THE ROAD HOME

Chapter 9

Tisha listened attentively as Sean opened about his life to her. She would have never guessed that he had been abandoned by his family. He looked like a mama's boy.

"My parents are atheists. They don't believe God exists. They're wealthy actually, really wealthy. My dad is the president of some atheist organization here in Vegas. I gave my life to Christ a few days after graduated from high school. A friend of mine invited me to his birthday party. It was the first time I had even seen a Christian birthday. Someone talked about the love of God for every single human being no matter how filthy we were. I had grown up believing God didn't exist but I could never really explain what happened. I just knew that if there was some sort of higher being out there, I wanted to know him" he said.

"I'm guessing your parents didn't take that so well" she said.

"At first my dad thought it was a phase, that it'll pass but when I tried telling them about God, they gave me an ultimatum".

"What ultimatum?"

"Get my head straight or leave the fold. I left"

They were both silent for a while.
"Did you ever try to reconcile with them?" Tisha asked. "Yeah, more than once. But they said they'd only accept me back into the family if I denounce God...and I'd never do that. I kept on trying till God told me to stop" he replied. 

"So, how did you see yourself through school?"
"I moved in with my friend...the birthday guy...his parents took care of me. I was a straight A student in high school so getting admitted into college wasn't a hard and when tuition posed a problem, the university offered me a scholarship"

"Sean can I ask you something?"
"Yeah. What is it?"

"Why do you trust God so much? How can you just put your whole life in His hands? Like...don't you wonder if He's just going to kick you to the curb one day?"

That's a new opening. Seize it.

"To be honest Tisha, there is no suitable answer for these questions. The thing about God is...you can never really know what He's up to but most of the time, you just know" he said.

She was confused.

"God never abandons anyone, but He can't force us to follow him. I don't know how to put it...uh...okay, let me use an illustration. Take a child and his father for example. If a child is playing near fire, his father can decide to either prevent the child from touching the fire so that he doesn't get burnt, get a scar and cry....or he can allow the child touch the fire and get burnt so that next time the child looks at the scar from the burn, he will remember that fire is dangerous" said Sean.

He could tell from the look in her eyes that she understood exactly what he meant. He looked at his watch. He had class in the few minutes. He didn't want to leave but he had to. 

"I'll be back on Thursday okay?"

She nodded. He gave her a small Bible.

"I don't want that" she said with her arms crossed and a frown on her face.
"I know, but just take a look at it sometime. You might find something you like" he said.
He dropped it on her lap and left.

                              *************************

The girls jeered at her as she returned to her cell after washing up in the shower. Tisha tucked herself into the bed she had been given (curtesy of Sean) and cried.
Whenever she woke up each morning, for a few seconds it would feel like she was back at home, waiting to hear her grandma yell at her like nothing happened...then she'd remember that she is in jail...on death row.
She was going to die soon.
She cried and cried and cried some more.