

### Olivia's Teenage Challenge

By Geoffrey Horne

Illustrations by Judy Heath

Cover design by Claudia Horne

Copyright 2015 Geoffrey Horne

Smashwords Edition

Smashwords Edition, Licence Notes

Thank you for downloading this ebook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form.

This is a work of fiction. All the people in this book are purely imaginary and have no relation whatsoever to any living persons.

Chapter 1: Exciting Days

Chapter 2: Birthday Girl

Chapter 3: Joshua' s Second Surprise

Chapter 4: Go-Karting Adventure

Chapter 5: Evening Celebration

Chapter 6: Disaster

Chapter 7: Finding Forgiveness

Chapter 8: Payback Time

Chapter 9: A Holiday to Remember

Chapter 10: Mystery Visitors

Chapter 11: Secret Plan

Chapter 12: Police Investigation

Chapter 13: The Good Samaritan

Chapter 14: Punishment

Chapter 15: Search for the Truth

Chapter 16: A Surprise Result

Chapter 17: Kindness Rejected

Chapter 18: Fun in Sydney

Chapter 19: More Holiday Plans

Chapter 20: Fasting for the Hungry

Chapter 21: Ag Camp Fun

Chapter 22: Neil's Business Trip

Chapter 23: Another of Joshua's Pranks

Chapter 24: Shocking News

Chapter 25: Fearing the Worst

Chapter 26: Living in Hope

Chapter 27: Can Neil Survive?

Chapter 28: Homecoming

Chapter 29: Happy Ending

Chapter 1 – Exciting Days

Olivia woke up with a start! She was very relieved when she realised she was awake. Only moments before she had been dreaming a rather unpleasant dream. In her dream she had an assignment to finish for school. It was completed on the family desktop computer, but neither she nor her father could get the printer to work. It was so frustrating! She needed to hand in the finished assignment at school the next day.

Now fully awake, she remembered that she had, in fact, finished her assignment on 'Endangered Animals in Africa' very late the previous night. She had printed it and put the finished paper in her schoolbag. It had been 11.00pm before her head hit the pillow.

She glanced at the alarm clock beside her bed. Mm, only twenty past seven, so I don't need to get up for another 10 minutes.

She rolled over onto her back. Only two days to go till my birthday, and then on Saturday the celebration!

She was so excited. Her parents had promised her that for her thirteenth birthday they would take the family plus three of her best friends go-karting. Then Saturday evening there would be a barbeque party back home.

Olivia thought about what she would wear. I don't want to look daggy just because it might be a bit dirty there. I'll have to wear jeans. Perhaps I'll wear my blue top with the pockets or the yellow flowery one. I wonder what Jess, Cathy and Megan will wear? I'll ask them at school today.

Olivia was quite happy to continue thinking about the visit to the Go-Karting Centre when her peace was suddenly shattered by the beep-beep of the alarm. Her day had begun.

She tumbled out of bed and with her eyes barely open made her way to the bathroom, almost as if she were sleep-walking. She could hear someone singing and water running.

"Oh no, Josh has beaten me to it!" she exclaimed. Joshua, her brother, was only eighteen months younger than her and quite often they both seemed to want to use the bathroom at the same time. They'd even had fights over it. It could have been much worse if this had been the only bathroom in the house. Their parents had their own en-suite bathroom. Olivia was occasionally allowed to use the en-suite if the main bathroom was particularly busy. However, it was not usually free at this time in the morning, as both her mother and father would be there, getting themselves ready for work.

She banged on the door and rattled the handle.

"Josh, hurry up, you'll make me late!" she shouted. There was no response. She banged the door and shouted again.

"Joshua, are you deaf or something? Hurry up!"

"Oh, did you want to tell me something, Siss?"

"You know very well I did. I want to get in or I'll be late."

"No problem," he replied, "I shouldn't be more than another 15 minutes, half-an-hour at the most. Why don't you go and make my bed for me while you're waiting?"

Joshua did have a way of riling his sister, but she was not going to let him do it this morning.

"Joshua, just please be quick,' she replied quietly "and you know that Mum says we each have to make our own bed."

To save time she went back into her room to make her bed and when she got back to the bathroom it was free.

Olivia was learning – learning, that is, not to always rise to the bait when Joshua teased her. As Lisa, her mother, had said to her on a number of occasions,

"He's just doing it to get a reaction from you. You know he's really very fond of you and admires you a lot. Don't forget, Jesus wants us to live peacefully with one another and to 'turn the other cheek' if someone is nasty to us."

As Olivia brushed her long, brown hair and looped it up into a ponytail, she noticed a small pimple on her chin. "I must fix that quickly," she said to her reflection in the mirror. "I don't want any pimples on my birthday." She went back to the bathroom and dabbed some antiseptic on the offending spot. Then she hurried into the family room for breakfast.

Breakfast was always a rather rushed meal in the Robertson household. The two younger children, eight-year-old Eli and six-year-old Anna, always seemed completely oblivious of the time. They often needed cajoling along by the other members of the family.

Their father, Neil, was always first to leave, shortly after 8am. He worked as an information technology specialist. They would not see him again till about six in the evening. But each morning before leaving he would say,

"Hold it gang! Let's pray and ask the Lord to guide and bless us today."

After a short prayer there would be quick hugs and kisses and he would be gone. Then the rest of the family continued to get ready to leave the house at 8.30am in time for school at nine.

It was convenient that their mother, Lisa, was a teacher at the same school as her children. The one school covered all ages from kindergarten to year 10. It also meant that her children were never late for school, as she had to be there well before school started. School was only five minutes away in the car. The Robertson's single storey house was in a pleasant, tree-lined street in a suburban part of Canberra, Australia's capital city.

Chapter 2 - Birthday Girl

Friday morning all the family, even Joshua, were up extra early so that they could give Olivia her birthday presents before going to school or work. Anna brought her present into Olivia while she was still asleep in bed. She soon shook her big sister awake and handed over the parcel, which she had wrapped herself the night before.

"Happy birthday, Olly!" she said with a smile that showed up the gap in her front teeth. Olivia opened the parcel.

"Oh," she exclaimed, "a manicure set, that's lovely, Anna, just what I needed. Thank you so much."

She gave Anna a kiss and a hug.

"Mummy helped me choose it," said Anna.

Anna was quite different in looks from Olivia. Like her mother, she had dark, almost black hair. At that moment it was rather tangled and in need of brushing, since she had just got out of bed.

No battle for the bathroom today! Joshua was especially careful to let his sister go first, as he had something to do that he didn't want her to see. When Olivia returned to her bedroom she was surprised to find that someone had made her bed.

"Mum must have done it for me as a birthday treat," she thought to herself.

Before they had breakfast the other members of the family gave Olivia their presents. Eli gave her a pen with her name engraved on it.

"I got it at the Post Office" said Eli. "It was the last one with your name on it."

Olivia's parents gave her an MP3 player, something that she had wanted for quite a while. After she had unwrapped it, Joshua produced his present, an iTunes gift card. More hugs and kisses all round and then it was time for their father to depart for work. Then everyone realised they had to get on with preparing to leave for school.

"Oh, by the way, "said Olivia, "thanks, Mum, for making my bed this morning."

"But I didn't, darling" said her mother. "That was a nice gesture, whoever did it for you."

"It wasn't me," said Eli. "Nor me," said Anna.

"Did Dad do it, then?" asked Olivia.

"Possibly," her mother replied, "but if he did, I was not aware of it."

Then Olivia noticed Joshua giggling.

"Was it you, Josh? Oh, you're so sweet! I really didn't deserve it after what I said to you the other morning."

"There you are," chuckled Joshua, "you didn't realise what a wonderful, generous, thoughtful, loving brother you have!"

They all laughed, knowing how Joshua loved to tease his older sister.

"Anyway, it was a lovely birthday surprise," said Olivia.

"Well, who knows, Olivia, you might get some more surprises today!" said Joshua mysteriously.

In looks Joshua was like his younger sister in taking after his mother, with dark, almost black hair. His elfin face gave him a somewhat cheeky look, even when he was serious, but especially when he was up to mischief!

School was a fun day for Olivia that Friday. Damian, one of the boys in her class had drawn a caricature of Olivia on the white board blowing out thirteen candles on an enormous cake twice her size. There were also a couple of hearts with arrows through them with the letter 'O' at the pointy end and question marks at the other end. Who did those, she wondered, but she thought she had a good idea which boys liked her the most. Her three special friends, Jessica, Cathy and Megan, brought her presents – a small bottle of perfume, a writing set and a cute little purse.

Although Olivia's three friends got on very well together, they were quite different in looks and personality. Jessica was tall and slim and had brown hair like Olivia. She was the quietest of the four girls. She had one older brother. Cathy was of average height, but she was very solidly built and thrived in all sports. She had two younger brothers, who were also very good at sports. All her family had blonde hair, indicative of their Scandinavian origins. Megan was the artistic member of the group, and did excellent paintings and drawings. She was the only one in the group with dark, almost black hair. She was the group's 'funny guy', which sometimes got her into trouble at school. She had one sister four years older than her. Her grandparents had migrated to Australia from Germany many years ago.

When Olivia said 'Goodbye' to her friends at 3.30pm she knew she would see them twice the next day; in the morning for netball and then for go-karting the following afternoon at 3pm. There had been some discussion during the day about what to wear for the go-karting, but when she left them she was still not sure what any of the three would come in. They had also discussed what go-karting would be like. Would it be scary? How dangerous was it? And so on. None of them had done go-karting before, so they'd have to wait 24 hours to get their answers.

Chapter 3 – Joshua's Second Surprise

At home again after school, Olivia showed her presents to the family and told them about the cartoon on the classroom whiteboard.

"I didn't know anyone knew about my birthday, except Jess, Cathy and Megan. Perhaps one of them mentioned it to the boys. All the class insisted on singing 'Happy Birthday' to me. I was a bit embarrassed, but it was a lot of fun."

After the evening meal, before clearing the table, Neil followed his usual custom, when he was not away on business, of reading to the family a short passage from the Bible. (When he was away, Lisa would do this). They then prayed together and tonight there was special thanksgiving for Olivia's thirteen years. Neil prayed that she'd keep growing strong in body, mind and spirit and follow Jesus all her days. When all the kitchen chores and homework were finished, Lisa said to the children,

"Listen kids, it's going to be a busy day tomorrow, with sports in the morning, go-karting in the afternoon and the barbeque in the evening, so I don't think any of you should stay up later than usual like you do some Fridays."

Even Joshua seemed to accept this idea. In fact, it was almost as if he was in a hurry to get to bed. Lisa thought that's unusual for Joshua, what's he plotting?

Anna had a question for her mother before going to bed. "Mummy, what's go-karting?"

"Didn't Olivia tell you?" Anna shook her head. "Well, a go-kart is a small racing car just big enough for one, or sometimes, two people to sit in. Go-karts have small wheels so when you sit in a go-kart you are very close to the ground. Do you remember seeing a kids' soapbox derby on TV not so long ago?" Anna nodded.

"Well, that is about the size of a go-kart. The difference is that go-karts have an engine and go really fast."

"Can kids go in go-karts then?" inquired Anna.

"Yes, the whole family is going and although you and Eli are too young to go in a go-kart on your own, Dad will go in one with you. I think you'll like it."

"Won't it be really scary?"

"Perhaps a little, but you'll be safe with your Dad beside you."

"But what about big trucks and cars on the road? Won't they hit us?"

"Oh we won't be on a road, at least, not where there are trucks and cars. Go-karts have their own special track at the Go-Kart Centre, so it is quite safe. You also have to wear protective clothing and a helmet."

"Now I think I might like it," said Anna. "Goodnight Mummy."

"I'll come and kiss you goodnight in a minute, Sweetheart."

Olivia had so many happy thoughts and emotions going round in her mind as she got ready for bed. She did feel quite tired, so when she pulled back the doona to throw herself onto the bed she did not welcome the surprise that met her. For some reason the bed was all lumpy and uncomfortable. She soon discovered why. Someone had put a number of books between the under sheet and the mattress, making it quite impossible to lie comfortably on the bed.

"Joshua! That's who's done this," she said to herself. She was so mad!

"I'll kill him!" she muttered as she hurried out of her room and into Joshua's and Eli's room without even knocking on the door. Eli was already sound asleep, while Joshua was sitting up in bed reading.

"Is something wrong, Olly?" he asked, with a grin on his face.

"You know very well there is, Joshua Robertson," shouted Olivia, standing there with her hands on her hips in as threatening a pose as she could muster.

"I might get some more surprises, you told me this morning. And you knew all the time what you had done to my bed. I think you are the meanest, most horrible brother that any girl could have."

By now Joshua was shaking with laughter, but managed to stop just long enough to say:

"How can you say that, Siss? You said I was _so sweet_ this morning."

Olivia couldn't keep a straight face any longer and started laughing too.

"All right, _little_ brother" she responded, "but don't imagine that I'm going to let you get away with this. You'd better watch out. _I_ can play practical jokes too, you know."

"I think I'm too smart for you to catch me out," he responded.

"We'll see about that," she replied, wagging her finger at him with a menacing look on her face. Then she went back to her own room.

What can I do to pay him back? she thought to herself as she pulled the undersheet off her bed in order to remove the books. But she was too tired to think about it any further and was soon fast asleep in her re-made bed.

Chapter 4 – Go-Karting Adventure

Saturday morning was almost as busy as school days for the Robertson family. One advantage of living in Canberra is the excellent sports facilities for all ages. On Saturday mornings, in particular, the roads are a-buzz with parents taking their children to and from various sports fields, games courts or gyms. Olivia played netball at the Netball Centre at Lyneham. Sometimes her mother provided the 'taxi service' for Olivia and a couple of her friends, and sometimes other parents provided the service. Today it was Megan's mother who took them.

Meanwhile Neil took his two boys to play in their soccer teams. Lisa had plenty to do preparing food for the evening barbeque, when family and friends returned from go-karting. But she also had to drop Anna off for jazz-ballet and pick her up an hour later.

The morning's sporting activities went smoothly for all the family. Olivia's team lost but it was a very close game and she and her team-mates all felt that they had played well. She reminded her friends that they had to wear enclosed shoes for go-karting and of the time their parents needed to drive them to the Go-Karting Centre. It was then back home for showers and a casual lunch so that the family would be ready for the afternoon's fun.

Go-karting proved to be the great thrill that Olivia had hoped it would be. When they arrived at the Centre the first thing was to fill in forms and to get temporary licences to drive the cars. The older girls and Joshua would be able to drive 'solo', but Eli and Anna would have to take turns as passenger in a two-seat go-kart with their father. The next task was to be kitted-out with protective clothing, including a helmet. Lisa was pleased to note that all drivers were given a hairnet to wear under their helmets for hygiene and safety reasons. Following this the party had all the rules of go-karting explained to them, including safety requirements.

While they waited their turns on the track they watched other drivers going around. They were quite amazed at the speed at which the go-karts whizzed around the track.

"I don't think I'll be going that fast," exclaimed Cathy.

"Wait and see," replied Joshua. "You may be a lot faster than you think, if the way you ride your bike is anything to go by, and just as dangerous!"

"What are you talking about Josh?" replied Cathy, trying to sound as offended as possible.

"What about the time we were racing on our bikes and you cut me off, so I ended up in the ditch?"

"Oh, _that_. It was really your own fault, Josh. You didn't leave me enough room. Anyway, perhaps you'd better watch out on the track today!"

Joshua shook his head in disbelief. All he could say was "Girls!"

Finally, the family got their call to go to the go-karts.

"Have a great time!" called out Lisa to them, as she and Anna went to the viewing area to watch the others racing. Now the ones racing were given final instructions about the cars and reminders about safety, and assisted into their driving seats.

