Between Sundays (2 page)

A
book of this magnitude does not come together without help from many, many people. And so, here I humbly take a few minutes to thank the family and friends who partnered with me to bring you
Between Sundays
.

First, a special thanks to my dear friends at Zondervan Publishing. Without a doubt, in the world of Christian publishing, the team at Zondervan understands best my dedication to writing Life-Changing Fiction™. They are completely committed to getting these books to you, and to praying along with me that somewhere between the first and last pages, people will find their lives changed by the power of story. I am blessed beyond words to work with you. Thank you to Sue Brower, my truest supporter. And to Leslie Peterson, my editor on this project. You pushed me and challenged me, Leslie. I need so much more of that. Let’s work together again soon!

Also, thanks to my amazing agent, Rick Christian, president of Alive Communications. Rick, you’ve always believed only the best for me. When we talk about the highest possible goals, you see them as doable, reachable. You are a brilliant manager of my career, and I thank God for you. But even with all you do for my ministry of writing, I cherish most your prayers. The fact that you and your wonderful wife, Debbie, are praying for my family and me keeps me confident every morning that God will continue to breathe life into the stories in my heart. I could never find the words to truly thank you.

A special thank you to my husband, who puts up with me on deadline and doesn’t mind driving through Taco Bell after a baseball game if I’ve been editing all day. This crazy wild ride wouldn’t be possible without you, Donald. Your love keeps me writing, your prayers keep me believing that God has a plan in this ministry of fiction. And thanks for your help with the guestbook entries on my website. I look forward to that time every night when you read through them, sharing them with me and releasing them to the public, praying for the prayer requests. Thank you, honey.

And thanks to all my kids who pull together, bringing me iced green tea and understanding about my sometimes crazy schedule. I love that you know you’re still first, before any deadline.

Thank you also to my parents, Anne and Ted Kingsbury, and to my sisters, Tricia, Sue, and Lynne. Mom, you are amazing as my assistant—working day and night sorting through the mail from my reader friends. I can picture you and Dad sitting there in your family room, while you interrupt his paper or news show every few minutes. “Wait, Ted…listen to this one!” I love that you and Dad still get tears in your eyes—the way I do—when you hear that another life has been touched, a heart healed through what God’s doing with fiction. Amazing.

Tricia, you are the best executive assistant I could ever hope to have. I treasure your loyalty and honesty, the way you include me on every decision and exciting website change. My website has been a different place since you stepped in, and along the way, the readers have so much more. Please know that I pray for God’s blessings on you always, for your dedication to helping me in this season of writing. And aren’t we having such a good time too? God works all things to the good!

Sue, I believe you should’ve been a counselor! From your home far from mine, you get batches of reader letters every day, and you diligently answer them using God’s wisdom and His Word. When readers get a response from “Karen’s sister Susan,” I hope they know how carefully you’ve prayed for them, and for the response you give. Thank you for truly loving what you do, Sue. You’re gifted with people, and I’m blessed to have you aboard.

Thanks also to my forever friends and family, the ones who have stood by loyal and true through the years. Worldly success does strange things to people who watch it happen, even though that success is transient and pretend. I always say there’ll be no autograph lines in heaven, so this is only about helping people see a little brighter glimpse of God and making friends along the way. Thank you for not seeing me or us differently, and for your love and laughter. You know who you are!

A very special thanks to San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith, who helped me research an inside look at the NFL and at the country’s foster care system. Thanks for writing a foreword for
Between Sundays
, Alex. Our children’s books are going to be a lot of fun over the next few years. And one of these days, we’ll have to see that fox-trot we’re not telling anyone about.

And the greatest thanks to God. The gift is Yours. I pray I might use it for years to come, in a way that will bring You honor and glory.

A
special thanks to Candace Rathbun, who won Forever in Fiction™ at the San Ramon Valley Christian Academy auction in Northern California. Candace chose to honor her daughter, Paige Judith Rathbun, by naming her Forever in Fiction™.

Paige Rathbun is nine and loves bringing sunshine to the lives of her family, including her older sister Katie, and her younger brother, John. Paige has blue eyes, blonde hair, and a contagious smile. She loves Disneyland, swimming, playing with dolls, and spending time with the people she loves. She wishes her four cousins still lived next door.

In addition, Paige loves to sing in her church choir and she prays for anyone with a need. Everyone who knows Paige, knows she’s a hugger. And while she’s passing out hugs, she’s also likely to pass out her toys or books, anything someone else takes a liking to. Her huge heart is part of what makes her special.

