Joy in His Heart Read Online Free PDF Page B

happy with being stuck out here together,” he told her. “But we are. There’s too much anger and resentment between us. It’s going to get in the way of us relying on each other. We’re going to need to do that to survive. So please just take my hand and pray with me before we make a mess of this whole thing.”
    He reached out and took her right hand. He took a deep cleansing breath before he began. “Lord, I beg Your forgiveness for not thinking to ask Joy if she was hurt before I started us on the path to yet another argument. We thank You for our deliverance from certain death in the plane. We beg Your help again. Please teach us how to deal fairly and patiently with each other now that You’ve graciously spared us. We also pray for those children who are out here somewhere alone and afraid. Comfort them this night, Lord, and help us all find our way back to our loved ones. Do you want to add anything?” he asked Joy.
    “No, that was fine,” she said, her tone much different. “Thanks for thinking of it.” She looked away but not before Brian saw the uncertain expression in her eyes. It was obvious she absolutely hated feeling helpless. “So what’s the plan, boy genius?” she asked, looking toward the ground.
    “There is a good sturdy branch a few yards above usso I thought we’d put it to good use. I can tie your harness to the rope, cut you loose from the chute, then lower you to the ground using the branch as a makeshift pulley.”
    “But then you’ll still be up here. And I’ll be down there.”
    Brian stared at her. He couldn’t imagine what she was getting at. “And your point is?” he asked, keeping his tone light even as he fought annoyance. He’d gotten up to her. He could get down much more easily, especially without her running commentary on his climbing technique.
    “No point. No point at all,” she said still avoiding eye contact but, even so, he could see that somehow it was he who’d scored a point. And he hadn’t even tried. In fact, he didn’t have a clue how he had. It bothered Brian in a way he wouldn’t have suspected it could. Maybe because before that moment, if someone had asked, he would have said he knew everything important there was to know about Joy.
    Now he realized he just might not know anything at all about her. It wasn’t the time to explore that now though but, like her reluctance to leave the plane, he promised he’d find out later. So with nothing left to say for the moment, Brian squeezed Joy’s uninjured shoulder and graced her with a serving of his best bedside-manner smile. “It’ll all work out,” he promised.
    He’d meant what he’d said in his prayer. They needed to work together—to lean on each other. If they continued to shoot barbs at each other, that wouldn’t happen. And—worst-case scenario—someone could die.
    “I’ll be right behind you,” he found himself reassuring the most self-assured person he’d ever met. “Just the way you kept your promise to me up there when you jumped after me. Okay? You don’t have to worry about standing once I get you down. I’ll tie your harness off a couple feet from the ground so you don’t have any weight on your leg and I’ll help you out as soon as I get down.”
    He didn’t wait for a reply but got straight to work securing her harness with the length of rope from her pack. Next he started cutting and untangling her lines, then adding them to the length of rope. Then he started the arduous task of lowering her to the ground. There was no straight path down so she had to carefully pick her way through the thickening spring foliage with only one good arm and one good leg.
    She made a few startled gasps along the way that he assumed were a result of sudden pain, but soon she called up that she was within feet of the ground and he tied off the rope. Then she added that she would unlatch her harness so he could let the rope fall to the ground in case they needed it later.
    He saw the