"This is really cool," shouted Olivia to her friends.

"No it's not," shouted Joshua, "it's really hot stuff!"

Now it was time to start. The stewards started the engines and the roar of them sent tingles down Olivia's spine. She had been looking forward to this day so much, and now it was finally here! They had just ten minutes on the track, which would probably seem like the shortest ten minutes in their lives.

They were off! All were rather slow at first, but as they got the hang of the steering, throttle and brakes they gradually speeded up. It was so thrilling, speeding around the track. Olivia liked the push in her back when she put her foot down on the throttle, after slowing for a corner; such a great feeling!

Joshua had been right in saying to Cathy that she'd probably go faster than she thought she might. In fact, of the four girls she was the most daring, sneaking past other go-karts when she had the chance. However, Joshua was even more daring, though at one point he scraped the side barrier through trying to go too fast into a corner. Olivia was not worried about racing the others. She was just happy to be whizzing round the track at a thrilling speed. She was really enjoying the sheer joy of being in control of the powerful little go-kart underneath her.

When they got the signal to return to the 'pits' they were all having the time of their lives. Wow! What fun it was! Now they all wanted to know how fast they had gone and their best lap time. The Centre had an electronic system to record their times. It was no surprise to anyone that Joshua had the best time, but all the girls were only a few seconds behind, with Cathy the fastest.

"Is that it then?" Joshua asked his father.

"No," replied Neil, "under the birthday package ticket we all get a second ten minutes, but we've got a half-hour break first. I think we should all go and buy some cool drinks. We're all pretty excited and need to relax a bit before our final time on the track. Let's go and find your Mum and Anna."

They soon found Lisa and Anna and then trooped into the café.

"Now, who would like what to drink?' asked Neil.

He then took their orders and went to buy the drinks, taking Joshua with him to help carry them.

"Well, how was it, girls?" asked Lisa.

They all started to talk at once! "It was fantastic" said Cathy. "Unbelievable!" exclaimed Megan. "I just loved it so much!" said Olivia. "It was a lot of fun," commented Jessica.

"Mum, did you see Josh?" asked Olivia, "he almost had a crash."

"I saw him" said Anna. "He went so fast into one bend and went right against the barrier. I thought he was going to crash!"

"Well," added Lisa, "he has always been a bit of a dare-devil. My heart is often in my mouth when I'm watching him playing and doing things."

Neil and Joshua returned with the drinks and they were soon all busily sucking on straws. The conversation quietened for a few moments.

"Eli, you've been very quiet since you came back," commented his mother. "Did you enjoy it?"

She rubbed her hand through his tousled brown, slightly wavy hair, so similar to his father's.

"Yes, Mum, of course I did! But I'm just feeling a bit sad that I won't get another go. It'll be Anna's turn now to go with Dad."

"Never mind, Eli. We can always come another time and it won't be long before you are able to drive a go-kart yourself."

The rest of the time go-karting was great fun and they all made faster times during their second period on the track. Anna loved it too. To console Eli, his mother bought him an ice cream while the others returned to the track. But it was soon all over, time to hand-in their gear and make their way home.

Although Olivia's friends had been brought to go-karting in their parents' cars, Neil and Lisa had driven both family cars so that they'd have room to take the girls back home with them for the barbeque.

Chapter 5 – Evening Celebration

There was about an hour to spare before it would be time for the barbeque, so Olivia took her friends to her room to freshen-up after the go-karting. They all needed to wash their hands and faces, do their hair and change into their party clothes. Afterwards Olivia showed them the presents that the family had given her.

"I've got an MP3 at last," said Olivia.

"Why don't you download some music now?" suggested Megan.

"I'm not sure how to do it," Olivia replied.

"Don't worry, I'll show you. It's dead easy. I could do it standing on my head," joked Megan.

So they all trooped into the family room, switched on the computer and logged into iTunes and spent some time looking at music lists and deciding what to download, paying for the songs with the iTunes gift card that Joshua had given Olivia.

"Time for the barbeque, girls," called out Lisa. "Dad is out on the patio now and has just started cooking the sausages, chops and onions. I prepared the salad this morning. Come and give me a hand buttering the rolls and laying the table under the pergola."

She then called to Joshua to light the citronella candles that help to keep mosquitoes away.

"It's time to eat," called out Neil, and all the family and friends gathered on the patio.

"Let's sing grace this evening," said Neil. "What about 'Thank you Lord for this good food'?"

So they all joined hands around the table and sang the chorus heartily.

They had a great first course. They all had big appetites because of their activities throughout the day, so that made the food seem even tastier than usual. Even Anna, who normally had quite a small appetite, tucked into a couple of sausages, a chop and a roll and salad.

By the time they'd all had second helpings, (or even third helpings in Joshua's case!) there was very little food left. Nevertheless, there was enough meat for their dog Caesar, a three-year-old golden retriever, to be given a special treat that evening.

For the dessert course Lisa had made a beautiful Pavlova, decorated with tinned peaches, pineapple and cherries. The Pavlova plus ice cream and wafer biscuits made the perfect dessert. They all absolutely adored it.

All that remained now was the birthday cake part of the celebration. Joshua begged to be allowed to light the thirteen candles. He managed this with only two matches. Then they all sang a hearty 'Happy Birthday' to Olivia before she blew out the candles. Neil took a couple of photos and then they ate some cake to complete their meal.

Olivia was so happy that her birthday had been celebrated in such a wonderful way. She went over to her mother and threw her arms around her neck and hugged her.

"Oh Mum, thank you so much for putting on such a wonderful meal this evening. I am so happy that we've had such a lovely day."

"Darling, I've loved doing it. After all, it's not every day that one's daughter becomes a teenager!"

"No, and it's never going to happen again, so make the most of it," chimed in Joshua. Everyone laughed.

Olivia then went to her father and gave him a kiss and a hug. "Thanks, Dad, for arranging the go-karting. It was awesome. I'll always remember this day. It's the happiest day I ever had in my life!"

"Well, Olivia, it's been a great day for all of us. Mum and I are proud of all that you have achieved in your first thirteen years. The challenge for you now is to be the kind of teenager that God created you to be. If you keep following Jesus, I am confident you will succeed and that there are a lot more great achievements to come."

It was now time to start clearing up, and while Neil cleaned the barbeque hot plates, everyone helped Lisa to carry the dirty plates, serving dishes, glasses and so on back into the kitchen. As they were doing this Lisa noticed a glass tumbler sitting on the step near the kitchen and called out to Olivia,

"Olivia, can you move that glass tumbler, it's a bit dangerous sitting there."

"Okay, Mum," she called back.

But just at that moment her mobile rang and she decided to answer the call before moving the glass. That was a decision she would regret and remember for the rest of her life. The call was from her aunt Mary wishing her a happy birthday. She sat down on a bench and began chatting excitedly to her aunt.

Chapter 6 - Disaster

While Olivia talked to her aunt, the others continued taking everything indoors. Almost everything had been taken back inside when Jessica noticed there was a chair needing to be taken in. She picked it up to carry it in, but as she went up the step, she realised the chair was wider than she thought. Consequently she had to struggle to get it through the door. In trying to do this she lost her balance and toppled over backwards, with the chair still in her hands. Tragically, she fell right onto the glass tumbler, the one that Lisa had asked Olivia to remove. As Jessica's leg crashed onto the glass it shattered into some dangerous sharp pieces. She screamed in pain as one of the pieces pierced deeply into her leg.

All the family plus Cathy and Megan came running out, wondering why Jessica was screaming. Olivia, still sitting under the pergola talking to her aunt, spun round and the sight she saw made her feel sick. Jessica was lying very awkwardly half on and half off the step, with the chair on top of her. What Olivia could not see, from where she was standing, was that there was now a long ugly gash in the side of Jessica's thigh, a few centimetres above her knee. Blood was now dripping from this wound. When Anna saw it she screamed with fright. Cathy exclaimed,

"Oh no, Jess, this is terrible! Mr Robertson, what shall we do?"

Megan was so shocked at the sight of the blood dripping from Jessica's leg that she just stood there with her hands to her face. Olivia shouted in anguish to her aunt that there was an accident and she had to go. When she looked down at Jessica's wounded leg she knew immediately that the glass that Jessica had fallen onto was the one she had been told to remove. She felt faint with fear as she saw the extent of the wound and the blood dripping from it. She just stood there looking shocked and helpless.

Neil quickly took control. He removed the chair, then settled Jessica into a lying position, supporting her head with his hands.

"Anna, get me a cushion from the armchair in the family room," called Neil. He placed the cushion under Jessica's head and then held her leg up to reduce the bleeding

"Lisa, this is a very nasty wound. We'll have to get Jessica to the hospital emergency, but first we need a sterile dressing from our first aid box to stop the bleeding. Can you get it please?"

He looked across at Olivia, who seemed to be almost dazed. "Olivia, pull yourself together and call triple 0 for the ambulance on your mobile. Then phone Jessica's parents."

"I'll phone Jess's Mum and Dad," called Cathy, as she ran to the phone in the family room.

Lisa returned with the first aid box, put it down beside Jessica and began searching in it for a suitable dressing.

. "Here's one," said Lisa, "it is only just about big enough. This is such a nasty cut – about five centimetres long and it seems to be really deep. At least the piece of glass that did the damage doesn't appear to be embedded in Jessica's leg."

With Neil's help Lisa applied the dressing and then bandaged round Jessica's thigh to hold it in position.

"Jessica, you can sit up now," said Neil, "how does your leg feel?"

By now Jessica had calmed down.

"It doesn't actually hurt very much now," she replied, "just a bit sore."

"I think you're going to be all right," said Lisa, "but the wound will definitely require stitches at the hospital. I just hope that the wound is not infected, as that could complicate the healing process."

Ten minutes passed and the ambulance had not arrived. Cathy and Megan comforted Jessica while they waited.

"Where's Olivia?" asked Lisa, suddenly noticing that her daughter was not there.

"I think she was going to be sick," replied Eli, "I saw her running to the bathroom with her hand over her mouth."

"I'll go and see," said Lisa, "but I wish that ambulance would come."

"The Ambulance Station is only about ten minutes away," said Neil. "They must be out on another call. "Let's hope they won't be much longer. I'm concerned that Jessica needs to get this wound treated as soon as possible.

Lisa found her daughter in the bathroom.

"What happened, Olivia, are you all right?"

"I've just thrown up. It wasn't the blood that made me sick. I just felt sick with fear because of what's happened to Jess. Will her leg get better, Mum?"

"We can only hope so, dear. I want to talk to you later about what has happened. But for now, the important thing is to get Jessica to hospital. Wash out your mouth and then come and join the others while we wait for the ambulance."

But Olivia just couldn't face Jessica and the others at that time. She was feeling very guilty. She just sat on her bed with her head resting down on her hands.

Five minutes later the front door bell rang out. Joshua dashed to let the paramedics in and to show them through to the back of the house.

"What's happened here then?" one of them asked.

Neil explained about the accident and the paramedics then checked out the dressing that had been applied.

"That's a good bit of work you've done there," said one of the paramedics. "How long has it been on?"

"About fifteen or twenty minutes," Neil replied.

"Well, it seems to be stopping the bleeding. The staff at the hospital will be able to assess how serious the wound is. The glass may have cut into an artery or nerve or damaged the muscle. But for now, young lady, we'll get you into the ambulance and over to the hospital. Hopefully before long this will just be a bad memory."

The paramedics fetched their stretcher trolley, lifted Jessica carefully onto it and wheeled her out to the ambulance. Joshua and Eli were very interested in the ambulance and all its gadgets and fixtures. They gazed in awe as the trolley folded-up as the stretcher part was slid into position in the ambulance.

"Wow." Exclaimed Joshua, "that's so neat!"

"How did it do that?" asked Eli.

Cathy ran out to the ambulance.

"I've been trying to call your Mum and Dad, Jess, but they aren't answering," she said.

"No, they've gone to the cinema this evening, that's why," commented Jessica.

"What about your brother Sam?"

"He's gone to a friend's place for a sleepover."

Soon Jessica was whisked away in the ambulance, accompanied by Lisa. Olivia appeared in the family room once more as the ambulance drove away. She looked utterly miserable.

"Now," said Neil, "we'd better clear up this broken glass. Leave that to me, but Olivia, you go and get a bucket of water and a broom to clean up this blood before it sets too hard."

"We'll help Olivia," said Megan.

Olivia was still looking very crestfallen. She turned to Cathy and Megan.

"It's my fault this happened. Mum told me to move that glass and then my mobile rang and I answered it instead of moving the glass. Then I got chatting to my Aunt Mary and forgot all about the glass."

"But you mustn't take all the blame," said Megan. "It was just very unfortunate that Jess tripped right near the step."

"It was really just a freak accident," commented Cathy encouragingly.

"Jess will hate me when Mum tells her I am to blame."

"Oh, Olivia, I'm sure she'll understand that you didn't leave the glass there on purpose."

But Olivia was not to be so easily consoled. She felt so guilty and ashamed at what had happened to her friend.

Chapter 7 – Finding Forgiveness

What had been a wonderful, exciting day had suddenly and dramatically turned into a nightmare for Olivia. All the fun and joy had left her, as if all the blood had drained out of her body. She felt utterly miserable.

"I wish I'd never had a birthday party," she said to herself as she sat alone in her bedroom. It was now 10pm. Cathy and Megan had been picked up by their parents at 9.30pm. When Jessica's parents arrived about the same time to fetch her, Neil broke the bad news to them. They then rushed off to the hospital. Shortly afterwards Lisa returned home when Jessica's parents had arrived there. She'd come by taxi. She was able to reassure them that Jessica was comfortably settled and the hospital staff were planning to carry out surgery on her leg that same night.

Lisa knocked on Olivia's bedroom door and put her head round.

"How are you feeling, darling?" she asked.

Olivia started to cry. Between sobs she said,

"I'm so ashamed, Mum. It was my fault this happened. You told me to move that glass and instead of that I answered my mobile and then forgot all about the glass. Jess will hate me now, causing her a terrible injury like that."

Lisa sat down beside Olivia on the bed and put her arm around her shoulder. Olivia started crying again, with big sobs making her whole body shudder. Lisa waited, allowing her time to cry – better to release the emotion rather than bottle it up, she thought. Eventually her daughter calmed down and was quiet, though breathing heavily.

"Now listen, Olivia," she said quietly, "you were wrong to disobey me, and not doing so was partly responsible for the accident. But I am sure that Jessica will forgive you. I forgive you too. But the question is, are you genuinely sorry that you disobeyed me? Because unless you are, something like this could happen again. I never tell you to do things that are unnecessary. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Mum, I truly, truly am sorry I disobeyed you," sobbed Olivia, "and I'll try not to let you down in future."

"Now, there is just one more thing to do," said her mother. "As you know from what we have taught you, when we sin we need to ask for God's forgiveness. Are you prepared to do that now?"

"Yes, Mum. Shall I pray?"

"Yes, dear." There was quite a long pause, and then Olivia said:

"Dear Lord, I'm sorry I didn't do what Mum told me to do and caused this terrible accident to Jess. I promise to try to be always obedient in future. Please forgive me."

"Remember what it says in the Bible, Olivia. _'If we confess our sins, God is faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness'._ And it's all possible because Jesus took the punishment for our sins when he died on the cross."

Lisa gave her daughter a final hug and kiss and left her to settle down to sleep. It had been a long day for all the family.

