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Karen Woods ith a screaht in bed, she pressed her hand over her chest as she breathed deep and hard Her paja so fast that it felt as if it were about to race straight through her

"Karen, Karen, what is it?" Granduest bedroom

The twelve year old sobbed once and held out her ar comfort

It was a drearandathered Karen in her arms, and held her close Karen knew she was too old to be cuddled this way, but just then she needed someone’s arms around her

"What is it, child?" Beverly Shields asked her softly, s the da terrible"

"I had a bad dreaed to say

"The saht?"

Karen nodded

"Do you want to tell your grandhtens you so h without having to tell anyone else about it Some parts of it she didn’t even remember, and one ht about the dream, she wanted to crawl under the blankets and not co tirand to stroke Karen’s brow

"Don’t leave, okay?" Karen asked She felt like a wirandmother in bed with her, but she didn’t care She didn’t want to be alone In a few minutes she’d be okay, but not just yet

Since her mom and dad’s divorce, Karen had spent a lot of time by herself She didn’t ht Before her father moved out of the house they’d done that almost all the time

"Do you miss your ed Her eles banks often took her out of town Karen didn’t hts her irl I sohtmares," Beverly told her

Karen twisted around so she could see her grandmother’s kind face Even when she was only a little kid, she had liked her grandma Shields better than anyone

"I drea after me, and no matter how fast I ran, he ran faster," Beverly Shields said, "and when he finally caught up with me, the ax would be rubber, and the h and laugh because it had been so easy to frightenand afraid, and really o back to sleep?"

"Sometimes I learned that if I closed my eyes and talked to God, I felt a whole lot better I found talking to God works in a lot of situations"

"Do you do it often?" Karen asked

"Oh, sure, all the tiht I feel like it"

Karen studied her ested you see a counselor or anything like that?"

Her grandest that?"

"Grand with God, you know"

"Sure they do, but generally it’s called prayer"

"Oh" Karen had pictured her grand on a one-sided conversation with people listening in and thinking weird things about her It was bad enough that Beverly put that fake hairpiece in her hair so we ether now, just the two of us," Beverly said softly

"Mo a bit, "but that was before the divorce and for a little while afterward Then one Sunday Moo anymore"

"Yes, I know, but don’t fret about that--you don’t need to be a regular church attendee to pray"

Karen felt a little better knowing that "Will you say the words, Grandreed "But then you should say some of your own, too"

"Do we have to speak them out loud?"

"No, you can whisper them in your heart, too"

Karen closed her eyes and bowed her head Then, reravely folded her hands She wasn’t entirely sure why people laced their fingers together when they prayed, probably so they wouldn’t get distracted and wind their hair around their fingers or that kind of thing

Her grandmother whispered a prayer, but Karen couldn’t understand all the words She did hear the part about asking God to "comfort Karen" and "calm Karen’s fears" Grand time After a while, Karen opened one eye and peeked and noticed her grandain and waited When the tiht she decided to pray, but she didn’t trust God to hear her if she said the words inside her heart