Raising Faith

by Melody Carlson

  It was so great to be back in her room — to be around her own things and to sleep in her own bed. And before she got into bed, she got down on her knees and thanked God for doing a miracle today. She asked him to work out the rest of the details for her family. And then she got into bed and let out a long tired sigh and fell quickly to sleep.

  Emily woke up fairly late in the morning. Still, it felt good to be in her own room and her own bed and not some stupid motel down in California. She got up and walked through her house, smiling happily to herself. Sometimes you just didn’t know how good you had it until it was almost gone. It was good to be home! She went into the kitchen and was surprised to learn from Kyle that Mom had actually gone in to work today.

  “She said figured she might as well earn some money,” he told her as he poured a bowl of cereal for himself. “She said we’re gonna need it now.”

  “Was she worried at all?” asked Emily. “I mean about Dad being around?”

  He nodded as he poured milk. “Yeah, I think so. She warned me to stick around the house all day. She said to keep an eye on you and to call her or the police if anything developed.”

  “Meaning if Dad came here?”

  “Yeah …”

  “It is kinda scary, isn’t it?”

  Kyle shrugged. “It’s not that big a deal. We can always call Mr. Greeley or the cops. And I doubt that the old man will be outta jail this soon anyway. Oh, yeah, Mom said for you to call Chelsea about that lawyer dude. Then call Mom at work and give her the lowdown. She wants legal help as soon as she can get it. That was the main reason she didn’t want to miss work today. She said the attorney’s fees would probably really set us back a ways.”

  “Well, it’ll be worth it,” said Emily as she filled a bowl with cereal.

  “And it’ll be cool to have our lives back … and with our own real names again. That Adams-family thing might’ve been funny at first, but it was getting kinda old.”

  “Yeah,” said Emily. “Dad might be a jerk, but I like the name Emily Chambers better than Emily Adams.”

  After breakfast, Emily called Morgan. “We’re back,” she said, suppressing a giggle.

  “I know,” said Morgan. “I got up early this morning and saw your car in the driveway. You cannot believe what good self-control I’ve had not to run over and knock on your door and give you a big welcome-home hug.”

  “Well, what’s stopping you now?”

  “I’m on my way,” yelled Morgan.

  Soon Morgan was sitting at the kitchen table with Kyle and Emily, relaying all the details of the previous evening.

  “Wow,” said Kyle. “Were you pretty scared?”

  Morgan nodded. “Oh, yeah …”

  “Good thing Mr. Greeley was on top of things,” said Emily. “I can just imagine him with a baseball bat wielded like a club.”

  “Yeah, making his grim Greeley face,” added Kyle. “I’ll bet that put the fear of something into our dad.”

  “It did at first,” said Morgan. “But then your dad tried to talk Mr. Greeley out of it.”

  “That sounds about right.”

  “Fortunately, Mr. Greeley held his ground.”

  “I need to call Chelsea,” said Emily, eager to end the conversation. The more she heard about her dad, the angrier she felt toward him.

  “Yes,” agreed Morgan. “I called her to tell her you were home. We knew you must’ve gotten in late, so we all agreed not to bug you so you could sleep in.”

  “It was close to two in the morning,” said Emily as she went for the phone and dialed Chelsea’s number.

  “I’m so glad you’re home,” squealed Chelsea.

  Emily asked about the lawyer, and Chelsea said he was eager to speak to her mom.

  “Does he want to call her at work?” asked Emily. “It’s okay. Mom really wants to talk to him.”

  “Sure, I can have Dad let him know.”

  “Uh, I think my mom’s a little worried about how much this will cost. I mean we’re not exactly —”

  “It’s pro bono,” said Chelsea.

  “Huh?” asked Emily.

  “Pro bono.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means Mr. Lawrence wants to do it for free.”

  “No way!”

  “Yep. He does stuff like that sometimes, especially around Christmas.”

  “Wow.”

  “Well, I better let my dad know that your mom’s at work,” said Chelsea.

  “And I’ll let my mom know that Mr. Lawrence will be calling her.”

  “Hey,” said Chelsea, “we should have a meeting today. We need to plan our Christmas party.”