On Sunday mornings the family were able to lie-in more than on weekdays, as church was not till 10am. However, on this Sunday Olivia was up and dressed by 8am, as she wanted to phone the hospital to find out how Jessica was doing. The news was good. Jessica's mother had stayed at the hospital with her all night. She told Olivia that Jessica had had emergency surgery on the leg wound around midnight. Fortunately the glass had not severed a major artery, so the repair to her leg was fairly straightforward. It had, however, required a number of stitches and Jessica would have to see the doctor after about ten days to have the stitches removed. She was expecting to be able to return home later that day, once the doctor had checked that the wound was looking okay. Jessica woke up while they were talking on the phone, so Olivia was able to speak to her.

"Jess, I'm so, so sorry that this happened to you at my birthday party of all places. Unfortunately I was really to blame. You see, that glass you fell on – well, Mum had told me to move it and if I'd done what she said straight away, the accident would not have happened."

"Not to worry, Olivia, accidents will happen, as they say, and I was just not careful enough carrying that chair inside, so it was partly my fault. Anyway, I forgive you, so please don't feel guilty any longer."

Olivia sighed. "Thanks, Jess, you are a wonderful friend. I love you so much for saying that."

That Sunday all the family were somewhat subdued after the events of the previous evening. However, time is a great healer and by Monday morning life was getting back to normal. Olivia felt as if a burden had been lifted from her shoulders, knowing that her mother and Jessica had forgiven her, and that she was sure of God's forgiveness as well. Jessica's leg had healed enough for her to go to school, though the doctor had advised her to take it quietly for a few days. So Monday morning at 9am the four friends were united once more. They had a lot to talk about, which they were not able to do until recess, of course.

Chapter 8 – Payback Time

About two weeks later, when the memory of Jessica's accident had sufficiently faded, a sudden thought came to Olivia. She remembered that she had not yet paid back Joshua for his practical joke of putting books into her bed. The opportunity to do something came one afternoon after school, when Joshua was at his friend's house.

Olivia decided to pay him back with his own practical joke, but in a more subtle way. She wanted to show him that he was not as smart as he thought he was.

She checked that Eli was playing a video game in the family room, so she knew that Joshua and Eli's shared bedroom would be empty. Going quietly she went down the hallway and into their room. She wanted to put something in Joshua's bed, but not so that it would be obvious immediately he got into bed. She spotted a pile of books on his dressing table.

"Ah, just the thing," she whispered to herself. Pulling back Joshua's doona, Olivia put two of the books beneath the under sheet right at the bottom of his bed.

She knew that when he got into bed he always read for a while, so his feet wouldn't feel the books straight away. But then when he was sleepy and fully lying down he'd get a big surprise.

"I love it!" she said to herself.

She replaced the doona and smoothed it out so that there was no sign of the bed being touched.

Later in the evening, after Joshua had taken a shower, he wandered into the family room in his pyjamas, before going to bed.

"Mum, have you seen my fishing book? I thought I left it on the dressing table, but it's not there now."

"No dear. Has Eli moved it?" she replied.

"No, I've already asked him."

"Well, did you take it over to Aidan's house when you went to play with him today?"

"No, Mum, but I did take it there the other day. But I thought I brought it back."

"Well you can ask Aidan tomorrow at school if it doesn't turn up before then. But it's probably just got mislaid."

"Yes, that's what I find," chipped-in Olivia. "You think you've lost something, and it turns out to be there all the time, but just in a slightly different place. You'll probably find it will turn up unexpectedly, Josh," said Olivia, keeping a perfectly straight face.

"Yes, you're probably right," replied Josh, "but anyway, I'll have to read something else tonight."

I know I'm right, thought Olivia to herself as she turned her face away from Joshua. She didn't want him to see that she was trying not to laugh.

Olivia was sitting in bed reading at about 9.30pm when she heard the shout she had been waiting for. "He's found them!" she said aloud in excitement and started to giggle. Moments later Joshua was standing in her doorway, books in hand.

"Very funny," he said sarcastically, with not a sign of a smile on his face. "At least I didn't wait till you were almost asleep to catch _you_ out!"

"Well, Josh, you warned me that you were too smart to be tricked, so I had to be even smarter!"

Now he was smiling. "All right, Ol, but you realise, don't you, that this means war?"

"Why can't we just have a truce, Josh?" said Olivia hopefully.

"Okay, but only for one week. After that, watch out, _big_ sister!"

The remainder of Term 1 went so quickly for Olivia. Being in Year 7 she was getting more homework than in the past. In addition, she had to do half-an-hour's guitar practice at least five days per week in order to be ready for her lesson with Mr Renshaw each Thursday after school. Sometimes she seemed to almost have too many commitments. Perhaps it was simply that she didn't get all her priorities right! Such an occasion happened one Sunday morning near the end of term.

The family were all getting ready to go to church, but Olivia had a different idea. She had an assignment from school that had to be handed in on Monday, so she said to her father,

"Dad, I don't think I'll come to church today. I've got this assignment to finish and I'll never get it done otherwise."

In saying this she thought that her father would be sympathetic and understanding, but to her surprise his reaction was just the opposite.

"I don't think that is a good idea, Olivia. In fact, it is a very bad one."

"But Dad! Can't you see I'll get a bad mark if I don't get it finished on time?"

"If that is the case, why didn't you miss netball yesterday morning, or tell Jessica that you couldn't go over to her place this afternoon?"

"Dad, you just don't understand, do you!" Olivia yelled at him. "I have to have some relaxation, can't you see that?"

"Yes I agree, but not at the expense of leaving out going to church. Going to church each Sunday is a vital part of being a Christian and putting God first in our lives."

"But Dad, it's only just for _one_ Sunday," she snapped at him.

"Start leaving out church occasionally and before long it becomes a regular habit. I've seen it happen with so many young people. When you are eighteen years old you will be an adult and you can decide for yourself. But until then I will decide."

By now Olivia was crying.

"Please, please, Dad," she sobbed.

"No, Olivia, my word is final. Go and get yourself ready and dry those tears."

She looked at him with hate in her eyes.

"I think you're really mean, Dad. I'm sure other girls don't have such mean fathers!" She stomped out of the room, slamming the door as she went! Bang!

Fortunately such flare-ups didn't happen very often, and ten minutes later Olivia had calmed down and went and apologised to her father for what she had said to him.

"Dad, I'm sorry I said you were mean. I don't know what made me say a horrible thing like that. I'm truly sorry."

"I understand, darling, and I forgive you. Being a teenager is not always easy, is it? Come here." He gave her a hug.

"I do love you Dad," she said, giving him a kiss. "I think I'll tell Jessica that I can't make it this afternoon, as I'll have to do the assignment then," she said calmly.

"I'm sure she'll understand," Neil replied, "but another time, try to get all your homework done before Sunday, so that this day can be a real day of worship, relaxation and time to spend with your family and friends. That's what God intended. Oh, and just one other thing, slamming the door like you did is just not acceptable behaviour. Don't let it happen again, Olivia."

"Sorry, Dad."

Chapter 9 – A Holiday to Remember

For the Easter holidays the Robertson family waited till after the Easter weekend before going to the coast for a short holiday. This was so that they could all attend the Good Friday and Easter Sunday church services, some of the most important services of the year, as Neil had explained to his children:

"On Good Friday we especially remember that the Lord Jesus died for our sins, and then on Easter Sunday we celebrate that he rose to life again, never more to die. Those two historic facts are at the core of our Christian faith."

As on previous holidays at the coast, they stayed with Lisa's parents, who had gone to live at Tuross Head on the New South Wales south coast. Her father, Graham, had retired from his job with the Public Service in Canberra. Lisa's mother, Irene, was five years younger than her husband and had a part-time job as receptionist at a local estate agency. They had deliberately bought a very large house not far from the beach. This was so that they could have their children and grandchildren to stay from time to time.

The journey to Tuross took about three hours, which allowed for a stop at the small country town of Braidwood. The children were fascinated by the old buildings in the main street, so different from the modern buildings in Canberra.

"Dad, look at all those decorative metal bits on that veranda," commented Joshua.

"Yes, Joshua, back in the 19th and early 20th century a lot of houses had those types of intricate decorations. They are usually made from cast iron. The problem is, they are not very practical for modern houses, because of all the work needed to paint them."

"Daddy, can we have an ice cream?" asked Anna.

"Absolutely," Neil replied. "I think we all need one."

So they all trooped into one of the general stores and chose what they wanted from the freezer.

Soon they were once more on their way to Tuross Head. The road from Braidwood is at first made up of quite long straight stretches, hurrying over undulating pasture land. Then this rapidly changes as the road, or the King's Highway, as it is called, reaches the edge of the plateau. Now the road starts to drop steeply down as it descends Clyde Mountain and heads for the coastal town of Batemans Bay. They passed through thick forests of gum trees, which cast dark shadows over the road in many parts, giving an eerie, gloomy effect to the road ahead.

"I don't like these sharp hairpin bends," said Lisa, as Neil swung the Toyota Tarago down through a steep 180 degree turn.

"Well, it's a lot better than it used to be," responded Neil. "It was a real shocker before they did some of these improvements."

Eventually the road grew brighter again as they left the rain forest and reached the bottom of Clyde Mountain, traversing the bridge at Clyde River.

"I saw a man on a jet ski!" shouted Eli.

"So did I," said Joshua. "There were actually two of them. That's something I want to try when I grow up. It must be really cool fun."

Soon they were driving through Batemans Bay and speeding along the highway to Tuross Head.

"Not long now, kids," said Neil.

As always, the children were given a great welcome by their grandparents and looked forward to five days of being thoroughly spoiled. They knew that they would spend most of their time at the safe beach at One Tree Point. By this time the temperature of the sea was lower than in the summer, but still bearable for keen swimmers. All the children loved swimming and the surf and catching waves with their boogie boards, so they didn't let the colder water worry them.

Soon the bags and beach equipment had all been unloaded and they were sitting down to lunch.

"We thought you'd enjoy pizzas for your first meal here,' Irene said to them. Enjoy pizzas they certainly did! For the dessert they had fruit salad and ice cream.

"I just love fruit salad and ice cream!" exclaimed Anna.

"So do I," said Eli. "Can we have it again tomorrow, Granny?"

"Well, you might think tomorrow's dessert is even better," she replied laughing.

After the meal, when all the children had helped clear up, Joshua went to play table tennis with Neil, grandfather Graham went for his after lunch nap and Olivia sat down with her mother and grandmother to chat. There was a lot to talk about, as they had not seen the grandparents for over two months.

Meanwhile Eli and Anna went outside to play tennis in the street, without a net, of course. After about half an hour they came running in, apparently rather upset.

"What's the matter?" their mother asked.

"It's that man over the road," said Eli. "He's not a very nice man."

Irene responded: "Well, he's not a very friendly man, if that's what you mean. He's been living there for a year, but he virtually ignores us – only says 'G'day' if we call out to him first. He doesn't seem to have a job either, so we don't know how he supports himself. The only time he seems to go out is to buy groceries at the local store. But tell us what happened."

"Well," said Anna, "I accidentally knocked the tennis ball down the side of his house, and it rolled right into his back yard. When we both ran to get it, he was waiting for us at the front door when we came out again. He said, 'You kids keep off my property or you'll be in trouble!' He scared me."

"Another thing," said Eli, "it's a very strange house. All the windows at the back, except the kitchen window had blinds down inside. It must be very dark in there."

"Never mind, children," said their grandmother, "perhaps you should play a little further up the road next time. There's almost no traffic in this cul-de-sac."

Before tea the whole family took their fishing rods and gear and went fishing where the sea runs into Tuross Lake. They did not have much success, but Lisa and Anna, who were sharing a rod, caught a good-size flathead, and Joshua caught a smaller one, which he threw back.

"We'll put that fish in the freezer for now," said Lisa.

"Hopefully we'll catch some more next time and have enough for all of us to eat."

After their evening meal Joshua asked if they could all play Monopoly. They had a good game, with Olivia accruing the most wealth, but by 9 o'clock the younger ones were getting sleepy, so it was decided to stop and for everyone to have an early night.

Chapter 10 – Mystery Visitors

Olivia did not sleep well that night. She often found this happened when she was in a different bed for the first time. She had been tossing and turning and now felt wide-awake. She sat up and saw by the illuminated numbers of the clock radio beside her bed that it was one o'clock in the morning. The moonlight was shining in through the open window of her upstairs room. Then she heard a car pull up very quietly outside the house and a murmur of voices.

Full of curiosity, she went over to the window and looked out. Two men had got out of the car. They were getting some sacks or empty bags out of the car boot. They took these to the house opposite, the one where Anna had accidentally sent the ball into the back yard. The front door opened and there was a temporary beam of light as they went inside.

Olivia was puzzled. Why would visitors come in the middle of the night? It didn't make sense. And what were those bags for?

She got back into bed, but still didn't get to sleep. She just lay there thinking about all kinds of things as they came into her mind. Then she heard whispered voices again and a door closing. She quickly jumped off the bed and went to the window once more.

Now the two men were leaving. They were carrying sacks or bags filled with something, which they put in the car boot. The engine started and they were gone. Olivia wondered what was in those bags, but there was no point in staying up any longer. She went to bed again and began counting backwards from 300. Before she got to 200 she was asleep and only woke again when Anna came into her room at 7am.

That morning the family all went to the beach at One Tree Point. The waves were just right for boogie boarding and they had a great time. When they'd all exhausted themselves in the water they sat under sunshades that Neil had set up on the beach, except for Anna and Eli who were busy building sandcastles. Lisa and Neil were both reading books.

"Joshua," said Olivia, "let's go for a walk along the beach and look for shells."

It wasn't that Olivia really wanted to look for shells, she wanted to have a private conversation with her brother. He agreed and they set off.

"Don't go too far," called Lisa, "as we'll soon have to go home for lunch."

Once they were out of earshot Olivia said,

"I've got something to tell you, Joshua."

She then told him about Eli's and Anna's strange experience with the man at the house opposite and what she had seen during the night.

"I reckon something funny is going on in that house, don't you?" she asked.

"It definitely sounds very suspicious. He could be a person who receives stolen goods and then sells them on to other criminals. That would explain about the nighttime secrecy and the sacks of whatever. Just think, they might have been full of jewellery and gold, or even just laptop computers, tablets and other expensive electronic things."

"It would also explain why he doesn't have a regular job," said Olivia, "if he makes money by selling stolen goods."

They then discussed how they could find out more of what the man was doing. In the end they decided that the only way would be to wait till he went shopping. Then they could go to the back of the house and try to see in through the windows.

Chapter 11 – Secret Plan

It was not till Wednesday afternoon that the opportunity came for Olivia and Joshua to carry out their investigation. They were out in the street with Anna and Eli playing a ball game when the mysterious man opposite backed his car out of his garage and drove off.

"Quick," whispered Joshua, "this is the opportunity we've been waiting for!"

Olivia called Anna and Eli to come to her.

"Listen," she whispered, "we want to find out what that nasty man has in his house. We think he might be a criminal. You go to the end of the road, Eli, and when you see his car coming back, call out to Anna, who will stand just outside the house. Meanwhile, Joshua and I are going round the back to see if we can see in the windows."

Eli ran to his position while Anna stood ready outside the house. Olivia and Joshua dashed round to the back of the house. As Eli had stated, there were blinds down inside all the windows except the kitchen. They tried to see in where the blinds were not perfectly covering the windows. Joshua found such a spot at the corner of a window.

"Come here and look," Joshua whispered to Olivia. "There's a bright light on inside. Why has he got lights on in broad daylight and the blinds drawn? It doesn't make sense."

"Let me see," said Olivia, who was a bit taller than her brother.

"Now I can see," she exclaimed, "there are lots and lots of plants in there. It's like a greenhouse."

There was a shout from Eli and then another from Anna. "He's coming!"

Joshua and Olivia quickly dashed out onto the road. They were all playing ball again by the time the man's car turned into the cul-de-sac.

After the man had driven into the garage the four gathered together outside their grandparents' house.

