Where is God?

When I'm Broken

Cindy sat on one stump looking at Abby. She loved her best friend with all her heart, and didn't know what she would do without her! Abby was the only friend she had, being the only girls their age in the small settlement. They would visit each other often, their parents were very good friends as well. The families would get together for holidays, and help each other at harvest time.

The girls were sitting in the yard playing with the grass dolls they had made. They could play together for hours on end and never get tired of each others company. As they played Abby started to turn invisible. Slowly she was disappearing!!

"ABBY!!", Cindy screamed, the sound of her voice sounded like a ghost in her own ears.

She looked around her, everything was fading away, including her! The world and everything around her was a black void. She couldn't hear herself when she tried to speak. Her family and friends had disappeared. Suddenly she realized that in her hand she held her grass doll, but it mysteriously shriveled up and crumbled to pieces.

"CINDY!", a loud voice boomed. It was her father, but where was he? She turned around and saw her father standing in the middle of darkness, just like her. He stood calling her name.

"I'm right here.", Cindy tried to speak but there was no reaction from her father, and he stood calling yet more. Suddenly she heard another voice call her name, then another, and another! Her mother, Abby, Abby's parents--Mr. and Mrs. Sailer. She stood spinning in circles looking at the images of her family and friends calling for her. Then suddenly, she was falling!

She just kept falling, but the images never got any smaller. She tried screaming, but her throat hurt. It felt as though her throat was swollen shut. She couldn't even talk, her mouth was as dry as parchment. Next thing she knows, she opened her eyes to Mrs. Crabtree shaking her.

"You were having a nightmare", she said, "and now you have a fever."

"I can tell", Cindy said weakly, "but we need to go help Mrs. Hilegas today.". Cindy leaned up on her elbow but got dizzy and had to lay down again.

"Don't worry, I will go alone today. You stay in bed and rest until you are well enough to get up."

"but..."

"no buts. I am leaving right now. I should be back by dark, don't over-do it."

"ok....I'll take it easy, but tell Mrs. Hillegas that I'm sorry I couldn't come."

"I will, don't worry.", Anne concluded with a smile as she walked out the door.

'What to do?', Cindy wondered. She lay in bed thinking for a while. She thought for a few minutes before she realized that she hadn't written Abby in a long time. She slowly got up, being careful not to get dizzy and fall over. It took her a few minutes, but she made it out of bed and over to her chest.

She opened the chest, once again, and pulled out some writing stationary. The paper was a cream white with a red rose design in the top right and bottom left corners. Next she pulled out a small bottle of ink and some freshly sharpened feather pens. She took a blotting paper, shut the chest, and went back to sit in bed. She knew she would cry, but she needed to tell Abby about the death of her parents.

She began to write, as tears filled her eyes.

"June 30th, 1872 

Dear Abby,

I'm sorry I haven't written in a while... You see, it has been a busy time for me. Not to mention a hard trying time. Almost a week ago, my parents went into town to get some things. Well, on the way home, something must have spooked the horses, because they took off. The wagon was wrecked, and both my parents died."