I woke up before the sun on Friday morning. If I loved fishing, I suppose it would have been the perfect time to go. The thought of horrible fishing reminded me of Sunday, so I prayed for him again, this time without the pounding fist, so I wouldn’t wake up Rusty.
God, please make it go away. Sunday’s cancer, I mean. He’s too young to have it. Not that anyone should have to have it. But why do people get cancer, anyway? I wish I understood a little more about how you do things.
Then I got a great idea. I grabbed my Bible and my headlamp off the nightstand.
I asked God to show me some answers. I had heard a lady talk in church once about how she asked God a question, then she opened her Bible, and it fell open to the verse that answered her question.
I decided to try it.
I held my Bible up and asked God to help me understand some things. Then I opened the Bible somewhere in the middle, closed my eyes and pointed to this verse:
“A person who doesn’t want to work says, ‘There’s a lion in the road! There’s an angry lion wandering in the streets!’” Proverbs 26:13
Hmm. What could that mean? I wished Mrs. O’Reilly were here to help me figure this strange verse out. Thinking of Mrs. O’Reilly reminded me of her son, Sean. I smiled and wondered if he was going to keep saving me chocolate donuts while I was gone. I felt a little sad and homesick, but I shook it off and got back to the Scripture about the lion. I slid out of bed and looked out the window. Thankfully, Montana has no lions. Well, maybe mountain lions — and bears.
I went back to my Bible. More verses about laziness. They were good to read, but they didn’t answer my questions about Sunday’s cancer. I guess the “open-the-Bible-and-point” method wasn’t going to work for me like it did for that lady.
I decided to read the rest of the chapter since the verses were so interesting. If I remembered right, Mrs. O’Reilly taught us one time that King Solomon wrote the Proverbs, and he was supposed to be the wisest man that ever lived. I laughed out loud at the next verse:
“Don’t get mixed up in someone else’s fight as you are passing by. That’s like picking a dog up by its ears.” Proverbs 26:17 That reminded me that I hadn’t begged my parents for a puppy in a while. Too busy with the shoe thing, I guess.
Focus, Riley. At least finish the chapter!
But I couldn’t. But not because of lack of focus. It was because of the next to last verse:
“If anyone digs a pit, he will fall into it. If he rolls a big stone, it will roll back on him.” Proverbs 26:27
And that reminded me of the Half Dome accident, when someone actually did roll some stones down on me and Flip. And then I got scared.
That’s when a great big poofy “stone” came flying through the air and knocked my headlamp off my head and onto the floor.
“Hey!” I looked over at Rusty, who was now pillowless.
“Did I break it?” she asked.
I picked it up and flipped the switch. “Nah, it’s okay.”
She tossed her covers over her face. “Aww, that’s too bad.”
“I’m sorry. Was the light bothering you?”
“Not at first, when I thought it was the full moon. But when I figured out it was you, I couldn’t control my pillow all of a sudden.” She sat up and stretched. “What time is it, anyway?”
“I don’t know.”
“But you do know what day it is, right? You have the river shoot, and I’m flying back home today. I think we kind of need our sleep.”
“So can I have my pillow back?”
Rusty stood up and held her arms out. A perfect target.
“Sure, you can have it back.”
That started a pillow war that lasted until the sun came up. We were so tired that we fell back asleep, missing breakfast totally. We might have slept all day if it weren’t for the annoying pounding on our bedroom door.
“Girls! Do you know what time it is? I hope you’re ready. We’re leaving in twenty minutes.”
We both popped our heads up.
“Leaving?” I yawned.
Mom opened the door and stepped inside, her eyes wide when she saw that we were still in bed. She placed her hand on her hip and just said two words:
“Ready Eddy.”