"Let's have a pow-wow," said Joshua.

"What's a pow-wow?" asked Anna.

"It's a sort of secret meeting, like the Red Indians have in films," said Joshua.

"Let's go in the table tennis room," suggested Olivia.

They went in and made a circle of chairs and sat down.

"Now, let's look at the facts as we know them," said Olivia.

"One. He doesn't want us to go round the back of his house, so he has a secret he doesn't want us to know about."

"Two," said Joshua, "the men who came to his house came secretly in the middle of the night to avoid anyone seeing them. That means what they were doing is probably illegal."

"Three," said Olivia, "why would you grow plants in your house instead of in a proper glasshouse outside? And why not open the blinds to let the light in, instead of wasting money on electricity?"

"I think I know," said Joshua, "it's because he doesn't want people to see what he is growing in there."

They sat thinking for a few moments.

"They could be tropical plants that need a lot of heat all the time," suggested Joshua. "But there would be nothing illegal about that."

Suddenly Olivia clapped her hands together.

"I think I know what they might be!" she exclaimed, "we learnt about it at school last term. It's illegal to grow cannabis plants in Australia, so drug dealers do it secretly in houses where the police can't catch them. That man could be growing cannabis plants. The plants are used to make marijuana or hashish. Our teacher said that people smoke marijuana because they say it makes them feel good. But it's an illegal drug. She explained that it has harmful effects as well, which is why it's illegal."

"What's that you're saying about marijuana, Olivia?"

The children all jumped in surprise. They were so engrossed in their 'pow-wow' that they had not noticed their father come into the room.

Olivia then explained what had happened. Neil was not pleased when he heard that they had risked getting caught snooping around the neighbour's house, but he was impressed by the way they had done it safely.

"You may have uncovered some criminal activity, kids," he said. "But listen, you are not to go near that house again. Is that understood?"

"Yes Dad," they all responded.

"I will phone the police and tell them what you saw. It may be something entirely innocent. It will be up to them whether they want to investigate it further. But I must say it sounds very suspicious. There was a man arrested in Canberra not so long ago. He had rented a house for the very purpose of growing cannabis there."

Chapter 12 – Police Investigation

The police were very interested in the information that Neil gave them. They were aware that someone in the area was supplying marijuana but had not been able to discover the source. They arranged for two detectives to come to the grandparents' house to interview Joshua and Olivia. They arrived in an unmarked car, as they didn't want to arouse the suspicions of the man opposite.

Eli asked them, "Why didn't you come in a police car, and why aren't you wearing uniforms?"

"Well, we don't want that man over the road to know that we are investigating him," one of them replied. "Actually, that _is_ a police car, but one that is used by plain clothes policemen. That's what we are, plain clothes detectives, so we never wear our uniforms now."

"I think I'd like to be a plain clothes defective when I grow up," said Eli.

"Eli, it's detective, not defective!" said Olivia.

The policemen listened as Olivia gave a detailed description of what she had seen inside the house. She also told them what she had observed the previous night. This information was enough to convince them that this was very likely a cannabis growing operation. However, they didn't only want to catch the man opposite, they wanted to catch the ones who came to collect the drugs as well. Consequently, one of the policemen stayed and set up a surveillance position in Olivia's bedroom, while she had to sleep in Anna's room.

Unfortunately nothing happened that night, so the following evening the police car pulled up again outside the house. It was driven off after dropping the plain clothes policeman once again. About one o'clock in the morning nearly everyone in the house was woken by the sound of a screaming police siren. There were shouts in the street as policemen arrested two men as they loaded some bags into their car. The man opposite was also arrested and taken into custody. Then a police van arrived and as the family watched from their windows they saw armfuls of cannabis plants being brought from the house and dumped into the back of the van.

"This is exciting," said Joshua, "watching live action is better than seeing it on telly."

"Grandad, what will happen to those men?" asked Eli.

"Well, they'll probably have to stay in prison overnight and then they'll be charged with being drug dealers. If found guilty, they might spend quite some time in prison. Anyway, all the fuss is over, so now let's get back to bed. Goodnight everyone!"

The next day the police rang and thanked the children for helping to bring the drug gang to justice. "Thanks to your curiosity and observation, those criminals will have to face justice and the consequences of their illegal activities," the Inspector told them.

The following evening after another day on the beach and then fishing, Neil said to the children,

"Just one thing. Let's have no more detective work, okay? I think you've been public-spirited enough to last our family for quite a time!"

"Yes," said Lisa, "I was quite worried when your father told me what you had been getting up to. Please let me have a peaceful life for the rest of this holiday at least."

"I know what we should do," said grandmother Irene, "let's all go out to the Chinese Restaurant tonight to celebrate the children's achievement."

So that's what they did.

After all the excitement of helping to uncover some criminal activities, the rest of the holiday was, as their mother had hoped, quite peaceful. That is not to say that it was _perfectly_ peaceful. Who has ever heard of a family where there is peace all the time? One day at the beach Anna and Eli got into an argument and ended up smashing down each other's sand castles! Neil soon had that situation sorted out and peace and harmony were restored.

Joshua and Olivia also had a few tense moments; on one occasion, when they were swimming, he came up behind her and pushed her head under. It wasn't so much the ducking that annoyed her, as swallowing a mouthful of sea water. After spluttering and coughing for a few moments she recovered sufficiently to speak:

"Joshua, sometimes I wish you'd never been born!" she shouted angrily. "You made me swallow a whole lot of sea water. It will be your fault if I get sick! But don't think you'll get away with it."

"Ol, it was just too tempting, I couldn't stop myself," he replied, laughing and swimming quickly away from her. Olivia swam after him, and although she was the better swimmer, he had distanced himself too far for her to catch him in the water. She chased him onto the beach, but he was much more agile than she was on the sand and after a few minutes she gave up, exhausted.

However, Olivia was not going to let Joshua get one up on her that easily. At lunchtime she said to Irene,

"Granny, would you like me to set the table and put the drinks of water out?

"That would be nice, dear."

Now Olivia was able to carry out her secret plan. She was particularly careful to put one particular glass of water where Joshua would be sitting. After they had said grace, Eli said,

"Oh, I'm so thirsty," and picked up his glass and had a big swig of water.

"So am I," said Joshua, "it's getting so warm now."

Then he picked up his glass and took an enormous swig from it. The next moment he was half choking and coughing and spluttering and spitting back into the glass. When he had recovered he asked indignantly,

"Who went and put salt water in my glass?"

Everyone looked puzzled, except for Olivia, who was grinning from ear to ear.

" _You_ , Olivia! I might have known it!"

"Now _you_ know what it's like swallowing seawater, Josh!" she exclaimed. "So now we're quits." Soon all the family were laughing when they realised what Olivia had done.

"Just go and get some fresh water from the kitchen," his mother said, to calm her son down. Joshua got up and picked up his glass, but as he passed Olivia he turned it upside down over her head!

Olivia screamed!

"Oh, so sorry, Ol, I tripped," he said innocently.

Olivia turned to her father.

"Dad, that wasn't fair! He did it on purpose!"

"Anyway, now we really _are_ quits!" shouted Joshua as he disappeared into the kitchen.

"Ah well," said Neil, "at least you've still got your swimming costume on, Olivia, so no harm done. But now I think it's time you two called a truce." Then he shouted,

"Joshua, bring a towel from the kitchen."

When Joshua returned he tossed the towel over to Olivia.

"Sorry, Siss," he said, "but you really did ask for it."

"What you did then, Joshua, was a bit over the top," said Neil in a serious tone.

"Yes, over the top of her head!" laughed Joshua.

"I mean it, Joshua, cool it, and you too, Olivia. Practical jokes are all very well, but if they go too far, people start getting hurt and losing their tempers. That is not the Jesus way. You can have fun, but know when to draw the line."

"I didn't mean her to swallow sea water when I dunked her," said Joshua, "I thought she'd close her mouth."

"And I didn't know you'd actually swig a whole lot of that salt water down in one go," responded Olivia.

"Good,' said their father. "Now both apologise to each other."

"Sorry, Josh."

"Sorry, Ol."

Apart from more time at the beach for swimming, the family did enough fishing to get sufficient flatheads for the whole family to eat on the last evening before returning to Canberra. In between all the daily activities, they were able to enjoy appetising meals prepared by Irene. Although it was not a long holiday at Tuross, they all agreed that it had been lots of fun.

Chapter 13 – The Good Samaritan

Now Term 2 was well under way. It was already mid-May. The days were growing shorter with the autumn season, the mornings were colder and Canberra's suburbs looked beautiful with the various shades of red, yellow and brown of many of the bushes and trees.

Olivia's first year as a fully-fledged teenager was going swimmingly. Her test results at school were mostly above average. Her guitar teacher was pleased with her progress. Her netball team was winning more often than it was losing and life just seemed a lot of fun, especially when shared with her friends Jessica, Cathy and Megan. Little did Olivia know that her peace and security were about to be shattered, but through no fault of her own. It really started with the family Bible and prayer time that her father led each evening, and one occasion in particular.

"Tonight," said Neil to Lisa and the children, "We are going to read the story of the Good Samaritan."

"We know that story," said Anna, "it's one of the parables that Jesus told."

"That's right, Anna," but I wonder if you really understand how the story applies to us today?" Neil asked Eli to read the story to them from Luke's Gospel, chapter 10.

After Eli had finished, Neil said "Thanks, Eli, you read that really well. Now Joshua, would you like to have a go at summing-up what the story is about?"

"Well, said Joshua, "there was this Jewish guy travelling on a lonely road and he got jumped on by some robbers. They stole all his gear and clothes and left him badly injured beside the road. A couple of Jewish religious guys passed by but they didn't try to help him. They just ignored him really. Then a Samaritan man came along. The Jews really hated the Samaritans, so he could have just thought, "Why should I help him, he's a Jew." But he didn't think that way at all. He felt sorry for the man, lifted him onto his donkey and took him to a hotel, where he could stay until he got better. The Samaritan even paid the hotel bill."

"That was a pretty good summary, Joshua. But what does the story mean for us today? Would you like to have a go at explaining it, Olivia?"

Olivia paused for a moment, thinking how to reply.

"I think it means....... that .... if we see someone having any kind of difficulty, then Jesus wants us to help them as best we can. Like Jesus said, to love other people as much as we love ourselves, even our enemies."

"That's a very good answer, Olivia, and 'other people' means anyone who needs help, even people that we find hard to like. So day by day at home or school or at sports, if you see someone needing help and there is something you could do to help them, be like the Good Samarian."

It was actually about two weeks later that Olivia found herself in a 'Good Samaritan' type of situation. School had finished, but Lisa couldn't give the children a lift home straight away. She had to attend a Primary Teachers' staff meeting. Meanwhile, Joshua and Eli were playing football in the playground. Anna and Olivia were waiting near the pick-up point for children that went home by bus. Olivia's special friends, Jessica, Cathy and Megan had already left.

Suddenly a scuffle started and caught the attention of all the children standing around there. A big girl, Olivia's age, but not from her class, whose name was Rachel, had started screaming insults at a smaller girl, called Simone, who was from Olivia's class. Then instead of just insults, Rachel started pushing Simone and then punching her. Simone was trying desperately to fight back in order to defend herself. Simone was not one of Olivia's friends because she was often rude to Olivia about her being a Christian and going to the lunchtime Christian meetings each Wednesday at school.

By now a big crowd had gathered around the two fighting girls, and some of them, including a few boys, were egging them on. It was a very one-sided fight, however, with Simone taking most of the punishment and at times crying out with pain. Simone was calling out,

"Please stop it, Rachel," but the bigger girl took no notice.

Olivia looked on in dismay. What should she do? Simone didn't like her, she knew, but could she just stand by and let her be bullied and hurt like that?

"No," she decided, "Jesus would want me to be a Good Samaritan."

With that, she pushed her way through the crowd and moved in to try to protect Simone from any more injury.

"Rachel, stop it!" she shouted, "can't you see that you're really hurting Simone."

Rachel was so surprised by this intervention that she stopped attacking Simone. This gave Simone long enough to retreat out of harm's way. But then Rachel started attacking Olivia!

"Why don't you just mind your own $#%X#$ business!" she swore, as she threw vicious punches at Olivia's face.

To protect herself from Rachel's punches Olivia grabbed Rachel around her arms. Rachel struggled to free herself and caused both of them to overbalance and fall to the ground. Olivia found herself lying on top of Rachel with her arms pinned under the weight of Rachel's body. Just at that moment Mr Ratchet, the Senior School Principal arrived on the scene.

"Stop this fighting at once!" he shouted to the two girls. "Both of you get up and come with me to my office!"

The crowd quickly melted away, while Rachel and Olivia disentangled themselves, got up and followed Mr Ratchet into the school. Rachel made a rude face at Olivia as they walked along.

"Serves you right for interfering," she whispered.

Once in his office, Mr Ratchet started asking questions.

"Now, what was this fight all about?"

Before Olivia could say anything, Rachel said,

"I was just standing there not doing anything and she told me I'm stupid and started punching me."

"Is that true, Olivia?"

"No sir, she's telling a lie."

"I'm not telling a lie. She's the liar. She hates me, that's why she attacked me!"

Olivia was tearful. "Honestly, Mr Ratchet, that is not how it was. I was trying to stop her bullying and punching another girl."

"And who was that girl?" asked the Principal.

"Simone Morgan, sir."

"All right, that will be enough for this afternoon. I'll talk to Simone tomorrow and find out the truth. Go home now, both of you. And no more trouble."

After they had left the Principal's office Rachel gave Olivia a shove and said,

"I hate you, Olivia-stupid-Robertson. I hope you get #%$@# suspended."

Olivia replied, "I don't hate you, Rachel, but I hate to hear you telling lies and swearing like that."

Olivia's mother soon came from the staff meeting and took the children home in the car. As they went along Olivia told Lisa what had happened and how she had been accused by Rachel of starting the fight.

"I don't think you need to worry, dear," commented Lisa. "Once Mr Ratchet hears Simone's version of the story he'll know that Rachel was lying and you'll be proved to be in the right. Anyway, we know that we can trust God to work it out for you as you did the right thing in helping Simone."

Chapter 14 - Punishment

The next day at school Olivia was expecting at any moment to be called into the Principal's office, but it was not until just before school finished that a message came for her to go to see Mr Ratchet. She knocked on Mr Ratchet's office door.

"Come in" she heard Mr Ratchet's voice from inside. She went in. Mr Ratchet looked at her grimly. A shiver ran through her body as she sensed that something was wrong.

"Now, Olivia," began Mr Ratchet, "I have talked to Simone and her friend Karen, who was at the bus stop yesterday when you got involved in that fight with Rachel. Both girls say that Rachel was not attacking Simone, they were just fooling around."

Olivia was dumbfounded.

"But ..." she exclaimed, but before she could say anything, Mr Ratchet said:

"There can be no 'buts', Olivia. The testimony of those two girls, what Rachel told me and what I saw for myself, with you on top of Rachel, is sufficient to convince me that you deliberately started a fight with Rachel. Why you would do this I have no idea, as your behaviour record is very good. But you have got to learn that you cannot go around attacking other students. Then you made matters worse for yourself by lying about it afterwards. As you may remember, I gave a warning in Assembly only a week ago that I would severely punish any student caught bullying or starting a fight. I am therefore giving you half lunchtime detention and 40 minutes after school detention for two days, starting from tomorrow."

Olivia caught her breath. She was deeply shocked at this news.

"But Mr Ratchet," she sobbed, "they are _all_ lying! Please believe me!"

"I have made my decision," Mr Ratchet replied firmly. "I will be telephoning your parents this evening to explain the reason for this punishment. You may go home now."

