...continued from previous page

Jake stood up and skipped the stone across the glassy surface of the water.

"You think I'm doing all this for nothing, then?" he asked, sadly. "I want you to be happy that I'm doing the right thing, Abby."

"I've given you the answer you wanted to hear," she snapped, her deep blue eyes flashing angrily at him. "Don't ask me to be be happy about it!"

Jake couldn't withstand the anger in her eyes, and quickly retreated inside. Frustrated and miserable over what she had just said, Abby fished until the sun went down. Unwilling to repent of her words, Abby went straight to her room, avoiding Jake as he watched her from the open bedroom door at the end of the hall. With a guilty conscience, she went to bed, but sleep refused to come. Outside her door, Abby could hear Jake pacing in the hall again. At last, he stepped inside her bedroom.

"Abby," he asked, "are you awake?" By the light of the aquarium, he could see that she was.

"What do you want?" she replied, hating the harsh sound of her own voice.

"'Let not the sun go down upon your wrath,'" quoted Jake, his voice very much disturbed. "I can't let you go to sleep while we're still angry at each other."

Abby winced as she heard the words, "each other." She could hear the hurt in his voice, and knew that he wasn't angry with her, even though her quick temper had deserved it. The Scripture verse he quoted finished off the conviction, and Abby finally repented.

"I'm sorry," she told him, as the aquarium cast its watery ripples across the darkened room. "I'm having a really hard time with this decision, Jake," she confessed. "It's no excuse for me losing my patience, though."

"You don't really think that it's all for nothing, do you?" he asked.

Hesitant to answer, Abby rolled onto her side, facing away from the young man.

"Abby?" repeated Jake, going around to the other side of the bed to see if she was still awake or not.

With a sigh, Abby sat up in bed.

"To be honest, no, I don't think it will help," she answered. "How many commissions have there been in the past, and how many more do you think it's going to take until someone actually does something? And even if they are willing to take action, what can they do to prevent one inmate from raping another while the guard's back is turned?"

"But," sighed Jake with a heavy heart, as he sat down on the edge of the bed beside Abby, "I have to try. If everyone gives up, then nothing will EVER get done!"

"Let someone else do it," argued Abby. "You're the one who could be brutalized for telling the truth-- not the others! I don't see any of them taking such a risk!"

"There are people who are willing to lay it all on the line to do the right thing," said Jake, quite forgetting that he was sitting on Abby's bed while she was still in it.

"Name one!" challenged Abby.

"Dick!" answered Jake with a smile.

"After Dick testifies, could he be sent to prison to face retaliation without any protector?" pressed Abby. "Could he lose his life over this?"

"There's you," continued Jake. "I've never seen you shirk from anything that you felt was right. I think that the only reason why you're having such a hard time with this, is because you don't want to see me get hurt."

The simplicity and truth of his words, cut Abby to the quick. She turned onto her other side to avoid Jake and sighed.

"Do what you feel is right," she responded.

continued on next page...

<< Love Stories Last PageLove Stories Next Page >>