Making Faces

by Amy Harmon

“Bailey has a disease. It makes his muscles weak. It might kill him. He doesn’t like it when things die. It’s hard for him,” Fern said simply,

He was cool and made us happy for a minute before Ambrose squished him. Thank you for making even ugly things beautiful. Amen.”

But for Bailey, real life was now, this instant, because every day was a downhill slide. He didn’t get stronger, he got weaker, he didn’t get closer to adulthood, he got closer to the end, so he didn’t look at life the way everyone else did. He had become very

Just like my mom tells me I’m pretty ‘cause she loves me. I’m not pretty . . . and you can’t beat Ambrose, buddy.”

If God makes all our faces, did he laugh when he made me? Does he make the legs that cannot walk and eyes that cannot see? Does he curl the

God makes all our faces, did he laugh when he made me? Fern sighed

Fern wasn’t delusional, she was simply imaginative. But even with her gift for daydreaming and storytelling, she couldn’t make herself believe he would ever return her feelings.

Did he really want Fern Taylor? He laughed a little. Fern was a little bitty thing. They would look ridiculous together. And she wasn’t hot. Although she had looked pretty good at the prom.

He’d run away from home and brought his friends with him, his security blanket, his very own cheering section. He wondered what the hell he was doing in Oz.

It hadn’t been difficult to see she had a huge crush on him. It’s hard to stay angry with someone who loves you.

“God has given you one face and you make yourself another.” - Hamlet

Fern hasn’t figured out how to play hard to get.” Ambrose liked

“Think about it. There isn’t heartache if there hasn’t been joy. I wouldn’t feel loss if there hadn’t been love. You couldn’t take my pain away without removing Bailey from my heart. I would rather have this pain now than never have known him. I just have to keep reminding myself of that.”

worried that God had sent Fern for a specific purpose, a specific mission, and when that mission was fulfilled, he would take her away.”

there was a God and a life beyond this one, Bailey was here, no question in Fern’s mind. He would be down on the floor scouting out the competition, taking notes and taking names. Paulie, Jesse, Beans, and Grant would be there too, lining the mats, watching their best friend do his best to live without them and cheering him on, just like they always had. Even Jesse.