Chapter 7
"Maybe you should try to make contact with her. When she's out of school you could have her with you though the summer."
"I'm in the Navy and have no idea where I'll be stationed. I have sea duty and I never know when I'll be on land or for how long. You can see how hard that would make it for me to get her for a visit."
"Yes, but surely there must be some way…a little girl needs her father."
"I know, but my life is so unpredictable in the Navy."
"I don't suppose you would consider changing jobs would you?" she asked.
"No, I was born to serve my Country and I enjoy it."
"But what about your daughter?"
"I'll make time for her somehow. She does have a father in her life. My ex-wife remarried and gave my daughter the man's last name."
"Can she do that without your permission?"
"They are in a foreign country, she's the major's daughter, and she did it."
"Can't the Navy help you do something about that?"
"I don't want my daughter to see me as someone who is causing problems in her life."
"But you do want her to see you as her father don't you?" she asked.
"Yes, but I'll find a way. Now, let's not talk about that, let's talk about you," AJ said. "Do you and your father have a home base, or do you travel around all year?"
A stricken look came over her face and she said, "Father sold our house after mother died and we've traveled ever since then."
"I'm sorry you lost your mother, how were you then?" he asked.
She softly whispered, "I was seven and it's my fault she's dead."
"How could your mother's death possibly be your fault? You were only seven!"
Quiet tears were sliding down her cheeks as she replied, "We were coming home from a revival and the roads were icy. Another car swerved towards us, father lost control and went into a ditch. My parents were both pinned in the front seat; Daddy had a bruised chest and a broken rib. Mama was unconscious and we couldn't get her to come around. Father realized she had internal injuries when she started bleeding from her mouth and nose. I had been asleep on the back seat when the accident happened. I always get so tired and achy after healing all those people. Father was yelling at me to heal Mama, but I was scared."
Her eyes met his, and as she continued, "When I put my hands on her, I could feel that she was dying. I backed away because I was so scared, Father reached out and grabbed me and made me touch Mama again. She was almost not breathing and I was so afraid, all I could do was cry. Daddy kept screaming at me to heal her and then she stopped breathing…so you see, it was my fault that she died."
AJ sat there for a moment in stunned silence, appalled that any child should have to go through that. In the back of his mind, he was thinking, she was only a year older than Francesca was now, when this had happened to her. Taking both of her hands in his, AJ gently said, "Grace, as magnificent as your powers are, I don't think even your father could expect you to heal death."
"But I should have healed her before she died! I was just so afraid," she protested.
"You were only seven, and had just been in a car accident, of course you were afraid!"
"It doesn't matter, Father still blames me for her death to this day," replied Grace.
"Then I don't think much of your Father," he said with an angry sign.
"But he's all I have left in the world," she said sadly. "I don't even have any friends with the way we travel around."
Giving her hands a gentle squeeze, he said, "I'd like to be your friend, if you'd let me, Grace."
She gave him a shy smile and replied, "I'd like that."
"Well I'd better be getting you back. It's almost time for the revival to start."
Grace looked at the clock on the wall and gasped, she said, "Father will be very upset with me for being gone so long."
"Don't you worry about that, I'll explain to him that we were just having coffee," smiled AJ.
"That won't matter he'll still be upset," she replied.
To be continued…..
