Little Rachel "Rae" Evans was a happy little girl. Her mother would say that when she laughed, she could make an entire room of people break out in smiles. All that changed when she was four and the laughter stopped. From then on, she withdrew into herself and hid from the world, convinced that no one, not even God, could ever truly love, or even understand her.

Eric Dunning was only twelve and in the last six months had watched his mother Erica waste away with cancer, eight years after the death of his father Jack in the early months of fighting in Afghanistan. Torn away from everything he has ever known, a happy southern California life with his mother and his best friend April, he is sent to the complete opposite side of the country to live with an aunt and cousin he has never met. Enduring one trauma after another, circumstances alter the way he sees life, God, and himself in ways he could never have imagined.

Set against the backdrop of rural northern New Hampshire in the 2010s, Lost Faith combines elements of coming-of-age, transformation, self-discovery, and romance, interwoven with a potential answer to the question, "Why does a loving God allow good people to suffer?" It is written as a companion story to the novel, Every Day is Your Last.

CHAPTER 1
“Got your phone?”

“Yeah, of course!”

“Why’s it still sitting here plugged into the charger then?”

“Cachu! Ta!”

“And it’s raining!”

“Course it is! That’s why I’ve got my cagtrousers on”

I had worked from home all day in case I’d have to go to my children’s school urgently so when the school bus stopped on the street I could see my son running to our house, sweep up the door and dash up the stairs with his modest skirt flapping and tears ruining his makeup. Then I heard his bedroom door bang shut.

I turned to my daughter who had traversed the distance to the house in a more leisurely pace.

”The experiment was not a success?”
”You could say that.”

Shade looks at Hatter as they drove towards Washington D.C. He could tell she wasn’t happy about leaving Bree behind or leaving her.

“Are we doing the right thing about adopting Bree?” Aylin looks at Mark as he sat behind the steering wheel.

“Yes, and you knew from the beginning that there will be times we will have to leave her. Look at Dakota and Terry. They sometimes have to leave the twins when Anika has a mission for them.”

Signals
A Short Story
By Maryanne Peters

Introductory Note:

Over on Fictionmania I post very short pieces which are simply jottings inspired by images that I view from time to time. For me they are little exercises - mind flexing moves to keep my story writing fresh and to try to find new perspectives on what are often just tired tropes. But sometimes the idea needs to be fleshed into a full idea and that is what I usually post over here on Big Closet Top Shelf.

William Grant is an archeologist on a search to find the first pharaoh, Menes. His search tests his faith in ways he never thought possible.

this story is a bit of a change for me, I hope you like it. TG elements only come in towards the end of this chapter, which is really just scene-setting.
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When Leckie Robson moved back to his ancestral home area to start a new life, little did he realise how much would change.

Elaine was sitting by a pond listening to nature's symphony, taking in the beautiful backdrop surrounding it. She never got enough of the music, due to a small problem which caused a fuss the last time she came outside.