On the Victory Trail Read online

  By now the frigid air ran through Skye’s veins like ice water. The snow quickly formed a thin blanket on the field, adding a chill that made Skye feel like she was standing on an iceberg. Skye wished she were home. She moved her feet and wiggled her toes, trying to get them warm.

  “Come on, Sooze!” she grumbled. “I bet that dumb football would listen before you would.”

  The words flying between Jason and Sooze lasted longer than Skye thought she could. But, strangely, Skye noticed that nothing else passed between them. In fact, Sooze’s hands never left her pockets. Finally, Sooze left Jason standing alone, scratching his head of frozen stiff hair.

  “I told him to chill out,” Sooze labored to say as she joined Skye. She let out a slight giggle. “Hey, get it? Snow, cold, chill? Anyway, I don’t need that stuff anymore. Not since I’ve got God on my side.”

  Despite the cold, Skye managed a relieved smile. “I was afraid — ”

  “Yeah, I know,” Sooze said. “C’mon, let’s go find our real friends.” They slowly walked away.

  A thunderous cheer erupted from the Madison crowd, and the band played their victory march one more time. But Skye and Sooze had other things on their minds.

  chapter fourteen

  I never thought about buying gifts for anyone but me.” Sooze forced her words out as she and Morgan maneuvered their wheelchairs through the crowded mall. For a month now, Sooze had begun to use her own wheel-chair when she had to travel a considerable distance. “Christmas was always just an excuse for Mom to party. The rest of the family never bothered with us much, so holidays were no big deal. My brother Chuck and I usu-ally just watched TV or ran around. I guess my running-around days are over.”

  Skye followed closely, making sure that their three win-ter coats and the packages in the girls’ baskets stayed put.

  “Wait a sec, you two,” Skye said, saving a bag from tumbling to the floor. “I need to fix some things back here. Pull over. This place is packed. It’s a miracle that you two haven’t mowed down some poor shopper along the way.”

  After Skye had rearranged the cargo, the wheelchairs resumed, crawling like a pair of gigantic snails, try-ing their best to avoid distracted shoppers. Skye trailed behind and tried to balance bags that still had a mind of their own.

  “Your running-around days might be over, but not your running-over days,” Skye said.

  “I have enough to worry about without being sued for reckless driving!” Sooze managed a giggle. “We just have to be extra careful, or some kid could lose his toes.

  Right, Morgan?” “Right!” Morgan spun her chair around and took a long look at the line of stores on the other side of the mall. “I just love Christmas! What are you two buying Mr. and Mrs. C? It’s only a few weeks until the big day!”

  Excitement over celebrating her first Christmas as a Chris­tian had Skye practically jumping out of her skin, especially the part about buying gifts for ­people she loved.

  “I’ve noticed Mom’s Bible is pretty ragged,” Skye said. “I think I’ll get her a new one — I’m thinking some-thing fancy with a burgundy leather cover.”

  “How about Mr. C?” Morgan asked.

  “Wait till you hear this! I saw the neatest little mustache grooming kit. It’s perfect.”

  Sooze adjusted the baseball cap that covered her wig. “I was thinking about a sentimental gift for Mr. C. I thought maybe a new key chain with his initials, and a crazy visor for the new truck would be cool. Kind of a belated ‘I’m really sorry for wrecking your truck’ gift. What do you think?”

  Skye studied her friend’s eyes that betrayed tiredness and persistent pain. “Sooze, you okay? We can go now if you’re too tired.”

  “Not a chance,” Sooze answered. “I’ve got to find a bright blue scarf for Mrs. C. to go with her western duds.”

  “Brilliant,” Morgan said, brushing back her hair. “I’ve been saving for months for what I’d like to get them. Did you know their twentieth anniversary is next month? I saw the neatest wall clock with tiny running horses on it. They’ll love it.”

  Skye thought of something special she had seen in a store the week before, and her heart played leap frog. That’s right!

  “Hey, now that we’re talking horses, I know some-thing we could all get them, and it wouldn’t cost us mega-bucks. Off to the toy store!”

  Sooze scrunched her face like she was sucking lemons. “The toy store?”

  Morgan laughed. “Okay, Skye, if you say so. But I’m guessing you’ve lost your mind.”