When her family rescued a golden retriever last year, Paige took him under her care. They named him Shakespeare, and he and Paige have become best buddies. Paige asks a lot of questions, but only because she’s intelligent and knows there’s an answer.

In
Between Sundays
, Paige Rathbun’s character is the niece of the 49ers head coach, Chuck Cameron. During a season when Chuck’s career is on the line, Paige makes weekly phone calls to her uncle, encouraging him, and helping him keep his focus on Jesus. Because that’s the sort of thing Paige would do in real life.

Candace, I pray your daughter Paige is honored by your gift, and by her placement in
Between Sundays
, and that you will always see a bit of Paige when you read her name in this novel, where she will be Forever in Fiction™.

For those of you who are not familiar with Forever in Fiction™, it is my way of involving you, the readers, in my stories, while raising money for charities. To date, this item has raised more than $100,000 at charity auctions across the country. If you are interested in having a Forever in Fiction™ package donated to your auction, contact my assistant, Tricia Kingsbury, at [email protected]. Please write
Forever in Fiction
in the subject line. Please note that I am only able to donate a limited number of these each year. For that reason, I have set a fairly high minimum bid on this package. That way the maximum funds are raised for charities.

W
hile set against a very real backdrop, the characters in
Between Sundays
are completely fictional. There is absolutely no resemblance between 49ers quarterback Alex Smith and the fictitious Aaron Hill, nor is there any resemblance between any of the characters in
Between Sundays
and any real professional football player.

As with any novel, I have taken poetic license in some areas of research, in an effort to create not only believable football players, but relatable characters. I was very careful in my NFL research, but it would be impossible to be completely accurate in my depiction of professional football.

That said, any inconsistencies between this novel and the real-life world of the NFL are entirely mine.

S
AN
F
RANCISCO
49
ERS
Q
UARTERBACK

A
s an NFL quarterback, I spend my Sundays during football season calling plays, reading defenses, and avoiding sacks. All of this takes place in front of a national television audience and eighty thousand screaming fans. However, my Sundays were not always spent this way, nor were my days in between. That is why my time spent “between Sundays” is so important to me.

Back in San Diego, California, where I grew up, Sundays were spent with family. Sundays were “game time.” Sundays were times spent talking and laughing and being together. We were able to create a supportive team and that team did not rest during the week. Team Smith consisted of my mom and dad, my older brother Josh, and my sisters Abbey and MacKenzie. I would not be where I am today if it were not for the love and support of my family and the invaluable time we spent together, caring for one another.

My family always believed in the importance of love and encouragement, the necessity of an education, and the value of reading. As a reader, I’ve seen the power of story. Sometimes a story is the only way to touch the heart of a person, to help them see the truth through something that isn’t true at all. That’s the case here. Though
Between Sundays
tells an entirely fictitious story, it is set against the backdrop of a very real problem facing our country today—the problem with our foster care system.

I chose foster care as the focus for my Alex Smith Foundation because most foster children do not have what I have. My “team” structure, my upbringing, and my family life, is the antithesis of what most foster children have. More important, my family’s love and support did not end when I turned eighteen. Foster children are taken from their homes and families for reasons of neglect, abuse, and abandonment; and on their eighteenth birthdays, they are abandoned again by the state.

Less than half of foster kids in our nation graduate from high school. Within a year of leaving the system at eighteen years old, a third end up homeless and another quarter end up incarcerated. College is out of reach for most of these youth. Recent studies indicate that just 7 to 13 percent enroll in college, compared with 62 percent of high school graduates nationally. Less than 2 percent of former foster youth who begin college complete a bachelor’s degree. This is compared with 27 percent of the general population. We as a society are failing these children, and, sadly, their stories and struggles go unnoticed today. These children deserve a better opportunity at life. They deserve a chance for a successful adulthood, and they cannot get that on their own. Which of us—alone and poor at the age of eighteen—would be able to succeed?

Giving these foster youth a chance at life, a chance for success, is so much more important to me than improving my passing rating, scoring touchdowns, and wins and losses. I play a game on Sunday for a living, and I have a great team to support me on and off the field. These kids don’t play a game for a living. Their game is survival and they need and deserve all the support they can get.