Olivia was heartbroken. She staggered from Mr Ratchet's office, giddy with emotion.

"How could this happen?" she thought, as she wandered back to her classroom to collect her things, the tears rolling down her cheeks.

Jessica, Cathy and Megan tried to comfort Olivia. They all gave her hugs.

"We know you'd never start a fight with Rachel," said Cathy.

"The trouble is Mr Ratchet believed her rather than me," sobbed Olivia. "But what I can't understand is why Simone and her friend Karen told the Principal that Rachel was not attacking Simone and that they were just fooling around."

"We're not going to let this rest," said Jessica. "Tomorrow we'll try to find anyone who saw what happened and ask them to tell the Principal."

The girls stayed with Olivia till her mother came from the Primary School to drive the family home. As soon as Olivia saw her mother she just burst into tears again, but was too upset to talk.

"What on earth has upset Olivia like this?" Lisa asked the girls.

Megan explained what had happened, while Olivia continued to sob in her mother's arms.

"Well, we can't do anything tonight," said Lisa, "as I just saw Mr Ratchet go off in his car. But tomorrow I'll definitely have something to say to him."

Olivia was so upset that she could hardly eat anything during the evening meal. When Neil heard the whole story he made it the subject of the family Bible and prayer time. He reminded his family that Jesus warned his followers that being a Christian would not be easy.

"Sometimes we will meet opposition when we try to do good, especially if some people's consciences are pricked by what we do. Remember this," he said. "Jesus was completely innocent of any crime or sin, yet his enemies had him put to death. Olivia is not guilty of any wrongdoing in this situation at school, but she is being punished instead of Rachel, who is guilty. Tomorrow we will try to correct this wrong, but if we cannot, then we must accept it as part of the cost of being a Christian."

The family then prayed, asking the Lord to make it clear to Mr Ratchet that Olivia did not deserve any punishment.

It was shortly after this that the phone rang and Mr Ratchet explained to Neil and Lisa why Olivia was being punished. He said that he understood their concerns, but he had to go by the testimonies of the girls and what he had seen himself, and it was three to one against Olivia.

Chapter 15 – Search for the Truth

The next day at school Olivia was obviously still depressed and upset about being unfairly punished. During morning recess Jessica, Cathy and Megan discussed with Olivia if there was anything they could do to prove she was innocent.

"We could try to persuade Simone to tell the truth," said Olivia.

"I don't think that is going to happen," replied Jessica, "you know how she often says nasty things to us four."

"I know," said Megan, "let's ask everyone in the class if they saw what happened."

Back in class, before their Mathematics teacher arrived for the next lesson, Megan stood at the front and asked,

"Did anyone here see the fight that happened at the bus stop on Tuesday afternoon? If they did, they should tell Mr Ratchet what really happened. Olivia is being punished for something she didn't do. But unless we have a few people who saw what happened, he'll never believe Olivia's version."

"I didn't see it," said Zach, "but there was a Year 8 boy on our bus, I think his name is Jake. He was showing his friends the video of the fight, which he recorded on his mobile phone."

"Then we must find Jake," said Megan, "please help us, Zach, at lunchtime."

Olivia glanced across the classroom at Simone, who looked distressed at this development.

I know why she doesn't like the way things are going now, she thought to herself.

It was not too difficult for Olivia's friends and Zach to track down Jake. Meanwhile, Olivia reported in for her lunchtime detention.

"Jake, Zach here told us that you were showing the kids on the bus the fight that took place at the bus stop the other afternoon. Have you still got it on your mobile?"

"Why do you want to know?" he replied belligerently.

"Because if you showed it to Mr Ratchet, it would prove that Olivia Robertson didn't start a fight with Rachel Green. That is what Rachel claimed. And as a result Olivia has been given four detentions and is in detention right now. Do you still have it?"

"Yes, but there's no way I'm going to take it and show it to the Principal. I could get punished for videoing the fight. You know that he banned that sort of thing."

"Can you just show us the video then?" pleaded Cathy.

Jake pulled his mobile from his pocket. He looked around to make sure that there were no teachers nearby. Mobile phones were not supposed to be used during school hours.

"Here it is, then," he said "but it's too light here in the sun. Come in the shade by the wall."

The girls crowded round him to watch the video.

"There you see," exclaimed Megan, excitedly, as they saw Olivia trying to stop Rachel punching Simone, "that's all the evidence we need."

"Yes," said Jake, but there's no way I'm going to show that to Ratchet."

"If you won't take it, can we take it, Jake? We promise not to tell Mr Ratchet who the phone belongs to. Scouts' honour!"

Jake looked thoughtful. He was almost persuaded.

"Please, Jake, please, please let us borrow it – just for half-an-hour."

"All right then, but don't you dare tell Ratchet that it's my phone."

The girls hurried to see Mr Ratchet before the end of lunchtime. Fortunately he was in his office.

"Sir," said Megan, "we have proof that Olivia was telling you the truth."

"How?"

"Someone videoed what happened on their mobile phone, and the camera cannot lie," she replied.

"Show me."

The Principal watched the video, his face becoming grimmer and more serious as it proceeded.

"Right, thank you for that, girls. You are quite right. Olivia was obviously trying to protect Simone. I have done her a great wrong. I will deal with this straight away. By the way, though, tell whoever owns this mobile phone that if I ever catch him or her videoing a fight, I will suspend them on the spot!"

The girls were delighted and hurried back to return the mobile to Jake.

"Now let's go and tell Olivia," said Jessica. They hurried to the room where she was spending her lunchtime detention.

"Olivia, we've got good news for you. We've proved to Mr Ratchet that you didn't start that fight with Rachel," said Megan. "We found the boy who videoed the fight on his mobile and took it to Mr Ratchet. He saw for himself that you were trying to protect Simone."

Olivia was overcome by emotion and started to sob. Her three friends gathered round her and hugged her.

"It's all over now, Olivia," said Cathy. "We're so relieved."

Just at that moment the bell went for the end of lunch and the teacher supervising Olivia's detention came in."

"What are you girls doing here?" she asked sternly.

"It's all right, Mrs Hunt, "we've proved to Mr Ratchet that Olivia shouldn't be in detention. She didn't do anything wrong," said Jessica.

"Well, I still have to keep my records correctly," replied Mrs Hunt. "Unless I hear to the contrary, I expect to see you here after school today Olivia, for your after school detention."

Chapter 16 – A Surprise Result

Mr Ratchet had a busy hour dealing with the three girls who had all lied to him. First he called in Simone and Karen.

"I have just seen a video of what happened at the bus stop on Tuesday afternoon. There is no doubt at all, Simone, that Rachel was attacking you in a very nasty and dangerous way. You could have been seriously hurt. So why did you tell me you were just fooling around?"

Simone remained silent, looking down at the floor.

"Simone, _I asked you a question_ , why did you lie to me yesterday, telling me you were just fooling around with Rachel?"

Suddenly Simone burst into tears. Between sobs she said,

"Rachel threatened to beat me up again if I told you the truth."

"And she said the same to me," said the other girl.

Mr Ratchet gave Rachel three days of lunchtime and after school detention and also insisted that she attend anti-bullying classes with the school counsellor. So in the end Olivia only lost half one lunchtime plus a lot of unnecessary emotional trauma. Before school ended that day Mr Ratchet came to her class and explained to all the students that because the other girls had lied to him, he had done Olivia an injustice.

"I am very sorry, Olivia, for the upset that this has caused you and your parents. For Rachel and the other girls to lie to me like that was unforgivable."

"But I do forgive them," Olivia said quietly, "because that is what Jesus would want me to do."

Olivia really did mean that she forgave Rachel, Simone and Karen for lying about her. But she wanted to say it to them personally as well. Simone and Karen were both in Olivia's class, so she saw them every day. Olivia took the opportunity to approach them one lunchtime, as they sat in the shade of a tree on the edge of the playground. The two girls looked a little embarrassed.

"Simone and Karen," she said, "although you lied about me and that got me punished for something I didn't do, I honestly don't bear any grudge against you. After all, Simone, when Rachel was attacking you I came to your rescue, even though you have previously said unkind things about me being a Christian."

"We only lied because Rachel threatened to bash us if we dobbed her in," said Simone. Then she started to sob.

Olivia sat down beside her and put her arm around Simone's shoulder. Karen took hold of Simone's hand.

"What's the matter, Simone," Olivia asked.

"My life is all ruined," sobbed Simone, "that's why I said unkind things to you. I was jealous because you and your friends always seem to be so happy."

"Oh, Simone, what has happened to make you so sad?"

"My Dad has walked out on us and left me and Mum to fend for ourselves. And she's got MS."

"What's MS?"

"Multiple sclerosis. It's a disease that affects the nervous system. Mum doesn't have it too badly yet, and the doctor has given her medicines to take. But she needs my help around the house every day. She can no longer go to work so she is on a pension."

"I'm so sorry, Simone, it must be very tough for you."

"Karen comes and helps me sometimes," said Simone, who was now calmer and had stopped crying. "She's my best friend."

"Perhaps I could help you too, sometimes," said Olivia.

"Thank you Olivia, that would be nice. I'm really sorry I told lies about you. And I promise not to be nasty to you any more."

"Okay then, Simone, you let me know when I can be of help."

Olivia got up and returned to her friends Jessica, Cathy and Megan.

"I've just been talking to Simone," she said, "I had no idea what a tough life she has. Her Mum can't work because she's ill all the time and her Dad has walked out on them."

"Well, she's been very nasty to us at times, because we go to church and stuff," said Megan.

"True, but it seems she was just jealous of us because we seem to be happy all the time, while she often feels miserable. You can hardly blame her when she has such a big problem. Anyway, I offered to help her when I can."

"What can you do to help her?"

"Well, she has to do a lot of work around the house to help her Mum, so I might be able to give her a hand sometimes."

"We could do that too," said Jessica.

"Count me in," said Cathy.

"And me," said Megan.

Chapter 17 – Kindness Rejected

Olivia's encounter with Simone and Karen was a lot more pleasant than her first encounter with Rachel, a few days after Rachel had completed her detentions. They were approaching each other in the corridor. Rachel glared at Olivia and made an ugly face at her as they passed each other. If looks could kill, Olivia would have fallen dead on the spot!

How am I going to stop Rachel hating me? she thought to herself. I'll have to find an opportunity to talk to her. But I'll pray about it first, as it could be very difficult, so I'll need Jesus to show me what to do and say.

It was during a morning recess that Olivia eventually got her opportunity about a week later. She spotted Rachel coming out of the toilets and she was on her own. Olivia ran across to her.

"Rachel, I just wanted you to know that I forgive you for telling a lie about me and getting me into trouble."

Rachel glared at her.

"Huh," she said, "I don't need your forgiveness, you @#$%X@# stupid pig. You are the one who should be asking my forgiveness for causing me all that trouble. If you'd minded your own business nothing would have happened. There's no way I'll _ever_ forgive you. Just keep out of my way, you worm, or you might regret it!"

She turned her back on Olivia and walked away. Olivia was stunned by Rachel's manner and language. Well, I've done my best, she thought. Perhaps Rachel will change her mind one day.

In the days that followed, Olivia and her friends discussed with Simone how they could best help her. As a result they worked out a roster so that one of them could go home on the bus with Simone twice per week after school to help her with the housework. Sometimes they helped cook the evening meal. Then their parents would pick them up about 6 o'clock.

The rest of Term 2 was uneventful for Olivia, if you can call the life of any thirteen-year-old uneventful! Apart from all the new knowledge and skills she was learning at school, there was all the excitement of family and friend's birthday parties, the on-going rivalry for practical jokes with Joshua, the fun of watching her favourite TV programs and all the happy times at the church youth fellowship.

"What are we going to do for the school holidays, Dad?" Eli asked one evening about two weeks before the end of term.

"What about ten days in Sydney staying with Grandma and Grandpa? We could visit some of the places we haven't been to yet in Sydney," Neil said.

"Yes, let's!" all four children spoke at once.

"That's almost settled, then," said their father. "But what does Mum think?"

"Sounds a good idea to me, Neil, if your parents are willing to put up with four wild kids for that long!"

"Mum," said Joshua, "we're not wild."

"Well, you'd have to admit you have your moments, Josh. Anyway, perhaps this time when we go to Sydney I can get the opportunity to go to the Museum of Contemporary Art. I've been waiting for an opportunity to go there for a couple of years now."

Three days after the end of term the Robertson family piled into their Toyota family wagon and headed for a holiday in Sydney. Caesar their dog wanted to go with them and got very excited thinking he was included in the trip. However, Neil had arranged for a neighbour to feed him and take him for a walk each day. He barked until they were out of sight.

The younger children were particularly excited to do this trip, as their father Neil had rigged up a DVD player for the first time, so that the children could watch the Shrek I film. The fact that they had seen it a couple of times already didn't seem to bother them, except Olivia, who read a book most of the way.

Chapter 18 – Fun in Sydney

Neil's parents lived in Cremorne, in the same house where he had grown up and lived till he left home to marry Lisa.

How times had changed! As a boy, his home had been in a quiet street, but it had now become a busy highway with heavy traffic flow all day.

As usual, Richard and Jan Robertson gave their son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren a warm welcome.

"We are always pleased to see you on our computer, using Skype, but it's much better to have you here!' said Richard, giving Anna a big hug.

"Grandpa, I've made something for you," said Anna. She handed him her present. "It's a mat to put your mug on when you have a cup of coffee," she explained.

"Sweetheart, that's lovely," he replied and gave her another hug.

"And I've got a present for Grandma," said Eli. "Here you are Grandma, it's a picture I painted of Caesar."

"Darling, that is wonderful," said Jan. "You are so talented." She gave Eli a kiss and a hug.

"Ol and I haven't brought you anything," said Joshua, "but we love you just the same."

Jan laughed. "Yes, of course, dear, and it is as good as a present having you to stay with us."

Soon the family were settled in and enjoying one of Jan's delicious lunches.

"I thought you would enjoy quiche and salad for your first meal with us," she said. They certainly did, and when the quiche was followed by one of Jan's special fruit tarts with ice cream they were all very happy.

"I'd love to have the recipe for that fruit tart," said Lisa, "seeing how we all enjoyed it so much."

"Of course, my dear. I'll write it out for you."

There is so much to see and do in Sydney, Australia's largest city, with a population of nearly five million. On previous visits the children had been to Taronga Zoo and the Sydney Museum so they wanted to see some new things this time. Neil had purchased a Sydney Pass for all the family, which was a very economic way of paying for entry to a number of tourist activities. The Pass gave them access to Sydney Sea Life Aquarium, Wild Life Sydney, a Harbour Cruise, the Sydney Tower Eye including a 4D Cinema Experience in the Tower and Madame Tussaud's waxworks. The Pass could be used over a number of days, which suited them well, as they wanted to spend alternate days with the grandparents.

What a wonderful ten days they had in Sydney! Apart from the special visits there was so much to fascinate the children. Living in Canberra, where the population is under four hundred thousand, they were not used to the hustle and bustle of city life so typical of Sydney.

"There are so many people here," exclaimed Eli, as the family struggled through the crowds in George Street on their way to the Sydney Tower Eye. Viewing the city from high up in the tower was an amazing experience. They were also thrilled by the 4D cinema show, which gave them incredible aerial and other views of Sydney and its surrounding areas, with sound effects included.

"It's a pity we couldn't do the Skywalk, Dad," said Joshua as they left the Tower. The Skywalk is an unusual experience where visitors step outside onto a glass-bottom viewing platform and costs extra.

"You have to be over eight years old to do the Skywalk," replied Neil. "We could hardly have left Anna out. Anyway, you have to make a special booking. Perhaps we can do it in a couple of years when Anna is old enough."

