Bobby's POV continued…

"Trixie? What are you doing here?" Bobby couldn't help but stare at his older sister who was standing on the other side of the hospital room with her daughter Emily.

"Well," she feigned insult, "I'm happy to see you, too!"

"Sorry. It's just…"

"Unexpected of me?" Trixie finished for him. "Oh Bob, you of all people should know; spontaneity is my middle name."

Everyone, including the pale teen in the bed, gave a laugh at her accurate statement. The spunky Mrs. Frayne was certainly known for being unpredictable.

"Of course, it's completely normal for you to be here, I guess," Trixie continued to smile through her sarcasm. "And, with only one of Mart's twins too, I see." She hugged Laura Belden as the youth came around the bed to stand beside her aunt. "I didn't even know you girls could be split up like this without experiencing withdrawal symptoms."

"Hardy har har, Aunt Trixie. You're funny. Seriously, Uncle Bobby wasn't planning on coming here. I guess I kind of kidnapped him. He stopped by the house, looking for Dad, and I talked him into bringing me so I could give something to Ashley," Laura gave her uncle a special smile when she said the word "kidnapped" because they both knew it was actually Bobby's idea to come.

"I'm just glad you came," Ashley said looking up at them with a faint sparkle in her eyes. "My mom left about an hour ago to get a nap, and I was sitting here feeling sorry for myself until Emily and Mrs. Frayne stopped in. Now, you're here, too. I feel so popular!"

Bobby thought the sandy haired girl looked surprisingly healthy, despite having been deathly ill with pneumonia only a few days before. Obviously, the worst was over, and the young Leukemia survivor would be headed home soon.

"But…um… it does seem weird to see you without your sister, Laura," Ashley continued. "Where is Lydia, anyway?"

"She's at our Grammie's house for one of her book club meetings. I was supposed to go, too…but…"

"But, you didn't actually read the book, huh?" The freckles on the older blonde woman's nose crinkled up as Trixie smirked lovingly at her niece.

"I did, too!" Laura whined. "Well…the last chapter, anyway."

Again, everyone laughed.

"So, then…what was it you came all this way to bring me?" Ashley asked shyly, pointing at the object Laura held in her small hands.

"Oh," Laura blushed, "well…I thought you might need some…uh…comfort…in a sort of…um…spiritual way, so I…I…brought you…"

"I know what that is!" Emily Frayne suddenly interrupted. The autistic girl moved swiftly from behind her mother to take the witness cube from her cousin. "I can make the Jesus box work. Let me show you. Let me show you."

"Emmmie, that was very rude!"

"It's okay, Aunt Trixie. She won't hurt it." Laura was well accustomed to the eleven-year-old's quirky behavior.

"Still, she should know better than to interrupt people or to take things away from them like that," Trixie gave her daughter a disapproving glare.

However, Emily was oblivious to any look or word. While Bobby looked on with an increasingly nervous feeling in the pit of his stomach, the child stared ahead in her usual, glassy-eyed manner and began to manipulate the colored paper box in her hands. Methodically, she folded and inverted the origami shape until she had the outer panels all shrouded in black. Her small frame rocked a little, back and forth, as she finished.

"Look, Ashley. Look. Do you know how it works? Daniel showed me how it works. I can show you. I can show you."

"Yes, that would be great, Emily. Show me."

It was clear to Bobby that Ashley was just being nice. She seemed to already be familiar with the cube. And, why shouldn't she be? She was, after all, Daniel's girlfriend, and if she had spent any time with him he would have naturally shared his faith with her.

"See the black?" Emily began. "The black is sin. We are all sinful. We all do bad things. Sin separates us from God. God can't be with us because of sin. Sin is bad. Sin is bad."

The little girl held up the shape and recited, "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Romans 3:23."

"Very good, Em," Trixie beamed proudly.

"Not done yet, Mama. There's more. See? Not done."

Emily pulled two outer tabs, causing the black panels to flip inward and reveal a new splash of red. There were three scriptures printed in the midst of the surrounding blocks of scarlet, and Bobby wasn't surprised to see that one of them was John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish but have everlasting life." He had seen that verse many times before. However, the other two verses were unfamiliar to him. He leaned closer to read them as Emily held the cube up for inspection.

