Katherine pulled a light blanket out of her knapsack and flung it out under the outspread arms of a large tree. They settled down onto the bumpy ground and started to unpack the basket. Sally suddenly giggled.

Katherine shot an amused glance her way. “What’s so funny?”

“Didn’t you just hear my stomach rumble? It was so loud! I didn’t realize I was that hungry.”

“We’d better finish getting this food out, then.” Katherine chuckled. “Mind if I pray?”

Sally nodded and grinned. “I don’t think I’ll starve before you’re through…if you’re quick about it.”

Katherine quickly thanked God for their food, and for Sally, adding a silent prayer for her friend, and for wisdom to know how to help.

They ate and chatted, and Katherine enjoyed her friend’s new measure of openness. Finally, she felt confident enough to ask the question that had been burning in her all afternoon. Knowing a casual tone would be neither convincing nor honest, Katherine looked her friend straight in the eyes and just let the question flow out. “What did you think about church this morning?”

She sensed a wall go up as Sally’s face clouded.

“I don’t know…I didn’t really understand much.” She looked at Katherine and then took a breath. “Some of it sounded familiar, like how you and Auntie H. always talk. I suppose…”

Sally's voice trailed off and she looked down at the blanket. She picked crumbs up off the blanket, her face still clouded and a faraway look in her eyes. Suddenly looking up, she met Katherine’s gaze with an intensity Katherine had never seen before.

“Doesn’t it ever scare you?”

“What do you mean?” Katherine kept her voice even and calm, while inwardly pleading for wisdom.

“I mean, God. Doesn’t God ever scare you? If He’s perfect like the minister said…”

“Ah.” Katherine nodded, considering. “Yes, the idea of a perfectly good God who judges sin can be a terrifying thought. But His forgiveness changes that. God is good, but He is also loving, and the Bible says that His perfect love casts out all fear.”

Sally looked down again and mumbled. “But there are some things beyond forgiveness.”

Katherine’s heart swelled with sympathy for her friend. Reaching over, she put her hand on Sally’s shoulder and said softly. “Nothing is beyond His forgiveness.”

“But you don’t know…” Sally lifted red-rimmed eyes to Katherine’s, filled with tears ready to overflow.

Katherine kept her gaze steady. “Do you want to tell me?” A long silence passed between them. Finally, Sally nodded.

“Can we walk?” she asked. “I think it would be easier if… if I didn’t have to look at you while I said it.”

Katherine nodded and began packing things back into the basket. When they had gathered everything, Katherine hunched the knapsack onto her back and reached for the hamper.

“I’ll take that this time,” Sally said, grasping the handle.

The two walked along the path to where one branch of it wound off along the top of the cliffs overlooking the harbor. Katherine led them down the winding path and they walked in silence for a while. As Katherine kept pace with her friend, her heart raced, a churning mass of concern, sympathy, awareness of her own inadequacy, and yes, even a faint sense of hope.

Finally, as they turned down a more secluded part of the trail, Sally spoke up.

“It was my brother.” Her voice was full of sorrow, but with an edge of hardness to it. “He and I were always close, especially when Mum died. I was only eight, and he eleven. Well, Dad remarried, and although we missed Mum terribly, we promised him that we would try to love the new woman. We couldn’t call her Mum, though, and she didn’t want that either. We called her Mother. It was stiff and cold and distant—which in the end, fitted her perfectly.

“We did like her at first, but then the baby came, and all her love and attention went to her own child. Then there was another, and another. Eventually there was quite a large family of her own children, and she took to sending the two of us away to anyone who would take us, to get us ‘out from under foot’ as she called it. She pretended it was meant to be a treat for us, but to my brother and me, it was plain as plain she wanted rid of us so she could have just her own family together.

"We lived far from Gran, and Mother wouldn’t let us visit much. I think Gran would have tried to take us in for good, if she’d known how things really were. But for all our hurt, we were afraid to tell anyone how bad things had gotten.”