We all need support. Whether that support comes from running backs, receivers, linemen, coaches or parents, siblings, teachers, or mentors, we all have a responsibility to work together. As a quarterback, I know this firsthand. I would be nothing if it were not for the players around me. Likewise, I would not be where I am today if it were not for the love and support I received from my family and friends off the field.

I appreciate Karen Kingsbury for allowing me to share my story, and I appreciate her willingness to expose the positive side of a professional athlete’s life between games. But most important, I appreciate the opportunity to create awareness for my foundation and to increase support for foster children everywhere.

It’s not what we do in front of eighty thousand people on Sundays that defines who we are. Just as we are not defined by what we do on Sundays in church. It’s what we do and how we live Monday through Saturday, when no one is watching, that defines our legacy. It’s more than a game, it’s life, and we all have a chance to make a difference as we live our lives between Sundays.

For more information about my foundation, you can go to AlexSmith Foundation.org.

See you there!

Alex Smith

September 2005

The ache in Amy Briggs’s chest hurt worse than before, and every breath came with a frightening wheeze. A wheeze no cough could loose. Not that she had the strength. She’d taken ibuprofen an hour ago, but still her fever raged. It made the air in their boxy apartment feel hot and stuffy, and it blurred her vision. She tried to sit up, but her body was too tired.

Cough syrup, that’s what she needed. Cough syrup to break up whatever was suffocating her. She stared at the rickety table next to the worn-out sofa. The bottle of Robitussin lay on its side, empty, next to a stack of bunched up tissues and a half-empty box of Kleenex.

“Cory…” Her voice barely lifted above the sound of the TV. “Can you get me…some water?”

Her little boy was six, mesmerized by a special on the San Francisco 49ers. He jumped up. “Yes, Mommy.” He stopped near her face, and his eyebrows lowered. “Are you better?”

She struggled for her next breath, but even so, she forced a smile. “A little.” The lie was all she could manage. Cory couldn’t help her. If things grew worse, she could call Megan, her friend and coworker at the diner. Megan could take her to the hospital if her cough got bad enough.

Her eyes closed and the sounds of the announcer dimmed in the background. Days like this, the battle was almost more than she could bear. Being a single mother to Cory, wondering where next week’s food was coming from. Especially now that she was sick. Three missed shifts this week and she wasn’t any better. A week without pay would mean she’d be bargaining with the superintendent at the end of the month.

“Mommy…”

Amy opened her eyes, but it was a struggle. She nodded to the table. “Set it there, okay?”

He held the table so it wouldn’t wobble, and waited until the glass was steady. “Need anything else?”

“Yeah.” She took his hand in hers and met his eyes. “I need you…just you, Cory.” She tried to fill her lungs, but failed. A series of coughs came from deep inside her, and she turned away.

“Your skin’s really hot.” He touched his fingers to her forehead. “Maybe you should go to the doctor.”

Maybe
, she thought. But she was too tired to move. “After my nap, baby…all right?”

He wrinkled his blond brow. “You sure?”

“Yes.” She coughed into the pillow. “You watch your team.”

For a heartbeat, Cory seemed torn. He looked at the TV and then back at her. “Feel better.”

“I will, baby.” She inhaled, but it sounded like she was underwater. “I love you.”

“Love you too.” He still looked worried, but he turned and moved a few feet closer to the TV, then he dropped down cross-legged and stared at the screen.

At his 49ers.

Since Cory was born she’d made the team her single obsession, even moving to San Francisco so that her son might have the chance he deserved, the one she prayed for every day.

The chance to know his father.

Of course, there were other reasons for leaving Los Angeles, reasons that had nothing to do with Cory or football. Those suffocating, terrifying minutes in the dark bushes that lined the campus parking lot that night had changed everything. Even if she hadn’t told anyone then, or now.

A thousand bricks lay stacked across her chest. She had to sit up, had to find a way out from under the pressure. With her elbows, she used all her energy and slid up onto the arm of the sofa. A burst of oxygen filled her airways, and suddenly there was sweet relief.

She felt herself relax and again the sounds around her grew dim. She was falling, drifting into sleep. In the background, the announcer was saying something about Aaron Hill and how this was going to be his best year yet.
Aaron Hill…the one everyone’s watching
, the voice said. Or maybe it wasn’t the announcer talking at all, but her heart.

Aaron Hill…

Her heart slipped into a rapid, pounding rhythm and she tried to push herself up again on the sofa arm. This time, there was no relief. She felt hotter than before, her lungs heavy with fluid. She wanted to cough, needed to find a clear breath. But there was none.

