Reach for Tomorrow

by Lurlene McDaniel

  She stopped. By now tears had filled her eyes and her heart felt as if it might break. She truly believed that God had heard her prayer. What she did not know was whether or not he would grant her request. Against great odds, God had given her a new heart when she’d desperately needed one. And he had brought Josh into her life as well. She believed that with all her heart and soul. Now there was nothing more she could do except wait. And have faith.

  Katie lifted her arms in the moonlight in supplication to the heavens.

  Published by

  Dell Laurel-Leaf

  an imprint of

  Random House Children’s Books

  a division of Random House, Inc.

  New York

  Text copyright © 1999 by Lurlene McDaniel

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law. For information address Dell Laurel-Leaf.

  Dell and Laurel are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

  Visit ns on the Web! www.randomhouse.com/teens

  Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at www.randomhouse.com/teachers

  eISBN: 978-0-307-77644-0

  RL: 5.7, ages 10 and up

  Bantam Starfire edition August 1999

  First Laurel-Leaf edition October 2003

  v3.1

  Dear Reader,

  Welcome to the world of One Last Wish. It is a world of many interconnected lives—people who are sick, as well as people who are healthy. All of them are full of dreams and hopes. One Last Wish is about reaching out and making a difference—even a small one that has lasting value for someone else.

  In this book you’ll meet characters who have appeared in some of my earlier works, but this story stands alone. The people you’ll meet have been touched by the One Last Wish philosophy, which helps those who are facing life’s difficulties to find meaning in acts of kindness and courage. Think of a pebble that is dropped into a calm lake. From the tiny pebble, concentric circles ripple outward, growing larger until they touch the shore.

  As you join me in the world of One Last Wish, you’ll meet not only teens who confront difficult problems, but also people who see beyond their own limitations and their own suffering. Share their pain as well as their hope and discover in yourself an appreciation of all that life offers. Just as the ripples spread out far around the pebble, the actions you choose to take have an impact, even if you do not see it. Once you show the world you care, you will find yourself looking into the heart of love.

  Sincerely,

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  ONE

  Dear Katie,

  I’m writing to you, as well as to several others, with some exciting news. The JWC Foundation is rebuilding Jenny House. There was no way I could allow anything to do with Jenny Crawford, including her grandmother’s dream to create a tribute to her granddaughter, to die, especially through something so horrific as a freak fire. So, with insurance funds, generous donations from “angels,” and the help of the Foundation itself, we’re rebuilding.

  Which brings me to the purpose of this letter. While the actual facility won’t be ready by this summer, I still want to sponsor the camp for the children who need it the most—those stricken with diseases and medical problems. The group will be smaller this year, but we’ve already built cabins and a log rec center in the woods, down near the stables. I have a small but brilliant medical staff hired, and now all I need are counselors for each cabin—four women, two men. I’d like you to be one of those women.…

  Katie O’Roark stopped reading long enough to glance at the calendar pinned to her dorm room bulletin board.

  “What’s up?” asked her college roommate, Tara Greene. “You’re smiling.” Like Katie, Tara was on athletic scholarship, but Tara’s was for swimming. They had arrived as freshmen in the fall and were now wrapping up their last few weeks before final exams. They’d already decided to be roomies when they returned as sophomores.

  “A summer job in North Carolina,” Katie answered.

  “What!” Tara jumped down from the top bunk and snatched the letter from Katie’s hands. “Not fair! I have to live at home and flip burgers all summer. How did you luck out?”

  Katie grabbed the letter back. “It’s that counselor job I told you about from last summer.”

  “You told me the place burned.”

  “They’re rebuilding.”

  “Are you taking the job?”

  “I’d like to. My folks won’t be too thrilled. They wanted me home all summer, but how can I say no? I’ll bet Mr. Holloway asks some of my friends to work there too. Maybe I can get you on staff.”

  “No way. I couldn’t stand being around sick kids. It would break my heart.”

  “You’re around me.”

  “A heart transplant doesn’t count. And besides, look at all the track medals you won this season. How can you ever think of yourself as sick?”

  A string of Katie’s medals lined her bulletin board, and at the campus gym, the display case housed two trophies with her name engraved on them.

  “How can you find out if he asked your friends?” Tara asked.

  “I can e-mail Chelsea and Lacey and ask, of course.” Katie read the rest of the letter. “Mr. Holloway says he’s asking a few others who were helped by the JWC Foundation, but he doesn’t say exactly who. It’s helped plenty of people, so I wouldn’t expect to know them anyway.”

  “Maybe your old boyfriend, Josh, will be asked.”

