Looking into You

by Chris Fabry

Overview

2017 Christy Award winner! (Short Form category)
From the best-selling author of War Room. . .
Every day, Paige Redwine is haunted by a choice she made when she was only seventeen. Now, just past forty, still single, she lives a tidy, controlled life as a well-respected English professor at a college in Nashville. Nothing could prepare her for the day Treha Langsam—the daughter she secretly placed for adoption—walks into her classroom as a student, unknowingly confronting Paige with both her greatest longing and her greatest fear.

As Treha sets aside the search for her birth mother to concentrate on her education, Paige summons the courage to reach out to her daughter, never dreaming her actions will transform them both as she faces a past she thought she’d laid to rest.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496406828
Publisher:	Tyndale House Publishers
Publication date:	01/01/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	3 MB

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

Miriam

Exiting the dorm elevator, her arms loaded down with plastic bags, Miriam Howard froze at the sound of the raised voice coming from the RA's room.

"I don't mind rooming with a freshman. I don't mind not getting my requested roommate. But I draw the line at rooming with a freak!" "Shelly, she's not a freak. Don't talk that way. She's not even a freshman."

The door closed but Miriam could still hear them.

"She has the personality of an end table, Jill. She won't look at me when I speak to her. It's like talking to a houseplant."

"You've wanted a room to yourself," Jill said. "Think of it that way. You won't have to make small talk."

Miriam closed her eyes. She liked the RA, Jill, but she could tell whoever made room assignments hadn't fully comprehended Treha's situation. Back in the spring Miriam had flown to Tennessee with Treha and met with the dean of admissions to describe the special circumstances. She'd gone on a tour of the Bethesda campus and the dormitory. Treha, she was told, would be nurtured and helped to become all she could be. And under no circumstances would the faculty or administration exploit Treha's semicelebrity status. In fact, only a few on campus had even seen the documentary that featured her story. Treha's secret was safe.

Would Treha be safe, though? That was the question that drew Miriam to the girl when she had first met her. She had hired Treha at Desert Gardens because the girl seemed so vulnerable and yet so competent with the older residents. As Treha's story had unfolded, Miriam had grown more attached to her and had taken on a motherly role that had brought her all the way to Tennessee to help Treha in her next steps.

Earlier today, when they'd flown in from Tucson, Miriam had returned from the Enterprise rental counter to find Treha standing at the start of the baggage claim carousel, alone and inconspicuous. She'd studied the girl, trying to see her through a stranger's eyes. Treha had certainly made progress with ... What would she call it? Her condition? Her disability? The medication prescribed along with the exercise and diet had helped the girl lose weight. Her nystagmus, an involuntary eye movement, had improved, and those who didn't look closely wouldn't notice.

Still, there was no question that Treha was different. Miriam hated the word. It was a category, a way of pigeonholing. Different meant "challenged" or "special." None of the words came close to describing Treha and what she faced in life or in attending college alone.

She walked to the RA's door and stood there, listening, about to knock, when something rose up inside. Something that told her to turn and leave, to let them work it out. This was no longer her job. A bird must flap its wings in the wind alone.

Miriam took the bags to Treha's room. "All right, I got some tissues and a few pieces of silverware in case you want a snack in your room and —" she shook out the pillowcase — "you'll want to wash this before you sleep on it. You remember where the laundry is, right?"

Treha nodded. She was on the corner of her bed wearing her scrubs, preferring them to jeans — another of the girl's quirks. "I don't think my roommate likes me."

Miriam kept unloading the bags. "Well, she doesn't know you yet."

Treha held a folded piece of paper, turning it over and over. "What do you have there?" Miriam said, sitting beside her. "I found it as I was unpacking."

She handed her the note and Miriam recognized her husband's scrawl. She tried to act casual about it as if she'd read the words before, but she really handed it back because her eyes were too blurry. Just the thought of Charlie taking this step moved her. But right now everything moved her. The girl had awakened something in him, too.

"They don't make them like Charlie anymore, do they?" Treha said.

Miriam laughed. "No, they sure don't. Charlie opened up a little sliver of his heart for you. I think you're in there forever."

Treha folded the note and put it back in her suitcase and zipped the flap. The suitcase was gigantic — a gift from one of the Desert Gardens residents, Elsie Pratt. The old woman had taken Treha under her wing and been the one to recommend that Treha attend Bethesda, her alma mater. With the savings Elsie had left, she could afford to send Treha to the school for at least a year. Miriam and Charlie had matched her commitment, and with the year Treha had from the community college ...

Well, they would cross the senior year bridge when they came to it. The lawsuit against the company responsible for Treha's condition had paid for her treatment, but in a cruel twist, Treha had received nothing else.

There was so much unfairness in the girl's life. So much loss. She had no idea who or where her mother was. She had been tossed about on the sea of the foster care system and hadn't been able to walk on water. Now Miriam was losing control over who would interact with her, who might say something cutting or mean.

Deep breath. Lines rehearsed. Miriam wiped her eyes and set her jaw.

"All right, you have my number. Anything you need, anytime you have a question, or if you just want to talk, you know how to reach me. And you have Charlie's e-mail."

Treha fidgeted with the hem of her scrubs top. In one motion she turned and hugged Miriam, burying her head in the woman's chest, and Miriam thought her heart would burst.

She leaned back and took Treha's face in her hands. "Treha, I'm going to be honest. I don't want you to go to this school or any other. I want you to stay with us at Desert Gardens. I want you to live with Charlie and me. I'd like to keep you for myself, let you keep going to the community college. But somehow that doesn't seem fair. To you or the rest of the world."

Treha nodded.

"It's not going to be easy to fit in here and find your place. Finding a friend might be hard. But just because it's hard doesn't mean it can't be done. You know that."

Miriam picked up her purse and checked the room once more. Her work was done. Or maybe it was just beginning. This was every parent's nightmare and worst fear, turning to leave and not looking back. She wasn't Treha's mother. She hadn't raised her. Treha hadn't been in her life long enough for it to hurt this much.

She turned back to Treha. "When your head hits the pillow every night, know that there are two old dogs in Arizona praying for you, a couple of hours behind you. And when you wake up every morning, you pray for us. We're going to need it. Okay?"

Miriam kissed Treha on the forehead and walked out of the room, willing herself not to turn again.

(Continues…)

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Excerpted from "Looking into You"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Chris Fabry.
Excerpted by permission of Tyndale House Publishers.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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