  “Stay with me. You’ll see!” Skye promised.

  The girls giggled their way to the other end of the mall, excused themselves past other shoppers, and finally approached the window of the Just Kidding toy store.

  “Look at those!” Skye bubbled as they lined up in front of the store window — horse models of all shapes and sizes posed in prances or rearing on their hind legs. The horses stood around a red barn on a green grass-like carpet, and a small white fence encircled the entire dis-play. Above the exquisite models hung a wooden plaque carved with the word BREYER.

  “Wow!” Morgan said as she stared at the display. “I’ve seen some of these horses before, but never in a spread like this!”

  “This is awesome!” Sooze said.

  “Check it out,” Skye said, her voice rising to a higher pitch. “There’s one in there for every horse at Keystone. Look — there in the back on the left. That one’s just like Champ!”

  Sooze pointed to another corner. “Hey, there’s Blaze! Look, Morgan, its legs are black just like hers!”

  Morgan leaned forward in her chair. “Yeah, I see it. Do you see Pepsi anywhere?”

  “Yeah,” Skye answered, “next to the black stallion. If I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought they used Pepsi’s picture to make that horse. It looks like her twin.”

  “This is too sweet,” Sooze said, as she thought her days of riding Pepsi. “Oh, I get it, Skye.”

  “Me too,” Morgan added.

  Skye’s whole face sparkled with a smile. “It won’t cost that much if we all pool our money. We could get both Mom and Dad a model of their horse. Over there in the right corner is Chief. Do you see him?”

  “Yep,” Sooze said.

  “Unreal,” Morgan said. “That model is even the same pinto colors as Chief. They’ll love these! Let’s do it.”

  Sooze backed away from the window and bowed her head. Her swollen fingers played with each other.

  Skye followed Sooze’s reaction. “What’s the matter?”

  “Do you feel sick?” Morgan added.

  Sooze looked up and stared at the window. “Nah, nothing like that. Since I’m not getting chemo, I’m not sick anymore. Just tired. I told you before I never bought a gift for anybody in my whole life. That includes my mother. Not for any reason. Not even her birthday. She collects things like this. You should see our one bedroom upstairs. She has ceramics and dolls and plastic animals sitting all over the place. I bet she’d like one of these. I could get her the one that looks like Pepsi.”

  “How could she not love it? That’s a super idea,” Skye said.

  Morgan turned her chair toward the entrance. “C’mon,” she said, with a smile as big as Skye’s, “let’s go shop!”

  The busy weeks before Christmas brought the sights and smells that heralded the joy of the long-awaited holiday. Shade Valley now glistened with several inches of snow, adding to the season’s delight. The spirit of giving to honor Christ’s birth seemed to reach even into the dark-est corners of every home, igniting them with lights of hope displayed in brilliant color. Yet the beauty of the Christmas season somehow sent a more somber message to the family at Keystone Stables. Though prayers for Sooze had been going up constantly, it had become too clear that five months of treatments were not helping Sooze. She was gravely ill.

  Shortly after the girls’ shopping trip, Sooze’s physical condition weakened so fast that she was no longer able even to sit up. Mr. and Mrs. C
hambers had stationed a hospital bed for her in their living room where a fresh towering spruce tree twinkled in one corner. White lights around the bay window cast a soft glow in the room and on the snow-covered shrubs outside.

  Skye’s and Morgan’s spare moments always brought them to their friend whom they had grown to love. Every evening they ate their meals at her bedside, encouraging her, relating the news of the day, telling her about the horses, reading to her from the Bible, and praying with her before she fell asleep. Sooze grew weaker and thin-ner. Much of the time, her medication kept her in a deep sleep. When she was awake, it took all her strength to manage a few words. But she could smile, and when she did, it illuminated her entire face.

  On Christmas Eve, snowflakes fell on an already sparkling winter wonderland. Skye and Mr. Chambers had finished their barn chores, and Mrs. Chambers and Morgan had just done the dishes when Pastor Newman stopped by.

  The family gathered around Sooze’s bed and sang Christmas carols. After Pastor Newman prayed and left, Skye and Morgan decided to wrap the last few gifts at the dining room table. Mr. and Mrs. Chambers reclaimed their chairs next to Sooze. A Christmas CD played softly in the background as the scent of cinnamon wafted through the air.

