God Forgives: a Story about the Prescott Family

by Hannah M.

Story #1:

This story is dedicated to Claire, Lilly, Lacey, and Patience.

Part 1

Andrea (Andi) Rose Carter Prescott looked up as she heard hoof beats. It must be Riley, she thought.

A few minutes later, Riley Jared Prescott walked into the house. “Howdy, Andi!” he said cheerfully.

“Glad you’re home, Riley,” Andi replied. “Dinner is ready and on the table.”

“How is Rose, Andi?” Riley asked, suddenly becoming very serious.

Rose Andrea Prescott was Andi and Riley’s daughter; she was three and she was sick with a fever. The Prescott’s also had a son; his name was Jared Riley Prescott, and he had just turned eight not too long ago.

“She’s doing alright. Doc Weaver said that her fever isn’t worse than it was yesterday, but he also said that it isn’t much better.” Andi sighed. “At least Jared has been playing with her a bunch. It takes her mind of her sickness for the most part and it prevents her from being lonely,” Andi added.

“Jared really loves his little sister,” Riley said thoughtfully.

“Let’s pray right now, Riley, and ask our Father to heal Rose,” Andi said.

***

“Come, Jawed,” little Rose said four days later. Her fever was gone and she was running around the house again.

“Alright,” Jared responded as he jumped up from the spot on the floor where he had been sitting. “Where do you want to go?” Jared asked as Rose walked up to the front door.

“Pwease open the door for me, Jawed,” Rose asked.

“Alright,” Jared answered. “But since we’re going outside, you have to hold my hand. And you have to promise me that you won’t go wandering off without me,” Jared said seriously.

“Alwight, Jawed,” Rose said. “I pwomise.”

***

Jared and Rose trooped inside together a few hours later, with their arms full of flowers. They were tired but happy.

“Here, Mama,” Jared said to Andi as he held out his flowers.

“Those are very pretty flowers,” Andi said with a smile. “I’ll go find a vase for them.”

Part 2

A few days later, Jared asked Andi and Riley if he could take Rose to the Foal Pasture. The Foal Pasture was a small pasture that they kept any mare that currently had a foal. Right now, there were no horses there.

“Why do you want to go to the Foal Pasture?” Riley asked.

“Because the apple tree with the best apples is in that pasture,” Jared said. “Besides, Rose wants to go pick some more flowers, and the prettiest flowers on Memory Creek Ranch are over there.”

Riley looked at Andi, and Andi said, “I don’t see why you can’t go over there. Just make sure you keep an eye on Rose.”

“I’ll keep two eyes on her, Mama!” Jared exclaimed as he ran to go find Rose.

***

“We better go back to the house, Rose,” Jared said as he looked up at the position of the sun. “It’s almost noon, and that means it’s almost time to eat dinner.”

Rose came running over with her arms full of flowers. Jared himself had an old flour sack filled with sweet, fresh apples in one hand. “Give me your hand, Rose, and we’ll go home.”

“I can’t,” Rose said. “I have to hold the flowers.”

“Well then let me put them in the sack with the apples,” Jared said.

“They’ll get smashed, Jawed,” Rose argued.

“Well if you don’t want them to get smashed, you’ll have to leave some of them behind.”

“You can put some of them in there,” Rose finally agreed. She handed Jared all of the flowers that had been in her left hand, and then grabbed his right hand.

***

As soon as Jared closed the gate to the pasture, someone cupped a hand over his mouth and started dragging him!

“Rose!” he cried, but it was muffled. He couldn’t see Rose anywhere and he no longer felt her hand in his.

Part 3

Jared woke up in a dark room. The walls of the room were made of rough brick, and the smell in the room was awful. There was a hard looking cot in one corner, and a small window high up above the cot. Jared’s clothes were filthy (though that’s not what he was concerned about at the moment) and his hands were tied behind his back.

Jared jumped when he heard the wooden door in the room creaking open. He saw two men enter and shut the door.

“Here’s your food,” the shorter, stouter man said gruffly as he put a plate of food in front of him. He looked to be in about his early to mid forties.

“And here’s some water,” a taller, thinner man said. He appeared to only be about eighteen.

“Thank you,” Jared said, but he wasn’t quite sure why he had said it.

The two men looked surprised.

“You’re welcome,” the younger man finally said. “Come on, Aaron.”

“I’m coming, Alec,” the man named Aaron grumbled.

***

Jared heard approaching footsteps from the other side of the door. The door quickly creaked open.

“Come on, boy!” shouted a man that Jared didn’t recognize. “Big boss wants to see you.”

