Synopsis
Mira had thought that by finding the powerful book – the Enchiridion of Emmanuel – that she’d be satisfied in the colorful world it had unleashed. But she’s not. When a friend is tragically murdered, and Nash, the guy she’d thought she’d be with forever, leaves her to go on tour, Mira’s hopelessness spikes to an all-time high. She connects with a group that shows her how she can create the life she wants and make destiny work for her. At first the path she takes refreshes her soul and quenches her thirst for significance, but then she discovers the bitter truth that lurks beneath surface. Join Mira and Nash in Wormwood’s Water as their journeys collide and reveal the truth even as they threaten to destroy everything they truly hold dear.
Inside Scoop
Have you ever been asked, “What do you want to do with your life?” I hated this question when I was younger because I had no clue what I wanted to do or who I wanted to be. I envied those who had a strong passion for something, or an outstanding skill. Being a goal driven person, I believed that if I had those things to work with, it would be so much easier to figure out my life. Only what I ended up with was this crazy mix: an average girl with a desire to be unique and a longing to create someone awesome and perfect. My mom called it well-roundedness. I called it frustrating and it often made me feel anxious and discouraged. But now I call it a blessing! In Wormwood’s Water, the second novel in The Heart of It All series, Mira’s journey begins with her average self, thirsting for answers to the yearning in her soul…to be someone and to be satisfied with who that someone is.Wormwood’s Water will be released spring 2017.
Read Chapter One
Chapter 1
Mira sipped out of the scratched teal colored aluminum tumbler that she’d gotten from the Locators – the exploration group that recovered pre-war artifacts. The group was one of many that had popped up in the city of Pillar over the past year. So many changes…yet she still felt the same.
Letting the glass drop to her side, Mira frowned. One year ago today, she’d been staring out her dining room window, much like she was doing right now. She’d craved more out of life and had actually done something about it. With the help of her prophetic visions, she’d embarked on the most exhilarating adventure. The retrieval of the object of her quest, the Enchiridion of Emmanuel, had prompted the LifeChip Obliteration Movement, giving the citizens of Pillar their emotional freedom. Pillar’s passion and creativity had exploded because of it – an amazing thing really, since they’d lived for thirty years with embedded nano-chips that had dulled their senses and spirit. She squinted toward the town that seemed to glow with vibrant energy and purpose. Why did she feel so restless?
Bringing the glass to her lips, Mira tilted it back, only to find it empty. Lowering it to eye level, she spotted one droplet hugging the metal edge. She licked it, but it was much less than satisfying. She wanted more, and not only of the water.
At the sound of a light knock, Mira turned. Her mother, Addison, stood in the doorway that led into the foyer. “Hey, mom,” she said.
“Hey, yourself,” her mom said as she came to stand next to her. “You doing okay?”
Mira could feel her mom studying her. “I’m fine.”
“Even though it’s only a week and a day until Vaughn and I leave for Enab?”
Mira didn’t like to be reminded that the parents she had just started to get to know were leaving her. She lifted her chin ever so slightly. “I’m almost nineteen, remember? Of course I’ll be okay.” She shrugged. “Besides, I’m sure starting a church on the island will make a huge difference, and it will be very rewarding for you and dad, too.”
“I believe it will, but I’m still worried about you.” Her mom ran her finger over the dust that had gathered on the windowsill.
“Don’t worry about it. I can handle being on my own.”
Her mom let out a long, slow breath. “I just thought you’d have some direction by now, like when you were searching for the Enchiridion.” With a deep frown, she brushed her hand across her flowing purple gauchos, leaving a trail of dirt behind. “But all you’ve done since then is float around. You’ve had various jobs, a business of your own, several different college majors – none of it makes you happy, honey.”
What she said was true. Gripping the tumbler in front of her, Mira said, “I sprained my ankle when I was working with the Locators.” It had been hot and grimy work anyway, she reasoned as she moved to the table. She set the glass next to her final project for art class, which at the moment consisted of a blank piece of canvas and several nearly full tubes of paint. “And getting fired from the Grub Station because I had a miscalculation with the money a time or two, doesn’t actually count.” She breathed in through her nostrils, trying to control her anxiety. “And half the majors they offer at the university are stupid. The other half have professors who are either ancient or clueless,” she said, shoving the canvas and paints in her backpack.
