Jarret glanced at Peter and Kyle with a grumpy expression. Then he shrugged. “Eh, who would care?”
Happy to see them, Keefe stood as Papa and Roland drew near. Nanny grabbed the tray of utensils and followed Mr. Digby to the house.
Papa looked Keefe over as he approached, then he gave Keefe a bear hug. “I see you made it in one piece. The truck held out?”
“Sure.”
Roland had stopped a few feet away and stood with his arms folded, looking aloof, the way he often did.
“What, no hug?” Keefe smiled.
Roland smiled back and shuffled over. “Welcome back,” he said in a low voice as they hugged. “Papa’s wearing me out with all this family stuff. I just want to be alone.”
Keefe laughed.
Papa, Roland, and Keefe joined Jarret in the circle of camp chairs. Roland folded his arms. Papa sat with his legs stretched out in front of him, ankles crossed.
“So...” Jarret dropped his Coke can into the holder on the arm of his chair. He and Roland exchanged strange looks, the orange light from the flames making shadows on their faces. It almost seemed as if Jarret wanted Roland to say or do something. Roland wasn’t having it.
Assuming Jarret wanted to get the family talk started, Keefe leaned forward. “So, Papa, can we talk?”
Looking relaxed in his camp chair and happy for the question, Papa nodded. “Sure.”
Keefe cleared his throat, a bit worried about how Papa would take all this. “We’re kind of worried about you. You’ve been acting strange lately.”
Papa squinted at him. “Strange, huh? How’s that?”
Jarret sat bolt upright, his hands flying about. “Are you kidding? All this.” He gestured toward the back of the yard, where Peter and Kyle pulled arrows from the target, and then toward the Christmas lights. “And your bucket list?” He paused, glancing from Keefe to Roland, as if wanting them to chime in, and then back to Papa. “You’re dying, ain’t ya?”
“Way to ease into it,” Keefe mumbled to Jarret.
“Well.” Jarret shot back. “You weren’t saying anything helpful.”
“I was trying.”
“What bucket list?” With relaxed movements, Papa reached for the dark bottle—root beer?—next to his boot and twisted the cap. “I don’t have a bucket list.”
“Right.” Jarret shook his head irritably. “Taking us out to dinner, wanting everyone to go camping, horseback riding in the Bad Lands... All that?”
Papa chuckled and stared into the bottle he held. “That’s not a bucket list. That’s me wanting to do something with my boys. You see a problem with that?”
“So you’re not dying?” Roland’s voice sounded higher than usual.
Papa smirked and patted Roland’s thigh. “No, Roland, I’m not dying. I mean none of us knows the day or the hour. But I don’t have any special insight into the day of my death.”
“Have you been to a doctor?” Roland said.
“Haven’t seen the need.”
“So what were you and Miss Meadows talking about on the porch?” Jarret blurted.
Papa squinted at him for a long second, then he opened his mouth and finally an answer came out. “Marriage.”
All three brothers’ mouths fell open.
Keefe thought maybe he should congratulate him, but he couldn't get his mouth to work.
“We haven’t decided anything. But one day...” Papa smiled at the campfire. Flames snapped and a branch crackled. “I mean to marry her.”
Papa took a swig of root beer and adjusted his Stetson. “Listen, boys. All the trouble this past year or so, all the changes in you boys, I guess it got me thinking. I realize I haven’t been much of a family man, and maybe it’s a little late, but I’m making an effort now.” He looked at Roland and Jarret and then at Keefe. “You boys grew up so fast. Don’t know how long any of you will be around before you go running off to college or the monastery.”
A smile forced itself onto Keefe’s face. He dipped his head to hide it.
“How’d your time with the monks go?” Papa said.
“They’re not monks. They’re Franciscan friars, you know, a community of Brothers. And it went fine.”
“So you have the calling?”
Keefe nodded, happy. “Yeah, I think so. I mean, I’m pretty sure I do.” Then he remembered something from the retreat. “Before that, though, there’s something I have to do. Something we all have to do.” He glanced at Roland and then held Jarret’s gaze. “We have to get confirmed. All three of us.”
“Confirmed?” Jarret squinted at him. Then his gaze shifted here and there. “Oh, yeah. I guess we’ve never done that.”
“Okay,” Roland said. “So what do we have to do?”
Keefe smiled. He was gonna like this.
Scripture References
“Blessed is he who takes no offense at me” (Luke 7:23).
“Jesus said to him: No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:62).
“I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!” (Luke 12:49).
“He said to them, ‘Come and see.’ They came and saw where he was staying; and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two who heard John speak, and followed him, was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. He first found his brother Simon, and said to him, ‘We have found the Messiah’ (which means Christ)” (John 1:39-41).
“Fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it” (1 Corinthians 9:24)
Bibliography
St. Francis of Assisi: Omnibus of Sources. (3rd ed.). Chicago, IL: Franciscan Herald Press, 1973.
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Did you love Standing Strong? Then you should read Roland West, Outcast by Theresa Linden!
He's searching for the truth but is he ready to proclaim it? For shy Roland West, speech class is synonymous with humiliation. The last thing he wants is more attention from the gossips and troublemakers of River Run High School. But when an outcast's house is viciously vandalized, Roland needs to find the perpetrators—before they strike again. Yet nothing is as straightforward as it seems. Suspected by the police and ridiculed for his beliefs, Roland draws closer to the sinister truth. When the perpetrators threaten a good friend, can Roland overcome his fear of speaking out and expose them?
Read more at Theresa Linden’s site.
About the Author
Theresa Linden is the author of award-winning Catholic teen fiction that weaves the natural with the supernatural. She has ten published novels, including a dystopian trilogy, a contemporary young adult series, two short stories in Image and Likeness: Literary Reflections on the Theology of the Body, and a short story in Secrets: Visible & Invisible. She is a member of the Catholic Writers Guild and the International Writers Association. Her books can be found on CatholicTeenBooks.com, Catholic Reads, and Virtue Works Media. A wife, homeschooling mom, and Secular Franciscan, she resides in northeast Ohio with her husband and three teenage boys.
Read more at Theresa Linden’s site.
About the Publisher
"For he is like a refiner's fire and like fullers' soap, he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and sliver" ~Malachi 3:3
God is the refiner. His Word is the fire. We are the silver. And the more we immerse ourselves in Him, the purer we become. And even though the purification process might hurt a
bit, He is with us through it all. And like the saints, we come to reflect His image.
All novels published under the Silver Fire Publishing imprint show the refiner's fire at work in the characters. These novels are written to entertain, to support Catholics in their faith, and to inspire a greater trust in the Divine Refiner, who is at work in each of our lives.
Draw near to the Master Silversmith through faith-filled fiction.
Standing Strong Page 28