Author's note: At long last I'm back! And we're finally going to meet Kimberly in this chapter. The school is based on schools I was aware of in South Dakota that used the ACE (Accelerated Christian Education) curriculum. This was a common curriculum at that time in Christian schools, especially in missionary settings, and it is still used today. I homeschooled my own children with it for a few years in the early 2000's, so I am very familiar with it, and the school I taught in in Rapid City, South Dakota during the 90's looked kind of like the school I describe here.

Johnny had to emotionally prepare himself to go to the missionary's house to meet Kimberly. He had been somewhat prepared, but then he had found his stepfather comatose, and had told his mother about Athena, and had fallen apart emotionally. He decided to sit with his stepfather for a while before he went. He sat for about an hour, watching the man sleep, and mourning inwardly for the man he'd last seen. There was no change in his stepfather's condition during this time, and finally Johnny got up.

Betty looked up at him from her perch on the side of her husband's bed. "Are you ready to meet your daughter?"

"I—Yes, I think I'm ready. It would be easier if she weren't at a missionary's house, though."

"She's being taken care of. Her mother—her mother liked these missionaries."

Johnny looked up in surprise, but didn't say anything more. He was anxious to meet Kimberly and didn't want any more delays to his doing so. "I'll be back in a while," he said.

"Do you think you'll have Kimberly with you?"

Johnny glanced over at his stepfather and hesitated. "No. I don't think I should yet. She's been around enough—enough sadness."

Betty nodded. "I think you're right," she said.

And at long last, Johnny was on his way to meet Kimberly.

The Johnson's house looked pretty much like the other houses on the rez—a small frame house painted blue, though the blue was faded and peeling. Johnny was surprised. He'd expected white people to live in a nicer house, like the Trent's. But it was certainly nicer in that it had a phone wire running to it. He could see the church/school building next door and wondered whether Kimberly would be there instead of at this house. The telephone wire stretched to the school as well. He decided to try the house first rather than interrupting school. But there was no answer to his knock.

He walked to the school, suddenly shy as he approached the long, low cinder block building, knowing that his arrival would change both their lives irrevocably. He walked in the front door, expecting a hallway and an office. That wasn't what he found.

The front door opened into a huge room outlined by white wooden frames forming connected work stations at which children sat. Each child had thin workbooks in which they were working. Each side of each station had a flag—an American flag on one side and on the other, a white flag with a blue cross. There were two middle aged adults in the room, a large woman with a brown and graying bun and a humble looking man, monitoring the children as they worked. The man looked up as Johnny looked in the door. "Can I help you?" he asked somewhat warily as he walked quickly toward Johnny.

"Yes. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt. I—my name is John Gage. I was told Kimberly would be here?"

Before the man could reply, a scream of unadulterated joy was heard from the other end of the room, and a little girl sprang to her feet and ran to the door, throwing herself into Johnny's arms.

If Johnny was a little bowled over by his daughter's greeting, he was completely blindsided by the words that came out of her mouth. "Thank You Jesus! Thank You Jesus! Thank You Jesus!" she said, over and over.

"Mr. Gage, how about stepping into the office?" The man said uncomfortably, after giving them a few moments for their emotional meeting. "Kimberly, would you wait in the classroom?"

Kimberly sighed, and started to turn away, but Johnny caught the look in her eyes, a look that said she did not want to be parted from him even for a moment. Nor did Johnny. And Johnny felt anger toward the man in front of him because of the words Kimberly had spoken when she had flung herself at him, words that to his mind meant that the man had brainwashed his daughter. He didn't want her to obey him. He clasped her hand and said, "She can come with me." It wasn't a question, and the man acquiesced.

Once all three were seated inside the office, the missionary spoke. "I'm Philip Johnson. My wife Rachel is outside, in the classroom. I—just let me say I'm sorry for your loss. Do you plan to take Kimberly immediately?"

Kimberly looked at him hopefully, but Johnny replied, "I'd like to, but I can't. My stepfather is—is very ill, and I don't want Kimberly to have to experience anymore—anymore than she already has."

"But Daddy, I already know Grandfather is sick."

"I know, sweetheart, but he's—he's gone into a—a kind of a sleep—and we don't think it's going to be long before he—before he's no longer with us." Johnny turned back to Mr. Johnson. "But I want to spend as much time with her as I can."

"Of course, Mr. Gage. We only had her start back to school yesterday, the day after the funeral. We felt it best that she continue her routine, what was familiar to her. We knew she would be leaving us, soon, though."

Johnny normally told people to call him Johnny when they called him Mr. Gage, but this time, he didn't want that kind of familiarity. As irrational as it was, he felt a brief resentment toward his stepfather for making it so he couldn't take Kimberly out of this man's house immediately, this man for whom he felt a sweeping antagonism for making his daughter into—into something he didn't understand or like. Not that he would ever actually dislike Kimberly, but he certainly disliked what he thought the Johnsons had made her. But like it or not, he was going to have to deal with these people. "Mr. Johnson, do you think it would be possible for me to make a couple of long distance phone calls? I'll be glad to pay for them."

Not only did Mr. Johnson give permission, he also left the office so that Johnny could have privacy. Johnny still kept Kimberly with him, neither of them wanting to separate from the other. Kimberly listened in apparent fascination to a call Johnny thought she couldn't possibly be interested in. He called Hank from the school office and apprised him of the situation concerning his stepfather, telling him that he may be in South Dakota for a week or more, and then he would still need time off when he got back to get Kimberly settled in, enrolled in school, and arrangements made for her care when he was on shift. Cap told him to take all the time he needed.

Then he called Roy.

"Hey, Johnny, did you meet your little girl?"

"Sure did. She's right here with me."

"What's she like?"

"She's beautiful," Johnny replied, smiling at Kimberly. "I've been told she sings, too, but I haven't heard her yet. I really only met her a few minutes ago."

"That's great Johnny."

"Hey, Roy? It looks like...I'm going to have to be here a little longer than I thought. My stepfather-he's...not doing well."

"I'm sorry to hear that. I hope he's better soon."

"He won't be."

"Oh." Roy paused, and Johnny knew that the tone of his voice had told Roy everything he needed to know. Finally Roy spoke again. "At least it's good that you found out everything in time to see him again."

"I guess. I just wish none of this had happened. I wish I could have been with my family and with Kimberly all along."

"Yeah."

The call ended and Johnny turned back to Kimberly. She looked up at him. "Do I have to go back to school, Daddy?"

No, no, no youdon't have to! Johnny wanted to say, but out loud he said "I'm afraid so, sweetheart. But I'll be back for you soon."

"It's okay. I'm going to get my friends' addresses and we're going to write letters to each other."

"You do that."

She's too compliant, Johnny thought. It's not okay that I'm leaving her here! For some reason she's afraid to complain. I hope I can make her comfortable with me soon.