Halfway to forever by Karen Kingsbury

Tanner? Certainly there were reasons for the hard times they were
facing, but was her cancer His way of punishing her? At least in part?
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The idea flew in the face of everything she knew about the
!Lord.
Jade had studied Scripture on the matter and realized there
were two schools of thought. The first read that anyone who
divorced, except for reasons of marital unfaithfulness, and then married another was guilty of adultery.
The second group tended to look past the exception and see only the last part of the verse. Marriage after
divorce was adultery, pure and simple.
Most of the time Jade sided with the first group. The idea that God would be merciful to a person whose
spouse had chosen to take up with another seemed more like God than the second viewpoint.
But sometimes... Jade wondered. What other reason was there for the trial they were suffering if God
wasn't angry with her? With both of them? Her sobs returned with a vengeance.
She didn't know how long she stayed there, silently begging God to forgive her, but after a while, the back
door opened and Helen appeared. "Ty's going home with his friend. He'll be spending the night there if
that's okay"
"It's fine." Jade hung her head. "Thanks."
Jade couldn't take another evening inside waiting for Tanner's return, trying to stay awake long enough to
exchange a few shallow sentences. Her head hurt worse than it had in weeks and she couldn't keep her
fingers from trembling. Maybe death was right around the corner; maybe the Lord would come for her
tonight.
Her tears came harder. "Helen, I need... to get out of here." She turned so she could see the older woman,
and the effort was exhausting.
"Well, I don't know..." Helen was at her side, concern etched between the wrinkles on her forehead.
"Maybe you should sleep first."
"No!" The tears made it almost impossible to talk. Jade held
183 K A R E N K I N G S B U R Y
her breath and shook her head. Calm down, she ordered herself, but her heart raced in response. If this
was her last night alive, there was no way she would spend it sleeping. When she could speak, she looked
at Helen. "I have someplace to go. I'll need my chair."
Helen helped her into the house and, with a shaky hand, she
scribbled a note for Tanner.
I can't take it anymore, Tanner... I'll be out late. Don't wait up. I
love you more than you know.
Jade She studied it through a fresh layer of tears. So what if Tanner didn't know where she was? He hadn't
been home enough to notice how bad she'd gotten; hadn't spent time with her and Ty the way he might
have. Jade hesitated.
It was fear; it had to be.
Tanner cared, of course-he loved her more than his own
life-but whatever had come over him since her last seizure, his
absence was more than jade could stand. Especially now, with
death breathing down her neck. All of life had become a race for
survival. A race in which she was losing Tanner.
Whether she lived or died, she was losing him.