The man grabbed Jared, but he left his wrists tied. Jared was shoved out of the room, down a long hallway, and into a bright room. There were three men sitting at a table discussing something, and Jared recognized two of the men as Aaron and Alec.

“Here he is, Bart,” the man said.

“Thanks, Dominic,” Bart replied. “Shove him over there in that corner; we’ve got things to discuss before I deal with him.”

Part 4

Back at Memory Creek Ranch, Andi and Riley were all upset. When Jared and Rose hadn’t come back in time for the noon meal, they had gone looking for them. When they hadn’t found them at the Foal Pasture, they had searched the whole ranch.

“Let’s go to the Circle C,” Andi finally said. “I’m not sure what else to do.”

Riley nodded in agreement. “Alright.”

***

They went to the Circle C Ranch, but nobody was really sure what to do.

“About the only thing we can do is tell the Sheriff Tate, but I’m not really sure what he can do,” Andi’s older brother Chad said.

“There’s one thing we haven’t done yet,” Andi said suddenly.

“And what is that?” Chad asked.

“We haven’t prayed yet,” Andi and Riley said simultaneously.

So Andi, Riley, Chad, Mitch (Mitch was Andi’s older brother who was the youngest Carter brother), Ellianna (Chad’s wife), and Elizabeth (Andi’s mother), all bowed their heads in prayer.

Part 5

When Bart, Dominic, Aaron, and Alec had finished their discussion, Bart stood up and walked over to Jared. Lord, please help me to have courage and please keep me safe, Jared prayed. And keep Rose safe, wherever she is, he added.

“Hmm,” Bart said. “Stand up, boy.”

Jared obediently stood up.

“What’s your name?” Bart asked.

“Jared.”

“Don’t you have a last name?” Bart asked gruffly.

The other men laughed.

“My last name is Prescott,” Jared said.

“Hmm, that doesn’t mean anything to me,” Bart said. Then he turned to his men. “He looks like an obedient and strong young lad; put him to work starting tomorrow.”

“Yes sir,” Dominic, Aaron, and Alec said together.

***

Later that night, Alec brought Jared some food. Jared finally got up the nerve to ask the question that had been on his mind all the time.

“Where is Rose?”

“Who’s Rose?” Alec asked.

“My little sister,” Jared answered. “Did you kidnap her, too? We were together when you kidnapped me.”

“Yes, we did kidnap her,” Alec answered.

“Why?” Jared asked.

“I’m actually not sure why,” Alec admitted. “The boss is strange and won’t tell us why he wants something done.”

“Well, where is she?” Jared persisted.

“In the next room over,” Alec said hesitantly.

“I must see her and make sure she’s alright!” Jared exclaimed.

“Shh, quiet down, boy,” Alec said hastily. “I wasn’t supposed to tell you where she was.”

“Then why did you?” Jared asked curiously.

“I’m not sure,” Alec admitted.

“Alec, did your family ever go to church when you were growing up?” Jared asked suddenly.

“Yes,” Alec answered, avoiding Jared’s gaze. “My ma died when I was born, and my pa was a criminal, but my older sister, Ruth, took me to church.”

“Why did you stop going to church and chose a life of crime?” Jared asked.

“Because, that’s what my pa did,” Alec answered. Jared thought he sounded kind of upset, as if Alec wished he hadn’t chosen a life of crime.

“So I started doing small crimes when I was about eleven or twelve,” Alec continued. “I would pick a pocket every now and then, and I got it into my head that a criminal was easy. Well, when I was fourteen, I decided to run away to become a criminal, and I left Ruth a note explaining everything that I had done, and to expect to never see me again.”

“Would you go back to Ruth now?” Jared asked.

“I would love to, but I don’t see how she could forgive me for what I’ve done,” Alec said.

“Why don’t you pray about it,” Jared suggested, “and ask God to forgive you, if you truly don’t want to be a criminal anymore.”

“Because God wouldn’t forgive me for what I’ve done,” Alec said sadly.

“Yes, he would forgive you, if you were sincere,” Jared insisted. “Listen to this Bible verse: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That’s from 1 John 1:9. Please, pray and ask God to forgive you.”

Alec didn’t say anything; he just stood up and left the room.

Part 6

The next day when Alec came to give Jared food, he was very quiet. He simply said, “Today you must do work for the boss’s wife. She twisted her ankle the other day, and the rest of us don’t have time to help her out.”

Jared simply nodded.

***

At dusk, when Jared was finally finished with all of his assigned work, he was exhausted and ready for some food (no matter how tired of beans he was) and some sleep.

The door creaked open and in came Alec with some beans.

“How is my sister Rose?” Jared asked first thing.

“She’s fine,” Alec answered.

“What has she been doing?” Jared asked.

