White Mountain

by Dinah McCall

  Leonardo suddenly stopped, then handed Maria the baby.

  “I forgot to give Father Joseph his money,” he said, and headed back to the altar before the priest left.

  Maria cradled the baby as she waited. A friend came up and they began to talk.

  The baby’s gaze was focused on the sound of his mother’s voice when, outside, a cloud that had been covering the sun began to pass. As it did, bright light spilled through the stained glass windows—rolling through the colors and painting them on the columns and the walls and even in Maria’s hair.

  When it happened, the baby’s focus shifted from his mother’s mouth to the window. He looked and blinked, then stilled. His pupils dilated; his tiny mouth went slack. The light grew, firing the colors until they appeared to be burning. And it was as if he was listening to something that only he could hear.

  Suddenly the woman beside Maria cried. “Look! Look at little David. See how he stares at God’s windows?”

  Maria looked down at her son and the rapt expression on his face.

  “It is as it should be,” she said softly.

  “What do you mean?” the woman said.

  “See his face? He sees the angels.”

  “What angels?” her friend asked.

  “The ones who will watch over him as he becomes a man of God.”

  “What?”

  “I promised, you see,” Maria said.

  “Promised what?”

  “The baby. God gave me a child to raise, and when it’s time, I will give the man to God.”

  The woman laughed, a little shocked by what Maria had said.

  “Well, sure, every mother would be proud to have a priest in the family, but what if David has other plans?”

  Maria looked at her son, so tiny and helpless, then at the rapt expression in his eyes.

  “Don’t you see?’ she said softly. “He already knows.”

  Dinah McCall finally realized that the daydreams she’d been having all her life were a gift, a talent she could no longer ignore. “It hit me that I was destined to be a storyteller.” Dinah made the decision to write tales of substance. These stories have capture the hearts of many readers and have earned bestseller placements. Dinah lives in her native Oklahoma, where she also writes as Sharon Sala.