"I'm not sure I want to do it," said Lisa, "it was scary enough for me being inside the tower at that height."

"Yes, I think I agree with you, Mum," said Olivia. "Looking down at the buildings below and the people so tiny like ants made me feel a bit woozy."

The rest of the holiday was just as enjoyable. The Aquarium had the most wonderful display of sea creatures including many different varieties of fish and ferocious looking sharks. Anna and Eli loved being close up to the kangaroos and koala bears in the Wild Life Park at Darling Harbour.

"Josh, what did you like best?" asked Eli.

"Rex the salt water crocodile," he replied. "Just think, he's five metres long. I wouldn't want to be near him in the sea."

"If you were near him it wouldn't be for very long," joked Neil, "you'd soon be inside him!"

Madame Tussauds was also very popular with the children, and Olivia was absolutely fascinated with the life-like model of Kylie Minogue.

"What impressed you the most, Mum?" she asked.

"I've always wanted to see the Queen, so I was pleased to meet her there, at least a very life-like model of her," said Lisa.

"What about you, Dad?"

"Oh, no doubt about it, Don Bradman, Australia's most famous cricketer, was my favourite."

One day the grandparents, Richard and Jan, arranged for them all to go together to Lane Cover River park for a picnic. While there, Richard and Neil hired two rowing boats at the Boatshed and took the children on the river. Richard took the boys while the girls went with Neil. They had a great time, all getting the chance at trying to row and trying to race each other.

"Rowing is a lot more difficult than I thought," said Joshua, when they returned to Jan and Lisa.

"When Anna and I tried it together we kept going round in circles," said Olivia.

"That's because you were pulling too hard for me to keep up!" exclaimed Anna. "But it was fun, anyway."

On one day Neil and Lisa left the children with their grandparents so that Lisa could fulfil her ambition to visit the Museum of Contemporary Art. The children stayed at home that day, some of the time doing crafts with Jan and playing cards and board games with Richard.

"What was it like?" asked Olivia, as her parents came in the door late in the afternoon.

"Absolutely amazing," replied Lisa, "the place is just bursting with new ideas. Mind you, some of them were very weird or difficult to understand, but others I really liked. I'm so glad we went, and we had a very nice light lunch at the MCA café and sculpture terrace. The view of the harbour from there was fabulous."

"We've had a lot of fun too," said Eli, "look at these cards Anna and I have made. Grandma helped us."

"Yes, I did help them," said Jan, "but you have two very creative children with some great ideas."

"And what about Joshua, what has he been doing?" asked Neil.

"Oh, he played cards and board games with us, but right now he's out with his grandpa in the shed, He's helping to repair my sewing box. They should be in any moment," replied Jan.

"And what about you, Olivia?' asked her mother.

"Oh, just relaxing, watching TV, reading and talking to Grandma. She told us about when she was a girl. It was very interesting."

On their last full day the family went on a harbour cruise. This gave them a good chance to see the busy activities of boats and ferries in the harbour and also to get views of famous landmarks such as the enormous arched harbour bridge and the incredible world famous opera house, with its strange shell-like shapes.

"There are quite a few beautiful harbours around the world," commented Neil, as they were cruising along in their tour cruiser, "but I reckon Sydney harbour takes a lot of beating!'

The next morning they were all packed up and left by 10 am after long goodbyes and hugs and kisses for the grandparents.

"Can we stop at McDonalds for lunch, Mum?" asked Joshua.

"Yes, Mum please, please!" yelled Anna and Eli.

"I'll think about it," replied their mother. "It all depends on how well you behave in the back there – no squabbling, mind!"

"Okay Mum, we'll be good."

They were too, at least, _nearly_ all the time, so they got their wish!

Chapter 19 – More Holiday Plans

"What are you guys doing for the September holidays?" Olivia asked her three friends at recess one day late in July.

"We've only been back at school for a few days of Term 3 and you're already thinking about the next hols!" exclaimed Cathy.

"Why not?" said Jessica, "I've already been thinking about it and Mum and Dad have already bought the tickets. We're flying over to Perth to visit my grandparents – we haven't been there for two years. I'm really excited about going. I just wish this term would go really fast!"

"Lucky thing," said Megan, "the only big cities I've been to are Melbourne and Sydney."

"Is Sam going as well?" asked Olivia. She was referring to Jessica's fifteen-year-old brother. Olivia, Cathy and Megan all thought that he was a real 'hulk' and admired him a lot.

"Yes, of course," replied Jessica.

"You're lucky having an older brother like that," said Olivia. "You know what I have to put up with!"

"Yes, we know that you find Josh a pain at times, but he's quite cute really," said Megan.

"Anyway," continued Olivia, "what I was going to say to you all, but now it only applies to Cathy and Megan, is would you like us all to go away on holiday together?"

"Our parents would never let us," said Cathy.

"I don't mean on our own. There is this Scripture Union camp for girls coming up. Surely they'd let us go to that together? There'd be grown-ups there as leaders."

"This sounds interesting," said Megan. "Tell us more."

"Well, it's actually called 'Ag Camp'. It's for teenage girls, so we just qualify. The 'Ag' bit is short for agriculture. The camp is all about working with animals and machines on various farms. So you get the chance to learn a lot about farm animals. But there are other activities too, which, according to Mum, make it altogether a really fun holiday. Being a Christian camp they also have some Bible talks and stuff. I think we would enjoy it."

"Where do you live at camp, in barns and things?"

"No, they set up a proper tented camp in a park place and you have to take your own airbed and sleeping bag, Mum said."

"If I ask my parents, where can they get all the info about it?" asked Megan.

"Just google SU girls ag camp."

A few days later it was decided. Cathy, Megan and Olivia would go to Ag Camp together. Jessica was, naturally disappointed until Olivia said that they could always go again another year.

"Don't forget to register as soon as possible," Olivia reminded Cathy and Megan, "as the number of places is limited. I've already registered."

In August the church Youth Fellowship members were invited to take part in World Vision's '40-Hour Famine' to raise money for the poor in Third World countries. Jeremy, the senior youth leader explained how it worked.

"The idea is to give up something that you cannot normally do without, such as food, or TV, or your mobile phone or tablet. Then you get people to promise to give money to World Vision as your sponsors. That is, provided you succeed in doing without whatever you've chosen for the whole 40 hours over the weekend."

The four girls all decided that they would like to take part and give up food for the 40 hours. However, the youth leader told them that because they were still young, they should first get permission from their parents.

As soon as Olivia got home from Youth Fellowship she rushed to her mother.

"Mum, the Youth Fellowship is taking part in World Vision's 40 hour famine, but Jeremy said that we younger ones had to get our parents' permission first. Can I take part in it too? Please...."

"40 hours is quite a long time for you not to have anything to eat, darling. Are you sure you want to do it?"

"Well, at least I can try, and I might be able to raise quite a lot of money for people overseas that are going hungry."

"Okay then. But if I think you are not coping, then you would have to stop."

"Thanks Mum. So can I start looking for sponsors?"

"Yes. I'm sure some of our neighbours would help."

And so the next day Olivia began visiting neighbours and friends of the family to ask them if they would be willing to sponsor her 40 hour fast.

With one week to go before the event, the girls compared notes.

"Let's see how much money we will have raised between us if we complete the 40 hours of the fast," said Olivia.

"Well, I've got two people who have promised to give me $20 each, three who've promised $5 and one has promised $2 so that's $57 in total" said Jessica.

"I've got one at $20, five at $10 and two at $5, which is $80," said Megan.

"I've got three at $10 and four at $5, total $50; and what about you, Olivia?" asked Cathy.

"I asked all the neighbours who live near us, and I got one at $30, four at $10 and two at $5, totalling $80."

"That's the same as me," exclaimed Megan. "We must be twins!"

"And our grand total is......." Olivia was trying to do the sum in her head, but meanwhile Cathy had written down the numbers on her hand and said, "$367."

"Now all we have to do is starve ourselves of food next weekend and we'll be successful. But do you think we can do it?"

"Why not?" said Megan. "Jesus went without food for 40 days in the wilderness, so surely we should be able to manage 40 hours!"

Chapter 20 – Fasting for the Hungry

The weekend for the 40-hour famine finally arrived. Most of the Youth Fellowship members had decided to give up food. It was like a sign of solidarity with so many people in the world who sometimes go for days without anything proper to eat. At their Friday night meeting the leader reminded them that they should drink plenty of water during the 40 hours. This was to prevent becoming dehydrated. He also advised sucking barley sugars sometimes to keep up their sugar levels. He suggested the younger ones should have a milk drink such as Milo occasionally. At the end of Youth Fellowship they had their final refreshments together, finishing at 9 o'clock.

"Right," said their leader, "we all meet back here at one o'clock Sunday to end our fast. A barbeque lunch will be provided. See you Sunday!"

In order to encourage one another to keep going with the fast, the girls decided to get together on Saturday evening for a games evening. Cathy's parents invited them to their place and then to stay for a sleepover as well.

"Missing breakfast this morning didn't seem to make much difference for playing netball," commented Olivia to her friends, "but I really missed my lunch afterwards." That's when I really needed to drink a lot and suck some barley sugars."

"Yes, I agree," said Cathy, "but then as the afternoon wore on I forgot about being hungry until now, when we'd normally be having tea."

"Well, it only remains to miss tea and breakfast," said Megan, "and then it will be barbeque time!"

"I can't bear to even think about it," exclaimed Jessica, "let's start our games, then we might forget about food."

They had a great fun evening, with lots of laughter, but by nine thirty they all felt unusually tired. Cathy's mother decided it would be wise for them to have a hot Milo to drink. Then they settled down early for the night. Not that they went to sleep straight away, as the chatter continued till just after midnight."

"Now," said Cathy's mother, as the girls got ready for church, "have you all cleaned your teeth?"

"Do we need to?" asked Cathy, "after all, we haven't eaten anything."

"You most certainly do," replied her mother, "or your breath will smell really bad. In fact, I would like you all to use some mouth wash as well, so that your breath is really pleasant."

At church all the young people were sympathising with each other over their experiences of fasting, but at 12.30pm, when the barbeque cooking was started, the beautiful aromas coming from the cooking meat, sausages and onions were almost unbearable.

"I can hardly wait!" moaned Olivia.

"But you must, Olivia, or you can't ask for the money from your sponsors!' replied Megan. "Look, it's twenty to one, you only have to wait another twenty minutes."

"Yes, I know, I think I can survive that long."

The girls were very pleased at their success with the 40-hour famine. Altogether the Youth Fellowship raised almost $1,200 for World Vision.

The remainder of Term 3 went quite quickly for Olivia. She struggled a little with mathematics, but achieved a satisfactory level by the end of term. This was probably thanks to the extra coaching in maths that Neil gave her some evenings. The netball season ended in September, so she began thinking about what sport she could do on the weekends during the spring and summer months.

"Dad, what sport do you think I should take up this year in Term 4?"

"I think you could improve your swimming quite a bit," he replied. "In fact, it would be a good idea for all of you to have lessons. I'll be happy when Anna can cope better in the water. I'll make inquiries at CISAC."

"Dad, what's CISAC?" asked Eli.

"CISAC stands for the Canberra International Sports & Aquatic Centre. It's at Bruce. They have excellent swimming courses there. It's probably where one or two of our Olympic champions started training. I'll check on the Internet."

"I'd like to be an Olympic champion," said Eli.

"Well, that's a good ambition to have, Eli, but first let's see if you can achieve your goal this term of swimming the full length of the 50 metre pool," his father responded, smiling.

With term 3 ended, Olivia had a few days holiday at home before going away to Ag Camp. She spent one whole day with Simone Morgan's mother, caring for her so that Simone and her friend Karen could go ice skating at the rink at Woden.

"Simone and I are so grateful for the help you are giving us," said Mrs Morgan, "but I really don't know why you and your friends are prepared to give up your time for us."

"We're glad to do it, Mrs Morgan, we truly are. After all, it would be no good our saying that we follow Jesus and then not do the kinds of things that Jesus teaches us to do."

"Well, I wish I had faith like yours, but I've done so many awful things in my life that I don't think God could ever forgive me. It's probably why I've got this MS disease, it's his way of punishing me."

"Mrs Morgan, please don't say that! God loves us! He never punishes people by making them ill. My Dad says getting sick is just one of the risks of being alive in the world."

"Well, I hope you are right, my dear, but I think I've really let God down in the way I've lived."

Olivia was silent for a while, as she finished drying the dishes. But in her heart she was praying, "Lord, what can I say to Mrs Morgan to help her believe you can forgive her, even if she has done bad things?"

Olivia brought Mrs Morgan a cup of tea. After giving it to her she sat down next to her.

"Mrs Morgan, I've been thinking about what you said just now about God not being able to forgive you. My Mum says that if a person is truly sorry for their sins and asks God to forgive them, he definitely will. That is why Jesus came into the world, to die for our sins."

"But how do I know your Mum is right?"

"Well, I suppose because it is not just her idea, it's in the Bible. Here is a verse from the Bible that I have learnt by heart: _'For God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life. John chapter three verse sixteen_.'"

"Thank you Olivia, I'll have to think about that."

Perhaps you could talk to Mum about it some time," Olivia replied.

"That would be nice."

Chapter 21 – Ag Camp Fun

The Ag Camp met all Olivia and her friends' expectations and more! They had an absolutely awesome time. Neil drove the girls to Cobargo and Megan's father fetched them back when the camp ended. What a week they had! Their accommodation was in tents, with two leaders and six girls sharing each tent. However, there was a building where they had their meals and could go for meetings. The showers were a new experience for them; bucket showers in individual sheet metal cubicles. The girls had to fill up a canvas bucket with hot water and take it into the cubicle and haul it above them with a rope system. The flow from the buckets was just a slow trickle but enough to get clean from top to toe.

"I'm getting used to the showers now," said Megan on the second day, "but I really miss just being able to indulge in loads of lovely hot water gushing down on me!"

"Dad says I spend too long in the shower," said Cathy. "He'd be very impressed if he saw how quick I am here!"

Each day the campers were divided into small groups each with at least one leader. Then they were driven by car to different farms in the area. There they were introduced to the farmers and given the opportunity to take part in the farms' work activities. They learned so much about farm animals. For example, they helped with getting the cows ready for milking in a large milking unit. They saw that the whole process was highly mechanised, but still needed careful attention to cleanliness and the healthy condition of the cows' udders. They were amazed by the complex machinery that collected and refrigerated the milk, ready to send it to a central dairy for processing.

Over the period of the camp they were able to help with horses, goats, pigs, chickens, geese and turkeys.

Not all the jobs were easy, of course, and sometimes their hands and clothes got pretty messy. But there was a lot of laughter and fun, and it was good getting to know girls from different parts of New South Wales and Canberra. Each day there was a Bible talk and some great singing. Sometimes they had the opportunity to learn new hobbies or to take part in field games.

"What I like about this camp is how we are becoming like one big family," commented Olivia to her friends as they were being driven out to a farm one morning.

"And it is so interesting meeting girls from many different parts of New South Wales," added Megan.

"Yes," said Cathy, "we come from quite varied family situations, but it's really great and a lot of fun all being together."

Near the end of camp the leaders helped the girls put on a 'Farmers' thankyou night.' This gave the girls the opportunity to serve the farmers and their families and give them an entertaining evening.

Camp fire under the stars on the last night was the most memorable event, when some of the girls and leaders shared their experiences as Christians and what they had learnt at camp.

On the final morning saying 'goodbye' to the leaders and the new friends they had made was quite an emotional experience.

"Thank you so much," said Olivia, "this camp has been absolutely awesome. I hope I can come next year."

"We hope so too," said the leaders.

"We must bring Jess next time," said Cathy.

"Absolutely," added Megan.