“The boss brought Rose to his own house first thing this morning. The poor thing was crying,” Alec answered.

“Why did he do that?” Jared asked in shock.

“You’re not going to like the answer one bit,” Alec warned.

“Please tell me;” Jared begged, “I must know! I promised Mama and Papa I would take care of her.” Tears started to stream down his face; he had been able to hold them back for the past few days, but now they ran freely.

“Alright, hear it goes,” Alec said. “To put it simply, Bart and his wife don’t have any children, and Bart wants Rose for his daughter.”

This shocked Jared, and he started crying. “What do I do now, what do I do now,” he muttered to himself over and over again.

“Calm down boy; there’s still hope,” Alec said quickly.

“I guess that’s true,” Jared said. “Hey, something similar happened to Mama and Aunt Lucy.”

“What happened to them?” Alec asked with interest.

*“They were kidnapped by a Spanish outlaw who wanted revenge, and he wanted Aunt Lucy’s son because he and his wife didn’t have any children. But Mama and Aunt Lucy and my cousin Sammy were rescued,” Jared said.

“That’s interesting!” Alec said. “But anyway, I have a plan on how to get you out of here.”

“What is it?” Jared asked eagerly.

“This is my plan:” Alec said, “Jared, tomorrow morning you will offer Martha (Bart’s wife) to watch Rose so that Martha can relax, and then you will go outside with Rose, and wait for me to pull some horses out of the barn. I’ll pretend to put them in the corral, but you bring Rose over and hand her to me, and she can ride on a horse with me, then you can climb on another horse. Can you ride bareback?”

“Yes, I can,” Jared answered. “Papa taught me how to, just in case I ever need to make a quick escape from somewhere, and there was no time to saddle a horse.”

“Good,” Alec answered. “Now, once we get on the horses we’ll ride off as quickly as possible and go to your parents’ ranch. Then I’ll leave you and Rose with your mother.”

“Then you can go to town with Papa and tell the sheriff what happened,” Jared said.

Alec looked uneasy. “They’d arrest me,” he finally said. “I just want to live peacefully once I leave here, and not go to jail, although I probably deserve it.”

“They won’t arrest you; you’ve decided to leave and not be a criminal anymore, and you asked God to forgive you, and I know He did.”

“Are you sure they wouldn’t arrest me?” Alec asked cautiously.

“Mama and Papa would be against it, and so would all of my aunts and uncles and my mother,” Jared said. “In fact, Uncle Justin is a lawyer.”

“That’s right!” Alec exclaimed, starting to get hope. “I remember now that Justin Carter was a lawyer.”

            “You mean you guys knew I was related to the Carter’s the whole time?” Jared asked in surprise.

“They didn’t; I was the only one who knew,” Alec answered. “I didn’t tell them, because they know the Carter’s are a rich family, and they would have asked a ransom for you and your sister.”

“Why didn’t you want a ransom to be asked for us?” Jared asked.

“I don’t know,” Alec answered. “You better get some sleep,” he added.

Part 7

The next morning, Jared and Alec went through with their plan. It went as they had planned. By the time they got to Fresno, which they had to go through to get to Memory Creek Ranch, it was close to sundown, and Jared and Alec were exhausted and Rose (who was now on Jared’s horse) had fallen asleep long ago.

Jared saw Sheriff Tate and a bunch of deputies dismounting from horses. Jared was about to tell Alec how to get to Memory Creek Ranch, when a shot rang out.

Alec cried out in pain as a bullet grazed his right arm.

“Who did that?” Sheriff Tate demanded.

“I did,” said one of the deputies.

“Why?” Sheriff Tate asked.

“Because he is a kidnapper,” the deputy replied.

Jared and Rose hadn’t been noticed yet, but that was about to change.

“Wait!” Jared shouted. “He is not a kidnapper anymore. He was with the men who kidnapped me, but he helped me and Rose escape and he’s repented of his sins, and now he just wants to live a peaceful life.”

“Is that true?” Sheriff Tate asked Alec.

“Yes sir,” Alec replied weakly. “I asked God to forgive me, and He did.”

“Alright; you can go,” Sheriff Tate said.

Jared let out a whoop of happiness.

“Alec, tell the sheriff where to find the rest of the gang, and then go to Doc Weaver’s office,” Jared said. “I’ll take Rose home.”

Part 8

A few weeks later, everything went back to normal: Jared and Rose were reunited with Andi and Riley, Alec was on the mend and had asked the whole Prescott family to forgive him (even three year old Rose had said that she forgave him), and the kidnappers were in jail.

Well, almost everything was back to normal. Andi and Riley told Jared and Rose that they were soon to have a new sibling.

*Courageous Love