"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord, Romans 6:23."

"But God demonstrated his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us, Romans 5:8."

The little girl's face turned sad as she continued her demonstration, "We deserve to die 'cause of our sin, but Jesus died in our place. It was God's gift, see? He gave Jesus to die so that we didn't have to. The red is His blood. He bled to pay for the bad things we do. By ourselves, we could never pay the price, and we could never be good enough to be with God. "

Listening politely, Bobby knew he should be moved by the ancient ideas alone, yet it was the deep sadness in his little niece's face that actually began to stir his heart. It made him think of his own daughter Angelica.

I could never give my child's life to save anyone else. Especially someone as undeserving as me. Could it be that God really loves us that much? I can't even imagine such a love.

"So, step one, then," Trixie said, breaking into his thoughts, "is to admit that we need God's gift of eternal life through Jesus. We must admit we are sinners who need forgiveness."

Okay, that's not too hard to do, Bobby thought to himself.

He nodded to indicate that he understood, but he didn't say anything. He wondered if he was supposed to. His internal musing almost caused him to miss the next color transformation Emily performed on the box, but he looked up just in time to see the girl's tiny fingers give the last fold that left the outer walls of the shape a brilliant white.

"Oh, I like this verse," Laura interjected before Emily could speak. She pointed at the words written on the white panels which read, "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, Titus 3:5."

Then, she smiled at Bobby.

"It's just like Dad's favorite hymn at church. 'What can wash me white as snow? Nothing but the blood of Jesus," she sang out softly.

At the mention of the song, Ashley gave a small laugh and blushed. "I could sure use a physical 'washing and regeneration' right now. I can't wait to get out of this hospital and get home to my shower."

The gentle laughter that followed her comment did a lot to calm Bobby's growing anxiety, and it made him realize just how much all of this was affecting him, emotionally.

Get a grip on yourself, Bob, he thought. This isn't the first time someone's tried to spout scripture at you. Stay calm! You don't have to make any decisions if you don't want to.

In an effort to keep his fidgeting hands still, he shoved them quickly into his pockets. Emily, of course, paid no attention to his growing discomfort but kept moving forward with her presentation.

"The white is purity," the little girl continued. "It shows how Jesus took away our sins and made us clean for Heaven." She caused a flip of one side and a fold to another, and in a moment, the white panels of the cube were expertly transformed into blocks of gold.

"The Bible says the streets of Heaven are made of gold." Emily held the cube up once more. "See? Streets of gold. Jesus fixed things so that we can go there. All we have to do is accept Him and what He did for us, and sin won't keep us out of Heaven anymore." Suddenly, her little brows furrowed in thought, and she looked as if she were about to cry. "This one's too hard for me to say. Uncle Bobby? Can you read it for me? Can you? Can you read it?"

The gamekeeper's breath caught in his throat at the invitation to get involved. He didn't think he was ready for such a request, but he couldn't deny the precious child before him. She had never before addressed him in such a direct way. Trembling, he reached out and took the witness cube from his niece's hand to read the scripture written on the golden paper.

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life, John 5:24."

"Do you know what it means?" Trixie's question to her brother was soft."I mean…do you understand?"

"I…I think I do." But, Bobby's highly trained, scientific mind wouldn't let his newly opened heart contemplate anything more at that moment than the geometric wonder of the folded object in his hand. He immediately became engrossed in the mathematical properties of the shape, allowing its complexity to distract him from its spiritual message. Turning it over and over again in his hands, he calculated the probable number of colored panels and decided that he'd no doubt seen every hidden verse the multifaceted cube had to share.

The realization left him feeling somewhat disappointed.

That's it? That's all? I thought there'd be more.

Just as he was tempted to cling to his old bitterness and abandon all hope of faith, Emily did something surprising.

The child awkwardly stepped in front of her uncle, took the cube gently from his hands, and held it to her chest. Still rocking slightly back and forth, she smiled up at him and whispered, "This is the best part. The best part. The best part."

With a quick shuffle and a few more folds, the cube was instantly transformed into the shape of a cross with beveled looking edges.