“Mommy…” Cory’s voice held an increasing sense of alarm. He stood over her and ran his little boy fingers along her forehead. “You look sicker.”

“I’m…I’m okay.” She had to be. Cory didn’t have anyone in all the world but her. “I’ll tell you…if I feel worse.”

He frowned, nervous and frightened. Slowly he turned back to the TV, to the special still on. The 49ers. Ready for another season. Amy tried to focus, tried to listen to the announcer, but panic pulsated through her veins. Why couldn’t she breathe? What was happening to her?

Strange voices filled her head. Voices from the TV. Or from Cory. She wasn’t sure.

“…Aaron Hill…the quarterback to beat.”

“…maybe the best year ever…a team desperate for a championship and…”

Amy rolled onto her side. She sucked in a breath, but she couldn’t tell if any air entered her lungs. She needed to call Megan. Her friend would find her a ride to the hospital. Amy clenched her teeth and dragged back the smallest bit of air.
Relax
, she told herself.
Everything’s going to be okay.

A siren sounded in the distance, loud and louder, and after a minute Amy realized the sound wasn’t coming from out on the streets. It was coming from her throat, her chest.

“Mommy, I’m calling Megan.” Her boy was standing near her again, his breath soft on her face.

She tried to open her eyes, but the effort was more than she could make. Instead, she moved her lips and forced just enough air through her lips so he could hear her. “Please…call her.”

Spots appeared before her eyes and danced in tight circles. The sounds around her blurred more, and time froze.
Aaron, you should be here…
She wanted to breathe, but the sound scared her. If it weren’t for Cory, she would’ve moved on, as far from San Francisco as possible. But Aaron and Cory belonged together.

And this was the year.

Right, God…? Please, God…

I am with you, daughter…and I am with your child, now and always.

Peace filled Amy’s heart.
Good, Lord. Thank you.
One benefit of leaving her parents’ house six years ago was this—she’d found a friendship with God. Not the critical, narrow-minded God of her mother’s world. But a God who had sent His Son to open the gates of heaven for her, a God whose Word was alive with hope and promise and direction for her future.

Cory’s future.

“Wake up, Mommy.” His little hand was on her head again. “Don’t go to sleep.”

I won’t, baby…Mommy’s okay. Jesus is here with us.

She said the words, but she wasn’t sure they made it past her lips. The sounds around her faded a little more, and even the whistling coming from her lungs didn’t seem as loud.

Amy wasn’t sure if she slept or fell into a dream, but suddenly around her there was a burst of motion. Someone picked her up and she was on a long bed, moving fast, faster down a hallway. And she was in a car and there were sirens again but this time they weren’t coming only from her throat but from everywhere, all around her, and she was moving on the bed again and a little boy was crying.

Cory!
Cory was crying, and she had a sudden burst of energy. Her eyes opened and there he was, right beside her.

“Mommy, don’t go to sleep…please.” His eyes were red and damp and scared.

She brought his fingers to her lips and kissed them. “I’m okay, baby. Keep praying.”

“I am.” His breaths were fast and uneven, his features overtaken with fear. “Don’t leave me! I need you!”

“You’re okay.” She pressed his fingers against her cheek. She wanted to do as he asked, but she was so tired. Her eyes blinked twice, three times. Then they closed. “I…love you.” Her words were the softest whisper, and the darkness settled in around her again, a darkness thicker and more complete than any she’d ever known.

Something was pulling at her. Something or someone, and suddenly she couldn’t fight it a moment longer. She let go, let herself be drawn in, and the feeling was wonderful. But as she did, as she moved toward whatever was calling her, she was seized with alarm.

Cory!

She had more to tell him, more to say. Her son needed her. Who would care for him if she wasn’t there? The pull was stronger than before, and instead of the darkness, she was surrounded by a warm glow, a living light that was unlike any she’d ever known. With everything in her, she understood that her future was here, in the light.

But, God…what about Cory?

At that instant, sound and sight returned to her world and she could see Megan, her arm around Cory, comforting him, and a knowing filled her. Megan would take care of Cory. And one day, she would hold her son again and he would understand that God kept His promises. This was the waiting room, all of earth. The real adventure was on the other side. The adventure she was going to take. Cory would be okay, just like she’d told him.

There was something else Amy was sure about, more sure than ever before. Almost as if God Himself were making the future suddenly clear. Her son would always have Megan, but very soon he would have someone else too.

Cory would have his father.