Nanci glanced out the window of her room at Mrs. Keller’s Place. The trees were all bare and gray, and the overcast made the gathering dusk seem even more drab. The Grand Canyon seemed far away, and it was, both in miles and in time.

At least the semester was almost over with, she thought. One more to go, and that would be that. While she was learning things she needed to know for her future, she was starting to get bored with sitting in classrooms, and welcomed the break coming up in a few days. She and Sarah had been discussing driving out to Flagstaff for the holidays; it would be a welcome break for Nanci, and Sarah was eagerly looking forward to seeing Kevin again. At this point it didn’t appear that they’d be able to hitch a ride on Jennifer’s Citation again, but there were still a few days to go and she knew that Tanisha had told their friend they were planning on coming home for Christmas.

During September and the early part of October it had been easy to tell when the Red Team was off the river – it was the team that the remaining members of the White Team had been switched to for the fall season. Because of seniority Scooter was the trip leader, Preach was the assistant, and Kevin was just a boatman, but it really didn’t matter; from what Nanci could tell things had gone smoothly on the river, and from what little she’d heard from Al they’d had some fine trips.

Sarah had seemed a little distracted and remote when the Red Team was running, mostly because she wasn’t hearing from Kevin while they were on the river. The minute the team got in range of a cell phone tower on the way back from Diamond Creek she and Kevin were on the phone, catching up on all the details of what had happened in the last two weeks. From what Nanci could tell, it wasn’t all tales of what had happened on the river or news from Hickory Run they were discussing, either.

The tripping season ended for the Red Team in the middle of October, and the phone calls died off in intensity a little, mostly because Sarah and Kevin were talking every day, sometimes two and three times a day, and not just in a heavy burst every two weeks. Though Sarah still professed that she didn’t know where things were going between the two of them, as far as Nanci was concerned all of the phone calls made it pretty clear to her: this was serious, and getting more so every day.

Nanci was happy for both of her friends, although her joy was punctuated with a little wistfulness; if things had gone just a little bit differently she might have been the one spending a lot of time on the phone with Kevin. But it was clear that it was not to be, so it really didn’t bother her that much. It would have been nice, but . . .

Nanci turned back to her studying. She and Sarah were partnering with Warren and Norm on a paper on John Calvin for their church history class, and while it had been interesting, she thought the relevance to today’s world was a little on the limited side. But then, she thought, you never knew what might be useful in the future. The four of them were planning on meeting up a little later to work on the final draft of the paper, which would be due before they left for their winter break.

She and Sarah had become pretty good friends with Warren and Norm; they’d known the two the previous year, and had even worked with them on another project. This year they had become even closer. Not real close, not like that; both of them were married and went home to see their wives and families about every other weekend. The two retired military guys were quiet and unassuming, but quite knowledgeable about what they were doing; in the next year or so there were going to be a couple of churches somewhere that would have pretty good pastors, or so Nanci thought.

Their friendship with Warren and Norm had gone past just studying together. In the days after Nanci and Sarah had returned to Hickory Run they’d spent a few evenings talking, and one evening the subject worked around to where Sarah told the story of her escape from Rwanda. It wasn’t something Sarah talked about very often; since her revelation around the campfire the night after visiting Havasu Creek, she and Nanci had only discussed it in snatches, and then more on the implications for Sarah rather than on the massacre itself. The two guys had just nodded soberly, as if they’d heard stories like that before, and didn’t press her on it. “Stuff like that happens when people get away from God,” Norm commented. “Or if they don’t know God in the first place.”

But in the aftermath, the four of them had gotten around to discussing Sarah’s family, and how she knew they were back in Rwanda, but hadn’t heard a word from them. “I don’t know if they’re alive or what,” she said. “I can’t believe that the mission society wouldn’t have notified me if they were dead, but then, you never know.”

“Have you tried to find out anything through the society?” Warren asked.

“I suppose I should,” Sarah had replied. “But sometimes I don’t want to know, either. After all, they abandoned me for their lousy mission, so there’s a big part of me that says, ‘Why should I care?’”

