A Treasury of Miracles for Friends Read Online Free Page A

everything that boy’s ever done. Baseball . . . target shooting . . . fishing. If Jared did it, you did, too.”
    Andy had turned nineteen that fall, and his mother’s words grated on him. “I’m my own person, Mom. If I happen to like the same kind of work as Jared, it doesn’t mean I can’t think for myself.”
    The car outside honked again and Andy gave up the fight. He spun around, shook his head, and headed for the door.
    “Andy, don’t leave like that. I was only—”
    Andy walked out and shut the door. Being patient with his mother was getting more difficult all the time. Yes, she was lonely, and since he was all she had left, she worried about him. Andy understood that. But couldn’t she see how much he enjoyed working for the fire department? Why couldn’t she be happy for him instead of making him feel as if his entire existence was directed by Jared?
    Andy narrowed his eyes as he climbed into the passenger side of Jared’s car and slammed the door behind him. Jared backed the car out of the driveway and sped off toward the station. It was fourteen miles away on a winding two-lane road and they’d have to push it if they were going to be on time.
    A minute into the ride, Jared turned to Andy and raised an eyebrow. “Bad day?”
    Andy leaned his head back and raked his fingers through his hair. “My mom won’t give up.”
    “Your dad?” Jared kept his eyes on the road as he turned left and entered the two-lane leg of the drive.
    “Yeah. Same story. She wants me to stay home in a glass bubble.” Andy tossed his hands in the air. “She’s trying everything to change my mind about firefighting.”
    An easy silence settled between them. Andy stared out the side window and thought about his mother’s statement. Was that really how she saw it? That he’d done everything Jared had ever done? He gritted his teeth and gave a slight roll of his eyes. Things hadn’t been that way at all. But if that was how his mother saw his friendship with Jared, maybe that was how everyone saw it.
    Even Jared.
    Andy had prayed more since his father’s death. The time in conversation with God made him feel as if he had a dad to talk to again, and now, as they made their way to the fire station, Andy did just that.
God, help me be my own man. Please, God . . .
    Usually when he prayed, he felt some sort of reassurance, a sense that God was right there whispering some kind of answer. But this time, with his heart angry and frustrated, he felt nothing from God. No response at all.
    Beth Conner stared at the front door for a moment before making her way into the living room, dropping onto the nearest sofa, and staring out the front window. She pressed herself into the sofa back and folded her arms as the taillights of Jared’s car disappeared down the street.
    Why did he have to get so mad?
    Now he’d be gone the entire night, possibly fighting a deadly fire, and they hadn’t even parted on good terms. She hated that he wanted to be a firefighter. A friend of hers had lost her husband, a firefighter, in the collapse of the World Trade Center. Since then Beth had been even more aware of the dangers of the job. It seemed a fireman was always being killed in one kind of tragedy or another. The very thought of Andy in a burning building paralyzed her with fear.
    Why in the world would Andy want a job so dangerous?
    The answer was obvious. Jared. Andy hadn’t mentioned firefighting once until Jared took up an interest in it. No matter what Andy wanted to tell her, she was right about the fact that Andy looked up to Jared. Andy was a year younger, and since the two of them met in grade school, Andy had been Jared’s tag-along pal.
    That wasn’t always a bad thing, but it wasn’t always good, either.
    Her eyes fell out of focus and she thought back through the years. The time when the boys had been ten and eleven and they’d tossed rocks against the bedroom window of the girl across the street. That had been Jared’s