They stepped to one side to let a jogger pass, then Sally continued.

“Finally, my brother couldn’t stand it anymore. He said he would run away and join the Guards or the Navy. But they wouldn’t take him. Something about his heart. He left anyway, and Mother wouldn’t let him see me anymore. She made sure there was always one of her children with me when I went anywhere so I couldn’t sneak away to meet him.

“One night, I did sneak away. I found where he’d said he was living—a horrible place, dark and cold, and it stank. He told me there was a way out. He said he was going to London, and begged me to come with him. I wanted to, but I was afraid. By then, the woman we called Mother had become so angry at us, I often had to wear long sleeves, even in summer, to hide the bruises.”

Katherine’s stomach tightened. How much Sally had suffered!

“I was a coward.” Sally’s voice broke as she choked back a sob. “I went back to gather my things, but she found me packing and I was so scared, I—I told her.” Sally covered her face with her hands, her body stiff and taut, as if braced against a sudden jolt. Katherine put her arm around the rigid shoulders but stayed silent, sensing there was more.

Wiping her hand across her eyes, Sally lifted her head and continued. “I don’t know why she wanted to keep my brother from going to London, but she locked me in my room and I heard her on the phone with the police, making up some story about him to get them to find him for her. She acted the part of the concerned mother, but I knew the truth.

"Somehow, he got out of town before the police could find him, but on the way to London—” Sally stood still and looked up at the sky, squeezing her eyes shut to keep back the tears. An anguished whisper finally squeaked out from between her lips. “He was on a motorcycle, and there was a crash.”

Katherine drew her friend into her arms. “He didn’t survive?” She felt her friend shake her head, and then the dam burst. Tears streamed down Sally’s face and sobs racked her body. Sally stood, fists clenched, body stiff. Katherine held her friend, unsure what else to do. She had never experienced such deep agony, such guilt and anger. How could she help her friend see the truth?

“Sally,” she said softly as her friend’s sobs subsided and she pulled away to wipe her face with the edge of her sleeve. “Sally, will you look at me?” 

Sally looked up, eyes full of uncertainty.

“Nothing is beyond God’s forgiveness, if you ask for it.”

“But I betrayed him. My own brother!”

Katherine stood silent for a moment, then began softly. “Remember how I told you that Jesus died to pay for our sins?”

“Yes.”

“Well, while Jesus was on trial, being lied about by false witnesses and sentenced to that painful death, a man named Peter stood outside. He was Jesus’ friend, maybe even like a brother. Three times, people asked if he was with Jesus, and three times, he denied even knowing Him.

"Instead of standing up for his Friend, Peter denied Him. He had said he was with Jesus to the death, but when the time came, he was afraid, and lied to protect himself. And Sally—Jesus forgave him.” She looked directly into Sally’s eyes. “Nothing is beyond His forgiveness. Not even a betrayal.”

Sally sniffed and stuffed her hands in her pockets. “Can we keep walking?” she asked, eyes on her shoes.

“Sure.” They walked together in silence a while longer. Katherine couldn’t decide whether Sally could handle more, but she sensed she needed to hear it. “Can I tell you something else?” she asked gently.

Sally gave her a quick glance, then nodded.

“Your brother…” Katherine stopped, unsure how to phrase what she wanted to say. Lord, give me words! “From what you just told me, you couldn’t have stopped him from going. And you definitely couldn’t have protected him from that accident.”

Katherine stopped and turned her friend’s shoulders to face her. She spoke slowly, and with certainty. “You didn’t kill your brother.”

Sally stopped abruptly, looking steadfastly at her feet. “But if he hadn’t been hurrying to get away—”

“Would that have changed anything? Wasn’t he planning to take you to London that night, even before you told your stepmother about it?”

Sally’s face crumpled, and her fists clenched. “But I wasn’t there. I didn’t go with him. It should have been him and me on that bike together. Maybe if I’d gone—”