Excerpt: Never Forsaken: Finding Faith

The sun bathed the siblings in warmth despite the chilly November wind that blew. They walked in silence the entire half mile down to the railroad tracks. As they stood staring across the old cars, David was the first to speak.

“I guess this means we’ll get to spend Thanksgiving together this year. I can’t say how much I’ve missed you.”

“Believe it or not, I’ve missed you even more.” AJ closed her eyes, heaving in a deep breath as sharp pains filled her chest. “You have no idea how many times I just wanted you to hold me and protect me. But I couldn’t let go of the anger. And to tell the truth, it’s not all gone. But that’s okay, because I realized the step I took toward God that night you were hospitalized, was just the first step, not the last. I still have so far to go that sometimes the thought of it scares the daylights outa me. But with everyone working to help me, I know I can make it. And I will too.”

AJ’s determined set in her chin had become a trademark for her; when she set it, everyone knew she would follow through. And David knew in his heart she would follow through.

“Sometimes I’m still feeling my way through the dark too,” David commented, dropping his arm around his slightly shorter sister. “But God always turns the light on, just when things are the darkest. It’s a journey that won’t end until we die.”

David shifted to one foot. “J, where did you go that time you disappeared last year? I looked and looked for you, and I finally heard you had hopped a train. I was so scared I’d never see you again.” David clenched his free hand, willing himself not to cry.

AJ looked up into his face, tears glistening in her eyes. Her hands were massaging her arms as if trying to rid herself of a burning pain.

“Not yet David. I’m not ready to talk about what all I did the past two years. Not that’s it’s any big secret. I just can’t talk about it yet. Please.”

David squeezed her shoulders, his smile easy. “Of course AJ. No questions. You take all the time you need. We both have a lot of healing to go through, and, Lord willing, plenty of time to do it in. Who knows, maybe someday…maybe someday, we might even find dad and-“

“No!” AJ jerked out of her brother’s arm and twirled to face him, eyes flashing. She looked all the world how she had looked that day by their mother’s graveside. It frightened David, until he reached out and touched her arm. She melted instantly, closing her eyes with a sigh. “I’m sorry David. Like I said, I still have a long way to go. I don’t know when I’ll truly be able to let go of…everything.”

“It’s okay. Like I said, we have the time.”

AJ let herself be drawn into his arms again, whispering into his shoulder. “You have no idea how you kept me going David. All the long, lonely nights, all the fiery furnaces. Just knowing that you were near and still loved me made it possible to face each day. If not for that…” She left her sentence unfinished, and David held her closer, breathing thanks to God for leading him to follow his sister. All the pain, the sacrifice, the heartaches culminated in reward this very moment. David felt like singing for joy. So he did.

“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.”

AJ drew back from his embrace and lifted her face toward the sky, joining in the beloved hymn. “I once was lost, but now I’m found. Was blind, but now I see.”

For the first time in their young lives, the twins could feel the meaning of each word of their mother’s favorite song. It was the sweetest feeling on earth.

“Help!” an ear shattering scream split the serene silence that had surrounded the twins. Their head jerked both directions.

“There.” David dashed in the direction of the railroad storehouses, AJ nearly tripping on his heels. Warnings from the Lieutenant and the Adam’s sisters to stay out of trouble flew from their minds as they pounded the pavement.

The screams died as David reached to swing wide the slightly ajar side door. “Stay here,” he told AJ, though not surprised when she did not heed him.

“Hey!” David yelled as fiercely as he could when he saw a man with a knife poised in the air over someone hidden behind packed crates.

The man’s head whipped around, his eyes shooting darts into David. For a flash second, David was stopped cold in fear, memories of the knifes and boards that had nearly taken his young life.

In that split second of hesitation, AJ plowed past him, screaming wildly as she leaped onto a single crate and used it as a springboard to hurl her body at the man.

“AJ, no!”

The sight of his sister in action mobilized David as never before. With a strength he never knew he possessed, David leaped at the struggling two, jerking the man off his feet and away from AJ.

With force, David spun the man from the behind, ramming him head on into the crates. The man sank to his knees before falling face down on the floor, unconscious.

David was trembling as his eyes met AJ’s bulging ones.

“I didn’t know you could fight like that!”

David shook his head to clear it, feeling dizzy. Seeing AJ had fared even better than him, David moved around the pile of crates to see who the victim was. He gasped his breath, turning away quickly.

“AJ.”

The single word and tone told his sister all she needed to know. AJ bounded past him and disappeared behind the crate to the sobbing young girl.