The Chaplain's Daughter Read Online Free Page A

girl.  She had defended her father to her mother when he was off on business trips, and was usually the first person in the house to run and hug him when he got back.  When he came home from San Diego with his new plan she was for it, almost as much as her mother was.   Sure, she would miss some of the trappings of wealth, but even as a young teen she could tell that her parents weren’t happy when John was on the road so much.  The atmosphere at home was so much better than it had been before.  Her Dad was so much more relaxed now than he had been.  He had told Alyssa, one night just before she went to bed, that he had changed his own thought process with respect to success.
     
    “Come here, Pumpkin,” John said, using his favorite pet name for his daughter.  She went to the recliner in which her father sat in repose, and perched on the arm.  “You can be anything that you want to be.  You’re that smart and that much of a hard worker.  You’ll know you have it made, though, in whatever field you choose, when you can look forward to your days at work just as much as you look forward to your days off.”
     
    Alyssa remembered those words as she checked customers out of the bookstore.  “This isn’t what he was talking about,” she thought to herself as she waited on one gum chewing frat boy after another.  “Someday, though.”
     
    ***
     
    The days droned on for Toby.  One day looked just like the one before it.  The only light that was available to him was the fluorescent lights that buzzed overhead 24 hours a day.  There was never enough light to be able to read comfortably, and the tank was never dark enough for Toby to be able to sleep well.  He mentioned this to one of the guards a couple of months after he had come to 2D.  The guard grunted and said, “Don’t come to jail, then.”
     
    The only respites that Toby had for the tedium were John Boylan’s weekly service, and every other week when the chaplain came to 2D for a one on one visit.  After a while John had started to repeat himself at the Thursday night gatherings, but Toby still looked forward to them.  His favorite times, though, were when the guard called Toby to the front door to meet with John in one of the visitor’s rooms.  As the number of visits mounted John and Toby discovered that they had some things in common.  In spite of the Mariners shirt that John had been wearing that first night, his true passion was basketball.  Toby had been a point guard of some renown during his high school years.  There had even been some talk that he could have landed a Division One scholarship if he had been able to keep his grades where they belonged.  He didn’t, though, and the recruiters melted away.
     
    John’s priority when he first met Toby was to meet him where his life was right at the moment.  That’s why, though he had remembered the speedy ball handler as soon as John saw Toby, he hadn’t brought those days to the younger man’s attention at first.  Gradually, though, as the two became better acquainted John and Toby talked hoop. Toby’s face lit up when the topic turned in that direction.  John enjoyed those parts of the visits as well.
     
    One afternoon, though, the conversation between John and Toby became more serious.  John asked Toby if he ever thought about what his relationship with God was, or what he would like it to be.
     
    Toby took a deep breath and sat back in the chair.  “I haven’t ever given it much thought until I got here.  I only went to church for weddings and funerals, so I guess that I don’t really have a relationship with God.”
     
    John leaned forward in the chair.  Though Toby didn’t know it, and John didn’t realize it, the posture that John assumed was the same posture that his daughter had assumed when taking on Professor Bakewood in the sociology class.
     
    “I’m not talking about church!  I’m talking about God!  Churches are all well and good (at least