“Because they’re your parents, maybe?” Norm pointed out. “Sarah, I believe from what you said that they had a big dedication to their mission, but they also put a lot of care and love into raising you after the stuff that happened to you when you left the country. Whatever happened, you still owe them some respect for that.”

“I know,” Sarah sighed. “Maybe it’s just prideful of me, but if they cast me away like I didn’t matter to them, I feel like I ought to return the favor.”

“Don’t forget the story of the prodigal son,” Warren pointed out. “I realize this is a different twist on it, but in many ways it’s the same thing.”

Nothing much was said after that, but a few days later in a similar session while working on their John Calvin paper, Norm spoke up. “Sarah, I hope you won’t be angry with me, but I contacted an old friend who has an old friend, if you know what I mean. Your parents are all right, and they have a new mission station set up not far outside of Kibungo.”

“I know where that is,” Sarah nodded. “It’s not all that far from Kigali, but it’s quite a ways from where the old mission station was. Did your friend say how things were going for them?”

“Not really, other than that they were all right. He told me that there’s still some violence in the general area, but most of it is concentrated over around the Congo border, and that’s on the other side of the country. They’ve been having a multi-sided ethnic war in the area, but it seems to be dying down, so there’s a good chance they’ll continue to be all right.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” Sarah sighed. “I wish they’d let me know, though.”

“Maybe they’re being a little prideful themselves,” Norm shook his head. “I realize this is a wound that needs healing, but the healing is going to have to come from both sides. I don’t think you’re quite ready for it yet, and they probably aren’t either. It may take a while, Sarah. Don’t be surprised if it takes years. But you should be open to it when the time comes.”

That had been a month before and there was no further word, not that Norm’s news was a lot of word in the first place. At least it settled one question, although not very satisfactorily: Sarah’s parents were alive and presumably doing what they wanted to be doing. No one was sure what that actually meant, though.

It was still a little early for Warren and Norm to show up in Sarah’s room, where they had decided to meet to work on the paper, but Nanci decided she might as well go over there anyway. It was something to do, and right at the moment she felt the need to be friendly. She went into the bathroom and knocked on the door to Sarah’s room – they usually used that route, rather than going out into the hall. “Come on in,” she heard in response to her knock.

Sarah’s room was a lot more cluttered than Nanci’s rather Spartan quarters; everything Sarah owned was in the room with her, especially since they’d cleaned out the storage locker in Huntington the spring before. While most of the stuff in the locker had been thrown away, the remainder just added to the mess, even though Sarah had also gotten rid of some of the things she’d brought to Hickory Run with her over a year before. “So how’s it going?” Nanci asked casually.

“I don’t know,” Sarah sighed. “I can’t get hold of Kevin. It’s been three days now.”

“That’s really strange,” Nanci nodded. “That may be an off-the-river record for you two.”

“I know. I’m not really worried, but something may have come up with him. It’s just, well, it’s hard not knowing.”

“It’ll work out,” Nanci smiled. Under the circumstances, she would have been worried too, as much as the two of them had been on the phone with each other in recent weeks. “Look, let’s get our minds on something else. I’m still not happy about our section on Calvin’s Geneva doctrine. Let’s thrash that out a little more.”

“Sounds like a good idea to me,” Sarah agreed. “I’m not exactly thrilled with it either.”

They spent the next few minutes digging into Calvin’s purist doctrine, although both admitted they’d seen enough of it in the past few weeks to hold them for a long time. “You know,” Nanci said at one point, “it strikes me there’s something in the Book of Discipline that sort of applies to this.”

“Could be,” Sarah said, referring to the book that was so often part of their studies. If nothing else, referring to the Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church at a Methodist seminary was sure to put the accepted spin on things; a day rarely went by when they didn’t refer to it. “My copy is right there by your elbow.”

Nanci picked it up and started looking for the section that seemed to apply, although exactly what she had in mind proved to be a little elusive. She was still looking when there was a knocking on the door to the hall.

“If that’s Warren or Norm, they’re a little early,” Sarah commented as she got up to open the door; she kept it locked just on general principles.

