by Jodi Woody
Samantha got ten chapters written while they were in Oregon. As much as she hated leaving the beach and saying goodbye to Sally, she was glad to be back home in Montana. Daffyd would be returning to the states soon and they would be able to start their new lives together. First they would need to make it official. Though Daffyd hadn’t proposed or anything, Samantha knew that neither of them would be content to continue living and sleeping in separate bedrooms. While they were in Oregon, Trisha and Seanna had dragged her into a formal dress shop to look at the wedding dresses. Seanna had decided that since her mom and dad had gotten married quietly without all of the normal folderol that this wedding needed to be different. Samantha had finally put her off saying she was waiting for a proposal first.
Now she was sitting on the patio under the umbrella and typing those ten chapters into her new laptop, another present from Daffyd. He had purchased it online before he had flown out. I think maybe I’m getting spoiled, she thought. She was actually finding it harder to concentrate now that they were home. It’s because I keep thinking of Daffyd. Finally she gave up and did a search for “Savage” online. Skipping the videos, she went right to the photos of Daffyd. In every one she saw a young man, tall and thin, with long blond hair. There were photos calling him one of the top ten most beautiful people and she had to agree. The young man in the pictures was beautiful. But none of them were her Daffyd…
“Mom, can you come here for a minute?” Seanna called through an open window.
Samantha could hear something in Seanna’s voice that made her heart start beating faster. She quickly gathered up her notebook and laptop and headed in the house. Leal was holding Trisha who was crying on the couch. Bryce and Seanna were holding hands standing in front of the fireplace. Seanna let go and quickly met her mom, taking the things out of her hands and setting them on the table.
“Mom, come and sit down, there is something we need to tell you,” said Seanna as she gently led her mom to the living room.
Oh, God, no…
“Samantha, we just got a call from the people that are sponsoring Daffyd’s trip…” said Bryce.
Please, God!
“There has been some kind of an accident…” he continued.
Daffyd!
“We don’t know much right now, but they think that they may have been kidnapped,” he finished.
“Kidnapped?” she asked confused. “You mean he isn’t dead?”
“They aren’t sure, but they are hoping that everyone is still alive. Reports have come in that a group of missionaries from the United States have been taken hostage by some guerilla group. They are going to let us know as soon as they get more information.”
“I don’t understand, how could they have been taken hostage. They were there to help people…” Samantha asked weakly.
“Mom, it doesn’t have to make sense. Apparently this thing happens quite frequently, Most of the time they either release the hostages or it turns out it was all just some ploy and they never had them to begin with. We just need to be patient and wait and see what happens,” said Seanna calmly beside her.
“Do they want money? We can send some, Daffyd has money…” she asked grasping at straws.
“So far the only demands have been for the release of some drug lord that is being held by their own government,” said Bryce.
“So we just…wait?” she asked in shock.
“No,” said Trisha pulling away from her husband and wiping the tears angrily from her face. “We don’t just wait, we pray!”
After praying together as a family, they each grabbed their phones and started calling prayer warriors. Soon Bryce and Seanna were on their laptops and emailing and social networking as well. When they had run out of contacts, they prayed together again. Within two hours people from their church started arriving. Daffyd’s cardinal rule of no outsiders in Mountain Home had for the second time been broken. Soon the house was full of people praying. Trisha found herself in the kitchen coping the best way she knew how, making food for friends and family. By ten o’clock that evening Lucille and Bryson were there as well. They prayed all through the night with no further word of Daffyd’s whereabouts.
Chapter 31
The Promise
A week passed before they got any word on the hostages. A blurry Polaroid came in the mail that clearly showed eight dirty people crowded into a dark hut. They couldn’t be sure that Daffyd was one of those people, but they were doing their best to negotiate a release. Soon August was gone and leaves began to change and fall along with Samantha’s hope. She continued to pray daily for Daffyd’s safety and release. She prayed that his health still remained and that his faith stayed strong. But slowly weariness was creeping in. “Hope deferred makes the heart sick” was a scripture that frequently ran through her head.
Bryce and Seanna had returned to school. Trisha and Leal continued in their normal routine. Samantha tried to settle into a life that was so different than what she had planned. With no school year beginning for her for the first time in years, and no Daffyd home, she found herself rambling around the house, sleeping too much and eating too little. By October Trisha and Leal sat her down to talk to her about their concern for her.
“Samantha, you know we love you…that’s why we think you need to find something to do outside of the house,” said Trisha. “You can’t just walk around like a ghost waiting for your phone to ring. You’re making yourself sick.”
“I know…I just don’t know what to do! I can’t concentrate long enough to put a whole sentence together and the days seem to get longer and longer. At least when I was in Wisconsin I could stay busy at work.”
“Why don’t you see if you can volunteer somewhere, or take some pottery classes…something,” suggested Trisha.
“I keep thinking of doing something like that, but I get drained just thinking about it. How will I ever find the energy to actually do anything?”
“You have to find something to keep you busy, Samantha. Why don’t you start by doing something here? Daffyd was always talking about getting his videos organized. You know, sorting them by dates, or genres, something that made more sense,” said Trisha.
“Or I can teach you how to drive the truck with the snow plow,” offered Leal.
“I think I’ll start with the videos. Thanks Leal. Tomorrow I’ll get up early and see what needs to be done.”
“Why tomorrow?” asked Trisha.
“Ok…you’re right; I’ll go down their right now and start figuring out a plan. Can you help me to get started, Trisha?” she asked.
“Sure thing. I think we should clean as we go, so I’ll grab some dust cloths and we can wipe them all down before you put them in order,” said Trisha. “And tomorrow you can start asking around about some volunteer work.”
