OakTara's purpose is simple: to create opportunities for new, talented Christian writers and to promote leading-edge fiction by established Christian authors. OakTara books are available from www.oaktara.com and major national online retailers, including www.christianbook.com, www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com, www.buy.com, www.booksamillion.com, www.cokesbury.com, www.borders.com, www.target.com -- as well as selected bookstores in the U.S.


MAE'S OPEN ARMS

At seventeen years old Amanda Moore has given up on life.  With her father's desertion and her mother's depression, it's difficult to get through each day.  She turns to drugs and adventurous friends, yet is still unable to find happiness.   While she is high a neighbor takes her to a nonjudgmental, elderly, Christian woman named Mae.  Mae welcomes her into her home and into her life.  She quotes scripture, bakes fried pies and points out the miracles of everyday life.  For the first time in many months, Amanda sees the world with new hope.  She desperately wants to redeem herself, and she longs to know the Lord as Mae does.  With an open heart and clearer mind, Amanda struggles to undo all the damage she has caused and to rectify as many of her mistakes as she possibly can.  But change is never easy, and with a school full of drama and peer pressure it’s a page-turning challenge.   

Every mother would want her daughter to read this fictional story about rising above mistakes, doing the right thing and in the end, helping others as well. The teenage years are the most confusing and good decisions are never obvious.  My story is poignant for all women from age thirteen to one-hundred and thirteen.

SNEAK PREVIEW:


Quietly opening the door, she heard Mae and Jered talking in the kitchen.  Mae’s voice was kind and thoughtful.  “Jered, honey, you turn those pork chops in the frying pan while I finish mashing these potatoes.”  Her voice changed and took on a soft mysterious tone.  “When I awoke this morning I fed Miss Scarlet, filled the coffee maker and headed out to the barn to check on the puppies.  It seemed like an ordinary day, but a strange wind surrounded me.  At first it was cool then it warmed on my face.  None of the trees or shrubs rustled from the breeze.  It was just for me.  I knew today would be somehow unique.  All day I waited to meet someone special.  When I took sunflowers and pies to The Two Way it wasn't’t busy at all.  And when I went by to see my sister, everyone in the place was pooped out; due to a walk they’d taken earlier.”  She exhaled, then continued.  “I had almost given up when you knocked on my door.  God brought this little girl to me; she’s the one I was expecting.  My new friend.  Little Peanut’s got a lot of spunk.  I got a glimpse of it.”
“Peanut,” he repeated questioningly. 
“Dear Amanda.  I’m calling her Peanut—at least until I feel she’s matured a bit.  She has to find her place with God.  She’s so thirsty for his guidance.  He hears her calls of desperation and He has big plans for her.  I can feel it deep in my old bones.  It was God’s will that she come here today.  ‘To be spiritually minded is life and peace. Romans 8:6.’  She needs some peace, my Jeremiel.”
“I can’t argue with that,” he said thoughtfully.
Amanda timidly stepped into the room.
“Wow,” Mae bellowed, waving a potato covered spoon.  “You’re quite a dish, Peanut.  It was hard to tell earlier, but you are.” 
“Freshmen year she was on the Homecoming court,” Jered explained. 
“Really?”  Mae commented in a long, drawn out sigh.
Amanda rolled her eyes.  “I have a few wet towels.  Can I bring them to your laundry room?
 “Why yes, that would be helpful, I’m up to my elbows in potatoes, butter and milk.”
Amanda returned to the powder room and made sure everything was in its place and the tub and counters were all wiped down.  It looked good.  She lifted the wet towels and went back to the kitchen.   
Mae saw her.  “The laundry room is just down the hallway on your left.  Amanda weaved through a hallway filled with black and white photographs.  There were baby pictures, Christmas pictures and military pictures.  It was a nostalgic hall of history.  She tossed the towels into the empty washing machine and returned to the kitchen.  Miss Scarlet took one look at her and ran out. 
Jered laughed.  “Made a new friend have you?”
“Not,” she joked and almost laughed, which was quite amazing considering the condition she’d been in just a few hours ago. 
Jered was just putting out silverware and added a platter of pork chops to the middle of the table.  Mae carefully carried a big pot of creamed potatoes and a tin full of corn bread.  The feast looked like something right out of a nineteen seventies Southern Living magazine.  “I know it’s a late dinner, but I do hope you’re hungry,” she said. 
Bringing her hand up to her thin stomach, Amanda wondered if she could even hold anything down.  “I might can eat a little.”  Gazing around the kitchen she was awestruck by the shear amount of yellow, brown and orange sunflowers.  They were wallpapered around the ceiling, painted near the doorways, and stenciled on the chairs.  Hundreds, Amanda guessed.  And sunflower magnets, of all shapes and sizes adored the aqua colored refrigerator.  There was one fresh sunflower, like the one she’d seen in the bathroom, in a vase near the sink and another in the middle of the table, held up by a tall sunflower painted vase.  The busy room made the sides of her mouth curve just a bit.