The Way of Peace

Chapter 5

She closed the door after William showed her to her room and handed her his lit candle. It was several doors away from Williams. He said his Mother and Father come and visit and they stay in his mother's old room near his room. This room was the size Roy described. Still it was more than enough to space. She had no belonging except her Bible. She gasped. She hadn't put it back in her pocket when she got out of the bath. She didn't have any pockets in this dress anyways. She left it in Williams room. She must have forgotten to grab it. The door clicked shut when she stepped out in the corridor. She hurried down to Williams room and softly knocked. He opened the door a crack. His eyebrows raised at her.

"Can I help you?" Holding the door firmly cracked open almost like he was afraid she would barge in.
What foolishness.

"My bible. I left it in there this afternoon." His face registered.

"Oh. Hold on I will grab it." He shut the door firmly. She crossed her arms over her chest. What did he think she was going to do? Silly man. He opened it slightly and handed her the small black book and then he cleared his throat. "Eliza left this for you in here." He handed her a white cotton nightgown. This must be very embarrassing for the poor, silly man. She took it.

"Thank you. Goodnight." Melanie walked off to her room. She heard Williams door click when she got to her room.

She laid her bible on the vanity and undressed. She laid the pink dress neatly on a chair and put the nightgown on. She had no underclothes. Eliza must have not either remembered a lady wore underclothes or she did not know. It didn't matter though. Melanie hadn't had such luxuries in a long time to have underclothes and she hadn't been called a lady since the Palace. She moved to the vanity and sat down in the chair careful not to disturb the dress she wore that evening. She opened her bible and put it near the candle.

John chapter 3 is where she had left off. She read the passage and let it soak in. She could not even get through one chapter without conviction or without studying it out. She knew the Bible was not hard to understand if one just studied it out. It even said to "study to show thyself approved." So that's what she did everyday she read her bible. Then she prayed fervently for the Lord to give her knowledge and wisdom to understand His word. She loved reading the bible. She had learned very good life lessons in the book and she did not take it lightly either. It was her lifeline. Life began to make sense and she clung to these precious words. She would meditate on Jesus' words of being born again of water and spirit. That was fairly new to her. But it would all come together the more she read and the more the studied it out. For every thing else she's read had not contradicted itself. That she was grateful. This book held life in it. Because before she read it she was a mess. She was rude and self centered and she was miserable. But now since reading it. It spoke life instead of death in her poor miserable state.

She knelt down by her bed and thanked the Lord for waking her up this morning. She asked for forgiveness for her sins and she asked the Lord to ease her painful memories while she slept. She pleaded to the Lord for him to take away the nightmares and let her sleep peacefully. Tears streamed down her face when she got up thirty minutes later after her last segment of her prayer was done. She always ended with praise on her lips. Melanie braided her hair then blew out the candle and crawled into bed.

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The wind set the curtains to dancing in his room and a cool breeze blew in. He opened the window before he settled into bed like every night. Roy was probably sound asleep and The Hameldon's as well. William rolled to his side, one hand tucked under his head and the other hugging the soft down pillow. Melanie was probably sleeping too. But he could not sleep. He kept thinking about the woman down the hall. He couldn't believe she read the bible and it looked as if she read it allot. The poor book looked like it had suffered much. He took his bible from the night stand. Perfect condition. A prostitute put him to shame with reading the Word. That was something he would never reveal. He opened his bible hearing the cracks of the pages from sitting untouched for a long time. Shame flooded his being. He prayed without ceasing but he knew that reading God's word was equally important as praying. He got up and searched for his lamp. He turned it on and flipped to Genesis. He would start from the beginning. Staring from the middle would probably confuse him. Genesis 1:1