Who I Am With You (Imagination #10) - Staci Stallings Page 0,132

and ran into Clara coming out of the kitchen.

“Greg!”

“Clara,” he said, trying to match her enthusiasm but failing as he always did. “Hey. You haven’t seen Taylor, have you?”

“Taylor? No. Haven’t seen her since she was eating with you guys. Maybe she’s with Merel.”

That would be a surprise, but Greg figured it was worth checking out. “Oh, hey, by the way, could you take Tay to the house in a while? We’re trying not to leave her alone today, but I’ve got to get to work.”

“Yeah. No problem. Just tell her to find me when she’s ready to go.”

“So tell me what’s going on,” Merel said when they had sat down. “Looks serious.”

Taylor dragged in a long breath. “It’s so weird. I keep thinking I’m going to get around the corner, you know? That finally things are going to work out and it’s going to be okay. I went home over the weekend and I hung out with my friend, and it was good. Real good. Like I started to feel at peace for the first time in I don’t know how long. Then I come back and my room is trashed, and all of a sudden, I’m talking to the police and having to sleep at Greg’s…”

“Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Go back. Your room is…?”

“Trashed,” Taylor said, sitting up and back. There was no use to not face it. It was going to track her down one way or the other. “I guess my roommate, I don’t know, had a party, lost it, something. Everything was off my desk, my notebooks, my laptop, my books. Stuff was just… everywhere.”

“And the police are involved?”

She nodded. “And now it feels like I’m right back at square one again. No matter what I do, this stuff just keeps happening to me. Even though I want to change, and I’m working to change, it’s like everybody’s determined to not let that happen.”

There was a knock on the door, and Greg looked in. He opened the door on Merel’s wave. “Sorry to interrupt.” He looked at Taylor. “I’m headed to work, but Clara said she’d take you when you’re ready. You just need to go find her.”

“Okay.”

“K. See ya later.”

Taylor half-heartedly waved, and he closed the door and left. Merel said nothing for a very long minute.

“You know what I think?” the older woman finally asked.

“What’s that?”

“I think Satan is terrified.”

“Of what?”

“Of you.”

“Of me?” Taylor raised her eyebrows. “You think Satan is scared of me? Why?”

“It’s just a pattern that I’ve seen over the years,” Merel said. “Somebody who’s got a real shot at making a lot of good change in this ol’ world, and Satan is going to be coming after them with both guns a blazin’.”

“Yikes. Well, I feel that.”

“So did this just start?”

“The roommate thing?”

“No. Satan trying to take you out.”

Taylor sighed at that. “I wish. It feels like he’s been throwing stuff at me my whole life.”

“I figured,” Merel said. “Remember when we talked about butterflies before?”

“Process,” Taylor said as if the word was painful to her. “Ugh. Don’t remind me.”

“Yes, but there’s something else about butterflies I just read the other day, and I thought about you.”

“What’s that?” Taylor asked, trying not to be annoyed with Merel, herself, and the whole situation.

“Butterflies lay eggs, and so caterpillars come from butterfly eggs.”

“Okay?” Taylor asked, not seeing why that was profound.

“It’s like God with us. We are made in the image and likeness of God, but we spend most of our time here like caterpillars, crawling around in the dirt, only dreaming about what being a butterfly might be like. We get frustrated being caterpillars, but if God made us in His image and likeness, then…”

“We are destined to be butterflies.”

“After…”

“We go through the process,” Taylor said.

“Can I show you something I’ve been reading?” Merel asked.

“Sure.”

Going to her bookshelf, Merel selected a worn Bible, brought it over and flipped through it gently. “Ah, here we go.” She turned the book, pointed to the spot, and handed it to Taylor before resuming her own seat.

It took Taylor some doing to get her full attention to the text because reading it with Merel right there was a little intimidating.

“Out loud?” Taylor finally asked when the silence was threatening to eat her alive.

“Your choice.”

“Hm.” Taylor cleared her throat and started. “Grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him