Silent Star Read Online Free PDF Page B

midair, listening—waiting. What is it, Lord? Is he in danger? Oh, please go to him. Comfort him, Father. He needs you so.
    A couple of days earlier, Estella had made a trip to the telegraph office. She’d inquired about Andy and obtainedhis address, telling the young man behind the counter that she planned to bake a cake and wanted to share it with Andy. She figured if Andy wouldn’t come to her, she’d go to him. The only problem was, she didn’t know where he lived. For almost two weeks she’d been trying to figure out exactly how to accomplish that feat and then it had dawned on her. Andy worked for the telegraph company. It should be fairly easy to find out where he lived. And it had been.
    Now, however, she felt only the overwhelming need to pray for him. Putting the iron back on the stove, Estella hurried to the living room to retrieve her Bible. She sat down and opened the book to the thirteenth chapter of Hebrews.
    “ ‘Let brotherly love continue,’“ Estella read aloud. “ ‘Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.’“ She smiled to herself. Her husband had never known a stranger because of this passage. He’d brought home all manner of folk to share their dinner table and company.
    “ ‘Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.’ ”
    She looked upward. “Yes, Lord. Andy is in bonds—his heart is tied up tight and he suffers great adversity. You see him. You know where he is and how much he hurts. Lord, let me share his pain—let me help bear his burden. He’s hardly old enough to carry it alone . . . like so many of our young men right now—boys, all of them.
    “I can’t help each one, but I can help this one.” Estella’s spirit calmed within her as she reread the same passage of Scripture.
    “Oh, Andy. Please know that I care,” she whispered, putting aside the Bible.

FOUR
    Andy couldn’t remember how he’d made it back home. He could barely call to mind delivering the remaining telegrams after seeing Mr. McGovern break down. Now the entire thing seemed like a hazy bad dream.
    Andy coughed and rolled over in bed. His foot pained him greatly. Not only that, but all of his joints ached and his head throbbed with a steady pounding rhythm. He coughed again, this time wracking his entire body. Struggling to sit up, his chest felt heavy.
    I’m sick, he thought and fell back against his pillow. The reality of it began to sink in. I’m sick and I’m not getting out of bed. He pulled the cover high and moaned softly.
    Maybe I’ll die.
    He thought of that prospect for several moments. Maybe he would die. Maybe he would die right there in that very bed. No one would even know about it for days, maybe weeks. He would be long gone before anyone missed him, and then it would only be the telegraph office that would question his absence. No one else would care.
    He thought momentarily of Estella Nelson. She would care—if she knew. She’s that kind of lady, Andy reasoned.
    “But she doesn’t know,” he whispered and gave in to another round of coughing.
    He thought he should get up and at least telephone the office, but he’d have to go next door, and the prospect of getting up, much less getting dressed and actually going somewhere, was beyond comprehension. He chided himself for cutting off the telephone service to the house after his mother died. But there had seemed no reason to keep it. It was an added expense and the money was better spent elsewhere.
    He tried again to sit up, but his chest hurt so much that he quickly abandoned the idea. Let someone else play the GrimReaper, he told himself before allowing the sickness to draw him back into sleep.
    ****
    Estella couldn’t shake off the feeling that Andy was in trouble. The need to pray roused her repeatedly throughout the night. And pray she did. She prayed for Andy and for the other people