Redeeming-Love-By-Francine-Rivers

Five
Death is before me today. As a man longs
to see his house when he has spent many years in captivity.
P A P Y R U S F R O M A N C I E N T E G Y P T
The storm lasted for days. The rain streaked the glass like tears, washing the
grit away and making watery images of the outside world. Angel worked
and slept and looked out over the shanties, clapboard buildings, and sagging
canvas tents lit by a thousand lanterns until dawn. No green anywhere. Just
grays and browns.
Henri would be serving breakfast now, but she wasn’t hungry, and she
didn’t feel like sitting with the others and listening to their squabbles and
complaints.
The rain came harder and faster, and with it came memories. She used to
play a game with her mother on rainy-day afternoons. Anytime it rained, it
grew cold in the shanty, too cold for anyone who didn’t have to be there.
The men stayed away, warming themselves in a comfortable tavern, and Rab
stayed with them. Mama would set Sarah in her lap and wrap the blanket
around both of them. Sarah had grown to like storms because then she had
Mama all to herself. They would watch the large drops on the glass pane
touch and grow and finally slide down into a river on the frame. Mama
talked to her about when she was a child. Just the happy things, the good
times. Mama never spoke of being turned away by her father. She never
spoke of Alex Stafford. But whenever she was quiet, Sarah knew Mama was
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