The Preacher's Son - Juliette Duncan Page 0,35

thought about the situation. Back home, I could call somebody to do a welfare check, but here that would lead to Leon going straight to jail. David was right, but I couldn’t leave him. “I’m going to look for him,” I announced.

Julia’s mouth gaped. “You can’t just go wandering around the favela. That gang he was involved with is dangerous.”

“Didn’t all the missionaries go into dangerous places?” I challenged. Perhaps the favela was my wilderness.

Julia’s face changed, a softness coming into her eyes. “You’re right,” she said. “I’ll come with you.”

Sighing, David pushed his chair back and stood. “Looks like I’m driving. Do you want to go and tell Hayden?”

I nodded, and then hurried to the building site to find him. When I explained the situation, he immediately said he was coming, too. Relief swept through me. I needed him with me, whatever happened. He left Felipe in charge and we climbed into David’s waiting car.

David prayed before we set off, then asked if any of us had a favourite scripture we wanted him to recite. I knew he was trying to keep everyone, particularly me, calm, but to be soothed wasn’t what I wanted.

“Amos,” I said abruptly, remembering the quote on David’s wall. The prophet of justice.

David chuckled as though he had expected that answer. He started to recite. “In that day I will restore David’s fallen shelter—I will repair its broken wall and restore its ruins and will rebuild it as it used to be, so that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear My name,” declares the Lord, who will do these things. “The days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when the reaper will be overtaken by the plowman and the planter by the one treading grapes. New wine will drip from the mountains and flow from all the hills, and I will bring My people Israel back from exile. They will rebuild the ruined cities and live in them. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant Israel in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land I have given them,” says the Lord your God.

“Amen,” I said as he finished, thinking about Leon and praying for him to be found, to realise where God had planted him. I wondered what we would find, assuming we found him at all, and as we drove along the edge of the favela, it started to sink in that Julia was right. This was dangerous. I would never usually be so reckless, especially about a legal client, and yet I felt compelled to go to him if I could. As though God was urging me to find him.

As soon as I had the thought, I saw a figure stumbling along the path ahead, holding his side. “It’s Leon!” I screamed. “He’s hurt!”

David pulled over, and wrenching the door open, I sprinted towards Leon. He was limping badly, both his eyes were swollen, and his lip was cut. But when he saw me, he broke into a big smile and tears streamed down my cheeks.

“What happened to you?” I asked, inspecting his injuries. I didn’t wait for an answer. “We need to get him to the hospital,” I said, desperation in my voice.

Leon shook his head. “No. It is only cuts and bruises.”

“Let’s get him in the car, and we’ll go back to camp and decide from there,” David said, placing his arm lightly over the boy’s shoulders.

His response didn’t overly please me. Leon needed medical attention, but I had to concede that David knew best. He helped Leon into the car where he sat wedged between me and Hayden in the back.

When we arrived at the camp, we went straight to David’s office where Julia tended to Leon’s injuries while he told us what happened.

“I knew they wouldn’t leave me alone, and if they came after me, it would bring danger to the camp. I didn’t want that, so I had to go to them and make them see I wasn’t coming back, but that I wouldn’t get them into trouble, either.”

His bravery stunned me. “Leon, they could have killed you,” I whispered.

He shook his head. “No, the beating was just a warning not to tell the police anything about them. They know I’m no threat if I stay here. But I can never go back or they will kill me...so I must stay here.”

I breathed a sigh of