Of course, it wasn't just the mathematic improbability of the transformation that blew Bobby away; it was the picture that was pasted to the center of the paper cross. The image had been cut from a magazine; most likely one of those commonplace ads selling collectable glass figurines and cheesy sofa paintings, and… it depicted a man being held up from behind by the figure of Jesus.

The man held a hammer in one hand and a nail in the other.

The man looked completely broken by guilt and sorrow and unable to stand on his own.

The man…much to Bobby's alarm…looked an awful lot like Dan Mangan.

He audibly gasped when he saw it.

"See the colors?" Emily asked proudly, unaware of the way the cutout image was making her uncle feel. "The black color on this side of the cross doesn't touch the white or yellow on the other side. And, no matter how you fold it, the black can't touch the white or yellow. But, the red…the red touches everything. See? See? Sin can't get into Heaven, and Jesus' blood fixes everything. See? Do you see?"

"Yes…um…I see," Bobby breathed, reaching out for the colorful paper cross. "May I have a closer look at that again… for a moment, please?"

The child's eyes danced as she passed the object to him, and Trixie tried to hide her growing emotion by covering her mouth with her hands. Bobby wondered if she was upset because of the picture or because of his reaction to it.

"You did a great job, Em," Ashley encouraged the little girl to try and diffuse the tension in the room. "I know Daniel will be proud of you when I tell him what a great job you did. Thank you for showing me how the cube works. And, thank you Laura, for bringing it to me."

"You're welcome," Laura said softly. She gave a slight shrug and looked up at Bobby with the same concerned stare his sister was casting at him.

Of course, he couldn't be bothered with their sympathies at the moment. He was too busy trying to make sense of the object he was holding.

"How did you…I mean…this shape…I don't see how it's possible from the original structure…"

He stopped when he noticed the verse printed below the image was John 3:16 again. Why is this verse so important?

"There are twenty-five words in that verse; twenty-five folds in the cross; twenty five panels of the cube…" Emily began, as if reading his mind.

"But, it's an even-sided object!" Bobby interrupted. "That's impossible!"

"Twenty-five words in that verse: twenty-five folds in the cross; twenty-five panels of the cube; twenty five years that were lost…"

"What? What did you just say? Emily, what did you just say?" He had not intended to sound so gruff with the child, but he needed to hear the last of her words again.

Did she just say what I thought she said? It couldn't be!

"Twenty-five words in that verse; twenty-five folds in the cross; twenty-five panels of the cube; twenty five years that were lost."

Bobby suddenly felt as if he'd been struck by lightning. It had been exactly twenty-five years since he'd torn up the coordinates to Dan's final cache.

How could she have known?

"There are twelve words before the word 'Son' and twelve words after it. Twelve tribes of the children of Isreal…"

"And, I was twelve when I found the cube Dan left for me."

It was as if a light came on in the darkness. God had finally begun to speak to him in a language he could understand…math. Bobby quickly began to check the verse in his hands, and sure enough, the thirteenth word was "Son." The numerical patterns were easily seen by his autistic niece, yet he'd never noticed them before.

Okay, you've got my attention, God. I know this message was meant for me. But, what now?

Gingerly, he reached out a finger and touched the pasted picture of the man in Jesus' grasp. The likeness in the image sent a million thoughts racing through his mind.

Did Dan feel such abandon when he surrendered his life to God? Why does this man look so guilty? Does this imply that we are all individually responsible for Jesus' suffering? Why does Jesus look so peaceful while this man appears to be so devastated? The title of the painting says "Forgiven." Is that what it means to be forgiven? To fall so humbly into His arms? Am I imagining things, or does it look like the man's feet are barely even touching the ground?

Suddenly, the image of Mart, Trixie, and Brian clinging to Hallie by Dan's bedside all those years ago flashed in his mind.

Oh, God, they weren't holding her back! They were holding her UP! Love holds us up! When we can't stand alone, love comes along and holds us up.

"You…you were holding Hallie up," he said aloud to Trixie, at last.

But, his sister wasn't listening. She was staring wide eyed at her daughter with a look of complete amazement.

"Trixie?"

