Devoted by Jennifer Mathieu Read Free Book Online Page A

mean, I thought Dad would be upset, yes. I knew he wouldn’t think it was godly. But honestly, Ruth, it’s a really good book. I just don’t understand how it can be evil when it quotes the Bible and talks about Jesus and the characters aren’t bad at all. I don’t.”
    Ruth frowns. “Really? You mean you really don’t know how a book with magic and time travel can be bad?”
    â€œYes,” I say. “I mean yes and no. I know that Dad doesn’t like it. I know the Bible speaks out against it. But the Bible also speaks about pondering things and loving your family and … fighting the darkness. And all of that is in the book, too. So which is right?”
    Ruth frowns. “Dad is right. I think we have to trust him.”
    Suddenly, little Sarah shifts in her bed and cries out. Ruth and I pause, holding our breaths, worried she might be getting sick again. But soon our little sister settles back down to sleep.
    â€œRachel, you promise you won’t read something like that again, right?” Ruth asks, turning her attention back to me.
    I nod. I’ve been caught, and I know there’s no chance that I’ll ever be able to read about Meg and Charles Wallace or anyone like them again.
    â€œI promise I won’t,” I say.
    â€œReally promise?” Ruth asks. “Never again?”
    â€œRuth,” I say, “I wouldn’t lie to you.”
    Ruth smiles, reassured. “Good, Rachel. That makes me feel better.”
    â€œI’m glad,” I say. “Now go to sleep.”
    â€œMmm hmmm,” Ruth manages, and soon she’s lightly snoring while I stare up at the ceiling, remembering how Meg Murry called herself the oddball of her family and wondering if I know just how she felt.
    *   *   *
    Mom is still frozen inside of her bedroom, hardly eating and barely talking. The shut bedroom door stares at me blankly each time I walk past it, as empty of expression as my mother’s face. And each time I creep inside her bedroom to check on her throughout the day, I half expect to find that she’s disappeared somehow, totally eaten up by sadness.
    She doesn’t go to church the Sunday after I have to destroy A Wrinkle in Time, which makes two Sundays in a row. I’m not sure what she says to Dad or what Dad says to her because this time their bedroom door is firmly closed before we leave for services.
    â€œChildren,” my dad says as he walks into the family room where Ruth and I are struggling to get shoes on the little ones, “your mother needs to rest a little this morning. She still isn’t feeling well and won’t be coming with us.”
    â€œDoes she have a fever?” Gabriel asks. A fever is the only kind of sick that keeps you home from Calvary Christian.
    â€œNot exactly,” Dad answers. “But we need to pray very hard for her to get well.”
    At services, Faith walks up to me and asks why Mom hasn’t come back to church.
    â€œDad said she still wasn’t feeling well, and we need to pray for her,” I answer.
    Faith nods and says, “‘The prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up.’”
    â€œYes, I know,” I answer.
    â€œYou mean, ‘amen,’” Faith responds.
    â€œYes, amen,” I answer, turning my attention to baby Caleb.
    That night, after Ruth and I put the little ones to bed, I head toward my parents’ bedroom door to check on Mom again, if only to watch her breathing or to see if she’ll at least have a glass of milk. But Dad stops me and insists she needs her rest.
    â€œBetter to leave her alone right now,” he says, and my heart breaks a bit because I so want to see my mother.
    Instead, I sit down at the computer to balance the books and do a little more work on the Walker Family Landscaping and Tree Trimming website. I frown as I work through this month’s latest expenses.