  “Good idea,” said Emily. “I’ll check with Morgan and get back to you, okay?”

  “Sounds good.”

  Then Emily called the Boscoe Bay Resort, but Mom wasn’t available. So she left a voice message saying that Mr. Lawrence would be calling her. “And by the way, Mom,” she added. “He’ll be doing it pro bono.” Then she said good-bye.

  “Pro what?” asked Morgan after Emily hung up.

  “Pro bono,” said Emily as if everyone should know what that meant.

  “You mean like Bono the guy from U2?” asked Kyle. “He’s a pro.”

  “U-who?” asked Emily.

  “U2.”

  “This is starting to sound like a knock-knock joke,” laughed Morgan. “Who is pro bono?”

  “Not who,” said Emily, “what.”

  “Okay,” said Kyle. “What is pro bono?”

  “Pro bono means the lawyer, Mr. Lawrence, wants to take Mom’s case for free. Pro bono means free.”

  “No way!” said Kyle.

  “Yep.” Emily grinned. “It really is good to be back here with our friends, isn’t it?”

  “You bet it is,” said Morgan.

  “Hey, thanks for the goodies,” said Kyle as he popped a piece of fudge into his mouth.

  “Yeah,” said Emily. “That was really nice of you.”

  “Comin’ home was sweet,” said Kyle with a wink. “But that made it even sweeter.”

  “Chelsea thinks we should have a meeting,” said Emily. “To plan the Christmas party.”

  “You’re supposed to stay home today, Em,” Kyle reminded her.

  “You mean I can’t go with my friends to the clubhouse?”

  He seemed to consider this. “Well, I suppose if they’re all with you and they escort you back and forth.”

  “Like my own special security guards?”

  “Yeah.” He nodded. “I guess it’s okay. And Chelsea has a cell phone, doesn’t she?”

  “So does Amy,” pointed out Morgan.

  Soon it was settled. The girls would have an official meeting at two.

  “In the meantime,” said Kyle, “you can help me put all our stuff away.”

  “You mean that giant heap by the front door?” asked Morgan.

  “Yeah. I helped Mom unload the car before she went to work. It looks like it’s gonna take all day to get everything put away.” He shook his head. “I can’t believe what we almost did.”

  Emily couldn’t either. But the best part about it was that it seemed to be over. Still, it was disturbing to know that her dad was in town, and that he knew where they lived. But she tried not to think of that as they began to put things away.

  chapter ten

  With Morgan’s help, Kyle and Emily got almost everything, including most of Mom’s stuff, back into place by one o’clock. Then, as they were standing in Emily’s bedroom, Morgan picked up the Anne Frank book from off her dresser.

  “Are you done with this?” she asked Emily.

  “Yeah. I read it in like two days.”

  “Can I borrow it?”

  Emily tried not to look too surprised. “Sure, what makes you think you’d like it?”

  “Like you said, Em, you can’t judge a book by the cover.” Then Morgan explained how she’d read a few pages and got hooked. “In fact, I was thinking about Anne Frank
when I was hiding in your closet last night.”

  “Yeah, I can understand that. She was in hiding for years.”

  “Anyway, I can’t wait to read it.”

  “Cool,” said Emily. “And then we’ll talk about it, like a mini book club.”

  “It’s a deal.” Morgan gave her a high five.

  “Now, I’m starving,” said Emily.

  “Hey, why don’t you guys come over to my house for lunch?” suggested Morgan. “We’ve got some really good leftovers that I can warm up for you. And I know Grandma will be happy to see you.”

  After a hearty lunch, Kyle entrusted Emily over to the friends who had gathered at Morgan’s house. “I guess you’re in good hands now,” he said to her. “Just be careful and call me if you … well, you know …”

  “And you be sure and lock the door at home,” she quietly told him.

  Then her friends escorted her to the clubhouse. They made jokes and pretended to be secret-service agents, but a small part of Emily knew that this was not completely a joke. It was still fairly serious business. But once they were locked inside the bus, Emily felt safer than ever.

  “Man, is it good to be home!” she said happily.

  “I brought treats,” said Chelsea, opening up her backpack to produce some chips and soda. “Not the healthiest stuff, but I figured we had reason to celebrate.”

