Love and Redemption (Completed)

Goodbye

"Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." Isaiah 41:10

The last day of camp was a busy one. Buses came and went as the campers began to head back to their respective homes and towns. There were a lot of tears, exchanging of phone numbers, and promises to meet up again soon. I sat on my suitcase in front of the main cabin as I waited for my bus. Molly was a little ways off writing her address in a small notebook for another friend she had made over the summer. I hadn't seen Noah since my baptism. Molly soon came over and sat on her suitcase beside me.

"I hate this day," she pouted, "sucks leaving." 

"There's always next year," I said hopefully.

"Just one year closer to when I'll be deemed too old and my parents will make me get a job," she chuckled. We both knew this was probably our last summer here. We needed to start looking for jobs and colleges. Unless camp was paying, we probably wouldn't be back anytime soon. 

"It's okay," Molly smiled, "whenever I'm sad I just remember a little quote from when I was a child. 'Every beautiful flower grows...'"

"Excuse me," a brunette girl interrupted, "I'm sorry to interrupt. Molly, could I get you to sign my notebook. It was really great hanging out with you this summer."

"Of course!" Molly said cheerfully. She wrote a cute little note in the book and added a heart at the end. "It was so great hanging out with you too, Sarah." She then sat back down beside me. 

"After a little rain," I said as I stared at her.

"I'm sorry?" she asked, her face puzzled.

"Every beautiful flower grows after a little rain," I answered.

"How do you know that?" she asked in a whisper. 

"It was told to me by a really sweet little girl when I was crying my heart out in a corner when I was little," I said as I felt tears start to burn behind my eyes.

"I only told it to one little girl," Molly said quietly, "she had strawberry blonde hair and emerald green eyes. She was crying because a family she thought she was going to live with forever gave her back to the Home. I was only able to see her for a couple of hours because I left to my forever home the next day. I always felt bad because I got to have a home and she was given away."

"My natural hair color is strawberry blonde," I said as a tear rolled down my cheek, "I was heartbroken because my family gave me away. A little girl with golden curls came over and told me that beautiful flowers grow after a little rain. She said my tears were watering my beautiful seeds. She then held my hand as I fell asleep. I never got to thank her because she was gone the next day. But her words stuck with me through a lot of bad times in my life, even when I didn't believe them anymore, I still remembered."

"Oh Chloe, I'm so sorry," Molly said as she pulled me into a hug, "I'm so sorry I got the life you were supposed to have. I'm so sorry I left you behind. I should have asked my family to bring you too."

"It's okay, " I said as I pulled out the hug to look at her, "God had a plan for each of our lives. Please don't be ashamed of your life, its beautiful. And you were put on a path that has obviously crossed mine again. God knew I wouldn't have the strength to handle life, but you would. Again, you were the rock I needed and you introduced me to our Savior. I owe you my life." I smiled.

Molly smiled back and wiped away her tears, "I can't believe we've met up after all of these years. God really does work in mysterious ways," she chuckled. 

"That He does," I laughed with her. We chatted some about our lives growing up. She told me about her life with her family, and I told her some about my different homes. I didn't go into too much detail because I was ashamed of a lot of my past, but I did have some good memories.

Soon enough our bus came and everyone began to line up. I felt someone bump into me, but since everyone was trying to get their belongings on the bus I didn't pay any attention to it. After handing my suitcase to the bus driver so he could stow it under the bus I climbed up the stairs and moved towards the back. I picked a window seat and sat down with a sigh. Though my summer was filled with a lot of ups and downs I was still a little sad to leave. Someone then sat down beside me. I figured it was Molly but when I looked over I was shocked to see Noah sitting in the aisle seat. He didn't look at me, just opened his backpack to grab his earbuds and phone. Molly moved down the bus aisle and sat in the chair in front of me. She then turned around and looked over the top with a cute, annoyed look on her face. 

"Just so you know, he cut in line in front of me to get behind you," she cut him a look before turning back around and sitting down.

I couldn't help but chuckled. So that's what that bump was. I looked at him again but he was looking straight ahead, his music already playing. I didn't know why I felt disappointed, but I figured I could get some sleep since he wasn't going to be talking. I watched out the window as the rest of the campers handed off their luggage and loaded onto the bus. The bus driver then got on and closed the doors. As the bus began to moved I watched the lake. I remembered when I first got here how beautiful it looked. It was like something from a story book. Crazy how something so beautiful could become so scary then go back to being something beautiful. I really needed a moment to comprehend it. 

The bus turned away from the lake to go down the road and my view soon turned into endless trees. My hands were in my lap and I was picking at my nails without realizing it as I watched the trees go by. Suddenly I felt something warm on my hand. I looked down and Noah was silently placing his hand in mine and interlacing the fingers. He brought our hands over and rested them on his leg. The movement forced me to move closer to him and away from the window. I looked at him, but he was still looking straight ahead, however, his cheeks were blushing bright red. I smiled and held his hand back. The rhythm of the bus and the trees were soothing, and soon I was drifting off to sleep. I just barely remember a gentle hand guiding my head down onto a warm shoulder to rest.