{"id":5396,"date":"2021-03-12T08:24:49","date_gmt":"2021-03-12T13:24:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/?p=5396"},"modified":"2022-08-10T13:50:33","modified_gmt":"2022-08-10T17:50:33","slug":"the-secret-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whitefire-publishing.com\/read\/the-secret-place\/","title":{"rendered":"The Secret Place"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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By Camille Eide<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

How far can love bend before it breaks?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Josie Norris became an instant mommy when her twin sister Nadine handed over her newborn son and vanished. What Josie saw as a temporary arrangement grew into a mother-son bond too deep to uproot. But with her irrational sister threatening to steal him back, Josie has been living the last few years with Kennedy in hiding, afraid to go home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Aunt Libby\u2014the only person who knows the truth about Kennedy\u2014suffers a traumatic head injury, Josie rushes to her McKenzie River home to help Gram care for the woman who raised her. But not only is Libby\u2019s injury causing family<\/a> secrets to spill, it\u2019s forcing Josie to see the women in her life in a new light.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will\u2014a ranger who Kennedy adores and who Josie is determined not to\u2014is desperate to help the woman who has stolen his affections. But can Josie ever truly be authentic with the man she loves? With her son\u2019s fate hanging in the balance, she is faced with the choice to risk everything she loves in order to bridge the most impossible gulfs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this story of mothers, daughters, and sisters, Josie must find the grace to forgive people for not being who she needed them to be\u2026and the courage to surrender her fears to the God who has never once left her side.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My frame was not hidden from you<\/em>
when I was made in the secret place,<\/em>
when I was woven together\u00a0in the depths of the earth.<\/em>
Your eyes saw my unformed body;<\/em>
all the days ordained\u00a0for me were written in your book<\/em>
before one of them came to be.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Psalm 139: 15-16<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t

Chapter 1<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t

But in the end it\u2019s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014Samwise Gamgee<\/p>\n\n\n\n

June 9, 2003 \u2013 McKenzie River, Oregon<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the last day of fifth grade, just as the sun dipped below the canyon\u2019s western rim, Nadine and Josie Norris left the river\u2019s edge and toted their fishing poles up the spongy bank, away from the deafening sound of rushing water. Like twin yearlings, they scrambled with ease over mossy tree roots, ferns, and jutting rock, until the sloped ground leading away from the McKenzie leveled out. From there, they headed for the old, covered bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their old, covered bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the same wiry build, same honey-gold hair, same freckles, and same green eyes, it would have been nearly impossible for people to tell them apart\u2014if not for the fact that they never dressed alike. Aunt Libby had made it clear from day one how absurd she thought it was for twins to wear matching outfits. The fact that they were identical and pageant-pretty drew more than enough stares already, she\u2019d said. No need to add to the novelty by parading them around like some circus side-show act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Above the river, they followed the hidden path through thick ferns and underbrush. Few locals knew about the trail or what it led to, and dumb tourists definitely didn\u2019t know about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As usual, Josie was stuck carrying both the tackle box and the creel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nadine beat Josie to the covered bridge\u2014also typical. She tucked her pole through the gap in the shrubs covering the bridge\u2019s undergirding, then slipped between the bushes and disappeared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Josie checked to make sure no one was watching, then ducked inside. The summer before, they\u2019d found the abandoned fort beneath the bridge, and since Josie and her sister had recently decided to be river pirates, they had spent afternoons and weekends filling their new lair with booty. Josie had long ago learned that kids raised by a no-nonsense aunt and a kooky grandma weren\u2019t likely to have anything even remotely cool, so a top secret place all their own was basically sacred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nadine plopped down on the rug they\u2019d found in the recycle bin behind Wally\u2019s Mini-Mart, pulled off a shoe, and shook dirt and pebbles from it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStink\u2019s finally gone, thank God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Josie sniffed and wrinkled her nose. \u201cNope, I can still smell it.\u201d Definitely skunk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nadine slipped her eye patch into place, then leaned back, arms behind her like a pillow. \u201cNope. You just remember it, so you think you still smell it. It\u2019s all in your head.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Josie scoffed. \u201cYou have no idea what\u2019s in my head.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cProbably not much.\u201d Nadine rolled to avoid the pinecone Josie chucked at her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo what kept you so long after the bell?\u201d Josie asked. \u201cYou took forever to come out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nadine shrugged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Josie laughed. \u201cSeriously? I totally thought you would\u2019ve been the first one out the door screaming \u2018freeeeedomm!\u2019 at the top of your lungs. But when you came out, you never said a word.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a frown, Nadine lifted her eye patch. \u201cI didn\u2019t want Aunt Libby going down to the school and causing drama, like she did last year with Miss B.\u201d She plucked a fiddle fern and wrapped it around her finger. Then she let out an exasperated growl. \u201cMiss Parker wanted to chat. Weirdo. She asked how I liked being raised by a couple of spinsters. And if I miss my parents.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d Josie\u2019s face puckered. \u201cWhy\u2019d she want to know that?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nadine snorted. \u201cBecause she\u2019s stupid. And nosy. Just like all the others.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All her life, Josie had heard countless comments about her and Nadine, about their odd family, the absence of a \u201creal\u201d mom and dad. Whispers about Gram, Aunt Libby. Speculation about who the girls\u2019 parents really were. Josie wished the small-town busybodies would be satisfied with just the basics about Josephine and Nadine Norris, and leave it at that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because just the basics was all the girls had ever known.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd then she asked me if Libby was a lesbian. Or a communist. Or a mushroom-picking hippy, like Gram.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Josie scoffed, then stared at her twin. \u201cI hope you said our family is none of her business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI did.\u201d Nadine replaced the eye patch. \u201cRight after I told her Libby smokes weed and dances naked in the moonlight.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Josie\u2019s jaw dropped. \u201cNo way! Did you really?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nadine rose to sit cross-legged. \u201cYep. And then I told her off.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGood.\u201d Josie giggled, ignoring a guilty twinge of relief that the teacher had cornered Nadine instead of her. Nadine had no problem speaking her mind. Which often landed her in trouble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut don\u2019t tell Libby,\u201d Nadine added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhy?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nadine shrugged one shoulder. \u201cJust not a good idea.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This from the girl who thought diving out of the hayloft with a rope tied to her ankle was a good idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNadine! Josephine!\u201d Aunt Libby\u2019s voice startled Josie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nadine leaned in closer. \u201cI mean it, Feen. Promise you won\u2019t tell her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay,\u201d Josie said as she sprang to her feet. Libby despisedhollering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her twin stood and faced her. \u201cSay<\/em> it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLet\u2019s go, girls.\u201d Libby sounded stressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay, I promise. Come on,\u201d Josie said, picking up the tackle box and creel. The longer they took to appear, the more annoyed their aunt would be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nadine grasped her sister\u2019s biceps and met her with a dead-level, one-eyed glare. \u201cIn fact, I want you to promise me that everythingwe tell each other in this place stays in this place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Josie replied with another eye roll. They were eleven. It wasn\u2019t like they had earthshaking secrets, nothing Gram and Libby didn\u2019t already know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSwear on the greatest, most sacred mystery of the universe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhich is\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTwin telepathy. Promise!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOkay, okay, I swear on twinsy-telepathy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nadine spit into her palm and held it out, the look in her lone eye grim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Josie did likewise, and they shook. Goose bumps prickled her skin, partly because Josie knew her aunt really did notlike having to call them like hogs, and partly because of the sudden, strange solemnity in her twin sister\u2019s face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then she told herself Nadine was just being dramatic, as usual, and scurried out ahead of her sister into the waning sunlight.<\/p>\n\n\n