A few days later the friends were all back at school for the beginning of Term 4.

"Tell us about Perth, Jess," said Olivia.

"We had a wonderful time," replied Jessica. "My grandfather has a small yacht and took Sam and me sailing on the Swan River. Now I know how to sail. It's really cool fun."

"What else did you do?"

"Lots of things, visiting different places of interest. But we also drove up to some of the areas north of Perth where the wild flowers were in bloom. There are some areas where whole fields are ablaze with colour. It's quite amazing. I took some photos so I'll be able to show you. But how was Ag Camp?"

"Absolutely awesome," said Cathy, Megan and Olivia all at the same time. They burst out laughing.

"We want to go again next year and for you to come too. You'll love it!" said Olivia.

"I took a lot of photos too," said Megan, "so we'll have to show them to you."

Life returned to its normal routine for Olivia and her friends. There were lots of studies and assignments to complete, homework to do, music practice to keep up and so on. They were still helping Simone Morgan to care for her mother two days each week, visiting after school on a roster basis. This meant that each of them went to help once a fortnight. Olivia, Joshua, Eli and Anna were now going regularly to swimming lessons on Saturday mornings. Although it was only October, the shops in Canberra were already promoting their Christmas sales. At school, preparations were being made for end of term activities.

Life for all the members of the Robertson family was busy and, on the whole, enjoyable. It would be wrong, however, to give the impression that everything was always peaceful and happy in the Robertson household. Sometimes Olivia was to blame for causing problems and had to be disciplined by her parents. In spite of the warning from her father, on one occasion she slammed the family room door again. This happened after an argument with her mother about the untidiness of her bedroom. As a result she was grounded for three days. Arguments sometimes arose between Olivia and Joshua as to who should use the computer. This had on occasions led to them struggling with each other to sit at the computer until their mother intervened. Such fights could lead to their being grounded or having their pocket money docked. Arguments over what to watch on TV, when the children got home from school, was another issue. Sometimes these arguments led to their mother banning all of them from watching TV! This could result in a good outcome. The children would then have to think of other ways to amuse themselves, such as playing board games or going outside to play. For Olivia it was also an incentive for her to get started earlier on her homework!

Chapter 22 – Neil's Business Trip

One evening, late in October, after Neil had read the Bible and prayed with his family, he made an announcement.

"Kids, your Mum already knows about this. In mid-November I have to go to America for two weeks to do with my work."

"Can we all go too?" asked Joshua excitedly.

"Well, that would be fun I suppose," Neil replied, "but I'm not sure that my boss would approve and, anyway, we can't afford it. Also, these business trips are not like a holiday. I shall be working very long hours and not getting much time off."

"We shall miss you Daddy," said Anna, going over and hugging him.

"You'll still be able to see me sometimes on Skype."

"Whereabouts in America will you be?" asked Olivia.

"In the city of Eugene, in the state of Oregon. That's on the west coast of the United States, up in the north."

Joshua looked pensive. "I'm just wondering, Dad, about the time difference. We learnt about the International Date Line at school, and that is in the Pacific Ocean. Doesn't that mean America is almost one day behind Australia?"

"You're dead right, Son. Eugene is 19 hours behind Canberra at this time of year, so that means you'll be almost one day ahead of me when I am over there. But I've worked out that if I Skype you just before you have tea, say about 6 o'clock, I can do it at 11pm just before I go to bed."

"That is really weird," exclaimed Olivia. "That means that if we talk to you on Wednesday, for example, it will still be Tuesday evening where you are!"

"That's right."

"I don't get it," moaned Eli, "how can it be Wednesday in Canberra, but Tuesday in America?"

Neil then spent a while trying to explain the difference to Eli, but when he had finished Eli still looked a bit bewildered by it all.

"I'm glad Dad is not going to be in America in December," Olivia remarked to her mother, "or else he'd miss seeing me play my guitar at our end of year concert."

"That's a good point, dear, and how are the rehearsals going?"

"We are gradually improving," replied Olivia, "three of us are playing together and we are practising during lunchtime twice a week."

The day for Neil to depart soon arrived. He was leaving on Saturday morning. Allowing for the 19 hours time difference, he would have Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday in Eugene before starting work on the Monday morning. This suited the family well, as they were all able to go out to Canberra Airport to see him off.

After getting his boarding pass and handing in his luggage at the automated check-in area, Neil took his family upstairs to the Qantas Club. Before taking them in, Neil said to the two younger children,

"Now listen, you have to be very well-behaved in here. No running around, and don't make a lot of noise. You can help yourselves to some refreshments."

Neil and Lisa made cups of coffee for themselves, while the children had water to drink and some biscuits to eat.

Soon Neil's 9.55am flight to Sydney was called over the PA system.

"This is it, then," he said. "I have to go now."

He kissed and hugged his children and finally his wife and then waved them 'Goodbye' as he went through to Departures.

"See you Saturday week," he called out, and then he was gone.

"Let's stay and watch his plane take off," said Lisa. "but it won't be for at least another 15 minutes."

"Why does it take so long?" asked Eli.

"Well, there are over 100 people to get on board and then there is all the luggage to load in the hold," replied Lisa. "Then the tractor has to back the plane out away from the buildings and turn it round. Only then can the pilots use the plane's own power to go out onto the runway."

"I think I'd like to be a pilot when I grow up," said Eli.

Chapter 23 – Another of Joshua's Pranks

Life at home was going to be a little different for the next two weeks, with their father away. Neil had given special instructions to Joshua before he went. He told him that as he would be the oldest male member in the household, he had to be very responsible to help his mother.

"Don't worry, Dad, I'll be really helpful to Mum," he had promised.

Day by day life at home went on much as before. In the evenings after tea Lisa would read the Bible and pray with the children, and this always included prayers for Neil's safety. Joshua lived up to his father's wishes, remembering to do the 'male' jobs like putting out the rubbish and remembering to put the bins by the curb side on Tuesday evening, ready for rubbish and recycling collection Wednesday morning.

Although Joshua had promised his father to be helpful to his mother, he was still, as usual, looking for opportunities to play practical jokes on Olivia. His latest prank was to put folded-up tissues in the toes of Olivia's sneakers. By putting them on his own feet he was able to wriggle the tissues into position so that it just felt like the normal toes of the sneakers. All this was done one day when Olivia was over at Jessica's place.

The next morning, when Olivia put her sneakers on they felt so much tighter in the toe than usual.

Mm, my feet must be growing fast, she thought to herself. It was not that the sneakers were now _very_ uncomfortable, but just rather tight. That evening she said to her mother,

"Mum, I think I'll need a new pair of sneakers very soon. These ones are really tight now."

"But that's impossible," Lisa replied, "you've only had them about a month."

"She must have abnormal foot growth," joked Joshua, "perhaps she's going to have really enormous, monster feet. It will be very good for swimming!"

"There's nothing wrong with my feet, Joshua Robertson, thank you very much!" asserted Olivia.

"No, you're right there," said Joshua, with a big grin on his face.

"What do you mean?" asked Olivia.

"Maybe you should take a closer look at your sneakers," he replied, still grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"Josh, have you done something to my sneakers?" Olivia sat down and pulled her sneakers off. She put her hand into her sneaker and felt down into the toe. She pulled out a tightly packed tissue from the first sneaker, then the second.

"Oh, you are impossible!" she yelled at her brother. But by now he was laughing his head off, and so were Eli and Anna.

"Don't worry, Josh, you'd better watch out. I'll get my revenge some time, you see if I don't!"

Olivia was true to her word. That evening, while Joshua and Eli were busy playing a computer game, she went quietly into their bedroom. Her target was Joshua's school shoes. In her hand she had one grape, picked from a bunch in the fruit dish in the kitchen. She simply carefully pushed the grape right up into the toe of Joshua's right shoe, so that it was lodged there.

The next morning there was a sudden shout of anguish from Joshua and Eli's room. Joshua had just put his first shoe on and had squashed the grape in the toe of his shoe, so that the toe of his sock was now wet with grape juice.

"Mum, look what Olivia's gone and done. She put a grape in my shoe, so when I went to put my shoe on I squashed it. Now my sock is all wet and soggy!"

"Well, dear, where did Olivia learn the idea of putting things in people's shoes? I think she got it from you, didn't she?"

"Okay, Mum, I suppose I asked for it."

He went and knocked on Olivia's bedroom door.

"Come in" he heard.

"Olivia, very funny," he said in a sarcastic tone of voice, "but you must realise that you are just encouraging me to think up even more cunning ideas for my practical jokes."

"I can be cunning too, Josh, as you discovered when you put your shoe on." Now she was laughing. "Good morning, soggy toe!"

"All right, Olly," he replied, smiling, "I admit it was a good way of paying me back, but you'd better watch out in future!"

Chapter 24 – Shocking News

Each day at about 6pm the family would all gather around the desktop computer and log in to Skype ready to talk to Neil. The children were able to tell him all about their activities. Anna and Eli liked to show him things they had drawn or made. So Neil's two weeks away went by, with all the normal activities of the family at home and school, swimming on Saturday morning and church on Sunday. Then on the Wednesday evening of the second week, when they logged in to Skype, Neil's computer didn't come on line.

"Why isn't Daddy there tonight, Mummy?" asked Anna, "I wanted to show him the picture I painted at school today."

"Perhaps he's very busy with work tonight," said Lisa. Just leave the computer on while we have our meal and perhaps he'll call us later. However, this did not happen, and so by bedtime they had to give up the idea of talking to Neil that day.

It was 10.15pm when the phone rang. Anna, Eli and Joshua were all in bed and asleep. Olivia was sitting up in bed reading. Lisa was just finishing some teaching preparation for the next day. She picked up the phone.

"Hallo."

The voice of a lady with a strong American accent asked, "Could I speak to Mrs Lisa Robertson, please?"

"That's me speaking," Lisa replied. A chill ran down Lisa's spine. She sensed immediately that something must be wrong with Neil.

"This is the Eugene Police Department Ma'am, I'm afraid I have some bad news for you."

"What has happened? Is it about my husband?" she blurted out.

"Yes, Ma'am, I'm real sorry to tell you that your husband has been involved in a very bad car crash."

"Oh no! Is he seriously injured?"

"I'm afraid so, Ma'am. He was taken to emergency at Sacred Heart University District Hospital in Eugene. I'll give you the phone number so that you can call them. Do you have a pen and paper?"

By now Lisa was shaking with shock. But she managed to write down the details and thanked the policewoman for her call. She was just about to dial the number when Olivia came into the room.

"Mum, was that Dad calling?"

Lisa couldn't stop herself sobbing.

"What is it, Mum?" asked Olivia in alarm.

"It's your Dad, he's been seriously injured in a car crash."

"Oh Mum! What are we going to do?"

"I'm going to ring the hospital now."

Lisa dialled the number. Soon she was talking to the hospital reception and was then put through to Emergency. The news was not good. Neil had been so seriously injured to his head, that the doctors had put him into an induced coma, in order to minimise any permanent brain damage. Lisa replaced the phone and turned to Olivia.

"I'll have to fly to Eugene as soon as possible. It's so hard to think straight, I'm so shocked. I'll have to call Mum and Dad at Tuross to see if they can come and look after you while I'm away. But first, let's pray."

Mother and daughter stood, hugging each other, with their heads bowed. Olivia spoke first.

"Dear Jesus, please help Dad to recover from his injuries." That was all she could say, as she was then overcome by emotion.

"Loving Father God," prayed Lisa, "we are so shocked at what has happened that it is hard to think clearly about what to do. Please help me to get to Neil as soon as possible. Please help me to make a good arrangement for the children while I'm away. Please give wisdom to the doctors in Eugene to give Neil the best treatment. Please, please, Lord, bring him through this safely."

Chapter 25 – Fearing the Worst

That Thursday in November was a bleak day in the Robertson household. Lisa waited until Joshua, Eli and Anna were up and dressed before she called them together to tell them the bad news.

Anna started to cry.

"Is Daddy going to die, Mummy?"

"Darling, we don't know. All we know is that he has been badly injured and is in a deep sleep at the moment in hospital."

"What can we do then?" asked Eli as he wiped tears from his eyes.

"All we can do at the moment is pray. But I am going to fly over to America as soon as possible to be with Daddy. I've already phoned Granny and Grandad and they're coming up today from Tuross to look after you. You don't have to go to school today. I've already phoned Mr Ratchet and Mrs Higgins, head of Primary School. I've explained everything to them and that I'll have to take some leave from teaching."

At 8.30am, when Neil's office opened in Civic, Canberra's central business district, Lisa contacted his boss to tell him the bad news. He immediately offered for his firm to make all the necessary travel arrangements for her to get to Eugene. This was a great relief as she knew that she could then spend the rest of the day comforting the children, packing and getting her and Neil's bedroom ready for her parents.

About nine o'clock it suddenly occurred to her that Olivia had not yet appeared. She went to her room and knocked gently on the door. "Olivia?"

"I'm all right Mum," came the reply. She went in.

Olivia was kneeling beside her bed.

"I've just been praying and praying, Mum. I was so worried I hardly had any sleep last night."

"Nor did I, darling. But we must trust God in all this. Daddy is safe in his hands. Why don't you get dressed and come and have some breakfast? Granny and Grandad will be here later this morning. By the way, you don't have to go to school today."

"That's good, I don't think I could face school at the moment," she replied, "I feel so shattered by what has happened."

"I've just remembered, I haven't told Grandpa and Grandma yet," exclaimed Lisa. "That's not going to be easy."

Neil's parents in Sydney were home when Lisa called them.

"We are terribly shocked," Jan told Lisa, "and we'll keep Neil and you all in our prayers. Do you think we should plan to go over to Eugene?"

"I think at the moment it will be enough if I go, but it all depends on what the doctors tell me about his condition when I get there. I will, of course, keep you informed."

Lisa heard later that a seat had been booked for her to fly to Eugene the next day. Lisa's parents arrived from Tuross in time for lunch. They were soon settled in and finding out from Lisa all that they needed to know to run the household for the next couple of weeks. They were a tower of strength for Lisa, encouraging her to hope that Neil would make a good recovery.

During the afternoon Irene, the children's grandmother, got the two younger children making 'Get Well' cards for their father. Graham took his grandson Joshua out for a walk to give Caesar his daily exercise and also to give Joshua a chance to talk about what had happened.

Olivia just wanted to stay close to her mother. Although she herself had been devastated by the news of her father's crash, she felt a sense of responsibility to give Lisa as much moral support as possible.

"Mum, you'll need to pack your clothes ready for tomorrow morning. Shall I get your suitcase down from the cupboard?"

"Yes please dear."

Olivia helped her mother sort out what to take and to fold it and lay it out on the bed ready to put in the case.

"Don't forget you'll need plenty of warm things, Mum, as it's winter over there."

"Thanks for reminding me, Olivia. I'm in such a tizz I hadn't even thought of that."

As Olivia helped her mother to pack, she finally raised a question that had been puzzling her all that day.

"Mum, every day we've been praying for God to keep Dad safe. But he hasn't answered our prayers, has he?"

Lisa was quiet for a moment, thinking how to reply.

"That is a very important question, Olivia. Many people have asked that question when their prayers have not been answered as they hoped. When we prayed for your Dad to be kept safe, we knew of the dangers he might face. God could have protected him from being injured in the car crash. After all, God is all powerful. There is nothing that God cannot do. The fact that he didn't prevent your Dad being injured means that he must have a purpose that we don't understand at present. You see, we look at it from an earthly point of view. God sees the whole picture from a Heavenly point of view. We may not understand it till we get to Heaven. What we do know is that God loves us utterly. If he does not prevent something bad happening to us, it is not because he does not love us, or has not heard our prayers. We have to remember that God is concerned most of all with our eternal destiny. Whatever happens to Dad, even if he dies, we know that he will be safe and secure in Heaven."