  Skye wrapped gold ribbon around a shiny green pack-age. Her head throbbed from endless crying, and her throat ached. I know God does miracles. He healed Dad, she told herself. And he just has to do another miracle now.

  “Do you think God could heal her?” Skye asked Morgan. “I mean, she’s been fighting so hard.”

  “I don’t know what to say,” Morgan replied as she taped a box shut. “Mrs. C. says that God’s ways are not our ways.”

  “It doesn’t even seem like Christmas, does it?” Skye felt her throat tighten again and her eyes tear up. “I mean, how can we be happy at a time like this?”

  Morgan pushed the box she was wrapping to the center of the table. “I know. This is the worst thing I’ve ever gone through.”

  “I just don’t get it.” Skye looked up into Morgan’s glistening eyes.

  “Skye, can’t you see that God sent Sooze here so she would come to know him? She’s going to a far better place than we can even imagine. She’s going where it’s Christmas every day!”

  “Yeah, I know, but it’s still hard. She was just getting her act together and really enjoying Pepsi. I’ll never forget when we talked at Piney Hollow the night of the retreat. She really did come clean. And even the way she felt about her mom changed. She’s been praying for her too.”

  “Yeah, I know.” Morgan sighed and reached for the box again. “Just remember, we promised that we’d pray for her mom too. God can change her heart.”

  “Yeah, but when? Can you believe Mrs. Bodmer hasn’t come even once to see Sooze? I wonder if she even cares one little bit.”

  “Some ­people just can’t handle being around sick folks. Like my family,” said Morgan. “It’s too scary for them. Like I said, we’ll just keep praying.”

  “Girls.” Skye heard Mrs. Chambers’ voice from the living room. “You better come in here.”

  Skye and Morgan looked into each other’s eyes. Neither one said what Skye knew was in each of their hearts. It was time to say good-bye. But as they slipped into the room, they noticed that Sooze was awake. A weak smile crossed her face as she caught sight of her friends.

  Mr. and Mrs. Chambers were on each side of the bed. Their eyes were swollen and red; both of them looked like they hadn’t slept in a week. Mrs. Chambers stroked Sooze’s cheek gently. On a lamp table next to the bed rested a gift box with a tag labeled “Mom.” A silence settled on the group, and then Sooze spoke. “She’s coming. I know she is. God told me my mom is coming to say good-bye.”

  Skye gave Morgan a quick look and then turned her eyes back to Sooze. In only a few days, it seemed that Sooze had faded away to almost nothing. Her head, covered with a thin layer of fuzz, highlighted her eyes that had sunken deeper into her ashen face. Her chest rose with each shallow breath and then lowered in a jerking motion.

  Skye sat, staring at her friend. This can’t be real. I’ve got to wake up from this nightmare, she told herself. The heaviest weight she had ever felt pressed down on her. It felt like her heart was being ripped right out of her chest. My best friend is dying, and I can’t do a thing to help her. Skye blinked, streams of hot tears flooding her cheeks. With a sigh of disbelief, she leaned on the bed and folded her hands in front of her quivering lips.

  A knock at the door, faint and unsure, broke the tearful silence. Mrs. Chambers brushed the tears from her face and turned toward the gentle knock. She went to the door and slowly opened it.

  As Mrs. Chambers stood back for the guest to enter, Skye and Morgan both gasped. There before them stood a lonely figure, cold as the rush of the winter night itself.

  Mrs. Chambers reached out to welcome the woman at the door, and Skye’s heart leaped. She brushed back her tears and as she did, a deep inner peace made its way into the depths of her soul, a peace that only comes from God.

  “Mrs. Bodmer, come in!” Mr. Chambers said.

  With a newfound hope in her heart, Skye turned to Sooze, who had turned her head toward her mother.

  “Oh, Sooze,” Skye said with excitement. “Your mother did come. Now I know God answers prayer.”

  Sooze smiled, and Skye thought she looked like an angel. Sooze reached out one thin, pale arm to the woman who now stood next to her bed.

  Mrs. Bodmer kissed her daughter’s hand as tears flowed freely from her eyes onto the bed covers.

