Burned (7 page)

“Well, I don't care why he did it,” Bethany said. “When my brothers find out what happened, they will make sure he isn't surfing anymore.”

“I don't think
I
will be surfing for a while.”

“Aw, you'll be back real fast,” Bethany said, even though she wasn't so sure that was the truth. She bit her lip and glanced up to see Tagiilima give her an encouraging smile from the rearview mirror.

Her parents quickly piled into the van and Tagiilima threw it into gear, spitting gravel from the tires as he headed toward the hospital.

En route, the family discussed what could be done about Liam. His actions in the water weren't considered illegal, but he had definitely crossed the line.

Bethany wanted to sic her brothers on him. In her mind's eye, she could picture Liam giving Tim lip service — and then Tim knocking him through the wall. Bethany smiled wryly. Not that Tim was exactly like that — but she always liked to imagine her brothers giving bad guys the licking they deserved.

Her dad thought a stiff lecture would be good.

Her mom wanted Clint to boot him out of the surf camp, but then her dad pointed out that Del and Hank would have to go too.

Everyone agreed that it wouldn't be right to punish two innocent guys for the stupidity of their younger cousin.

As they approached Apia, Tagiilima spoke. “The yellow-haired boy who did this to Miss Malia is bad?”

“A complete jerk,” Bethany said, letting her temper get the better of her.

“If he were in my village he would have to go under the repentance mat,” Tagiilima said, watching her in his rearview mirror.

“I'd like to get him under a mat,” Bethany said dryly. “I'd kick the daylights out of him.”

Tagiilima laughed.

“I understand, I understand,” he said and then was quiet again.

A few minutes later they pulled up to the entrance of the hospital. Bethany's parents quickly helped Malia from the van.

“I will be waiting for you in the parking lot,” Tagiilima instructed.

“You don't have to stay in the van by yourself,” Bethany said with a frown.

“I pray,” Tagiilima said simply.

Bethany paused with her hand on the door. She looked at Tagiilima again and smiled. She had a feeling there was a lot more to this quiet and respectful driver than she imagined. Tagiilima smiled back as she shut the door.

six

“How did this happen?”

“Surfing accident,” Malia said, wincing.

The doctor raised his eyebrows and put on his eyeglasses. “We don't get many of those in here, and you are certainly the youngest — and the only girl I've ever treated for a surfing accident.”

Bethany saw Malia smile weakly at the doctor before she winced again. Her body was covered with numerous lacerations, and the bandage on her knee was red with blood. Just before the doctor had come, Malia had confided in her that she felt as if she'd been run over by a bus. Bethany noticed the hundreds of little slashes in her bathing suit and rash guard and gritted her teeth.

“The first thing we need to do is to suture up that cut on your knee,” the doctor said as he explored Malia for other cuts. As his hand passed over her left side, Malia winced.

“And I want to get you X-rayed as well. You seem a little tender around your ribs, and I want to make sure nothing is broken.”

Bethany bit her bottom lip — hard.

She saw him fill the needle with fluid from a bottle and knew that he was going to numb Malia's knee before scrubbing out the wound and sewing it up. She couldn't bear to watch.

“I'll be right back,” Bethany said, quickly slipping down the hall to the waiting room while her mom stayed by Malia's side.

“This is so horrible,” she said, slumping down in the seat next to her dad. “Malia comes all this way to surf — then because of some jerk, she's out of the water for the rest of the trip.”

“I agree,” her dad said. “But I'm just glad she wasn't hurt worse. People have died from being dragged over ragged reefs like that.”

“I know . . .”

It seemed like forever until her mom and Malia appeared. Malia had a fresh bandage on her knee and was dressed in the clothes that Bethany had brought for her. Bethany hugged her tight as her mom went to call Malia's parents.

“The X-rays showed no broken bones,” said Malia.

“Let's see your stitches,” Bethany said, putting on her best face as Malia carefully pulled the bandage back to reveal her tightly sutured wound.

