Read Online Solomon's Porch by Wid Bastian - Free Book Online Page A

doctors said she was strong enough physically to survive for many years, but that she would never develop much beyond her “current capabilities.”
    Gail McCorkle was the only person who, from Carrie’s birth, had somehow seen beyond the damage and into the child’s soul. Care Bear would smile when Gail entered the room, even though the doctors said she probably didn’t know how to “deliberately” smile. More than once Gail would notice little Carrie looking at her and swore there was more going on behind those beautiful brown eyes than anyone imagined.
    What Gail McCorkle didn’t know until today was that God works with what we’ve got, and Gail certainly had a special love for her broken and helpless niece who couldn’t walk or talk, but had somehow just said hello to her beloved aunt.
    “Carrie?”
    “Hi auntie. I love you.”
    “My God.” Gail could hear her sister crying in the background.
    “It’s okay, auntie Gail. I woke up now. It’s okay.”
    “You woke up?”
    “I woke up now. I saw you when I was asleep, auntie. I heard you talking to God for me. I love you, auntie Gail.”
    “You know about God, Carrie?”
    “Sure, auntie, just like you do. God’s friend Gabriel told me not to be scared. Told me when I woke up to tell you I love you. Oh, yea, and he told me to say, ‘I love you, Peter.’ Peter is my friend too.”
    Gail McCorkle looked over at Peter and totally lost it. She began to blubber, then to wail. In all her forty-eight years, Gail had only cried twice that she could remember, once as a child when she broke her arm, and then again at her mother’s funeral. Now the tears were coming in rushes as the evil-created dam that had blocked her from loving God, and indeed everyone else in the world except little Carrie, finally burst.
    Peter picked up the phone, prayed with Carrie, and told her that her auntie would call her back in a little while.
    Forgetting their roles as jailer and convict, Gail fell into Peter’s arms. He calmed her, reassured her that what was happening was very real. Neither of them cared what it would look like if someone came into Gail’s office and saw an inmate holding the warden as she wept. Appearances and man-made rules are trivial when compared to God’s awesome power and grace.
    Half an hour passed before Gail was composed enough to begin facing the wonderful and dramatic changes God had made in her life.
    “You know I can’t force the BOP to release you three, but I’ll do anything you ask, delay my escape notice and feed them false information, whatever. I have twenty thousand saved, it’s all yours. I can have it here in cash tomorrow, maybe get you a car, fake id’s perhaps … ”
    “Gail, Gail, slow down. We’re not going anywhere,” Peter said. “Remember what you promised God?”
    “Yes, okay, I know. I’m not to hinder your work at this camp. Sorry, I should have known you weren’t leaving.”
    “More than that Warden, you are our protector here. Powerful forces, both of man and of evil, are going to try and stop us, hurt us. You must do your best not to let them succeed. God will help you, Gail.”
    “What does that mean exactly, Peter? Who is coming after you? How can I protect you properly?”
    “Your questions will be answered in due time. Watch and pray, Gail McCorkle.”
    “I need to know now, Peter. What should I do? I mean I could … ”
    “Gail.”
    “What! I’m trying to think here!”
    “What you need to do is call your niece. We can talk later.”
    Gail let that thought register for a moment. I can call my niece and talk to her. It was so overwhelming, yet utterly simple, God had acted.
    “Peter, I don’t quite know how to say this. I’ve never said it to a man other than my father. I love you.”
    “God loves you too, Gail, and so do we. Now call Carrie. We are leaving.”
    As he closed the door behind them, Peter saw his warden, the once bitter, isolated and arrogant Miss Mac, humbly on her knees in front