  “I love you, Mom,” Sooze said.

  “I know I haven’t ever told you, Sooze, but I love you too. I don’t know why I couldn’t ever do right by you. I’m so sorry. Can you ever forgive me?”

  Sooze nodded sweetly and continued to smile up into her mother’s face. “I forgive you, and God will forgive you too, Mom. All you have to do is ask.”

  A comforting presence filled the room that, with-out question in Skye’s heart, outshone the glow of the Christmas lights. She knew God was here. She knew there was nothing to fear.

  Slowly, mustering strength from a source higher than her own, Sooze stared fixedly at the corner of the room.

  “It’s time for me to go now. I’m not afraid. I’ll see you all again in heaven one day.”

  Sooze’s voice was barely more than a whisper. Her lungs emptied with one long rattle, and her eyes drooped shut. Her parched lips forced upward into her last smile on Earth, one that could only mean victory!

  For the next few moments, which seemed like hours, the family sat in frozen silence, hoping against hope that they might see one more breath.

  Mr. Chambers’ weak voice cracked. “Sooze is with the Lord.”

  Skye sat with her family. Their sobs intermingled with the fleeting joy of a Christmas Eve that would stay with them the rest of their lives. Mrs. Chambers stood with her arms encircling Mrs. Bodmer, comforting her. Finally, Mr. Chambers prayed, committing Sooze and their own futures into the hands of the Lord.

  Someday, Skye’s breaking heart declared with its own victorious shout, someday in heaven, we’ll be together again!

  And now clearer than ever, the message of the sea-son rang out — that Jesus Christ came to Earth that first Christmas so long ago for just this purpose — to take away the power of death.

  Quietly at first, and then with gathering strength, the family began to sing Silent Night as a hymn of praise to God.

  A Letter to my

  Keystone Stables Fans

  Dear Reader,

  Are you crazy about horses like I am? Are you for-tunate enough to have a horse now, or are you dreaming about the day when you will have one of your very own?

  I’ve been crazy about horses ever since I can remember. When I was a child, I lived where I couldn’t have a horse. Even if I had lived in the country, my folks didn’t have the money to buy me one. So, as I grew up in a small coal town in central Pennsylvania, I dreamed about horses and collecte
d horse pictures and horse models. I drew horse pictures and wrote horse stories, and I read every horse book I could get my hands on.

  For Christmas when I was ten, I received a leather-fringed western jacket and a cowgirl hat. Weather permitting, I wore them when I walked to and from school. On the way, I imagined that I was riding a gleaming white steed into a world of mountain trails and forest paths.

  Occasionally, during the summer, my mother took me to a riding academy where I rode a horse for one hour at a time. I always rubbed my hands (and hard!) on my mount before we left the ranch. For the rest of the day I tried not to wash my hands so I could smell the horse and remember the great time I had. Of course, I never could sit at the dinner table without Mother first sending me to the faucet to get rid of that “awful stench.”

  To get my own horse, I had to wait until I grew up, married, and bought a home in the country with enough land for a barn and a pasture. Moon Doggie, my very first horse, was a handsome brown and white pinto Welsh Mountain Pony. Many other equines came to live at our place where, in later years, my husband and I also opened our hearts to foster kids who needed a caring home. Most of the kids loved the horses as much as I did.

  Although owning horses and rearing foster kids are now in my past, I fondly remember my favorite steed, who has long since passed from the scene. Rex, part Quarter Horse and part Tennessee Walker, was a 14 ½ hands-high bay. Rex was the kind of horse every kid dreams about. With a smooth walking gait, he gave me a thrilling ride every time I climbed into the saddle. Yet, he was so gentle a young child could sit confidently on his back. Rex loved sugar cubes and nuzzled my pockets to find them. When cleaning his hooves, all I had to do was touch the target leg, and he lifted his hoof into my waiting hands. Rex was my special horse, and although he died at the ripe old age of twenty-five many years ago, I still miss him.

  If you have a horse now or just dream about the day when you will, I beg you to do all you can to learn how to treat with tender love and respect one of God’s most beautiful creatures. Horses make wonderful pets, but they require much more attention than a dog or a cat. For their loyal devotion to you, they only ask that you love them in return with the proper food, a clean barn, and the best of care.