Faith Wish Read Online Free

sunporch to form a bright and spacious twenty-by-twenty-four-foot living space. The room was newly painted in robin’s egg blue.
    But how could any room, remodeled or upgraded or whatever, make her feel better if she might not even graduate with her class? It was her computer, but it was perched on Eleanor’s old desk. From time to time she looked inside the drawers, flipping through Eleanor’s old scholarship offers or academic awards or certificates of achievement. National Merit Scholarship notifications. Full academic scholarship offers from around the country. National Honor Society certificates.
    Anne-Marie wondered if she should empty the drawers and fill them up with some of her own stuff. If the room itself was hers, then the desk was, too. But what stuff would it be? The letters from the counseling office explaining how she could make up her schoolwork and still be qualified to take finals? Or maybe some of her past letters which delivered suspensions for cutting classes?
    Anne-Marie put her chin in her hands. She stared out the huge picture window, but it was too dark to see much of anything other than streetlights.
    The remodeled bookcases near the closet were now configured to form an entertainment center, which housed her Aiwa stereo and her Samsung color TV She could operate them both by remote, from the desk or from her bed.
    Suddenly she was restless and irritable. She wanted to smoke, but she’d given up cigarettes. She did like to pick out Bible verses that comforted or inspired her, then print them. She’d choose different fonts and center them on parchment paper. Many of her favorites were from the Psalms:
    Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked ,
    nor stands in the way of sinners ,
    nor sits in the seats of scoffers;
    but his delight is in the law of the Lord ,
    and on his law he meditates day and night .
    The passage reminded her of one of Brother Jackson’s strong admonitions, to “Keep company with the sheep and avoid the goats.”
    Anne-Marie also loved Psalm 9:
    I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart;
    I will tell of all thy wonderful deeds .
    I will be glad and exult in thee ,
    I will sing praise to thy name ,
    O Most High .
    When my enemies turned back ,
    they stumbled and perished before thee .
    In her mind, the passage triggered another of Brother Jackson’s urgings, to celebrate the presence of God every day in her life. It also reminded her of the snares and sinkholes the world held for true believers. She flipped pages in the Bible until she found a passage that read:
    Because you have kept my word of patient endurance ,
    I will keep you from the hour of trial which is coming on the
    whole world .
    The knock on the door startled her; it was her father. She told him to come in. Her screen saver was forming a scrim of snowflakes.
    â€œHow’s the term paper coming?” he wanted to know.
    â€œPretty slow,” she said. “I’m working on it now.”
    Her father glanced around at all her printed Bible verses before he said, “If you made this much progress on your homework, you’d probably be in good shape.”
    â€œI hope the passages will guide me by giving me strength.”
    Her father sighed. He was a tall, handsome man whose graying temples looked distinguished.
    â€œI’ve been thinking about changing my topic,” Anne-Marie said timidly.
    â€œChanging it to what?”
    â€œTo the prayer circle around the flagpole and the law. When they hold hands and pray, Vice Principal Rosario always monitors them with this look on his face. He holds his walkie-talkie. He says his reason for being there is to make sure the prayers don’t last past the second bell. But everybody knows he’s there because of the lawsuit.”
    Anne-Marie’s father, who was an attorney, dismissed it with a wave of his hand. “The prayer circle is not a school-sponsored event,” he said.