  For the next hour, the girls visited and laughed and enjoyed being back together again. Emily was relieved that they didn’t spend too much time talking about her dad’s unexpected appearance in Boscoe Bay. Her friends seemed to pretty much accept that he was a jerk and that it was in everyone’s best interest that he was now in jail.

  “I have an uncle who’s in jail,” admitted Carlie. “I didn’t even know it, but when I told my dad about what happened with your dad, he told me about his older brother down in LA. I guess it was a similar situation. He’d been abusing his wife for years, and she finally pressed charges against him and he got locked up. My dad said it was a good thing.”

  Emily nodded. “Yeah, nobody should have to put up with that.”

  “Okay,” said Amy, clapping her hands to get their attention. “We need to remember why we’re having this meeting today.” Then she reminded them that they were supposed to be planning for their much-anticipated Christmas party. The original idea, she pointed out, had been to dress up and invite family and friends from the mobile-home park and make it a really big deal.

  “But what about this weather?” said Morgan, pointing out the window where the rain had just started to come down in buckets again. “Can you imagine everyone trekking out here to the bus and getting soaking wet in their nice party clothes?”

  “You know, that party we had last summer was amazing,” said Carlie. “But don’t forget there were a lot of people here, and there was no way they could all be inside the bus at the same time.”

  “Yeah,” said Morgan. “It was so warm that we had the party at the beach.”

  “Being outside of the bus on a rainy December night is not very appealing,” said Chelsea.

  “Not at all,” said Amy. “And with everyone inside, it could get pretty crowded and stuffy.”

  “And I doubt the weather will cooperate,” said Morgan. “This is, you know, the Oregon coast. Besides, do we really want everyone to know about our clubhouse?”

  They briefly considered having their party in a different location, but that seemed to spoil everything. The point of the party was to be in the bus.

  “I make a motion that we limit the party to just the five of us,” said Amy finally.

  “I second it,” said Chelsea.

  “And we can do our gift exchange,” said Morgan.

  “And we can decorate our Christmas tree,” said Carlie with a sly grin.

  “What Christmas tree?” asked Amy.

  “I got a little one for the bus when I went out in the woods with my dad. I was saving it for the party.”

  So it was happily agreed — they would have their party on Thursday, just two days before Christmas.

  “Hey, did you guys hear the news?” asked Amy. “About the ski trip?”

  “You mean that Emily is going after all?” teased Carlie.

  “No, I mean that our old enemies Jeff Sanders and Enrico Valdez are going.”

  “Why?” demanded Carlie.

  So Amy explained, and Morgan tried to reassure everyone that it would be perfectly fine. “It’s not like they’ll be the only boys there,” said Morgan. “And it’s kind of cool that Jeff Sanders is Cory’s nephew. I had no idea.”

  “And I think he’s kind of cute,” said Chelsea.

  Emily wrinkled up her nose. “No way.”

  “Uh-huh,” said Chelsea. “And he’s nice too.”

  “Gross,” said Emily, making an even worse face this time.

  Chelsea poked Emily. “And I think you protest too much, Em. You know that Jeff likes you.”

  “Does not,” said Emily. “Take it back.”

  “Chelsea’s right,” said Morgan. “Everyone knows that Jeff likes you, Emily. He’s liked you ever since you moved here.”

  “Yeah, right, that day he and his bully friends knocked me off my bike. If that ain’t love, I don’t know what is.”

  They all laughed.

  “You know,” said Amy. “We really ought to be thankful for those boys.”

  “Why?” demanded Emily, still embarrassed by what Chelsea had just said about Jeff liking her. Okay, maybe he did like her, but Chelsea didn’t have to go shooting her mouth off about it in front of everyone!

  “Those stupid bullies were what originally got us girls together,” proclaimed Amy. “It was their meanness that united us as friends.”

  “That’s true,” said Carlie. “And, to be fair, Enrico has been really nice to me this year. One day, right after school started, Andrea Benson bumped into me — on purpose I’m pretty sure — and I dropped my books all over the hallway floor, and Enrico stopped and helped me pick them up. I mean it was kinda embarrassing at first, having a boy helping me like that, and naturally Andrea made some totally lame comment, but it was kinda sweet too.”

