Until Tomorrow Read Online Free

of hours at least.” Christy yawned, as well. “I’m glad you guys caught something. Was it hard?”
    â€œJust took a little time,” Todd said, cleaning his fish with a pocketknife.
    What also took a little time was cooking the fish. The stars had all come out to watch them before they had finished eating. As they gathered their plates, Antonio started some coffee in his charred camp coffeepot.
    Christy smiled. It officially felt like summer now.
    Every summer since she was fourteen Christy had gathered with her friends around a campfire on the beach in southern California. There, under these same stars, they sang to the Lord, roasted marshmallows, and opened their hearts to each other.
    Being here, beneath the cloudless heavens with her closest friends, made Christy feel something she hadn’t felt in a long time. She had several friends at the university that she would go out with. They would sit around talking and drinking coffeeon Saturday nights. But it wasn’t the same as being with Todd, Katie, and Antonio. What Christy had with these friends was deeper, sweeter, and different from what she experienced in other friendships. At this moment, she felt as if she could close her eyes, take one step toward the star-filled heavens, and be swallowed up in eternity.
    â€œCome here,” Todd said, inviting Christy to scoot closer.
    She leaned her head on Todd’s shoulder and felt herself warming all over. She remembered a phrase she had heard long ago, something about how “ God is in His heaven and all is right with the world .” That’s how she felt. All was right between her and Todd. Just right. And God was near.
    Christy hummed softly. Todd picked up the tune, and the four of them began to sing. The woods around them resonated with the sound of their praises for the One whose breath rustled in the treetops and whose whispers hummed low through the Earth on which they were seated.
    As the night around them grew darker, Christy began to shiver. Todd put his arm around her and drew her close. Together they sang softly and poked the embers of their dying fire with long sticks.
    â€œI’m going to get my jacket,” Christy said, finally pulling away from Todd. “Anyone want anything from the van?” Then she remembered. Her jacket was still hanging on the back of her door in the dorm room.
    â€œOh no,” Christy said. “Did anyone, by any chance, bring an extra jacket?”
    â€œYou didn’t bring a jacket? What kind of an expert happy camper are you?” Katie said with a snap in her voice.
    The comment rubbed Christy the wrong way, and suddenly the special tone of the evening evaporated. “I packed in a hurry, if you remember. I didn’t exactly have a lot of time to plan out what I needed for camping.”
    â€œSorry,” Katie said, but Christy didn’t think Katie sounded apologetic.
    â€œHey, I have a sweater,” Antonio said, going to the van. He grabbed a hand-knit wool sweater that had been wadded up on the floor.
    â€œYou don’t need it?” Christy asked as Tonio tossed it to her. She took one whiff of the sweater and regretted asking for it. It smelled as if it had lined the bottom of a birdcage, then been used to wrap up fish, and finally to wipe off the bottom of a farmer’s boots.
    â€œAnd here is your blanket,” Antonio said, tossing another smelly, woolen object at her.
    â€œNo sleeping bags?” Christy asked. As soon as she said it, she regretted it. She couldn’t stand it when she sounded like a spoiled American who couldn’t cope with Europeans’ simpler approach to life.
    Katie echoed Christy’s surprise at their rationed one-blanket-per-camper. “Are you serious? This is all we get? No air mattresses? What about pillows?”
    â€œUse a sweater,” Todd suggested.
    Christy knew she wasn’t going to rest her face on Antonio’s fish-gut sweater.
    Todd rose