Bethany counted them. “You have ten!”

Malia grinned. “Yeah, I've never had stitches before.”

“Really? I'm an old pro at getting them.”

“Even before the attack,” her dad chimed in. “Bethany was always coming home bleeding from something. I thought our health insurance was going to cancel us if we showed up at the emergency room one more time.”

“It's the price of adventure,” Bethany said, glad to see Malia smiling again.

“Well, I think I've had enough adventure for one day,” said Malia.

“Let's go find Tagiilima and get something to eat!” Bethany said. “I'm starving — how about you, Malia?”

“How about it, Malia? Are you hungry?” Bethany's dad asked.

“The only part of me that doesn't hurt is my stomach,” Malia said with a grin. “So I might as well fill it!”

“Thatta girl,” Bethany said, and they all laughed.

The family found the camp van parked in the lot under the shade of a tree. Tagiilima was in the front seat, his head bowed.

“Is he sleeping?” Bethany asked.

As they approached the van, they could see that Tagiilima wasn't asleep at all. His eyes were closed but his lips were moving, as if he were having a private conversation with someone.

Hearing the footsteps of the group approach, he opened his eyes and jumped out of the van excitedly.

“So glad to see you are okay, Miss Malia,” he said. “I have been asking my Father to help you not be hurt badly.”

“You mean you have been sitting in the car praying this whole time?” Bethany asked, glancing to her parents.

“Yes, it is good!” Tagiilima said kindly. “I ask God to help Miss Malia. I ask God to help the boy too.” A thoughtful look crossed Tagiilima's face. “Something makes his heart mad.”

Bethany paused with her hand on the door and felt shame trickle through her. For the first time since Malia's accident, she was reminded of her own prayers.

Her good friend had been hurt, and the whole time she was in the hospital all she could think about was getting revenge on Liam. Talking to God hadn't been on her mind at all.

Bethany studied Tagiilima's face, and then smiled at this man who had spent the last few hours in prayer for all of them.
Help me to be more
like him, God
, Bethany prayed.

Tagiilima smiled back as she shut the door.

When the van finally pulled onto the gravel driveway of the surf camp, Noah, Tim, Clint, Pod, Del, Hank, and a number of kitchen workers came out to greet them.

All were very pleased that Malia was up, moving, and in good spirits — and even laughed when they heard she ate more ice cream than Bethany
and
Tagiilima. They had feared that she might have been hurt much worse.

The kitchen staff brought out steaming mugs of hot chocolate, and the whole camp settled into the dining room to celebrate Malia's return.

All except for Liam.

Liam's cousins had pulled him aside shortly after Malia had been rushed to the hospital and given him a stern lecture. Both of them vowed that they would never take him along on any surf trip in the future. Then they demanded that he apologize to everyone and told him that he would have to pay for Malia's medical bills.

Liam was feeling sorry for himself.
No telling
what Tim or Noah will do to me
, he thought grimly. And he couldn't count on his cousins to help him — not anymore.

Liam quickly packed his clothes and what money he had in a daypack and quietly left the surf camp.

Originally, his plan was to hitchhike into Apia. There he would find a hotel for the night and call his father and have him get him a plane ticket home. As he hiked down the narrow road out of the village, the plan seemed to unravel in his mind.

The road was desolate. A few motor scooters buzzed past but not much else. One or two cars came from the other direction, probably people who worked in Apia heading home for the evening. And it was way too far to walk.

Liam glanced around. He was alone. He was in a strange country with a strange language —and everybody hated him. Well,
he
hated Samoa, he hated his cousins, he hated the surf camp. He hated the Hamilton family — especially Bethany and Malia for making his life miserable.

Liam frowned, feeling the guilt slowly burn through him — in spite of his efforts to blame everyone else.

Deep down, he knew he had done the wrong thing by dropping in on Bethany and, especially, Malia. He knew he had been mean without any real reason, but his pride wouldn't allow him to admit it.

