“King who?” Annison asked.
Maddy giggled. “I’ll tell you about him sometime,” she replied.
On the edge of her giggle, though, she had a strange feeling, a sweet sadness. She knew somehow that she would never tell the story to Annison. It was time for her to go home. But she had no idea how or when it would happen.
“You’re happy here, aren’t you?” Annison asked.
“Yes, I am,” she answered. But her tone betrayed her homesickness.
“You miss your family.”
Maddy nodded.
“There’s a meeting of the Old Faith tonight. I suggest we put it to the leaders to pray that the Unseen One will take you home.”
“Can they do that?”
Annison tilted her head a little. “They can try.”
The king was on a patch of green grass several yards away. He stood over a small white ball with a golf club in his hands.
He was practicing his golf swing and had been doing so for the past hour. So far he had succeeded in hitting only one ball in the direction he’d intended.
Now he swung his club backward and then forward, hitting the ball hard. He looked ahead expectantly, hoping to see it fly farther out onto the manicured lawn. Instead, however, it spun off to the side and landed under his royal coach, which had been parked there by the driver.
“Oh, blast!” the king said.
Annison laughed.
He looked at her with a pained expression and informed her with mock sternness, “It isn’t funny.”
Annison put a hand over her lips to hide the smile, but it lit up her face too much. “I’m sorry,” she giggled.
The king then laughed, too. “Maybe I’ll take up bowling,” he said. He patted his pockets and then added, “I’m out of balls anyway.”
“I’ll get you one,” Maddy shouted and ran to the coach to retrieve the ball he’d just lost. She looked around the wheels for it but couldn’t see where it was. Then, stooping down, she saw it sitting under the center of the carriage. Crawling carefully so as not to get her dress dirty, she went to the ball and grabbed it.
“You shouldn’t be under there!” she thought Annison called out. But it didn’t sound like Annison.
“What?” she asked as she turned to look back. Her mother was peering in at her through the gap in the trellis. Maddy gasped, jerked up, and nearly hit her head on the underside of the porch.
“Come out of there!” her mother ordered. “You’ll get your dress all dirty.”
Maddy crawled out from under the porch.
Her mother tsked at her and brushed at her dress. “Why do we make you new dresses when you insist on getting them dirty?” she asked. “Why?”
Johnny Ziegler suddenly rushed up to her. “There you are! I found you!” he screeched happily, touching her as if to ensure that it was her turn to find him.
Maddy blinked. “You won’t believe what just happened to me,” she told her mother.
Her mother sighed as the baby cried from the other side of the lawn. “You’re right,” she said as she walked away. “I probably won’t.”
“What’s that?” Johnny pointed at her hand.
“What’s what?” Maddy asked. She felt a little fuzzy-headed.
Johnny pointed again.
Maddy lifted her hand. She was clutching something she’d found under the porch.
It was a golf ball.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Paul McCusker is a writer and director for Adventures in Odyssey and the award-winning Focus on the Family Radio Theatre.® He also has written over 50 novels and dramas. Paul likes peanut-butter-and-banana sandwiches and wears his belt backward.
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ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATOR Mike Harrigan is the art director for Focus on the Family Clubhouse® and Clubhouse Jr.® magazines for kids. He loves the art of visual storytelling and, when he’s given the chance, will doodle on just about anything.
The Marus Manuscripts Page 40
