Beyond Rest Area 10

By Ron Freeman

Beyond Rest Area 10 is the second book in the Rest Area 10 series. It continues the main theme of the impact Christ can have on people's lives that encounter the worker in the rest area. But the experiences are not limited to just the rest area.

Just as Christ has no limitations in connecting people, the experiences that people have there are not limited to just there. Their lives and who they touch move out into the community and across the land to connect many more people in very different ways.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 1, 2022
• ISBN: 9781685707156

Book preview

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Beyond Rest Area 10

Ron Freeman

ISBN 978-1-68570-714-9 (paperback)

ISBN 978-1-68570-715-6 (digital)

Copyright © 2022 by Ron Freeman

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Copyediting by Dr. Ron Stormer

Photo cover design by Hannah K. Freeman

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

About the Author

Chapter 1

It would be a silent drive to William and Maria's house.

For Kelly's thoughts, with all of what had happened in the last several months, William's and Maria's unexpected deaths had not been a surprise. She knew that Maria's sudden stroke would be taking them all into other directions and other journeys in life. But those thoughts did not lessen the severity of loss she was feeling as she drove to a house in which they would no longer be found. She kept running over and over in her mind, as she drove to the secluded piece of land where the house had been built, what purpose William and Maria had in willing it to her.

She kept asking herself, What was there that I hadn't seen or even read in the den? Maybe there was more there than she had anticipated. Or maybe she did realize the depth of what she may find.

She pulled off the highway onto the half-mile driveway that led to the house through the trees. She stopped, shut the car off, and looked into the distance. She could not see the house or the lake behind it. She could not see what would not be there. But she could see the den. She could see the inside, the fireplace, the bookshelves. She could sense the intensity of every moment that she had encountered there.

The soft shadow came out of the dim light to support her faith in a time of need. All of what she had encountered there was slowly invading her senses at this moment. It was unavoidable. It strengthened her courage to confront the momentary unknown in her life.

What lay before her, what she would find, she knew beyond any doubt would move her life in ways she couldn't imagine.

She sat still in her car, took a long breath, started her car, and began the short drive to the house. She pulled up in front, turned the car off, and sat in the silence.

Christ was never out of her thoughts, never away from her. She knew Christ never took a break. He always moved forward, always kept her moving forward.

She walked through every day with Him and moved away from yesterday but took with her what He had taught her. She took another deep breath, got out of her car, and walked to the front door.

She grabbed the door handle. But when she did, she realized that as her hand touched and turned the knob, something was there of William and Maria. It would be microscopic, but there would be particles left from both their lives, and now particles from her life had just joined those of William's and Maria's.

This meant something to Kelly. Most would never think of something like this, but Kelly did and realized that anything and everything that she would encounter beyond this door would push that thought into her.

She opened the door and walked in. She wasn't sure where she would go first, but for a reason she understood, she was led to the living space that both William and Maria had spent most of their last months and days in.

This was an area they ate in, sat together in silence, or shared ideas and values of their life together.

But this space was the one they lived in in their last days.

She asked herself, Did they know these would be their last days? Were they prepared to leave?

She looked around, smiled, and laughed out loud. She audibly answered herself and spoke to the vacant room. You both were always ready to go.

She looked at the table, then to the couch. It wasn't very big. It was worn, but in the last few months it was a place that William and Maria encountered all that their lives were about, all they would ever be or had been.

They viewed the lake beyond the clear windows. Whatever was there, whatever walked, whatever flew by or floated on the water, was in their view and certainly would have been in their discussions.

She walked around the couch and noticed the morning dishes were where they had left them. For whatever reason, they had left them where they sat.

Kelly knew them well enough to realize there would not have been a rush to go anywhere, but if they were called to go somewhere, the dishes taken to the kitchen were not necessary. They would have simply left.

And that's exactly what they did—they left.

A tear slipped from her eye and eased down her cheek.

She closed her eyes to the room and spoke to the silence. I will miss you both. I will miss your experience, your advice. I will miss your humor, but above all, I will miss your understanding love and compassion.

She sat on the couch, closed her eyes to the room once again, and then opened them.

Movement from beyond the window caught her eye.

She looked up and out to the lake. Two birds, a pair of loons, came in just over the water and circled the lake once, circled it again, and slowly glided down to the water's surface. With a simple flare of their wings at exactly the same time and in the same way, they gently moved into the surface of the water. They slowed down, turned to face each other, and with unexpected clarity turned to the house, to the windows, to Kelly.