Instead, he continued to trudge down the dark road alone.

After the hot cocoa, Bethany and Malia went back to their fale and got ready for bed. Bethany fluffed up Malia's pillow, made sure the lopsided fan was going full blast, and then grabbed her Bible and sank down into her own bed.

In a strange sort of way, finding Tagiilima praying — at the same time she'd been plotting revenge — had been a turning point for her.

Bethany cracked open her teen Bible to the book of Matthew and began to read:

Jesus stepped into a boat, crossed over and came to his own town. Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven.”

At this, some of the teachers of the law said to themselves, “This fellow is blaspheming!”

Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said, “Why do you entertain evil thoughts in your hearts? Which is easier: to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, ‘Get up and walk'? But so that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . .” Then he said to the paralytic, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” And the man got up and went home. When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to men.

Take your mat and go home . . .

Bethany closed her Bible. How cool was it that she would find Scripture like that after learning about the repentance mat?! Even better was what Jesus had said to the crippled man: “Your sins are forgiven. Take your mat and go home.” He didn't wait to consult anyone that the man might have wronged. He didn't yell at him or make him feel bad, he just forgave the man.

Bethany let her mind wander as she tried to imagine what in the world the crippled man could have done as far as sin.

Did he drag himself over and steal the coins from his fellow beggar? Did he swear at someone who stepped over him or on him? Did he end up paralyzed because someone caught him robbing their home and beat him up?

Too bad there aren't more details about these
kinds of things in the Bible,
Bethany thought. Then another thought occurred to her:
Maybe the
details of the sin aren't as important as people
knowing that Jesus can and will forgive anyone
that comes to him.

Whatever the wrongdoings the crippled guy had done, when Jesus forgave him it was over. Done. He was free. And then as a bonus, he was healed of his physical handicap.

Lying in bed, with her open Bible draped across her body, Bethany let go of her desire to extract revenge from Liam. She let go of her anger and bitterness.

“Malia, you still awake?” Bethany asked quietly.

“Yeah?”

“How do you feel about Liam?”

“Well, he's not exactly my favorite person right now, if that's what you're asking,” came the muffled reply.

Bethany tried not to grin.

“I mean, do you want revenge? Do you want to see him suffer for what he did to you?”

“Maybe I should . . .” Malia said slowly. “But I prayed about it, and even though I don't really like him for what he did . . . I don't know . . . I kinda feel sorry for him. He seems so, so mixed up and hostile, kinda like he is angry at the whole world.”

“Something makes his heart mad,” Bethany said softly.

“What?”

“Tagiilima said it earlier. He said he was praying for Liam because something made his heart mad.”

“It makes sense,” Malia said. “People are usually mad for a reason.”

“You and Tagiilima have such a cool way of looking at things,” said Bethany. “And then there's me, wanting to chop him into hamburger.”

“Yeah, but you don't feel like that anymore, right?”

“No — not after I prayed,” Bethany admitted.

“Then we're not so different.”

Bethany laughed. “Two peas?”

“One pod,” Malia finished, groggily. “Now go to bed. I still feel like a bus ran over me.”

seven

It was a moonless night, and the stars, while brilliant, could not penetrate the canopy of trees under which Liam walked. So dark. He couldn't remember ever being somewhere this dark.

Strange noises were everywhere. He could hear the grunts of wild boar in the distant bush and the croaking of toads in the watery ditches nearby. Unseen bugs buzzed in the trees. He felt the breeze of something shoot by his face and swatted at the air frantically.

It seemed crazy to go on. He had no food or water with him. And no cars had passed for a long, long time. Part of him wanted to give in and go back to the surf camp — but another part of him couldn't allow it. That would mean he would have to admit to everyone how wrong he had been.

“Why are you so mad, Liam?” his father's voice whispered through his mind, reminding him of the conversation they had just before he had boarded the plane. Liam glanced over his shoulder, almost wishing that his father was behind him. But he wasn't.