Point of No Return by Paul McCusker Page A

games?” Brad asked.
    â€œI don’t know,” Jimmy answered impatiently, “dodgeball and stuff. Shut up and listen, will you? Anyway, Dave told us how we all live in this world, but there’s another world that God lives in, and so God sent Jesus to this world to—”
    â€œSo Jesus was some kind of astronaut,” Tony teased. “A UFO.”
    â€œNo,” Jimmy said. “But, see, He came over and dressed in skin and stuff so He could be like us.”
    Brad raised his hand as if he were asking a question in class. “How did He put on the skin?” he asked. “Did it have a zipper up the back, like the monster in Creature from the Black Lagoon ?” He and Tony laughed again.
    Annoyed, Jimmy folded his arms. “He was born , you idiots! Don’t you know what Christmas is all about?”
    Tony smiled and said, “It’s about a big tree and presents and Santa Claus.”
    â€œMaybe Santa Claus was Jesus in disguise,” Brad said with a chuckle.
    â€œWill you quit fooling around?” Jimmy pleaded. “Do you wanna know what happened or not?”
    â€œYeah, but skip the history lesson,” Tony said.
    â€œIt’s not a history lesson, it’s part of the story,” Jimmy said. “You have to understand why He came! See, we’re no good, and God is perfect, so Jesus had to come and die so that we could be with God. We can’t go to the other place unless we’re made perfect, kinda like Jesus is and…and…”
    Tony’s and Brad’s blank expressions told Jimmy he wasn’t making any sense at all. Why couldn’t he say it the way Dave did? Why couldn’t he sound like Peter? Why were Tony and Brad giggling? I’ll bet Peter’s audience didn’t giggle , he thought.
    Tony burst out laughing. “I wish you could see your face,” he said. “You don’t even know what you’re talking about!”
    Tony and Brad laughed harder, then harder still.
    â€œI do, too! You just don’t understand!” Jimmy protested.
    They kept laughing and making more jokes about Santa Claus, aliens, other worlds, and everything else Jimmy had tried to say.
    It wasn’t supposed to happen this way , he thought as his emotions twisted up and nearly squeezed tears out of him. They’re supposed to understand and say yes to Jesus just like me. Why don’t they?
    Finally, he grabbed his tray of food and stormed off to another table.
    Jack, Oscar, and Lucy were sitting together as Jimmy passed their table. Jack called out, but Jimmy ignored him. He wanted to ignore everyone. He couldn’t stand the thought of being laughed at anymore.

CHAPTER ELEVEN
    Monday After School
    A FTER SCHOOL , J IMMY avoided Tony and went straight home. He was still moping about what had happened at lunch, but in case he was asked, he had worked out an excuse about rushing home to finish building a model of a ship. His dad had given him the model two Christmases ago, and it was still unassembled in a box at the top of his closet, but Jimmy ran home anyway.
    It nagged at Jimmy that he had prayed for the Holy Spirit to help him—just like Peter—and they had laughed at him anyway. He couldn’t understand why they didn’t want to say yes to Jesus the same way he had after hearing Dave.
    In his room, he paced and tried to figure it out. He wished—no, it was really a prayer, though Jimmy didn’t realize it—that he could talk to somebody who understood how he felt. At that moment, he thought he was the only person in the world who had ever become a new Christian and was teased about it.
    His mind went back to the ship model, so he climbed up on a chair to pull it down. As he pushed and lifted various games and boxes of long-forgotten toys, something caught his eye in the corner of the shelf. It was the Bible his grandmother had given him—the one with his name embossed on the front