Page 54 of Gideon

“I wish I could have seen him today. I can’t even picture it.”

“I’m still trying to get my head around it.”

“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow and whoever else is brave enough to come back.”

“I guess so.”

Chapter 14

Gideon drove backto his dad’s, debating if he should mention what happened at the church or not. It was a terrifying thought, but it kept niggling at the back of his mind. If an opening presented itself to bring up God, he didn’t want to miss it. Not this time. But it could blow up in his face and do more damage than good. Before today, it hadn’t been a topic he’d ever contemplated broaching on purpose. In the past, any time God came up, Gideon had to listen to a tirade about how the church did nothing but abuse people and destroy lives. It was enough to make him wonder if his dad had a bad experience growing up. His grandparents were a mystery besides knowing that his grandfather died while in prison, and his grandmother had abandoned them just like his own mom.

“Hey, Katrina,” he said when he entered the diner. “You know if there’s a fire somewhere? I can smell smoke in the air.”

“No one has mentioned it. You staying for dinner?”

“I’m getting it to go tonight. I’ll have a large meatlovers pizza.”

“Coming right up.”

“And I’ll grab a couple slices of the pumpkin pie. My dad loves your pie. And I’ll pay for this one.”

“No, you won’t. I haven’t sufficiently settled my debt.”

“But this isn’t just for me. It’s for my dad too.”

“He’s helped me out in the past. I won’t take your money.”

“If you insist.”

“I do.”

A couple that had been at the church caught his eye and nodded conspiratorially. He smiled, unsure if they wanted him to come say hi, but then they were whispering to one another, so he sat at the counter and looked out the big front window, squinting. The sky looked tinged in brown. He shifted position, ducking to see if the color was affected by a tint on the window.

Someone sprinted past the diner.

“Here’s your pie,” Katrina said, setting a styrofoam container in front of him. “The pizza will be ten to fifteen.”

“Thanks,” his attention went back to the window, where he watched several cars drive by. “Is something happening in town I haven’t heard about?”

“Not that I know of. Why?”

He shook his head and saw another couple of cars pass. “There’s a lot of traffic.”

“Maybe everyone’s driving through town at the same time. Now you won’t see anyone for hours.”

He smiled at her joke.

The volume of conversation within the diner increased, and several patrons headed for the door.

“There’s a fire,” one of them said, and the volume rose again, followed by more people leaving.

“I hope it’s not close,” Katrina said. “This whole town could go up.”

“Has anything like that happened before?” Gideon said.

“Not yet.” Katrina bit her lip as she craned her neck to see over the patrons at the window. “It looks a little smoky out there. Does anyone know where the fire is?”

A woman who’d gone outside returned. “I can see smoke in the sky,” she said. “It’s coming from that way.”

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