Lost in Dreams by Roger Bruner

Which would it be?
    Everyone was staring at me. At least it felt that way. I could almost hear Aleesha thinking,
“Will you stay down there where circumstances have landed you or get up and let God help you prance on those pebbles?”
    What do You want me to do, Lord? I’m not making any more trips without checking with You first
. I could almost hear Him laugh and say,
“This is a no-brainer, girl. Go for it. “
    I must have startled everyone in the room when I yelled, “Amen!” at the top of my lungs. Like Dr. Manette when they freed him from prison in Dickens’s
A Tale of Two Cities
, I felt like I’d been “recalled to life.”

chapter nineteen
    I feel great,” I’d said after Dad, Jo, and Aleesha got tired of staring at me for my unexpected gush of energy that evening. “I feel like turning somersaults.”
    “Uh,” Jo said, “I wouldn’t try that if I were you. You almost broke your neck trying to do those in gym class.”
    The room filled with laughter. Aleesha’s was the hardiest, and she and Jo actually smiled at one another. Maybe that smell would disappear yet. And maybe Aleesha would quit sniffing so hard.
    “You know what?” I said. “Don’t bring my supper to the sofa. I’m coming into the dining room.” I hadn’t eaten at the table in months.
    “If you feel
that
strong now,” Dad said, “why don’t I take you all to a steakhouse to celebrate?” And what a celebration it was.
    My prime rib and fries with cheese and bacon might have weighed me down—as did three mugs of Shirley Temples and a huge ice cream–covered chocolate chip cookie—but I still felt plenty peppy. Maybe the extra food had helped. I hadn’t been very hungry or enjoyed eating during the time fatigue had controlled my life. I’d lost a pound or two—maybe more—and I needed every one I had and then some.
    But the topic of heading west to help Rob build his hostel didn’t come up during dinner. I didn’t think of it again until we got home and settled down in the living room again. For once, I was sitting up on the sofa and not lying down.
    “Okay, gals and respected older guy,” I said, “when do
    we leave for California?”
    “Rob said to come during Christmas vacation,” Aleesha said. “Mine starts the first week in December.”
    Jo shrugged. I wondered if she was worried about the cost. Since she wasn’t in school or working—I had no idea what she did with her time—money should have been the only possible thing to keep her from going.
    Drat! The only thing but that doggoned overprotective mother of hers.
    Dad looked at me with those washed-out blue eyes of his. How often I’d been thankful I didn’t inherit them. He looked like he was trying to stay afloat on an emotionally turbulent ocean.
    “Kim, I thank God that you feel so much better now. I—”
    “I do, Dad. I’ve already prayed about this trip”—
just don’t ask me how many seconds it
took—”and I believe God made me better just so I could go. I could almost hear Him saying, ‘Go for it, Kim.’”
    His lips and eyes twisted the way they did when he opposed something—or at least questioned its wisdom. “I wish God would say something to me about it, then. It’s not that I don’t want you to go …”
    I wanted to finish the sentence for him:
I want all of us to go
.
    “Dad, it’s not just me. Rob invited all of us because God wants all of us. We’re a team.”
    Jo shot me a questioning look.
    “Yes, Jo. You, too.”
    She smiled, although she still appeared uncertain.
    “Kim,” Dad said, “I wouldn’t hesitate to say yes if you were well.” He must have seen the look on my face. “I know. You think you’re well now, and I can’t discount today’s miracle—there’s no other word for it—and the effect it’s had on you.”
    “What, Dad? You don’t think God’s miracles are good enough to last?”
    Oh, my word! I had
never
spoken to my father like that, and the look on his face was a mixture of shock and