Legacy of the Dreams

Chapter 120 - In The Lord's Hands

April began on a Tuesday that year. Greg and Susan quietly acknowledged the 11th anniversary of the crash that brought them together. They didn't say anything about it to anyone else. Instead they focused their attention on Jessie's 13th birthday the following day.

"You're a teenager now, Jess," Matt said with a grin over supper that night.

Jessie's party with her friends would be the following weekend. Zack was even coming home for it; but Matt and Ashley decided to join them for supper on the night of her actual birthday instead because they both had to work the day of the party. Financial pressures were mounting for the young couple as they approached the end of their undergraduate education and began to plan for their future.

"I know," Jessie said. "Bert's going to be 14 next month."

"Is that important?" Ashley asked.

"It is to me," Jessie told her.

"Why?" Matt asked curiously.

Jessie shrugged. "I don't know. I suppose it's because I remember. I know you don't, but I do and Zack does ... so do Bert and Kelly."

"Did something happen to you once around the time of Bert's 14th birthday?" Susan asked curiously.

"You weren't there, Mama. It might have been different if you were," Jessie hedged.

Greg cocked his head. "What might have been different? Something you are hoping will be different this time?"

Jessie nodded. "People used to think you were grown up once you got to be a teenager ... and we both were. But it was different."

"I thought you are grown up in the eyes of the synagogue now," Matt said.

"I am, but Bert isn't. The rules are different for him ... they always have been. I didn't understand that before. I do now after living with Mama and Papa for so long," Jessie explained.

"The rules are different ... because Bert is Christian?" Ashley ventured.

Jessie nodded.

"Why would that matter?" Ashley asked in confusion.

"They just are," Jessie insisted, looking surreptitiously around.

It was clear she didn't want to go into details about whatever it was that occurred, but Susan thought she could probably guess. From the look on her husband's face, Susan thought Greg probably could too.

"I think with enough prayer and careful consideration, things will be different this time, if you want them to be," Greg assured her.

"I hope so, Papa. So anyway, I'm thirteen now. Bert's going to be fourteen. Then after the summer, things will be better," Jessie declared.

"It will be nice when you both go to the same school," Ashley said kindly.

"Yeah, it will be," Matt agreed.

"What are you going to do next year?" Jessie asked the pair.

Matt and Ashley looked at one another. "We're not exactly sure," Matt answered truthfully.

"Oh?" Greg asked delicately.

"We've both applied to graduate school, you see," Matt said.

"But not all at the same schools and not necessarily in the same places as one another," Ashley supplied.

Susan arched her brow. "Is that really a good idea?"

"We wanted to leave our options open," Ashley explained. "I applied to vet school in a couple of places. Matt applied both to seminary and to PhD programs in psychology in a few places. We thought this way, depending on where one of us gets in and who has the best offer, we can figure out where the Lord wants us to go next."