Faith Wish Page 19

  “That will be your excuse then. I won’t have one. And the headband will remind me of it. I’m not nearly as good as I think I am. I have to get back to my parents now. Good-bye.”

  “Just a minute, please,” said Abigail. She reached in her purse and produced an object which she offered to Eleanor. It was the Oneppo Medal.

  Eleanor held it in the hollow of her hand while Sister Abigail explained, “It wasn’t with her other things. We found it in one of the shelters near the creek. I wanted to return it to you.”

  Eleanor stared at the medal until her tears started to flow. “Thank you,” she finally said as she turned to go.

  She made a U-turn, though, before she headed for the car to join her parents. She carried her pumps in her left hand. She approached the grave where the lilies still lay on the casket. Some workers were beginning to dismantle the canopy. Eleanor came to within ten feet of the open grave.

  She was no athlete, but she gave the Oneppo an underhand, arcing lob. It sparkled in the light like the gem that it was, or might have been. Her aim was accurate. The medal landed cleanly in the open grave without even striking the casket.

  About the Author

  James W. Bennett’s uncompromising, challenging books for teens have earned him recognition as one of the nation’s leading—and most provocative—novelists for young adults. His fiction has been used in curricula at the middle school, high school, and community college levels.

  His 1995 novel, The Squared Circle, was named the year’s finest by English Journal and the Voice of Youth Advocates.

  Bennett has served as a guest author at Miami Book Fair International, as a featured speaker at the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents of the NCTE, and as a writer in residence (a program he established) for secondary schools in Illinois. He has also been the director for the Blooming Grove Writers Conference.

  All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2003 by James W. Bennett

  Cover design by Mimi Bark

  ISBN: 978-1-4976-8398-3

  This edition published in 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

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