“Fine with me,” Nanci replied. “Maybe one of them can help with this.”

Sarah opened the door and let out a gasp. “Kevin!” she cried. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to see you honey,” was all he could get out before the two of them were in an embrace and a deep, deep kiss. Nanci glanced over at the two, and realized, if there had been any question before that the two of them had it badly for each other, there was none now.

It was a couple of minutes before either of them were in any condition to communicate with the outside world. “Kevin, this is such a surprise!” Sarah said, still in Kevin’s arms. “I’ve been wondering what happened to you! I haven’t had a call from you in days, and I’ve only been getting voicemail when I call your cell phone.”

“I dropped it,” he shook his head. “Busted it up, pieces all over the place. Sarah, honey, this is a little embarrassing, but I would have called before but I didn’t know your number. I had you on auto-dial, and I just didn’t know it without the phone.”

“So you drove here to see me?” she shook her head. “Kevin, that’s crazy! Nanci and I were planning on going to Flag in a few days. I’ve been looking forward to seeing you again.”

“It’s not crazy,” he said. “I wanted to see you anyway, but in Tuesday’s paper there was a story that they were going to have an early release at the jail.”

“Bowman?” Sarah asked anxiously.

“Yeah. I checked the first thing Wednesday morning, and they’d turned him loose Tuesday. I tried to call, but I couldn’t get hold of you. I guess I also forgot the name of this place. I had to ask around here just now before I could find you.”

“Couldn’t you have asked Al or Karin for my number?”

“I could have, but they’re not in town. They’re in Galveston with Scooter and Jim.”

“Galveston? What are they doing there of all places?”

“After the season was over with, Scooter and Jim heard that there were a lot of hurricane-damaged boats for sale cheap,” he explained. “I guess the insurance companies wanted to get rid of them, so they went down looking around to see what they could find. Al and Karin were looking for a chance to get away for a few days, so they decided to go down and give Scooter and Jim a hand with the boat they bought for peanuts.”

“That’s news to me,” Nanci spoke up.

“I guess they were getting tired of going to Costa Rica in the winter,” Kevin shrugged. “At least that was what they said on the river last fall. I guess the plan is to fix up the boat this winter and then live on it off-season in future years. But that’s neither here nor there. I figured if the county turned Bowman loose, he’d be heading this way as fast as he could get here, so I figured you needed more than to just be warned about him. I figured it wouldn’t be a bad idea to be here so I could get in his way if it was needed.”

“I really appreciate your thinking of it, Kevin, I really do. But I’ve got that protective order against him, so maybe that would keep him away.”

“I wouldn’t want to bet on it or I wouldn’t have driven straight through from Flagstaff,” he said. “First, that order is only good in Coconino County, and certainly not in Kentucky. Besides, from what Al and I were able to find out, he’s such a nut that he would have ignored it anyway. So I figured I ought to be here.”

“When you put it that way, I’m glad you’re here,” she replied. “At least you got here before he did. Oh, Kevin, I love you so much for thinking about me.”

“I love you too, babe,” he smiled. “In fact . . .”

“There you are, you treacherous slut!” they heard come from the door, which Sarah had left open. Nanci glanced up, to see Bowman there, and he was in a rage. “I knew I’d find you in the arms of another man! You were given to me, you cheating whore! I can see I’m going to have to teach you to respect me.”

Bowman lunged toward Sarah and Kevin, but his rage had given Kevin just enough time to push Sarah toward her bed and turn to face the madman. She fell back onto the bed, and in an instant Kevin and Bowman were grappling.

Bowman may have been bigger than Kevin, but Kevin was stronger, although Nanci knew he didn’t have Crystal’s fighting skills. Although they only wrestled for a few seconds, it was clear that Bowman’s rage might be more than Kevin could handle. Nanci jumped to her feet and grabbed the nearest heavy object, which happened to be a large annotated study Bible. With arms and shoulders strong from years of workouts and six summers of rowing a raft in the Grand Canyon, she brought it down on Bowman’s head as hard as she could.