The petite blonde turned to him, blinking back tears.

"Oh Bob, you…you do see what Emily is trying to say, don't you?" Her voice trembled with emotion.
"This is what Dan tried to explain to you. You get it, now, right?" The look on her face was so pleading and expectant that he wanted to be completely truthful with her.

"I don't know," he said honestly. "I…I want to understand. But…I still have questions."

He thought of the cross and how it stood as a reminder of the shame and punishment all believers are spared because of Jesus. It symbolized the sacrifice, the redemption, and God's unconditional forgiveness. Instantly, Bobby recalled the compass Dan Mangan gave him all those years ago. Dan had said the preacher who'd owned it had always kept it with him, but never used it.

Because it served as a daily reminder that he didn't need it.

He was beginning to understand. The cross wasn't a crutch for the weak. It was a beautiful reminder of what Jesus saved us from.

It serves as a daily reminder that we won't have to face judgment the way Jesus did. Because of what Jesus did on the cross.

"Trixie…I…I think I do understand, now," Bobby stammered slowly.

She surprised him by giving in and crying unashamedly in front of them all.

"Well, thank God for that!" She shouted through her tears, suddenly grabbing Laura's hand in hers. "I don't know how, but Emmie knew it all along. She knew someone was going to 'see Jesus' today, as she put it. But…I had no idea she meant you! I just thought…I mean…when she pestered me all day to bring her here…I just thought she wanted us to come here to pray for Ashley. I never thought…Oh Bobby!" The older woman dropped Laura's hand and sprang forward to clasp her younger brother in her arms. "Bob, Dan would be so proud of you! This is what he wanted you to see! You…you do see the truth, now, don't you?"

And, for the first time, he honestly did. He held his sister and wept tears of joy and sadness; hurt and healing; tears of pain and peace.

"I see it, Trix. Dan was right about everything. There is a God. And, I know for sure now that Dan is with Him."

"Oh, Bobby!" Trixie cried out again. "I'm so glad you finally understand."

He held her for a moment longer before pulling back and looking down into her shining blue eyes.

"Look…I…uh…I know I'm supposed to pray a special prayer, now, or something like that, but…um…"

"It's okay," Trixie halted him, "if you're not ready, we can wait."

"It's not that. I am ready. It's just…I want Mart to be there with me when I do it."

"Daddy will be so happy!" Laura blurted. There were tears streaming down her pretty face, too. "He prays for you every night, Uncle Bobby. He does. Every night."

Somehow, Bobby had already known that. Deep in his heart.

"Of course," Trixie sniffed, "You'll probably want Isabella and Angelica to be there with you, too."

"And Daniel," Bobby nodded. "I'll wait for Daniel to get back from Paris."

"Oh, this is all so exciting!" Ashley squeezed the bed clothes as she clasped her hands together happily. "Daniel has been praying for you, too, Mr. Belden. I can't wait for him to know what God's shown you today."

"Thanks to Emily," Bobby said, acknowledging his little niece. The girl was nodding her head repeatedly and smiling up at him. "I have to admit; the numbers helped, Em. Thanks."

"Numbers speak to me. They speak to me. God makes numbers to speak to me," Emily's words fell away into a peaceful mumble as she nodded once more.

"Well…they spoke to me, too. Imagine that. God speaks math."

"Of course He does, silly," Laura giggled. "God invented math."

"The way Mart tells it, you'd think he invented math."

The room erupted in watery laughter at Tixie's joke.

"Imagine that," Bobby repeated again. He couldn't believe how suddenly light his heart felt. "I've been so angry for so long…I never thought I could ever…wow!...imagine that. It's amazing what prayer and a little unconditional love can do."

"You mean, love squared," Laura teased, pointing at the witness cube in his hand.

"No, love cubed," Ashley chimed in.

"Or…more like," Bobby said with a smile, "love… to infinity!"

Alright, everyone…I've run out of all of my chapters, and I don't have time to write anymore. I can maybe scribble out one more chapter to sew up any loose ends. Or…I can end it here.

Tell me what you absolutely HAVE to know, and I'll try to give it to you in one more chapter – Or…if anyone wants to continue the story from here….feel free ;-)