A Walk to Remember - By Nicholas Sparks Page 0,60

it. Instead, I saw only a radiant happiness. In time I sighed and set aside the clipping.

The Bible still lay open where I’d left off, and although Jamie was sleeping, I felt the need to read some more. Eventually I came across another passage. This is what it said:

I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it to the earnestness of others.

The words made me choke up again, and just as I was about to cry, the meaning of it suddenly became clear.

God had finally answered me, and I suddenly knew what I had to do.

I couldn’t have made it to the church any faster, even if I’d had a car. I took every shortcut I could, racing through people’s backyards, jumping fences, and in one case cutting through someone’s garage and out the side door. Everything I’d learned about the town growing up came into play, and although I was never a particularly good athlete, on this day I was unstoppable, propelled by what I had to do.

I didn’t care how I looked when I arrived because I suspected Hegbert wouldn’t care, either. When I finally entered the church, I slowed to a walk, trying to catch my breath as I made my way to the back, toward his office.

Hegbert looked up when he saw me, and I knew why he was here. He didn’t invite me in, he simply looked away, back toward the window again. At home he’d been dealing with her illness by cleaning the house almost obsessively. Here, though, papers were scattered across the desk, and books were strewn about the room as if no one had straightened up for weeks. I knew that this was the place he thought about Jamie; this was the place where Hegbert came to cry.

“Reverend?” I said softly.

He didn’t answer, but I went in anyway.

“I’d like to be alone,” he croaked.

He looked old and beaten, as weary as the Israelites described in David’s Psalms. His face was drawn, and his hair had grown thinner since December. Even more than I, perhaps, he had to keep up his spirits around Jamie, and the stress of doing so was wearing him down.

I marched right up to his desk, and he glanced at me before turning back to the window.

“Please,” he said to me. His tone was defeated, as though he didn’t have the strength to confront even me.

“I’d like to talk to you,” I said firmly. “I wouldn’t ask unless it was very important.”

Hegbert sighed, and I sat in the chair I had sat in before, when I’d asked him if he would let me take Jamie out for New Year’s Eve.

He listened as I told him what was on my mind.

When I was finished, Hegbert turned to me. I don’t know what he was thinking, but thankfully, he didn’t say no. Instead he wiped his eyes with his fingers and turned toward the window.

Even he, I think, was too shocked to speak.

Again I ran, again I didn’t tire, my purpose giving me the strength I needed to go on. When I reached Jamie’s house, I rushed in the door without knocking, and the nurse who’d been in her bedroom came out to see what had caused the racket. Before she could speak, I did.

“Is she awake?” I asked, euphoric and terrified at the same time. “Yes,” the nurse said cautiously. “When she woke up, she wondered where you were.”

I apologized for my disheveled appearance and thanked her, then asked if she wouldn’t mind leaving us alone. I walked into Jamie’s room, partially closing the door behind me. She was pale, so very pale, but her smile let me know she was still fighting.

“Hello, Landon,” she said, her voice faint, “thank you for coming back.”

I pulled up a chair and sat next to her, taking her hand in mine. Seeing her lying there made something tighten deep in my stomach, making me almost want to cry.

“I was here earlier, but you were asleep,” I said.

“I know . . . I’m sorry. I just can’t seem to help it anymore.”

“It’s okay, really.”

She lifted her hand slightly off the bed, and I kissed it, then leaned forward and kissed her cheek as well.

“Do you love me?” I asked her.

She smiled. “Yes.”

“Do you want me to be happy?” As I asked her this, I felt my heart beginning to race.

“Of course I do.”

“Will you do something for me, then?” She looked away, sadness crossing her