Obadiah

Eight

"Quentin,"

Guinevere nodded and gave an encouraging smile.

It had been two days since Obadiah asked Guinevere if she could teach him to spell his last name.

He was frustrated that it didn't come as easily as Obadiah, but Guinevere encouraged him to practice at home.

Now, it was time for a test.

Obadiah didn't want to try and spell it, but Guinevere was presumptuous.

And it took him one step closer to knowing how to read, which meant he could read the Bible.

His palms began to sweat, but he wiped them on his pants.

"Q, u, e, n, t, i, n," He closed his eyes and waited.

She wasn't laughing.

She didn't mock him for being stupid.

Did this mean he got it?

He slowly opened his eyes and found her smiling.

She smiled a lot.

He didn't understand why, but it wasn't bad.

Just strange.

"Perfect," She finally said, making his eyes widen.

"No,"

She nodded. "You did it!"

Guinevere's heart was full.

Obadiah amazed her with his fast learning. He was hungry for knowledge, though he struggled to believe in himself.

"Oh," He looked down at his hands.

He did it.

Something changed within him since Guinevere read the Psalm to him.

It wasn't that his nightmares stopped, or that he wasn't tormented anymore by memories, but he felt better.

He remembered the words she had read.

He didn't understand what it meant, but it settled.

"They prevented me in the day of my calamity: but the Lord was my stay."

Finally, he knew something about the Lord, something he'd wanted for years.

He wanted the Lord to be his stay, but he didn't know how.

He looked up and found Guinevere smiling softly.

She was always happy.

"Is the Lord your stay?" He asked without thinking.

Guinevere hummed as her eyes narrowed.

"Pardon?"

Obadiah cleared his throat and asked again. "The Lord, y-you said in the reading, the Lord was my stay. Is He yours?"

Realization struck her and she nodded. "Yes. Yes, He is. He wasn't always, but He's the only One fit for such a role," She confessed.

Something in him stirred.

He wanted that.

He didn't want to always think the Lord ignored him as a child. He wanted to know that the Lord was his stay.

Fear filled him as he thought to ask how.

Did he really need to know?

Would Guinevere mind telling him how?

He didn't want to be a bother. She was already teaching him to read. He didn't need to ask for anything more.

But, the desire to know was stronger than his fear.