MacKenzie Isabelle Evans shuffled wildly through the papers on her desk. Where was that list? It wasn’t in her binder. It wasn’t stuck between the pages of her spelling book. It didn’t seem to be anywhere at all. “Mom!” Mac wailed. “I can’t find it!”
“You left it down here on the kitchen table,” Mom called up the stairs.
Mac shook her head and sent her red curls bouncing. She really did need to get more organized. She jumped down the stairs, skipped every other one, and landed with a thud at the bottom.
“Are you ready?” Mom asked, adjusting the shoulder strap of her purse, the car keys in her hand. “I want to stop at the grocery store after we go to the library. So we need to get going, or we won’t be home in time to fix supper. I suppose in that case, though, we could have oatmeal.”
“You’re not serious, are you? Oatmeal for supper?” Mac stood stock still. She looked horrified.
Mrs. Evans laughed. “Maybe,” she said.
“Ugh!” Mac replied with a grin. “I think I’ll ask G.M. if I can eat with her and Joseph tonight.”
Mac studied her list of books as Mrs. Evans drove down the highway toward the main library in Medford. “I don’t know who to pick to read about,” she said. “I already know some stuff about George Washington, and Abraham Lincoln, and Thomas Edison, and Betsy Ross. Who was Carry Nation?”
“Oh,” Mrs. Evans said, “Carry Nation was a most interesting woman! She believed very strongly that people should not drink alcohol. She began to pray outside saloons. Then later she began to attack them. The saloon buildings, I mean, not the people. She often used a hatchet!”
“What?” Mac exclaimed. “Didn’t she get arrested?”
“Yes, she got arrested quite often, I guess,” Mrs. Evans said. “But I don’t remember any more details.”
“I’ll see if there is a book about her in the library,” Mac decided instantly. “If there is, I’ll do my report on her!”
Mrs. Evans parked the car across the street from the library. Mac opened her door and stepped out onto the sidewalk. Mrs. Evans opened her door and stepped out into the street. Before she could close the door behind her, a big blue car drove very slowly by. It caught the side of Mrs. Evans’s door on the edge of its front bumper.
Mrs. Evans gasped. She stared at the driver. A short, grandmotherly woman with thick glasses hunched over the steering wheel, concentrating straight ahead. Surely, Mrs. Evans thought, that woman can see what she’s doing! Surely she will slam on her brakes any second now!
The big blue car just rolled slowly on. Mrs. Evans’s car door creaked as it opened wider and wider—far wider than it was ever supposed to. Then the door fell off! Mrs. Evans stood in the street, holding the top of the door so it wouldn’t fall over.
“Mom,” Mac asked, “what’s taking you so long?”
Mrs. Evans finally found her voice. “That car just knocked my door off!” she said.
“What?” Mac shrieked. “What did you say?” She dashed to the front of the car to see.
“Stay there! Don’t come out in the street!” Mrs. Evans ordered. She carefully leaned the heavy door against the side of the car and walked around to the sidewalk. She put her hands on Mac’s shoulders. “That woman just knocked our car door off!” she exclaimed. “I was positive she would stop! But I don’t think she even saw me. Or my door!” she added.
Mac jumped up and down in frustration. “I didn’t see it!” she hollered. “The most exciting thing to happen in months, and I didn’t see it! Did the door really come all the way off?”
Mrs. Evans nodded. “All the way off!” she said. “It’s leaning against the fender right now.”
“What are we going to do?” Mac asked wonderingly. “We can’t drive home with no door on the car, can we? I’ve never seen anyone drive with no door on their car! What are we going to do?”
“We’re going to call your father,” Mrs. Evans said. She reached in her purse for her cell phone.
“He’s going to be really mad!” Mac exclaimed.
“Are you kidding?” Mrs. Evans asked. “Your father may be a little unhappy about having to get the car door fixed, but he certainly won’t be mad! He’ll be praising the Lord that neither one of us is hurt. Do you remember your memory verse this week by the way?”
Mac thought for a minute. “‘Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in Me,’” she said.
Mom grinned. “That’s one reason we put Bible verses in our hearts,” she said. “So we’ll know how to act in stressful times. Our car door fell off. But we are not going to let our hearts be troubled by it. God has everything under control.” She began to dial her husband’s work phone number.
“Hey, lady!” a skateboarder called. “Hey, lady!” He jumped off his board beside Mac and Mrs. Evans, did some tricky thing with his feet, which caused the board to shoot up in the air, and then caught it in his hand. “Did you know your car door is like off?”
Mac gave him a big smile. “We know,” she said. “And our hearts are not troubled!”