  “Well, fortunately, Derrick Smith won’t be on the ski trip,” Amy informed them. “He’s still locked up in juvie.”

  “You know, I feel sorry for him,” admitted Emily. “He must be one pretty miserable kid.”

  “He sure likes making everyone else miserable too,” said Carlie.

  “You know what they say,” said Morgan. “Misery loves company.”

  They laughed. But Emily couldn’t help but feel sorry for poor Derrick. He was locked up and practically friendless. In a way, not unlike her own dad. Although she didn’t feel sorry for her dad. She didn’t care if he rotted in jail. And that thought alone made her want to think about something else.

  “Well,” said Emily. “I love being with you guys. And I am so totally jazzed to be home again. I’ve decided that it’s true, you really don’t know what you’ve got until someone tries to take it away.”

  “That’s how we felt about you too,” said Amy. “Suddenly you were gone, and it hadn’t even been for a day and we really missed you.”

  Emily held up her soda can. “Here’s to staying together!”

  “To staying together,” the others echoed.

  chapter eleven

  After Emily’s friends escorted her home from their meeting, Chelsea asked if she could wait at Emily’s house for her mom to pick her up.

  “Sure,” said Emily. “Unless you’re afraid that my weirdo dad will show up and do something totally nutso.” Emily tried to make this sound like a joke, but the truth was she felt a little uneasy. Just knowing her dad was in their town, that he had actually been in her house — even in Emily’s own bedroom — was pretty upsetting. Creepy even. And, more than ever, Emily felt like she hated him. Not that it was a good feeling. It was not. But it was the truth.

  “Nah,” said Chelsea. “I’m not afraid. Besides my mom’l
l be here in a few minutes anyway.”

  “Any news?” Emily asked Kyle when they went inside.

  He looked up from the video game he was playing. “Nope. All’s quiet on the western front.”

  “Quiet is good,” said Emily.

  “Oh, by the way,” said Chelsea. “My mom said to invite you guys to dinner tonight. She’s going to call your mom at the resort to work it out. And the Lawrences are coming too.”

  “Cool,” said Emily.

  “My mom probably already gave your mom the details.”

  “Great.”

  “And while the grown-ups are talking, you and I can work on our wardrobe for the ski trip,” said Chelsea. “It’s not too soon to figure it out. The snowboarding pants I ordered arrived, and I can’t wait for you to see them.”

  Emily nodded. “Sounds good.” But what Emily was thinking was that she’d rather do that kind of planning with Morgan. Or at least include her. Still, she didn’t think it would be proper to invite Morgan to Chelsea’s tonight. And she didn’t want to seem ungrateful to Chelsea for all the help her dad was getting for her family. Emily decided she’d just have to figure that out later. In the meantime, she felt certain that Morgan would understand.

  “Chelsea, your mom’s here,” called Kyle from the living room.

  “See ya tonight,” said Chelsea as she grabbed her bag and left.

  “So, I guess that means I have to go too,” said Kyle after Chelsea was gone.

  “You probably don’t have to,” said Emily. “But I don’t see why you wouldn’t want to. Besides, do you really want to be home alone … you know, when dad is in town?”

  He frowned.

  “Besides, the Landers are pretty nice.”

  “Don’t you mean pretty rich?” Kyle sighed as if giving in. “I guess I wouldn’t mind checking out their crib. I’ve only seen that place from the driveway.”

  “They have a billiards room,” said Emily. “And pinball machines and everything.”

  “Okay,” said Kyle a little more cheerfully. “Works for me.”

  Emily returned to putting her room back together … more carefully now. She checked out her closet for things she could take on the ski trip, but other than the Tommy Hilfiger outfit that Chelsea had given her, it was slim pickings. She had a feeling Chelsea would be in for a disappointment when it came to Emily’s ability at any serious “wardrobe planning.” Then Emily tried on the brightly colored polar fleece hat that Morgan had given to her as an early Christmas present. It was lively and cute, but she had a feeling Chelsea might not approve since it didn’t have a designer label. But at the same time Emily was pretty sure that she didn’t even care. Money, except when you really needed it for things like food or rent, was highly overrated.