She sat suspended in thought, knowing that loons mate for life. They never leave one another. They never venture away from one another. They are together. From the moment they first find each other, they never leave each other.

Kelly reached for a box of Kleenex that sat on the table, took a single tissue, and wiped her tears.

These were not tears of sadness. These were tears that carried with them an understanding sense of joy of what had happened.

She wiped her eyes again, rose from the couch, and walked to the doors that led to the deck overlooking the pond.

But before she opened them, she thought she heard His voice say, Feed the loons.

She turned, thought for just a second, and walked to the kitchen.

As she entered, she wondered what to feed them. She stood silent and, without movement, thought, What should I feed them? What would they eat or want to eat? Or should I even think?

She looked to the counter and noticed a bread box. That was perfect; ducks liked bread. She had fed the ducks when she was little with her parents at a lake close by their house.

She opened it up, grabbed a loaf of bread, and headed to the deck and beyond.

As she walked out onto the wooden deck, she noticed a wooden bench close to the shoreline.

The loons were simply cruising the opposite shore. She watched them as she walked off the deck to the bench.

They turned to her, stopped the paddling, and simply floated there in one place watching her.

She sat down on the bench, opened the bread sack, and began tearing a slice up into small pieces that she believed would be fine with the loons.

She stood up from the bench, walked to the edge of the water, looked at the loons, and tossed a few pieces of bread on the water.

She really didn't know what to expect. Would they paddle over, or would they simply float where they were?

She even wondered if the small pieces would absorb water and sink below the surface. The water was still. There was no movement, no small waves to disturb the bread. The pieces sat where she had tossed them.

She looked out to the loons and asked, Do you want some bread?

In a strange way, a movement in an unknown language, the loons began paddling her way.

For whatever reason, as they moved closer to the floating bread crumbs, she knelt close to the bank.

She never took her eyes off the loons, and it appeared to her they were watching her as well.

They came together, side by side. They approached her. They slowed their paddling, dipped their heads in unison, and began picking up bread crumbs.

She wanted to talk to them. She wanted to say something, to thank them for floating by.

A calming silence enveloped the pond—as if everything stood silent, as if no movement could occur or should occur. There was no wind, no movement of air.

An eerie mist came from nowhere—it simply began, simply appeared.

And with it came a sense of peace. It moved across the water and passed her as she knelt on the shore.

It touched her like a mother's hand on a baby. It caressed her face and settled into her thoughts.

She slipped from kneeling to sitting on the ground.

Kelly wanted to breathe in this moment. She would not let it escape until she had. She raised her arms, opened up her hands, and swept the mist to her face. She closed her eyes to what lay before her but not to what was invading the very pores of her skin. The mist seemed to move in her and about her. It was like a thousand tiny particles of life feeding her spiritual senses.

There was something here, something that was held by the mist, something that moved around not only her but also the loons. They slowly turned, and as the mist went by, they moved closer to her.

She could see their eyes. She met their stare. She met their presence. In this moment, she could accept the natural message held in their stare. She might not totally understand what was happening, but she was well aware that something was happening.

And just as quickly as the mist had floated in, it rose above them and disappeared.

As if it were a clue, the loons picked up the final few crumbs, flapped their wings, and with the sound of passing air, rose from the water, flew above Kelly, and disappeared into the trees.

She sat on the ground and looked around. It was a surreal scene of the pond, the house in back of her with all the hidden stories and the loons.

She thought, What else can happen in this place that has changed my life so much, so quickly over the last several months?

She looked to the west, to the setting sun, and the reflections coming through the trees. They settled into her and gently pushed her thoughts into what she might find in William's den.

There would be treasures hidden in the moments that she would be led to. There would be experiences that she would see, read about, and face. There was no doubt that she would read about stories from people's lives that had been directly or indirectly touched by either William and Maria or in the purest sense of what Rest Area 10 was all about.

She stretched backward, lay upon the slight rise of ground, and looked at the evening sunset. She closed her eyes to where her thoughts had been and to the flying loons.

Where would they go? Where would their wings carry them for the night? What body of water would they land upon?

Chapter 2

From her almost sleepy thoughts, a voice interrupted her. It surprised her.

She jerked upward from where she lay upon the ground.

Again, she heard a voice. Excuse me.

She turned to see a FedEx man