Worlds Collide

Chapter One

Maureen stared out the car window at the endless flat land sprawled out in front of her. She wasn't even sure what state they were in anymore. She thought they had probably made it to Arkansas by now, but Texas seemed to take ages to drive through. No matter where they were, or where they were going, Maureen knew she couldn't let herself get attached. Each new town was just a stopping place; there was nowhere she or her family belonged.

They stayed in the last town longer than most and longer than she had expected. It wasn't long enough for Maureen to make friends, but she never did no matter how long they stayed somewhere. The plain girl in the old, homemade dresses, with the long curly hair and the strange preacher for a father just wasn't the type of girl any kids wanted to befriend. But this time, they had stayed in one place long enough for the guidance counselor to take notice of her good grades and help her fill out a few college applications.

Her parents didn't know. They didn't even know she had sneaked away to take the entrance exams, and they certainly hadn't seen her filling out the applications when she was supposed to be doing her Bible study. They couldn't know about any of that, and they definitely couldn't know about the letter from Northwestern University hidden in a pocket inside her suitcase. She hadn't even looked at it yet, and she didn't know when she would find the courage to–if she found it at all.

She kept her suitcase close to her during the drive. Even if she was too afraid to open the letter, just knowing it was there gave her hope. It was the only thing that helped her to keep from screaming when she was uprooted once again and forced into their car to drive to some new town.

Their new home was even smaller than the last. That's how it seemed to go. Money was tight at the best of times, and at the worst of times, Maureen was almost afraid to see what new shack they would end up in. This house, in some podunk Arkansas town, would have looked like it was stuck in a time warp if all the 1970's wallpaper hadn't been peeling off the walls and the shag carpet stained so badly it was difficult to tell its original color.

The rooms were still halfway furnished, like whoever had lived there before didn't have the energy to finish moving out. Crosses and paintings of Jesus were scattered around the halfway-floral walls, and Maureen wondered how her dad had found the place. He would say it was a sign. She imagined it was probably a little old lady whose family didn't bother to get rid of her stuff after she died.

There were only two bedrooms, and Maureen claimed the one with the window overlooking a big field. It seemed to stretch on forever. She liked to imagine that the whole world lay outside that window, just within her grasp. But her whole world lay either in the contents of a letter she was still afraid to open or in the ramshackle building down the road that her father was going to convert into a church.

Starting his own church was her father's dream, but she couldn't imagine how it could ever come together in this tiny, half abandoned town. A part of her wanted to stick around and see if it came to fruition, but she knew that wasn't a real possibility. College or not, Maureen could not envision herself staying in this family any longer. It wasn't her dream.

****

It was early spring, and Maureen could feel all the potential around, all the newness blossoming. She hoped some of that potential would come her way and help her make her escape easily.

Her father's new church still wasn't usable, despite his weeks of work, so the small group of followers he had accumulated met in the living room of that tiny house every Sunday and Wednesday. She wasn't required to attend the Wednesday meetings anymore, as long as she promised to do a little studying on her own. It was a sort of freedom she wasn't accustomed to, and she took full advantage of it.