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SHAWN THORNTON || 13<br />
Russell seemed ready for bed and tired <strong>of</strong> making decisions.<br />
He heaved the air from his lungs.<br />
“Whatever your mother says.”<br />
“Okay. Thank you.” Bev went quickly to see her mother,<br />
her goal coming to unlikely fruition. “Daddy says it’s okay<br />
with him if it’s okay with you.”<br />
Betty looked up from packing a bag for April and shook<br />
her head a few times slowly, unconvinced but worn down.<br />
Bev wasn’t usually this insistent, and the other girls needed<br />
help getting to bed. Tomorrow would be long, and she didn’t<br />
want cranky kids stuck in the car together.<br />
“Fine,” Betty said. “Go ahead and go. Just don’t be late.<br />
And come right back.”<br />
“Yes, Mom,” Bev said and disappeared to call John before<br />
her parents’ decision could change. Gail beamed at Connie.<br />
Connie bunched up her lips.<br />
“He’s still too old for her,” she said. Gail shrugged and<br />
hopped <strong>of</strong>f to make sure she had gathered all the toys she<br />
wanted to take.<br />
Lately, Bev’s sisters admired not just her grace and gentleness<br />
but her deepening faith. <strong>The</strong> Gilvins were regular<br />
church attenders but not overly religious. Russell <strong>of</strong>ten<br />
worked second jobs on Sundays or went to car shows. Betty<br />
took the girls to Twin Branch Bible Church, a congregation<br />
that met in a three-hundred-seat A-frame building twelve<br />
doors down from their home. Bev had always embraced faith<br />
more passionately than the others in her family. She worked<br />
with Child Evangelism Fellowship to conduct backyard<br />
Bible clubs and summer 5-Day Clubs for children. She also
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