  Katie’s heart skipped a beat. She hadn’t thought of that. In truth, she hadn’t been looking forward to going home to Ann Arbor because she knew she’d have to face Josh Martel. They’d broken up the summer before at Jenny House, and things hadn’t gone well between them at Christmas break. Josh said he still loved her, but she didn’t know how she felt about him anymore. She was grateful for all he’d been in her life. He had nothing to do with his parents, both alcoholics, and had pretty much been on his own since his brother’s death. In fact, when Katie had gotten her transplant, it had been Josh’s brother’s heart that had replaced her own. Knowing that she had contributed to Josh’s unhappiness, but still had his brother’s heart beating inside her, only made Katie feel guilty. Katie wanted a fresh start in college. Except that college had been a lot of studying and hard work, and no guy had come along to take Josh’s place.

  “If Josh gets asked, I guess I’ll deal with it,” Katie said. “But I know that ever since his grandfather died and left him the house, Josh has had to stick close to home. So he probably won’t have time to work at camp all summer.” She didn’t add that he was also a student at the University of Michigan and working to pay the bills.

  “Well, even if he doesn’t go, maybe there’ll be a guy who’ll appeal to you. You’re awfully picky, you know.”

  “I’m not either.” Katie snif
fed. “I just have high standards.”

  “If you want my opinion, I think you still have feelings for Josh.”

  Katie felt her Irish temper flare. “Well, I don’t want your opinion, thank you very much.”

  Tara feigned innocence. “You protest too much.”

  Katie flung a paper clip at her. “Go study for your Shakespeare test and forget about my love life, all right?”

  Tara caught the clip in midair. “If you don’t want him, girl, show my picture to him, will you? Good guys are hard to find, and from all you’ve told me about Josh, he sounds like a dream.”

  Katie buried her nose in the letter from Mr. Holloway. Summer camp! She could hardly wait. And if Josh was there, she’d manage. They could just be friends. That would be simple enough. Wouldn’t it?

  “Actually, Megan, I think taking this camp job would be a good idea … especially since you want to go on to medical school. It’s only eight weeks out of the summer. It’ll be a good experience.”

  Meg Charnell listened to her father’s advice without enthusiasm. Her first year of college had been hard work, and she’d been looking forward to a summer of doing nothing. But then the letter had arrived with the offer to work at a camp for sick children. “How did this Mr. Holloway get my name, anyway?”

  “I suspect that your days of being a candy striper and volunteer helper have been noticed. His foundation networks with all the big hospitals. It’s a very philanthropic organization. That was the organization that helped the Jacoby boy, you know.”

  Donovan Jacoby. How could she ever forget? Megan had met him the first summer she had been a candy striper. He had been a patient at the hospital, waiting for a liver transplant. A new liver had not arrived in time to save his life.

  The anonymous donor, JWC, had given Donovan $100,000, and he had passed it along to his divorced mother. She still lived in and managed the house that the money had gone to remodel. Families stayed there while their sick children were undergoing prolonged treatments at the giant hospital where Meg’s father practiced surgery. Except that even Dr. Charnell’s considerable skill hadn’t been able to save Donovan Jacoby. But, she reminded herself, knowing Donovan had kindled her own dream to become a pediatrician.

  “Maybe you’re right,” she said, taking back the letter. “Maybe I should go. I’m just not crazy about going someplace where I don’t know a soul.”

  “You’ll make friends,” her father said. “And as a counselor, you’ll meet others your age. I’m sure they’re only asking the brightest and best to act as counselors. And that’s my girl: the brightest and the best.”

  “Oh, Dad. You’re saying that because you’re my father.”

  “Not true. How many college freshmen can say they aced all their courses in their first year at Columbia? Not many!” he answered his own question. “You’ll be a terrific doctor one day.”

  Never in a million years would Meg have thought she’d be interested in medicine after growing up with a father who was always on call, busier with his patients and their concerns than those of his own family. But her feelings had changed once she’d met Donovan. “I’ll think about camp.” She leaned down and kissed her father’s cheek. “Now, how about taking me to dinner? Mom’s got one of her committee meetings, so we’re on our own tonight.”

  Later Meg called her friend Alana and told her about the job offer. “I don’t suppose you got a letter too,” she said hopefully.

  “I couldn’t have gone even if I’d wanted to,” Alana told her. “Remember? I’m headed to Europe with my church choir at the end of June.”

  “Oh, yeah, that’s right.” Meg felt disappointed. Ever since they’d been candy stripers together, she and Alana had been friends, and even though she’d been away at Columbia and Alana was attending a two-year college near Washington, D.C., they both had the same dreams—to practice medicine one day.

  “But I still think you should go,” Alana said. “It sounds like a great opportunity to be around sick kids. And isn’t that always the best way to find out if you’re serious about pediatrics as a specialty?”

  “Of course.” Meg let out a sigh. “I know you’re right. But so long, summer by the pool with a stack of brain-candy books for entertainment.”

  “You can read in your spare time, and most of these camps have lakes and water sports.”

  “And let the world see me in a bathing suit? Are you crazy?”

  “You’re too hard on yourself.”

  “You’ve heard of the freshman fifteen, haven’t you? Well, I got my fifteen extra pounds and somebody else’s too.”

