A Child Shall Lead Them. Carole Page Gift
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don’t you forget it!” Marnie’s expression grew serious and her blue eyes glistened. “I don’t know how I could get through this without you, Bree.”
“You don’t have to. I’m with you all the way.” After a pause, Brianna added, “And you have the Lord, too, you know.”
Marnie ran her fingers through her long chestnut hair, her countenance darkening. “Do I?”
Bree nodded. “If you ask Him, He’ll be there for you. He loves you, Marnie.”
Marnie lowered her gaze, absently rubbing Ruggs’s floppy ears. “I’m not like you and your family, Bree, always doing the right thing.” Her voice was quiet, tentative. “Being religious comes naturally to all of you.”
Bree let out a whoop. “Is that how you see us? You haven’t been looking closely. We have our problems, our faults, our squabbles. We make mistakes. We don’t always see eye to eye.”
“But you have your faith. I see it in everything you do.”
“And you can have that, too, Marnie.”
She shook her head. “No, I’m not good enough. Look at me, the way I’ve messed up my life. Pregnant, alone, running from my family. What would God want with a loser like me?”
Bree put the popcorn bag aside and scooted closer to Marnie. Gently she squeezed her shoulder. “If you’ve been listening to my dad’s sermons, you know God doesn’t accept us because of how good we are. None of us, no matter how hard we try, can ever measure up to God’s glory.”
“I know that, but…”
“Then you know the rest of the story, too. God loved us so much He sent His Son to die for us. Jesus paid for our sins with His own life so we could have fellowship with God. All we have to do is accept His gift. Invite Christ into our lives.”
“I want to,” Marnie conceded, “but it seems…too easy.”
“It is easy,” said Bree. “Anyone…everyone can do it, no matter how bad they’ve been in the past, no matter how many mistakes they’ve made. Christ can wash away their sins and make them clean, as if they’d never sinned. Sometimes, when I think about it, I get excited just imagining how much God must love us to do what He does for us. Think of it, Marnie. When we trust Him, God accepts us as His own precious children.”
Marnie’s fingers still kneaded the fur around Ruggs’s ears. “It sounds way cool, Bree. But my own parents would disown me for messing up. So how can I expect God not to condemn me?”
“Because God says He will remember our sins no more, and God doesn’t lie.” Bree smoothed Marnie’s long, dark hair.
In these two short months she had come to love Marnie like a sister. Somehow she had to make the road ahead easier for her. “Believe me, Marnie, placing your faith in God and walking with Him day by day is the most amazing experience you can have on this earth. Think of it. Feeling cherished and loved by the God of the universe. Nothing else even comes close to that.”
Marnie sat quietly for a long while, rocking, one hand on her rounded belly, the other smoothing Ruggs’s fur. Her lower lip trembled. Finally she looked up with bright, tearful eyes and said, “Help me, Bree. Help me pray and say the right words, so I can know God the way you do.”
On Monday afternoon, the last week of August, Marnie asked Bree if she could borrow her car for a couple of hours to take care of an important personal matter. Bree agreed, nearly dying of curiosity, but as she handed Marnie the keys she refrained from asking questions. If Marnie wanted her to know her business, she would tell her when the time was right.
The time was right that very evening. After dinner, while Brianna’s father retired to his study and Frannie escaped to the sunroom to work on her latest sculpture, Marnie and Bree cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher. They worked in a companionable silence for a while. Then Marnie broke the stillness.
“Bree, I got a favor to ask.”
Bree kept working. “A favor? Sure, what is it?”
“It’s a big one.”
Bree stopped and looked at Marnie. She didn’t like the seriousness in her tone. Something was wrong. “How big a favor are we talking about?”
“The biggest,” said Marnie with a little catch in her voice. “I…I want you to keep my baby.”
Brianna stared dumbfounded at Marnie. Surely she hadn’t heard right—and yet from the poignant, sad-hopeful look on Marnie’s face, Bree knew she had. “Keep your baby?”
Marnie nodded, sudden tears rolling from her eyes. “Please, Bree, say you will! I’ll owe you forever.”
Bree wiped her hands and sat down at the table. “Why me?”
Marnie sat across from her and leaned forward with a fierce urgency. “Because you care about me…and I know you would love my baby.”
“I already do, but…” Bree shook her head, her thoughts reeling. “Look at me. I’m a single career woman with a full-time job, and not a husband in sight. And babies…I don’t know the first thing about them. You want your baby to have a real family, parents who would be devoted to her, a father and a mother.”
“That’s what I thought at first. But now I know your family is just what my baby needs. You all love each other so much. You don’t put each other down. Your house is great—the happiest place I’ve ever known.”
“I-I’m glad you’ve been happy here,” Bree stammered. “We all want to help out and be here for you. But that doesn’t mean this is the place for your baby.”
“But it is, Bree!” Marnie brushed awkwardly at a tear. She was about to become a mother, and she herself looked like a lost child, a forlorn little waif, her tousled dark hair framing her desolate face, her lower lip jutting out in a pout. “This is totally the place for my baby. I can’t take her home. I can’t let my family know about her. Don’t you get it? Once she’s born, I can’t ever see my baby again. But giving her away to strangers…I just can’t do it.”
“Then don’t, Marnie. Keep your baby. Take her home.”
“No way, Bree. If my folks got hold of her, they’d make her feel as bad about herself as I’ve always felt. But if you took her, I’d know she was happy. I could picture her here in your house, surrounded by love. You’d teach her about God’s love, too. Knowing she had you, I could let her go.”
Bree rubbed at a spot on the polished oak table. Somehow she had to make Marnie see how impossible her request was. But nothing she could say would dissuade Marnie while she was in such an agitated state. Maybe it was best to drop the subject for now. In a day or two Marnie would come to her senses.
“You don’t think I mean it, do you,” Marnie challenged.
“I think you’re feeling a little emotional right now, but when you’ve had time to think things through—”
“I won’t change my mind.” Marnie stood up. “I’ll prove how serious I am.” She strode out of the kitchen, and Bree heard her hurried steps on the stairs. A minute later she was back. She slapped several official-looking documents on the table.
Bree stared blankly at the forms, not really seeing them. “What are these?”
Marnie sat back down and said solemnly, “They’re legal papers. It’s official. I’m relinquishing my parental rights…and making you my baby’s temporary legal guardian. Later you can file a petition to adopt her.”
Bree stared incredulously at Marnie. “What have you done?”
Marnie smoothed out the papers. “I…I saw your father’s attorney, Martin Cohen. Now he’s my attorney, too.”
“But how?”
“I