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Grace laughed again, less nervously this time

"I don’t think ht not hurt it"

The words should have been a joke but Grace heard no o now if you like" Grace started to stand "I didn’t mean to be so nosy, but I saw you on the floor and--"

"No Don’t go Please"

He sounded so huain

"Of course"

"Stay and talk to hts in my head"

She heard a note of desperation in his voice

"I’ll stay I’ll stay as long as you want me to" Grace moved a little closer to hihts in your head?" she asked, as if she were talking to one of the children in her class "If they’re half as awful asat first, only opened his eyes and stared at so only he could see

"We’re all terrified," Grace whispered "I’ve never been so scared in my life This doesn’t happen to people you know This happens in et turned into movies, and it’s all e, and I’htened"

"I was eleven years old when I looked death in the face the first time In my early twenties I spent a few e boy’s sliced-open wrists to try to stop hiht I knew terror before today I rong"

"I keep tellingforapart won’t help her We can’t despair" Brave words but all Grace wanted to do was dissolve into tears

"Don’t despair? That’s usually ine even a priest needs words of comfort sometimes"

"All the time, Grace"

He fell silent after that and she feared the thoughts in his head as oing on in your eance Brutality What I want to do to anyone who hurts my Little One"

"You call her Little One?"

"I always have She was a teenager e er She derown this tall simply for attention"

"Only Nora could be rude and flirtatious at the same time"

"I explained to her that I was tall so I could hear God’s voice better And since I was taller and could hear Him better, she should always listen to me That didn’t sit very ith her She retorted the next day with a verse from Psalm 114 ‘The Lord keeps the little ones’ Her biblical proof that God prefers short people I started calling her Little One after that It helped us both reed to God first"