  “You look fine.”

  “I know the truth, Alana.” Meg’s friend was tall and slim. How could she know what it was like to always feel overweight? “One good thing,” Meg added. “There will be nobody at camp but kids, so they won’t care if I’m fat.”

  “Male counselors,” Alana said with authority. “Don’t forget about them.”

  Meg sighed. She hadn’t had a real date the entire school year, and most guys wanted to be her “friend” anyway. “Maybe they’ll all be ugly.”

  “And maybe, just maybe, there will be a prince among the frogs.”

  “He won’t notice me,” Meg said quietly. She knew she wasn’t beautiful. And she was too smart and too heavy for guys to notice. No guy except Donovan had ever shown any interest in her. And he was gone forever.

  She hung up, knowing she would take the job. It would beat sitting around feeling sorry for herself all summer. And if there were cute guys at the camp she’d simply ignore them. No use wishing for something she couldn’t have.

  TWO

  This is one dumb idea! Morgan Lancaster told himself as he surveyed the stable in the North Carolina woods. Why had he ever agreed to take this summer job at a camp full of sick kids in the first place?

  Because of Anne Wingate, his inner voice answered before he even had time to get to the first stall. When the letter had arrived offering him the job as riding instructor and stable hand for the summer, he’d thought it seemed like a good idea. Normally he spent summers on the rodeo circuit or working on his aunt’s ranch taking in tourists, although he hadn’t done that since the summer he’d met Anne there. When Anne had arrived at the ranch she’d seemed like all the other wealthy tourists. But he’d soon realized that she was not like anyone else he had ever known. Anne was HIV-positive. After she’d left the ranch, Morgan had followed her back to her home in New York and stayed with her until she died. They were the most special and memorable days of his life, and they had changed him forever. Now here he was, twenty years old, volunteering for the summer, and feeling directionless.

  A roan mare stuck her head out of the upper half of the stall door, and Morgan rubbed her muzzle. “How you doing, girl? Ready for a summer full of twelve-year-olds?”

  The mare snorted and nuzzled his hand. Morgan could tell by the white hair around her nose and mouth that she was old. But she was also calm and seemed to have a sweet disposition. Perfect for kids and a far cry from the wild broncos he was used to working with.

  In all, there were seven horses in the stable, each of them docile and good-natured. Taking care of them would be a piece of cake—if he didn’t die of boredom. The first staff meeting was the following night. All day, counselors, nurses, physical therapists, and workers had been arriving. He’d seen some cute girls, but only from a distance. He wasn’t interested in anyone. Nor had he been, ever since he’d lost Anne. Smart, pretty Anne. She’d been one in a million.

  And she’d left him the money for the medical test. The test he still hadn’t taken three years later. The test that would tell him once and for all whether he would get the debilitating disease Huntington’s chorea. “Anne would kill me,” he told the horse ruefully. “She’d say, ‘Honestly, Morgan, how can a guy like you ride wild horses, almost getting his brains knocked out, and be afraid of a little test?’ ”

  He was afraid. As long as he didn’t know the truth, he didn’t have to sp
end his life waiting for his genetic fate to take over his body … as it had his father’s.

  “You always talk to horses?”

  Morgan spun to see another guy staring at him. The kid was taller than Morgan. “Easier than talking to people,” Morgan admitted.

  The other boy laughed. “I’m Eric Lawrence. Cook, groundskeeper, any old thing they need me to be.”

  “You get a letter too?”

  “No. My sister, Christy, is a respiratory therapist. She’s working here for the summer and dragged me along so I’d stay out of trouble.” He grinned. “How about you?”

  Morgan explained his job briefly, then asked, “You okay about being around a bunch of sick kids?”

  “It turns me off, but I had a couple of friends once—they had cystic fibrosis.”

  “Had?”

  “Yeah. Kara died about three years ago. My buddy Vince died last winter. CF is a lung disease, you know. He died from pneumonia.”

  “My friend died from pneumonia too,” Morgan said. He didn’t add that Anne had also been a victim of AIDS.

  “Tough way to go,” Eric said. “Not being able to breathe and all. Anyway, because of the two of them, I said I’d come and help out. Do whatever needs doing … keep the kids away from the construction site. You been down there yet? It’s going to be some place once they finish it.”

  They were to walk down to the site the next night after the get-acquainted meeting. The kids weren’t arriving for two more days, but there was plenty to do before they got there. “Are you a good cook?” Morgan asked.

  “Will it make a difference?”

  Morgan laughed. “I’ve eaten some pretty bad camp grub, so I reckon not.”

  “Well, don’t worry. There’s a full-time dietician on staff. I’m just a helper.” Then Eric changed the subject. “Seen any of the girls yet? A few of them are babes.”

  “Haven’t had time.” Morgan hedged his reply.

  “Make time. Then maybe we can really make this summer count.”