A Distant Shore by Karen Kingsbury (books for students to read .txt) 📕

She laughed again. “See? We’re already friends.” She took the spot on one side of the swing. “Look how well you know me.”

“So true.” He sat beside her and held the worn bag on his lap. It wasn’t any bigger than a briefcase. The air between them grew more serious, and after a long moment he turned and handed it to her. “This is yours.”

“Mine?” She took the bag. No wonder it looked familiar. “How… where would you find something that belonged to me?”

“From your great-grandfather.” Jack set the swing in motion. Slow and easy. “Before I left that day, he went back into the house and brought out this. He wanted to go through the items one at a time. The things inside, they were precious to him. He asked me to give them to you.” He paused. “In case by some miracle I ever found Lizzie James alive.”

Eliza took the bag and then slowly she hugged it close. She remembered the feel of it. Her great-papa had loved her so much. She lifted her eyes to Jack’s again. “And here we are.”

“Right.” Jack shifted so he could see her better. “Here we are.”

She wasn’t sure she wanted to look through the contents now. But Jack was waiting, watching her. So she opened the soft container and one at a time, she removed the items. Her very best handwriting samples and a page of math work. A drawing of Eliza and her family with her name scribbled at the bottom.

Lizzie James.

Next was her drawing of their house, and finally a picture she’d colored of the ocean. Eliza stared at it for a long time. “I always loved the water.”

“You could see God there.” Jack rested his arm on the back of the swing. “I remember.”

“Yes.” She pulled out an old teddy bear. The one she had loved as a little girl. She held it to her face for a long moment. She could still smell her home in its fur. Finally she set the bag down and closed her eyes. “I saw Him… there at the far edge of the sea.” After a moment she opened her eyes and slid the items back into the bag. “My mother loved my drawings.”

He was looking at her the way he had looked at her in the Bahamas, when he thought people might be paying attention. Only no one was watching now. This feeling, the electricity between them was something he must have felt, too. Because he lightly brushed his fingers against her bare shoulder.

And then almost at the same time he folded his arms. He studied her for a long while. “Can I tell you about the angel?”

“Yes.” She exhaled. He was right to change the subject. If they were going to be friends, they couldn’t linger in times like this. “By angel… you mean a real angel? With wings?”

“No.” He smiled. “His name was Beck. He looked like a person. Like a police officer, maybe. Or an athlete. He showed up out of nowhere when I was taking a break on a trail near a lake.”

Then he told her how he’d been flying down the trail on the rented mountain bike, asking God question after question. “About life and my family.” He hesitated. “About you.”

She wanted desperately to know what he had asked God about her. But that could wait. “Is that when you took the break?”

“Yes. I sat on this hill overlooking the water and all these stories kept coming back. Things my parents had taught me from the Bible.”

The words hit hard. She had been raised in the same type of family. A mother who told Daniel and her stories from the Bible.

Jack continued, about how suddenly Beck had shown up. “He knew my name.” Jack moved the swing forward again. “Then he told me something no one could know. He said my family was doing good.”

“Your family?” She felt a chill run down her arms. “Did Beck maybe have you confused with someone else?”

“No.” Jack looked out at the night sky. “He knew my name, Eliza. And he knew my parents and my brother. He knew they didn’t live here. But he told me they were more alive now than ever. Because they had trusted Jesus.”

The words filled Eliza’s heart. More alive than ever? Was that how her mama and Daniel were? Running and playing and working in a city beyond the sky? Counting the days until she might join them? Was that where she’d be now if she hadn’t been rescued from the ocean that day?

Jack brought the angel story to life, every detail. Beck had told him that his family wanted more for him. Same with God. And that’s why he had come to talk with Jack. “And at the end he told me God was only a whisper away, and to forget the past.” Jack turned to her. “He told me God wanted me to love again. Then he disappeared.”

She didn’t move, didn’t speak.

“Eliza. I think he meant you.” He took her hand once more, and his eyes stayed on hers. “I have no one else to love… no one to care about… except you.”

And she had no one to love but him. But she didn’t say as much. This wasn’t the time, alone here on the rooftop, with him so close that all she wanted was for him to kiss her. He had moved nearer in the telling of the story. She didn’t trust herself another minute longer, so she eased her hand free and stood. “It’s beautiful up here.”

“It is.” He joined her, taking the spot beside her. But he didn’t touch her, didn’t take her hand. “Where you’re going… East San Antonio High. It’s dangerous, Eliza.”

“I know.” She faced him. The moonlight in his eyes was something she would remember forever. “You, too.”

“I always know I might not come back. With every mission.” He didn’t look away. “And that was always okay. Because I