By Thanksgiving Samantha had the media room organized and had all of Daffyd’s books in alphabetical order. She was also working with the three and four year old Sunday school class at Church and helping with the Christmas concert. All contact with the kidnappers had ceased and they had all decided not to jump to any conclusions. Leal reminded them frequently of another of Grandma Sally’s sayings. No news is good news. They made plans for Christmas knowing the kids would be on their winter break from college. They even planned to decorate the tree the same way as the year before and planned on making popcorn balls for Daffyd.
Finally, Christmas vacation arrived, most of them had faced their demons and had come to grips with the fact that Daffyd may not be returning. Samantha quietly went on with life, eventually accepting God’s peace. She had started writing again and her story had taken a whole new journey. She was writing about true love, the strongest force to be found. Knowing full well that having tasted it, she would never be the same again. Moments of weakness still found her, usually late at night when sleep wouldn’t come. The only solution was to find her knees and pour out her heart to her first love. In the morning she would find the strength for another day, and was enjoying her time with her Sun
day school class. Her little ones were given the honored place of the last performance during the annual Christmas Eve concert at church. They had been practicing for weeks.
The night of the concert there was a gentle snow falling. Lazy flakes taking their time to make their way to the tree branches and roof tops. The Church looked like something out of a Thomas Kinkade painting with the lights shining through the stained glass windows. They had sung along with Silent Night and O Little Town of Bethlehem. They had seen the wise men bring gifts to the baby Jesus lying between Mary and Joseph. And now it was time for Samantha’s sweet faced darlings to sing Away in a Manger. Samantha stood in front with all the faces of her class turned towards her, smiling. The bright stage lights making some of them squint and sang the familiar song. As the last note faded a strong voice took it up in the back of the Church. It rang true and clear. The voice of an angel drawing the heads to turn to see…
“Ave Maria”
“Daffyd?” whispered Samantha.
“Gratia Plena”
Slowly the Samantha turned and took a tentative step towards the back of the sanctuary. “Daffyd!” she said a little louder her face eagerly searching the form walking toward her out of the shadows.
“Mariea, gatia plena”
As the voice came closer Samantha took a few steps towards the person walking out of the dark. They stood less than six feet apart. Samantha’s face lit up in glorious rapture and Daffyd’s voice full of love for His Savior and the woman he loved. Samantha stood as if transfixed until the last note echoed off the high ceiling. Then the spell was broken and she ran to embrace the beautiful man standing in the isle.
“You’re here…it’s really you,” she whispered against his chest.
“Of course I’m here. I made you a promise to sing that song for you every Christmas.”
Epilogue
Christmas morning they all sat around the tree and opened presents. Lucille and Bryson were there, Trisha and Leal, Bryce and Seanna and Samantha and Daffyd. They had all slept in since they had been up until late at night as Daffyd had explained what had happened to them in South America. Though they had been taken hostage, they had also escaped with the help of some of the local people who they had led to the Lord, just a few weeks before. The journey had been long and hard to get to a place of safety. They had hidden out with kind people who fed them and cared for them until the authorities could be found to help them get back to the states. There were stories of bravery and sacrifice that made them all the more grateful to have Daffyd home with them once again.
Now the presents were all opened. Daffyd, once again had no presents to give…except one. He reached into the pocket of his robe and pulled a small black box out. Kneeling in front of Samantha he opened the box and pulled out a beautiful gold band with word ‘BELOVED’ inscribed on it. She looked into those blue eyes she had come to love. That was the only thing that was still familiar to her. Gone was the young boy of the internet pictures. Gone was the cancer ridden old man. Before her knelt a handsome man in full health. His hair had come in darker and was about chin length. His jaw line was strong, his face gentle and those blue eyes were filled with love.
“Samantha, my love, with God and our whole family here to witness, will you agree to be my wife?”
“Daffyd, with God and family to witness, yes, I will marry you.” She pulled him to her and they shared a special kiss. “I guess singing Ava Maria won’t be our only Christmas tradition.”
“No?” asked Daffyd, smiling at her with eyes full of happiness. “What else will be our tradition?”
“Our Christmas kiss,” she said kissing him again.
The second story in the lives of my characters will be published soon.
I would like to thank Elizabeth Hohman and Karen Smith for their proofreading skills and their constructive criticism.
I hope you enjoyed my first publication. Let your friends know if you did. Word of mouth is a great advertising gift.
Please consider writing a review, good or bad. I appreciate the time you spent with me.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Rough Road of Regrets
Chapter 2 All That Glitters Is Not Gold
Chapter 3 A Merry Heart
Chapter 4 Bedtime Prayers
Chapter 5 Best Laid Plans
Chapter 6 A Day Of Rest
Chapter 7 All The World’s A Play
Chapter 8 Fireworks
Chapter 9 The Confession
Chapter 10 A Helping Hand
Chapter 11 Tender Care
Chapter 12 Unmasked
Chapter 13 A New Day
Chapter 14 Unexpected Blessings
Chapter 15 Baby Steps
Chapter 16 Oh What Night
Chapter 17 All Good Things Must Come To An End
Chapter 18 And Life Goes On
Chapter 19 The Storm Tossed Ship
Chapter 20 I Now Am Found
Chapter 21 It Was All A Dream
Chapter 22 Peace On Earth
Chapter 23 All I Want For Christmas
Chapter 24 ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas
Chapter 25 Between The Rock And Hard Place
Chapter 26 The Cure?
Chapter 27 Healing
Chapter 28 Metamorphosis
Chapter 29 We Know What We Are, But Not What We May Be
Chapter 30 Out Of The Frying Pan
Chapter 31 The Promise
Epilogue