"Is there any point in praying for someone to be kept safe, then?" asked Olivia.

"I believe so, dear. When we pray in that way, we are committing that person into God's hands. There is no safer place to be than that. There is a wonderful promise in Paul's Letter to the Romans. It says, _'We know that in all things God works for good with those who love him, those whom he has called according to his purpose.'_ Do you see what that means? God is able to bring about a good outcome even from the bad things that happen to us."

"I'd like to mark that verse in my Bible, Mum. Where can I find it?"

"Romans chapter 8 and verse 28."

So the day wore on. Before tea Lisa phoned the hospital again to get a report on Neil's condition.

"What did they say?" asked Olivia.

"They said that he is still in the induced coma; that all his main organs are functioning well, and that the tibia bone in his right leg is broken. His body also has quite a lot of bruising. They expect to keep him in the induced coma for a while yet."

"Mum," asked Joshua, "what's the purpose of putting Dad in a reduced coma?"

"I didn't know till I looked it up on the Internet. By the way, it's not 'reduced coma' but 'induced coma', Josh. If someone has a bad knock on their head it can cause the brain to swell up. That swelling can restrict the blood supply and cause permanent damage. So to help minimise brain damage the doctors inject a medicine into the blood stream that sends the patient into a very deep sleep. That reduces the electrical activity so that the brain needs less blood to function. Then when the swelling goes down, the doctors can gradually wake the patient up."

On Friday morning they all went out to the airport to see Lisa off. This was very emotional for all of them and there were many hugs and kisses before they finally allowed her to go.

"Don't forget to give Daddy the cards me and Eli have done," called Anna, as her mother went through the departure gate.

Chapter 26 – Living in Hope

Life soon got into a regular routine once more after Lisa's departure for America. Olivia went to church youth fellowship on Friday evening, where she was able to give Jessica, Cathy and Megan a full account of the happenings of the previous two days.

"We heard about your Dad at school on Thursday," said Megan. "When you weren't there we checked with Mrs Bates in the school office to see if your Mum had phoned in to say you were sick."

"I was too shattered to come to school then," she told them. "Also I think Mum needed us all to be with her. It was so worrying for her."

The light-hearted games and activities at youth fellowship soon relieved Olivia's mind from thinking constantly about her father. But during the Bible and prayer time at the end it soon came back to her when the leader prayed for her father.

The Robertson children were very fond of their grandparents. So having Graham and Irene looking after them for a couple of weeks helped a lot to balance their worries about their father and missing having their mother at home. Saturday morning they all went off to swimming practice as usual. At lunch Graham said to them,

"How would you like to go to Questacon this afternoon?"

They all thought that was a great idea, as it was ages since their last visit. Questacon is the National Science and Technology Centre, located on the southern shore of Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra. It has games, quizzes and activities to explain science to children and teenagers. But it is also a lot of fun and interest for adults. A lot of the exhibits are 'hands-on' experiences.

The visit to Questacon was just the right thing to relieve the worry they felt about their father.. There were quite a few new activities that they had not seen before, but one of Olivia's and Joshua's old favourites, the six metre free fall slide was still there. This time Eli even plucked up courage to do it, but Anna decided it was not yet for her. First they had to put on special overalls and leave their sneakers in locker boxes at the gate. Then they climbed the stairs to the top of the slide.

"It's very high," said Eli, "I'm not sure I can do this."

"Yes you can, Eli," encouraged Joshua, "it's such a wonderful feeling when you drop down."

Eli watched as first Olivia, then Joshua, sat on the edge of the slide with their hands gripping the suspension bar above their head. Then they pushed off so that they were hanging down, suspended by their outstretched arms. Then they let go and dropped 6 metres below, eventually being caught by the curvature of the slide and sliding to a halt at the bottom.

"Ready, young'un?" asked the young man on duty at the top.

"I think so," said Eli, though from his voice it was obvious he was not too sure.

The young man eased him into a sitting position at the top of the slide.

"Okay, now reach up with both hands and grip the bar."

"Like this?"

"Yes. Now just push your bottom off so that you are hanging by your arms."

Eli did this.

"Good. Now just let go and you'll have the ride of your life!"

Eli did let go and he did have the ride of his life! As soon as he got off the slide he called out,

"Grandad, can I go again? It's fun"

"Of course, Eli, up you go."

One new activity the children had not seen before was the 360 degree swing. They watched as a boy about 12 years old swung himself higher and higher until he finally succeeded in going right over the top.

"If he can do it, I want to have a go," said Joshua.

"Me too," said Olivia. They joined the queue of about six people, including a couple of adults, all waiting to put on overalls and be ready for their turn.

As they waited they saw that not everyone was able to get the swing to go high.

"It must be more difficult than it looks," commented Olivia.

Finally her turn came. The young lady supervising the swing helped Olivia step up onto it. It was not like a park swing, as instead of hanging by chains, there was a big solid steel arm. Also, you had to stand on it, and not sit. Then you had to be strapped on at both the wrists and ankles. This was so that if you went right over the top you would not fall off.

"Now, use your legs to get yourself swinging,' said the supervisor. Olivia bent at the knees and leaned back to push the swing forward. Then she straightened her legs on the return swing, just like you do standing on a park swing. Each swing she went higher and higher, while the people watching cheered her on. Just when she thought she had no energy left at all her final swing took her right over the top! A great cheer went up from the crowd.

"I've done it, Granny and Grandad!' she shouted with excitement.

Then it was Joshua's turn. He did well, but he didn't quite get the swing to go right over the top.

"Don't worry," said the supervisor, "not many kids your size are able to do it. Come back next year and you'll probably succeed."

The rest of the time at Questacon was spent roaming around on the various levels trying out different scientific games and demonstrations. All of them, including the grandparents, went into the earthquake simulation. This is a room, just like a room in a typical house. You go in there and wait, and then after a while the room starts rocking and shaking just like happens in an earthquake. It gives you a very good idea of how scary it must be to experience a real earthquake.

The children's pleasure for the day was not yet over. As they left Questacon their grandparents were still in the mood for spoiling them. "How would you like to have tea at McDonalds?" asked Irene. A resounding, "Yes please!" came from all the children.

Chapter 27 – Can Neil Survive?

Lisa had taken her iPad with her, so once she had made a couple of visits to the hospital and observed Neil lying in a deep coma in Intensive Care, with a nurse constantly monitoring his brain activity on a computer screen, she found time to get onto Skype, using the hotel's Wi-fi Internet connection. The phone rang in the Robertson's family room. It was 6 o'clock Sunday evening.

"I'll get it, it's probably Mum," said Olivia. It was her mother.

"Just a quick call, darling, get onto Skype and we can talk some more."

Olivia went over to the computer and switched it on, then once it was running, logged in to Skype.

"Come everyone," shouted out Olivia, "Mum's on Skype."

They were soon all crowded around the computer as they waited for Lisa to call in.

"Granny, come and sit down here," Olivia said, vacating the computer chair. "Joshua, can you get a chair for Grandad? Thanks."

Moments later they all heard the call signal and Olivia clicked the video and sound icon.

"Hallo everyone. Sorry I haven't contacted you before, but I've been so busy booking in at a hotel near the hospital, arranging interviews with Neil's doctors, sitting with Neil, talking to the police and phoning Richard and Jan in Sydney."

"What did they say about Neil?" asked Irene.

"They are planning to bring him out of the induced coma very gradually, starting tomorrow. Then if all the brain tests are satisfactory they will organise the surgery for the broken leg bone. His breathing and heart rate are fine."

There was a sigh of relief around the computer, as the children and their grandparents realised that Neil was probably going to survive."

"That's wonderful news," said Graham. "I was afraid we were going to lose him."

"Yes, but he's not out of the woods yet," replied Lisa. "It will be a few days before they find out if he has suffered permanent brain damage."

"We'll just have to keep praying, then," said Anna.

"By the way," asked Graham, "how did the crash happen?"

"It wasn't Neil's fault. The police said that a car driven by a drunk driver swerved right across in front of Neil's car. There was nowhere for him to go to avoid a crash. It was very violent and his rental car was a complete write-off. The drunk driver is also in hospital with serious injuries. The police said that if it hadn't been for the car's airbags, Neil would probably have been killed."

"Yes, those airbags in cars seem to make such a difference," commented Graham. "Pity they weren't available years ago, like when my Dad had his crash."

"What happened to him, Grandad?" asked Joshua.

"I'm afraid he was killed."

Everyone in the Robertson household slept a lot more peacefully that night, knowing that Neil was not going to die. The children were now confident that they would see their father again. The grandparents were relieved that their daughter was not going to be a widow, after all. The big question was, would he be able to communicate with them? How serious would the brain damage be? As Olivia knelt beside her bed that night she prayed,

"Dear Lord, thank you for answering our prayers for Dad. Now I pray that you will restore him to full health and bring him home to us soon. We miss him so much."

Monday, the next day, was the first day back at school for Olivia since the news of her father's car crash. She had so many questions from almost everyone in the class. Simone had made a card for Olivia, in which she had written, _'Dearest Olivia, Mum and me were shocked when we heard that your Dad was in a car crash. We hope he gets better very soon. Love from Simone.'_

When she had read it, Olivia said,

"Thank you so much, Simone. You are such a thoughtful person," and gave her a hug.

Olivia had missed some lessons on the previous Thursday and Friday, but Jessica, Cathy and Megan, between them, helped her to catch up.

As the days passed the Robertson children continued to meet with their mother on Skype. It was now early December and a week since they first heard that their father had been injured in a car crash. The news was a mixture of good and bad. Their father's leg was in a plaster cast, which would have to be there for six weeks. There seemed to be no serious permanent injury to his brain. However, his memory was still not 100 per cent and he was getting headaches.

"When can you and Dad come home then?" asked Olivia.

"The doctors say they need to monitor Dad's brain condition for another week. Then if he is okay we could come after that."

"I've got my school concert on Wednesday evening, but you won't be back by then."

"I know, dear, it's so disappointing for you. Dad and I are disappointed too. We were so looking forward to your performance. You have made such good progress with your guitar this year. Anyway, I'm sure there'll be other opportunities in the future."

The school concert went very well and instead of having her parents there, her grandparents Graham and Irene, were able to see her. On the way home Graham said,

"You did very well, Olivia, with your two fellow guitarists. I'll assure your Dad and Mum that they missed a real treat!"

Chapter 28 - Homecoming

Finally Lisa was able to give her children the news that they had all been waiting for. She and Neil would be flying back to Australia on the 14th December, arriving in Canberra on the 16th. By now Neil was able to walk with the help of crutches, although it might be many months before his leg was fully back to normal. His leg would have the plaster on for a further three weeks, so that it would need to be removed back in Canberra. Olivia phoned her Sydney grandparents, Richard and Jan Robertson, and gave them the good news.

"Thanks for letting us know, Olivia, but your Dad phoned us yesterday and told us himself. It's a great relief to know he's coming home at last. We'll drive to Canberra on Friday and stay at a motel. Then we can go out to the airport with you to welcome your parents home," said Jan.

"That will be wonderful, Grandma, so we'll see you at the airport at 10.25am."

It was four excited children who were driven out to Canberra Airport by their grandparents Graham and Irene on the morning of 16th December. The flight was due in at 10.25am. They were all standing at the windows looking out onto the runway.

"It's 10.30," said Joshua, looking at his watch. "Where are they?"

"It's not unusual for planes to be a few minutes late," said his grandfather.

Just at that moment they were joined by their Sydney grandparents, Richard and Jan.

A few minutes later they watched as a Qantas Boeing 737 touched down on the runway and taxied in close to the terminal building. Soon the extending passenger ramp was in position.

"We'd better go downstairs now ready to welcome them," said Irene.

After a few moments passengers started streaming through the 'Arrivals' door. Some only had hand luggage while others made their way to collect their suitcases at the luggage carousel.

Eventually there were no more passengers coming through the arrivals door.

"Where are they then, could they have missed the plane?" asked Olivia.

Just at that moment Eli and Anna gave a shout and ran forward. There was their father in a wheelchair being pushed along by an airline steward. Their mother was right behind them. Soon both parents were smothered with hugs and kisses by the welcoming party.

"Wow! What a homecoming," exclaimed Neil. "But it's absolutely fabulous to be home again. Thanks so much, Graham and Irene, for all you've done for us."

"Well, we've had a wonderful time," said Irene. "I don't know what we'll do with ourselves when we go back to Tuross!"

Chapter 29 – Happy Ending

Back at the Robertson house the family enjoyed a Chinese takeaway lunch that they'd picked up on the way home. Grandpa and Grandma Robertson were also there.

"Now, as soon as lunch is over, we'll be loading up the car and heading back to Tuross," said Graham.

"Oh, Dad," exclaimed Lisa, "are you sure you have to go so soon? You could stay a few more days."

"Where would we all sleep if we stayed?" asked her mother. "You and Neil will need your comfortable bed and you don't have enough other rooms or beds for us."

"We could put the children on the airbeds that we use for camping. They wouldn't mind."

"No, I've got a better idea. We'll head back to Tuross this afternoon, but why don't you come and spend January with us in Tuross. We have plenty of beds there!"

"Oh, Mum, that's a wonderful idea," responded Lisa. "How would you like that, kids? A whole month by the sea?"

"We'd all love it," replied Olivia before any of the others could speak. And so it was settled.

"Then you could come to us in Sydney for Christmas," suggested Jan.

"We'd love to," said Neil, "if you can cope with an invalid around the place."

"You're forgetting the time when you were fourteen and broke your ankle at soccer, so we're quite used to having you as an invalid!" laughed Jan. So that was also settled. Christmas would be in Sydney and the January holidays in Tuross.

So at about three o'clock in the afternoon Lisa's parents, Graham and Irene loaded their car and departed for Tuross Head.

"See you after Christmas!" the children shouted as their grandparents drove away.

The following day, being Sunday, the family all went to church and were joined there by the Sydney grandparents. Then after lunch Richard and Jan headed back to Sydney.

A few days after term ended the whole family headed for Sydney, taking Christmas presents with them. Unfortunately Lisa had to do all the driving, as Neil's plaster prevented him from driving.

The family stayed in Sydney until 2nd January, so that they could watch the fireworks in Sydney harbour on New Year's Eve. Lisa also wanted to avoid the heavy holiday traffic leaving Sydney on New Year's Day.

Down the coast at Tuross Head Neil was unable to be his usual energetic self with his children, but he did manage to play table tennis sitting down, which gave Joshua a much better chance of beating him! January's days just sped by with all the usual beach activities, plus wonderful times playing board games in the evenings, doing a couple of big jigsaw puzzles and generally having a nice lazy time.

Finally it was time to return to Canberra to get ready for the New Year at school. Olivia and her friends would be going into Year 8.

"Well, Olivia," said Neil, "in a couple of week's time you will be fourteen. Your first year as a teenager is almost over. That leaves just four more fabulous teenage years to go before you officially become an adult. So what do you think, Olivia, has being thirteen been a good year for you?"

"Oh Dad! You know it has, in spite of the problems. When I look back on my birthday and how the fun turned to disaster it was not a very good start."

"That's what life is like, Olivia. You never know what's round the corner. The main thing is to keep trusting Jesus, then whatever happens, he'll give you strength to cope with it. As I said to you at your birthday party, the challenge for you is to be the kind of person God wants you to be. I think you have shown us that you have taken that challenge seriously. I'm proud of you.

The End

If you have enjoyed this novel, you will also enjoy reading

Nos. 2 and 3 in the Olivia Robertson Series:

'Olivia's Secret Love' and

'Olivia's Blue Mountains Adventure'