It would be unfair to say that the maniac dropped like a rock; it was more a case of collapsing slowly, still trying to fight Kevin, who took the opportunity to lay a couple of pretty serious blows on the collapsing form. In a moment he was lying on the floor of the room, moaning and semi-conscious. “Guess I got here in time,” Kevin sighed. “Are you all right, Sarah?”

“I’m OK, just surprised,” Sarah smiled as she got to her feet. She went back over to Kevin, and took him in her arms. “Kevin, I owe you a big kiss for this. In fact, I owe you a big kiss for everything.”

“How about me?” Nanci asked with a grin.

“I’m not going to kiss you,” Sarah laughed. “The Methodist Church may be getting more liberal, but I doubt if this place is anywhere near that liberal yet.”

“Get your hands off of her,” Bowman moaned from the floor; he was clearly coming around now. “She’s mine, I tell you. She’s mine! Her parents gave her to me.”

“Shut up, you miserable excuse for a human being,” Kevin said and reached in his pocket. He turned to Sarah and said, “I was going to keep this until later, but I think this idiot needs to see this.” He opened his hand to reveal a silver ring with a diamond mounted on it. “Sarah,” he asked, “Will you marry me?”

“Of course Kevin,” she smiled. “If I have to be with someone, I want it to be you.”

“Sarah, you can’t marry him!” Bowman complained, struggling to get up. “You were promised to me! I have a letter from your parents where they say so.”

“Whatever my parents may have said to you means nothing to me,” she answered him directly. “Not after what they did to me.”

Nanci reached for the Bible again. “Stay on the floor or I’ll whack you again,” she said. “You have no claim on her.”

“But I do,” Bowman said, struggling around to reach inside his coat pocket. With both Nanci and Kevin standing over him and looking threatening, he pulled out a battered envelope. “There,” he said, handing it to Sarah. “You can read it yourself.”

More curious than anything else, Kevin reached down, took the envelope, and handed it to Sarah. She scanned through it quickly, then read aloud, “‘We are worried about what Sarah will do if we go back to Africa. If things should happen to work out, we think you ought to be able to take good care of her.’ There’s more about their plans to go back to Africa, but there’s absolutely nothing there that promises me to you,” she said. “It’s dated almost a year ago. This letter means absolutely nothing.” She started to hand the letter back to Bowman before she thought better of it, and started to rip it into tiny shreds.

“No! No! I tell you, they promised you to me!” Bowman cried as he watched his dreams get torn into tiny bits of paper. “You have to go with me! You need me, Sarah!”

“The only thing I need from you is for you to get out of my life, stay out of my life, and don’t bother me again,” she snarled. “If I never see you again, it’ll be too soon. I never liked you in the first place and I have no idea why my parents thought I might be willing to have anything to do with you.”

“But Sarah . . .”

“Do you ladies have a problem here?” Warren asked from the door. Nanci looked up to see that Norm was right behind him.

“I’m afraid we do,” Sarah said. “We have an unwanted intruder here. I don’t know whether to just throw him out or call the sheriff.”

“Did he hurt you, Sarah?” Warren asked.

“He tried to, but Nanci and my fiancé Kevin were able to stop him in time. He hit me once before, back out in Arizona, and he was trying to drag me off with him again here.”

“It definitely sounds like a problem for the sheriff, then,” Warren said impassively. “Norm, why don’t you go give him a call? I’ll stay here to make sure this thing doesn’t get any more bright ideas.”

“But she’s mine, I tell you!” Bowman moaned once again. “Her parents gave her to me. I’m a minister. You have to believe me!”

“Actually,” Warren shook his head, “it sounds more like a problem that used to be solved by guys in white jackets, but I guess those days are gone, especially in this county. Now look, buddy. You stay on the floor and stay quiet, or you won’t be walking out of here when the sheriff gets here. They’ll have to carry you out.”

Bowman walked out of Mrs. Keller’s place a little later – well, actually, stumbled out between two big deputies. Everyone hoped that was the last they would see of him.

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