. So much of this is so wrong. It should have been you.”

The words hung in the silent room for what seemed like forever. Finally Cookie said, “I’ve heard rumors that there are several college coaches following your progress. I am so proud of you.” Cookie said this as she laid out some shirts on the bed, beside an already foot-high pile of other clothes on hangers. “Do you have any thoughts about where you’d like to go?”

“I’m hoping for Tennessee. I’d like to finish what Sabrina started.”

Cookie came over and put her arms around Brandy, squeezing her tight. “You really are an amazing girl.” She pulled away and wiped at her eyes. “I’m going downstairs to check Mom’s progress with dinner. Brandy, can you join us?”

“No, thanks. Grandma was in the middle of making a big pot of chicken and dumplings when I left.”

“That sounds good.” Cookie sniffled as she disappeared out the door.

“When do you start work for Bridges?”

“Next week. I’m spending a couple of weeks in California at their main office, then they’re sending me to Africa for three weeks so I can experience the work there firsthand. This is not my original plan, or at least not the way I thought my original plan would play out. But I’ve come to realize this was my ‘promised land’ all along. I was just expecting the journey to look a little different so I kept turning back.”

“Those are some lucky orphans, to have you on their side.”

“Not lucky. Blessed.”

“Yes, blessed. We all are, because of you. Because you fought your way through your wilderness, as you call it, and didn’t give up.”

“I came close a few times, but I’m glad God didn’t give up on me.”

“So am I. So am I.”

She was running.

Feet pounding against the pavement as she moved up a steep hill. She could hear her coach’s voice yelling down toward her, “Surge. Surge.” She paid attention to the lift of her knees, the straight pump of her arms, and the position of her head. Form matters most when you’re tired. Concentrate. Now’s when champions are made. She repeated those words over and over in her head as she made her way to the top of the hill, which she couldn’t quite see because it was covered in fog. Still, she pushed to the end, knowing as she reached the top that she’d given it everything she had.

As she broke through the fog layer, she looked toward her coach, hoping for confirmation that she’d done well, already smiling because she knew that she had. And then she saw her coach’s face and stopped running.

The woman she saw . . . was Brandy. She was surrounded by an entire group of African orphans who were all smiling, and clapping, and dancing with joy. “You made it, you did it!” They were all shouting and singing at once.

Then he stepped from the crowd. Sabrina would know his face anywhere. He came up to her, took her hand, and shook it hard. “I’m so proud of you. You gave it everything you had. Way to stick with it, even when times got hard, even when you wanted to quit. Well done.” And just like that, Eric Liddell vanished into the mist.

Sabrina jerked awake, her heart pounding, her breath coming in short gasps. But this time, she wasn’t drenched in sweat and tears. This time she was . . . smiling.

Thank you, dear Father. Thank you.