Miracle on I-40 Read Online Free Page A

slowly on to his truck, wondering about her, and wondering about himself, and maybe, reluctantly, a little pleased he would have the gal’s company for the drive east.
    As soon as he realized the sense of pleasure, though, he stopped it.
    * * * *
    The shopping mall was packed, people scrambling for bargains in the last days. There was only one Tough-Stuff radio-controlled car left at the hobby shop. Lacey spotted it and at the same instant saw another woman heading directly toward it.
    With a burst of speed, Lacey sprinted and reached the car first, snatched up the box from the shelf and held it close. The woman glared at her, and Lacey’s cheeks burned from shame.
    “My son…he really wants this one, you see. He hasn’t asked for another thing…and…I just have to have this one.”
     The woman’s expression turned wary. She stepped back, clutched her purse to her bosom and edged away.
    Lacey looked down at the box she held and then at the woman. Oh, Father, find that woman another car .
    Then she turned resolutely to the checkout counter, and her embarrassment eased into joy as she handed her hard-earned money to the cashier. “My son’s goin’ to be so excited about this,” she told the girl, who smiled brightly but being only a young teen could not possibly understand what it meant to a mother to want to please her first born son.
    Walking out of the mall, Lacey looked into the shopping bag several times, reassuring herself that she did indeed have the car. She held the pleasure to her, which in part made up for the fact she could not give Anna her longed-for Christmas puppy. But when they got back home after the trip, she promised herself, she would see about a puppy, even though it made not one bit of sense to take on another mouth to feed and one more to clean up afterward at the end of a long day.
    From the shopping mall she drove to Walmart, where she locked Jon’s car in the truck and raced into the store, tossing a couple of bills into the Salvation Army kettle without pausing and pushing a buggy down the aisles and around other shoppers like a marathon runner.
    When she got back to her car, she threw her packages in the back seat with an audible “Whew!”  Her feet and back ached, her hands were stiff and dry, and at home were two children to wash and stuff with a snack, before finishing up the packing. She never had been able to pack until the last minute.
    It began to rain, and the Delta’s windshield wipers squeaked back and forth.
    “The traffic lights blinked a bright red and green...” came the holiday song over the radio.
    She reached over and touched the bags in the seat beside her, beginning to worry about having overspent. But Anna had really needed socks, and that fancy hair clip hadn’t cost that much. And Jon’s present shoes were disreputable.
    But she really hadn’t needed to buy that belt buckle for Cooper. It’d been a silly, extravagant thing to do. Twenty dollars, on sale. It was the sale tag that had gotten her. For twenty dollars she could buy supper on the trip for her and the kids.
    It’s Christmas, came the whisper. I will have enough money…I will have enough money…I will have enough…
    As she pulled into the driveway of her duplex apartment, the door opened from the adjoining apartment where the children stayed during the school break with their neighbor, Susan Price, who had her own baby on her hip and a toddler clinging to her leg. Ten-year-old Jon and five-year-old Anna came running to meet her, Anna throwing herself on Lacey, and John slipping his arm around her.
    “They had hamburgers for supper,” Susan told her. “This one had two,” she said, her hand affectionately placed atop of Jon’s head.
    “Growin’ boys have to eat,” said Jon righteously.
    “I’ll be needin’ to pay you for three mouths, instead of two,” Lacey said, passing Susan the envelope she had prepared. “Thanks for takin’ care of them for me.”
    “Jon’s really a help