The Road to Grace (The Walk) Read online

  My only other option was to take U.S. Route 61 southeast to St. Louis. It would be a considerably busier route but I really had no other choice.

  Over the next three days, I passed through New London, Frankford, Bowling Green, Eolia, and Troy. I woke in Troy feeling dizzy and nauseous again, but forced it aside, vowing to rest properly once I reached St. Louis.

  I had had a headache all day, and about six miles from the 70 junction into St. Louis, my vertigo returned with a vengeance. Oddly, my first thought was that there was an earthquake, as the spinning was much worse than before. I staggered then fell, landing partially on my pack, which cushioned my fall. I rolled to my stomach and began violently vomiting, struggling to hold myself upright as my head throbbed with pain. What was happening to me?

  “McKale,” I groaned. It’s the last thing I remember before passing out.

  C H A P T E R

  Twenty-six

  Déjà vu.

  Alan Christoffersen’s diary

  I woke in the hospital. I couldn’t believe that I was in a hospital again—it was the third time since I’d left Seattle. I hadn’t been in a hospital that many times in my entire life. The room was dim and I could hear the beeping and whirring of machines. I looked over at my arm. It was bruised and there was an IV taped to it.

  “It’s about time you woke,” a voice said. I looked over to see a young, African-American nurse standing to the side of the room reading a machine.

  “Where am I?”

  “You are at the St. Louis University Hospital.”

  “How did I get here?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I wasn’t here when you arrived. Do you remember anything?”

  “I was just walking, when I suddenly got dizzy and everything started to spin. I must have blacked out.” I looked at her. “What’s wrong with me?”

  “I’ll leave that to the doctor to talk to you about,” she said. “In the meantime, there’s someone here to see you.”

  I couldn’t imagine who it could be. “I don’t know anyone around here.”

  “Well, she knows you. She’s been in the waiting room for three hours. I’ll send her in.” She walked out of the room.

  I stared at the door, wondering who could possibly be here to see me. Falene suddenly appeared in the doorway.

  “Hi,” she said sweetly.

  “Falene. What are you doing here?”

  She walked to the side of my bed. “The police called me. I was the last number you dialed on your cell phone.”

  “… You came all this way?”

  “Of course I did. You needed me.” I noticed that her eyes were red, as if she’d been crying. A tear rolled down her cheek.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  She shook her head.

  “What is it, Falene?”

  The tears fell faster. She furtively wiped her eyes then looked away from me.

  “Falene …”

  She reached over and took my hand. Her hand felt soft and warm. “Your father will be here soon,” she said. “Can he tell you?”

  “Is it bad?”

  She just stared at me, tears rolling down her cheeks.

  I looked down for a moment, then I said, “When McKale was hurt, you called me. When Kyle stole my business, you called me. You’ve always told me the truth, no matter how hard. I’d rather hear it from you.”

  She wiped her eyes. “Oh, Alan,” she said.

  “Please. What’s wrong with me?”

  She looked into my eyes, her eyes welling up in tears. “They found a brain tumor.”

  E P I L O G U E

  To learn grace is to discover God.

  Alan Christoffersen’s diary

  Who am I? Or perhaps a better question is, what am I? A refugee? A fugitive? A saunterer? Henry David Thoreau, in his essay on walking, wrote that the word sauntering was derived from “people who roved about the country in the Middle Ages under pretense of going à la Sainte Terre,” to the Holy Land, till the children exclaimed, “‘There goes a Sainte-Terrer,’ a Saunterer—a Holy-Lander.” Maybe this is the truest definition of who I am—a Pilgrim. My walk is my pilgrimage. And, like all worthwhile pilgrimages, mine too is a journey from wretchedness to grace. Grace. I have learned much on my walk, but most recently, I have learned of grace.

  As a boy, I heard my mother sing “Amazing Grace.” She said grace over meals and praised all graciousness. My father, on the other hand, rarely spoke the word, relegating it to Sunday vernacular, with little use in an accountant’s calculated life. But he showed grace through his actions, by caring for me the best he could even when his own heart was broken.

  For most of my life I have thought of grace as a hope of a bright tomorrow in spite of the darkness of today—and this is true. In this way we are all like Pamela, walking a road to grace—hoping for mercy. What we fail to realize is that grace is more than our destination, it is the journey itself, manifested in each breath and with each step we take. Grace surrounds us, whirls about us like the wind, falls on us like rain. Grace sustains us on our journeys, no matter how perilous they may be and, make no mistake, they are all perilous. We need not hope for grace, we merely need to open our eyes to its abundance. Grace is all around us, not just in the hopeful future but in the miracle of now.

  And, if we travel well, we will become as grace and learn the lesson meant from the journey, not to dismiss error, but to eagerly forgive the err-er, to generously share the balm of mercy and love for, before the eyes of Heaven, we all walk as fools. And the more we exercise our portion of grace, the better we receive it. The abundance of this grace is only limited by ourselves, as we cannot receive that which we are not willing to accept—be it for ourselves or others.

  It’s been written that, He who does not forgive is guilty of the greater sin. That verse had always confounded me. I had considered it unjust at best and cruel at worst. But these words were not meant as condemnation—rather as illumination of an eternal truth: that to not extend forgiveness is to burn the bridge that we ourselves must cross.

  I have found grace in my walk. I saw it in the joy of Pamela’s freedom, in the hope in Analise’s eyes, and in the forgiving heart of Leszek. I found it in Washington in the wisdom of Ally and the friendship of Nicole, and walking through Idaho in the gratitude of Kailamai. And even now, in my moment of uncertainty and fear, I see it in the presence of Falene. Grace is all around me. It always has been. How could I have been so blind?

  I am still in the hospital. My father arrived a few hours after I woke. Tests have been done, and, no doubt, there will be myriad more to come. We do not yet know if my tumor is malignant or benign, and whether or not it has spread. I know only enough to fear. I fear death, as any sane man does, but I’m a creative man so my fears are greater than most.

  Still, part of me—a dark or light part I’m not yet certain—hungers for death’s sleep, perhaps to wake in the brightness and warmth of McKale’s arms. This might seem a fool’s hope—to seek love in death—but, truthfully, I do not know where McKale is but death.

  I don’t know. Not since I set out from Seattle has my journey been more uncertain. I don’t know if or when I will be walking again. I do not know whether or not I will reach Key West. But this much I know—whether I accept the journey or not, the road will come. The road always comes. The only question any of us can answer, is how we will choose to meet it.

  Coming Spring 2013, book 4 of The Walk series

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  Richard Paul Evans is the author of the number-one bestselling novel The Christmas Box. Each of his n
ovels has appeared on the New York Times bestseller list; there are more than 14 million copies of his books in print. His books have been translated into more than twenty-five languages, and several have been international bestsellers. He has won two first-place Storytelling World Awards for his children’s books and the Romantic Times Best Women’s Novel of the Year Award. Evans received the Washington Times Humanitarian of the Century Award and the Volunteers of America National Empathy Award for his work helping abused children. Evans lives in Salt Lake City with his wife, Keri, and their five children.

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