Blessed Child

Blessed Child by Ted Dekker

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Authors: Ted Dekker
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all of this in the time it took for three draws of breath, and by then it was too late. He’d left the Jeep across the street, and the Land Rover was closing the gap with a full-throated roar.
    â€œJason!” He snapped his head back to the street before him. Leiah was shouting at him from the driver’s seat of his Jeep. She had swung the Jeep around! “Hurry!”
    He reached the Jeep in three strides, hefted the boy into the back seat, and piled in beside him. The Jeep lurched forward before he had seated himself, and he nearly toppled off the back.
    Machine-gun fire ripped through the air, and Jason shoved the boy’s head down. Caleb cried out in surprise.
    â€œStay down! Move it, Leiah! Floor it!”
    â€œIt is floored.”
    They careened around a corner, beyond the sight of the EPLF truck. Jason had driven the Jeep cautiously over the last hundred miles, and it had just received a change of oil, both factors that may have contributed to its healthy pace now.
    â€œSame truck?” Leiah yelled back.
    â€œI don’t know. Keep it floored!”
    â€œIt’s going as fast as it’ll go, believe me!”
    The EPLF truck came into view, nothing more than a small speck now, just emerging from the town. The sound of weapons fire popped adjacent to the truck: the Land Rover was taking fire. It made a sharp turn onto a side street and disappeared from their view.
    Jason released the boy’s head and climbed over the passenger seat. “Just keep her pegged.”
    â€œWe okay?”
    â€œMaybe.”
    Leiah stared ahead, her knuckles white on the steering wheel. Jason glanced back at Caleb, who sat staring at a rust bucket on the side of the road that looked as if it might once have been a Model T. His hood had flown off, freeing his shoulder-length hair to fly wild in the wind. It struck Jason that had his own son lived, he would be Caleb’s age. He might not have looked so different.
    â€œWhat happened?” Leiah asked.
    Jason turned to face the road. “I’m not sure. Animals seem to like him. So does the EPLF.”
    â€œOr hate him. Isn’t this a bit far south for them?”
    â€œA bit far? Honey, we’re halfway to Addis Ababa. There’s no way they should be this far south.”
    â€œAnd what does that mean?”
    Red hues drew the first lines of a sunset in the western sky. There was more happening here than Jason could even begin to piece together. What was it about this boy? Even beyond his unique innocence, there was a sweetness that had worked its way into Jason’s heart.
    â€œIt means that I’m taking him,” he said.
    â€œTo Addis Ababa?”
    â€œTo the United States. To California. It’s where the priest wanted him.”
    â€œYou . . . how can—”
    â€œThe papers are already drawn up. Father Matthew was no idiot.”
    Her jaw stiffened and she looked ahead. The Jeep’s tires whined incessantly, speeding them down the deserted road.
    â€œI thought you were going to allow me to take him.”
    â€œYou assumed. And you assumed wrong.”
    â€œThen I’m going with you,” Leiah said.
    He faced her, surprised. “Don’t be ridiculous. I thought you were going to Kenya.”
    â€œI said I was thinking of going to Kenya. But really I have no reason to go to Kenya or to any other place. The boy needs a careful hand. No offense, but it’s not something I’m sure you have.”
    â€œThanks. And you’re Canadian, not American. What do you think you can possibly do in the States that I can’t?”
    â€œI can be with him. The last time I checked, the Red Cross was an international organization. I’ll go with you to California and then return to Canada. I may be more help than you might think, Mr. American.” She paused and looked to the horizon. “Besides, it’s been a long time since I’ve been home; maybe it’ll be for the

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