A Fervent Wish

Good morning and welcome to Sunday Book Blogs. All month, we’re focusing on teens and the trials they face as they move toward being adults. Today, it’s all about losing a family member.

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Death comes without warning sometimes. Occasionally, the individual will know they’ll lose someone they love just not when. No matter where and when death arrives at your door, no one is prepared for the sense of loss they’ll endure. This is what Dawn experiences when her dad confides a secret she can’t tell anyone; a secret that’s eating her up inside. Her job over the holiday season is to keep her younger siblings from discovering their mother has a virulent form of leukemia and isn’t expected to survive…


Blurb
One more Christmas is all Dawn wants. Is that too much to ask?
With a little more than a week before the holiday, fifteen-year old Dawn and her dad share a heart-wrenching secret about her mom. She’s dying of leukemia, but no one suspected a thing; they all just thought she was tired. All Dawn has to lean on is a prayer—that her mom won’t die before or on this special day, so her five younger siblings don’t have to remember that during the holidays in the future. Will she receive her wish?
Excerpt

Robby Ryan got off the bus ahead of me. Not that I was that far behind him. We had the whole walk home, about a quarter mile on paved sidewalks, and no reason to hurry. He stopped and glanced at me, a sly smile on his face.
“Come on, Dawn. Quit being a slowpoke.”
We’d had a sort-of-friends relationship all our lives. He lived across the street and a few houses up from me in our little hometown of Monrovia, California. Robby was an older man, all of seventeen. I was fifteen for a couple more months, and that was the worst age to be in 1974. My parents were so old fashioned, saying I couldn’t even think about having a real boyfriend until I was sixteen—in February.
“I’m not a slowpoke,” I said to him, grinning. “Why are you rushing anyway? It’s not like we have anything to do except boring old chores.”
The illicit feeling of getting away with our budding romance sent a thrill through me. Who was I to argue with hormones? We had an attraction, built on years of each of us trying to outdo the other, a love of similar activities, even if my mom got all bent out of shape when I played football or went hiking in the hills above town.
“Any plans for our vacation?” he asked once I reached him.
“Plenty, but you know how it is.” I shrugged my shoulders. “Mom will probably decide to scrub the walls or move the furniture and I’ll have to help.”
A hitch in my voice was the only indication that my assessment of how I’d spend this break from school wasn’t quite the truth. Not that I’d tell a single soul that I’d been more of a mom to my brothers and sisters since Thanksgiving. Even Robby and his family didn’t know what was going on around our house.
Nobody knew, and it would stay that way as far as I was concerned.
Mom’s not really sick. She’s just worn out.


About K.C. Sprayberry
Living a dream she’s had since she first discovered the magic of books. K.C. Sprayberry traveled the U.S. and Europe before finally settling in the mountains of Northwest Georgia. She’s been married to her soulmate for nearly a quarter of a century and they enjoy spoiling their grandchildren along with many other activities.                                                             A multi-genre author, K.C. Sprayberry is always on the hunt for new stories. Inspiration strikes at the weirdest times and drives her to grab notebook and pen to jot down her ideas. Those close to her swear nothing or no one is safe if she’s smiling gently in a corner and watching those in the same room interact. Her observations have often given her ideas for her next story, set not only in the South but wherever the characters demand they settle.

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