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Stories from the Verse
Con Verse Lea
Chapter 52: Takano 73
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Beam 142
When Tommy awoke, she was alone in the nest; Lauren was already out doing something. That’s how it had been all week, though, and she had almost stopped wondering about it. Usually when she returned she brought food, fish most days but on one occasion a turkey. However, one morning--the fourth, if Tommy was remembering correctly--she had returned empty handed, and when Tommy had asked what they were going to eat she seemed surprised, as if that had not been the reason she had left.
As she pondered this again now, it occurred to her that very few people were awake in the camp even now, and Lauren was almost always the first to bed. Did she--well, it would make sense. She was frequently reading her Bible. Tommy hadn’t brought a Bible; she had brought one of her school books, a collection of English short stories. She had by now read them all twice, but of course some of them were worth reading again--but maybe she should be reading a Bible, and maybe she should be praying, not just saying grace and bedtime prayers, but going off alone somewhere the way she guessed Lauren was doing.
What did one pray, when alone like that?
The answer was almost obvious as soon as she asked it. Over the past week, Lauren had baled hay for target backstops and taught people to use the bows Mister Beam had given them, then taught them to hunt, and to make baskets, and was working on firing pottery--and so far no one had been hurt, or at least not seriously enough that she had heard about it. Lauren must be praying for these people, keeping them safe through her faith in God.
That meant Lauren was probably also praying for her. She suddenly felt just a bit safer, protected, as if the realization that Lauren was praying somehow allowed her to sense the effect.
“Jesus,” she said in the quiet of the enclosed hut they called a nest, “take care of Lauren. I don’t think we could do any of this without her. Or, I guess, without you.”
She sat silently for a moment, almost wondering whether she would get an answer, not completely certain that she didn’t. Then she grabbed her clothes and started getting dressed for the day. Lauren had undoubtedly stoked the fire, and would probably be back with something to cook for brunch, but she should check. It wasn’t impossible that Lauren was already cooking something, but if so Tommy thought she would smell it, so it probably wasn’t happening yet. She wondered what she would learn today.
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with twenty other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #470: Verser Turnings. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
