“I can understand that.” Now that the hot chocolate had reached the proper frothy state, Megan removed the pan from the stove. She took two cups down from the cupboard and poured hot chocolate into both. “Were you able to get in touch with your family?”
“Not yet.” The toaster popped the four bagel pieces up, and the smell of fresh bread rolled through the kitchen.
“Don’t you need to call?”
Jenny was quiet. “If he wakes up, my dad might be worried.”
Megan placed the hot chocolate on the table, then found a serving plate for the bagels. “You live with your parents.”
“Just my dad. My mom left a long time ago.”
“Oh.” Megan felt immediately awkward. She took butter, cream cheese, and strawberry and blueberry preserves from the refrigerator, placing them on the table as well. “Have you tried the phone again?”
“A lot,” Jenny said. “It won’t be a problem till noon. That’s probably when he’ll get up.” She hesitated. “He’s kind of between jobs right now.”
“It happens.” Megan knew there was more to the story, but she also knew Jenny wasn’t going to say any more until she was ready.
“With my dad, it happens a lot.” A trace of bitterness scored her words.
Megan left the statement alone, sensing that the territory was better left unexplored unless the young woman wanted to go there.
“Let’s eat,” Megan suggested. They sat at the table.
For a moment, with the bitterness coiled in her heart, Megan considered not giving thanks for the meal. But she knew that was wrong. She had to believe that God had a hand in all the confusion that was now filling her life, even with Chris’s disappearance. If she didn’t believe that, there was nothing left for her to believe.
She bowed her head and said a brief prayer. When she reached “Amen,” she was a little surprised to find that Jenny echoed her.
Jenny took one of the bagel halves and spread cream cheese over the open face. “What do you think happened to all of them?”
“Who?” Megan picked up one of the bagels, too, enjoying the feel of the warm, soft bread in her hands as well as the aroma. There had always been something innately relaxing about fresh bread.
“All the people that disappeared,” Jenny answered.
“I don’t know.”
Jenny nodded toward the small television set. Closed captions carried the news stories across the bottom of the screen. “Some of the people they have interviewed feel like the disappearances were caused by some secret weapon of mass destruction. Others feel like aliens kidnapped all the people. But what if those weren’t the answer?”
“Do you have another answer in mind?” Megan caught herself too late and hoped that Jenny hadn’t noticed that she had lapsed into counselor mode.
A troubled frown appeared on Jenny’s face. The expression looked disturbingly comfortable there. “There was a book in the living room that I found. Something about the end times. The pre-Rapture days, before God comes and takes all the believers from the world.”
Megan remembered that the book was one that Bill Townsend had given her to read before he and Goose had left to go over to Turkey. From what Goose had said during that time, Bill had become convinced more than ever that the world was on the eve of being Raptured.
“You read that book?” Megan asked.
“Some of it,” Jenny admitted. “It was interesting and really easy to follow. Have you read it?”
“No,” Megan admitted. There had never seemed to be enough time, what with holding the household down with Goose gone and trying to meet all her commitments as a base counselor.
“If you do, I’d like to hear what you have to say about it.” Jenny pinched a piece of her bagel off and popped it into her mouth. She chewed mechanically and swallowed. “The book really makes you think.”
“About what?” Megan asked.
“About all of this.” Jenny pointed to the television, then made a vague circular motion. “About everybody disappearing. About only their clothes being left behind. About all the kids disappearing.”
“God didn’t have anything to do with this.” Despite her best intentions to remain neutral during the conversation, Megan heard the coldness in her voice. “God wouldn’t have taken my baby away from me.”
“Not even to protect him from the seven years of death and destruction that are going to follow the Rapture?” Jenny asked the question calmly and quietly.
Megan glanced away from the young woman and looked through the kitchen window into the backyard. The sun was bright and cheerful. The sky was blue. Outside, it looked like a normal day. Except it was a day without Chris in it. She thought furiously, trying to make what Jenny was saying make sense.
“Do you believe in God, Mrs. Gander?” Jenny asked.
“I used to think so,” Megan answered honestly. “But after I was up on that building with Gerry Fletcher, after I had the chance to save him and couldn’t—” She shook her head. “After Chris disappeared, I just don’t know what to believe anymore.”
“I thought about that, too,” Jenny said.
“Did you get any sleep last night?”
“Not much. My head is just too full of stuff right now.” Jenny took a deep breath. “Mrs. Gander, I hope you’ll forgive me, but I think I’m seeing something here that you’re not. Maybe it’s that book, or maybe it’s just that I haven’t gotten much sleep. I think maybe you did save him.”
Megan clamped down on the angry response that welled in her throat.
“When you were up on that rooftop with Gerry Fletcher,” Jenny said, “you caught him. You stopped him from falling.”
“Not for long.”
“No,” Jenny agreed, “but it was long enough that you held
