Burned Read Online Free Page A

she bit into her ice cream.
    Bethany grinned and held up her cell phone. “Unless we have a picture!”
    â€œI don’t know.” Malia frowned. “It seems kind of private.”
    â€œTrue,” Bethany said, momentarily contrite, then she grinned mischievously. “How about just the missing big toe?”
    â€œNo!” Malia laughed. “You’re as bad as Tim.”
    â€œOh, really?” Bethany said, moving in on Malia with her cell phone. “Well then, how about a picture of you? I bet everyone would love to see that chocolate all over your face!”
    Laughing and chasing each other, the girls finally wound their way back to the surf camp where they found Tim sitting at the bar, his mouth around a huge sandwich while he watched a surf movie. Clint looked up from the T-shirts he’d been folding.
    â€œHi, girls,” he said with a smile, then he glanced sideways at Tim. “There’s still some lunch to be had if you can get to it before Tim does.”
    Lunch was a salad bar with a do-it-yourself sandwich station. Bethany loaded up on salad while Malia made herself a giant sandwich that was only outdone by the monster Tim had created for himself.
    â€œHave a nice walkabout?” Clint asked as they settled back at the bar.
    â€œYeah, it was fun for us to hang out together,” Bethany said. “Except we saw something really weird.”
    â€œWay weird,” Malia added.
    â€œThat being?”
    â€œSome guy — or at least I think it was a guy —was on the ground with a big woven mat over his body on the fale at Pastor Samuel’s house. But nobody was around.”
    â€œAh,” Clint said knowingly, “you just witnessed something really unique.”
    â€œWhat?” Bethany said, leaning forward.
    â€œIt’s a repentance mat,” Clint said, glancing between the two girls.
    â€œWhat’s that?” Malia asked.
    â€œWell, here in Samoa if someone does something wrong, they haven’t just hurt themselves or the person they wronged — they’ve hurt the whole village. When this happens, the person gets a chance to turn things around. If the person won’t repent, he or she is kicked out of the village and can’t come back. And because the villages are so interconnected, this person won’t be taken in by any of them. He or she truly becomes a homeless person.”
    â€œWhat happens if he does say he’s sorry?” Bethany asked, feeling a wave of guilt for making fun of something she had no idea about.
    â€œIf a person says he’s sorry, he is expected to show it by going to the home of the chief or pastor to ask for the repentance mat,” Clint continued. “The wrongdoer is put in the middle of the fale and the mat is spread over him. At that point, while he is covered up, anyone who has a grievance with that person can come into the fale and confront the person under the mat.”
    â€œWhat do you mean?” Malia said, exchanging a wide-eyed stare with Bethany.
    â€œI mean they can yell at the person, give him a swift kick, or smack him with their hands . . . without that person knowing who is doing it.”
    â€œWhoa!” Tim piped in and then turned back to his movie.
    â€œNow, here’s the clincher,” Clint explained, leaning over the bar toward the girls. “The wrongdoer has to stay under that mat until the chief decides that he or she has shown repentance. It could be hours, or it could be days. But when the time comes and the chief finally lifts the repentance mat off the person, well, that’s it! It’s all over and done with. Nobody can give that person a hard time or hold a grudge. The person is forgiven, restored, and can return to the village like a new man or woman.”
    â€œThat’s so wild,” Bethany said, taking a bite of salad.
    â€œI can think of two people that need to go under that mat,” Tim said suddenly, tearing