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

chairs, side by side, their arms touching. For a long time they said nothing. Eliza spoke first. “I’ve been reading the Bible.”

“You have?” Jack had no idea. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I feel funny. Sharing my feelings in an email half the bureau will read.” She raised one shoulder. “It’s weird, right?”

He considered that for a moment. His emails had been just as shallow as hers. “It is.” He sighed. “I hate that it’s been our only way of communicating.”

“Me, too.” She tilted her face to the sun. “But since I couldn’t call you whenever I wanted, I bought a used Bible at a secondhand store.” She smiled at him. “I can’t stop reading it.”

He’d been doing the same. “I’m loving the Psalms. David was always in danger.”

“Mmm. Just like us.” There was an easiness about their conversation, like they’d never been apart at all. “There’s something I want to do while I’m here. If you could help me.”

“What is it?” He found his best Jimmy Stewart voice. “You want me to lasso the moon for you, Eliza. Huh, is that what you want?”

“What?” She laughed out loud. “You sound just like him.”

“Sure. Okay.” Jack grinned as he studied her eyes, her face. “You wrote that you’d seen the movie, so… I’ll have to believe you.” Her quiet laughter was better than anything he had ever heard. Because the sound meant she was healing. Even while working one dangerous operation after another, she was moving on from her past.

Her eyes sparkled as she pointed at him. “You don’t think I saw it.”

“No, no.” He loved playing with her like this. Everything between them had always been so serious. He chuckled. “Just making sure not everything in those emails was a lie.”

“It wasn’t!” She was still laughing. “We turned on the TV over Christmas break and there it was. It’s a Wonderful Life. I asked if you’d heard of it.” Her joy faded a little. “Because… I never watched an hour of TV… back when…”

A sinking feeling hit him. Of course she had been telling the truth. Where would she have seen a Christmas classic before? “Eliza…” Don’t let her close off, God. Please. “I was just teasing.” He uttered a quiet chuckle, trying to salvage the moment. “Sometimes it felt like you were just filling space with what you wrote.”

Her smile remained. “I know.” She tilted her head. Her beauty took his breath. “But I would never really lie to you.” She grew more serious. “Except once.”

“Okay. You don’t have to tell me about that.” This wasn’t the time to ask her. She would tell him when she wanted to… if she wanted to. He stared at the distant water for a few minutes. “So… what is it you want to do while you’re here?”

She didn’t hesitate. “I want you to baptize me.” A light filled her eyes and their eyes met. “In the ocean.”

Again his heart soared. God had heard his prayers. During the dangerous missions and months apart, her faith had changed her. “Baptizing you…” His soul was almost too full for him to speak. “That would be an honor, Eliza.”

“Thank you.” She turned to him. “Were you baptized?”

“I was. At our family’s church when I was twelve.” He could picture the moment. Shane and him choosing to get baptized that day. “My brother and I had been studying what the Bible teaches about baptism.” He smiled at the memory. “Finally we couldn’t wait another week.”

She nodded. “That’s how I feel. I want to bury my old life… in the waters of the sea. Leave it behind me for good.” She breathed in, her face toward the sky. “When I come up out of that water, everything will be new.”

“Yes.” He blinked back tears. He hadn’t dreamed they would have this conversation their first day together. “When do you want to do it?”

Her smile gave him the answer even before she did. “Now.”

THE SUN HUNG just above the horizon as they reached the water. They held hands and faced the waves, their feet in the gentle surf. Jack pictured Eliza’s life, the loneliness and loss.

“If I could go back and take you from that place… give you the life you deserved, Eliza…” He slipped his arm around her shoulders. “Nothing… nothing you ever saw or did at that place was your fault.” He gently faced her. “You know that.”

“Yes.” The peace in her eyes was not of this world. “But I made choices I regret. If I had it to do again, I’d let the guards shoot me rather than talk a single girl into going to the Palace.” She sighed. “I want to put everything about that time behind me.” She slipped off her swimsuit cover-up and tossed it on the dry sand. Then she took a few steps into the shallow water. “Please?”

From his phone app, Jack had read the Scriptures about baptism on the elevator ride down to the lobby. He peeled off his T-shirt and set it on the shore. He was ready to do this. They walked out ten yards or so, where the water was waist deep. It was only May, so the sea was chilly.

Eliza didn’t seem to mind. She wasn’t shivering or jittery. Her eyes met his. “Go ahead, Jack.”

He nodded. “Throughout the book of Acts, when someone came to life-changing faith in Jesus, they got baptized. Jesus, Himself, was baptized by John—to show us the way.” A hope that knew no limits filled him. “Eliza… do you want Jesus to be your Lord and Savior?”

“I do.” A smile lit up her face.

Jack remembered how this was done. When he was growing up, baptisms happened regularly at his church.

He stood beside her and brought her hand to her face so she could hold her nose. “I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. For the forgiveness of your sins and for the gift of the Holy Spirit. Buried with Him in death”—Jack