Curl up with an Irishman.
This excerpt comes from an upcoming young adult short story to be released in late November, A Miracle for Mari. In this scene, Mari Tatum is talking to her boyfriend, Shay McNab, about the Christmas Play they will both be in and thoughts of the future. But what Shay doesn't know is, fatherhood will come sooner than he's ever planned.
A fall from grace. A miracle of life. A gift of forgiveness.
Mari Tatum has a secret. Forced to be Mary, the mother of Jesus, in the church play, she finds herself working alongside Shay McNab, the very boy she’s keeping a secret from.
Yet in the story of Christ’s birth, she finds that in God’s hands her fall from grace can become a miracle.
A Christian novella dealing with teen pregnancy and the true meaning of the season.
The low light in the barn and the breeze that blew through chilled the air inside considerably. Mari leaned over the stall door, stretching her fingers for the horse’s head. Bitsy looked miserable, her sides distended, her head drooped. She twitched and her skin flexed and pulled.
Mari’s
mind returned to the figurine – Mary, great with child, on her way to
Bethlehem. What was she thinking that day? Of the pending birth? Of the care of
her husband? Of the fulfillment of the angel’s words?
Maybe
she wasn’t thinking anything at all. Maybe instead she pondered the length of
the journey and her own discomfort. Much like the horse.
“Can
I touch her?” Mari asked.
She
withdrew so Shay could open the stall door. The horse snorted at her presence
and swiveled her ears. Mari stroked her rounded belly. “My mother said it was
all worth it.”
She
made the statement without turning around, hearing Shay’s boots scratch over
the floor. “Having me, I mean,” she added.
Still
he didn’t speak.
“I
asked her only a couple days ago. I was looking at some photographs. Me when I
was born, thinking, you know about Mary.” She inhaled a shaky breath, her
nerves tingling. “You ever think about it? Being a father?”
She
braved a glance then. He was staring at her, his gentle blue eyes bright in the
darkness.
“No.
Well, maybe a little,” he said.
“Y-you
don’t object to having children. Do you?”
Her
gaze lit on his hands curved over the top of the door, and she tried to picture
him holding a baby. His baby.
He
slouched on one hip. “No. Always figured I would … someday. Why?”
She
looked back at the horse and laid her cheek against her warm furred shoulder.
“Just wondering. The play and all, you know.”
The
horse nuzzled her and tiny hairs on her snout tickled the underside of Mari’s
arm.
“What
you waiting on, girl?” she asked. A flash of life moved beneath Mari’s palm,
and she stilled her hand, savoring the thump and strike.
Knowledge
grew in her heart. That was what Mary thought about. Not the journey nor the
dangers, not her discomfort at the load she carried, but contentment in the
miracle of pending motherhood. That she, a girl from a small town, would deliver
a child.
A child with a future.
The Savior of the world.
Unthinking,
Mari looked down at herself and a picture formed. She would be a mother; Shay
would be a father. This was their child. Theirs.
Her
fingers numbed, and she turned her head, finding his gaze.
That
didn’t excuse what they’d done. Things would still be difficult. She still had
to figure out how to tell him, and how to tell her parents. Feelings would be hurt and words said; they
had a price to pay. Their story wasn’t Mary and Joseph’s.
Yet
when all was said and done, for the miracle growing inside her, it might be
worth it.
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Suzanne D. Williams
Suzanne Williams Photography
Florida, USA
Suzanne Williams is a native Floridian, wife, and mother, with a penchant for spelling anything, who happens to love photography.
1 comment:
This sounds like a beautiful story! One of my daughters became pregnant as a teenager, and I can relate. I'll have to watch for this book's release. Thank you for a beautiful preview!
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