“What about the store you opened…Bags & Beverages? That seemed so perfect for you, but you quit that too!”
“Two months of that business was way too long,” Mira huffed. It had cost too much money to run. Strike one! Her customers had only wanted to drink excessively and gossip, which was fun at first but became annoying and depressing. Strike two! And packaging purses to ship to other cities had been extremely tedious. Strike three! Mira zipped up her backpack. “I haven’t found my niche, but at least I have figured out some things that won’t make me happy.”
“So how are you going to find what will make you happy, Mira?”
I don’t know!! her mind snapped, but she said nothing.
After a few long moments of silence, her mom pinched the bridge of her nose. “I think Vaughn and I should postpone our extended trip to Enab.”
“Don’t.” Though uneasy about staying in her childhood home alone – the house was spooky at night – Mira didn’t want them to change their plans because of her. She’d really feel bad about herself then. “This is just something that I have to figure out on my own,” she said, slipping her backpack over her shoulders. “And I actually have a new plan of action that I’m working on.” It had just popped into her head.
“You do?”
Mira nodded. “I’m going to be a prophetess.” She’d given messages through her prophetic paintings, why not through another avenue? “Prophetic word, to be exact.”
Her mom raised a brow. “Do you mean prophesying as in using the Enchiridion of Emmanuel to preach and encourage?”
Quite honestly, she hadn’t read much of the Enchiridion, but felt she had a good handle on its message. “No. I want to make a difference by giving people the messages I hear from the Spirit of God – like they do at the Prophet House.” She just had to learn more about how to tap into it. Shoulders straight, Mira strolled into the foyer.
Her mom followed. “But that’s like a psychic hotline undercover!”
“Well, it’s been accurate for me…and it’s so much more than that.” Mira turned to face her mom. “Look, I’ve been going to this place for several months now and I know how it makes me feel. God speaks to me through these prophetic words – and He can speak through me to others who need to be encouraged.” Mira noticed how wide her mom’s eyes had gotten, so she tried to reason with her, even as she tried to convince herself. “If I rely on the Spirit’s leading, I won’t be limiting God. Instead, I’ll walk in the same power that Christ was given and do even greater miracles than He did. What could be better than that?”
“You seriously think you’ll teach more clearly and heal with more power than the Son of God?”
Her mom’s incredulous look affected Mira more than she wanted to admit. Shrugging off the surge of doubt, Mira focused on what she’d learned yesterday about herself at the Prophet House. She really hoped that once she figured out how it all worked, she’d be able to hone in on the prophetic power that would bring goodness and healing to the world. “Well the Spirit leads us to the truth – and I’m just following Him off the map.”
“But the Spirit brought us the map – and that’s the Enchiridion of Emmanuel,” her mom said, frowning deeply. “And its power is NOT dependent on us using religious experiences to escape its boundaries.”
“Well, the couple of times I tried reading it, I didn’t feel anything.” She shrugged. “On the other hand, the prophetic words from the prophetess make me feel alive, like I am truly experiencing the love of God.”
Her mom grabbed onto the dark wooden pommel that marked the end of the staircase. “You risked your life to find the Enchiridion, why not give it more of a chance? Get to know Christ intimately!”
“I already know about Him, mom. And have you ever thought that maybe my calling was only to find the Enchiridion of Emmanuel, not necessarily to study it? Besides, I feel I gave it chance enough,” she said, lifting her chin. “And I’m starting to think maybe faith is different for different people anyway.”
“But knowing about Christ is not the same as loving Him. And God is God – He is unchanging.”
“So you say!”
Before her mom could respond, the front door of the house whooshed open, revealing a whistling Vaughn with a picnic basket over his arm. The smell of croissants and coffee filled the entryway. When Vaughn saw her mom, he grinned mid-whistle. “There are my two favorite women in the world,” he said, yet he only had eyes for her mom.
Mira felt an envious squeeze of her heart, wishing Nash would look at her like that.
“Want to join your mother and me for a picnic?” her dad asked, glancing down at the basket. “I think I have enough for the three of us.”
As her mom reached up on tiptoes to kiss his cheek, Mira said, “Thanks for the invitation, but you two enjoy. I have to head to class.” Needing to escape the loving pair, she hurried outside, winding around to the back of the house. She didn’t stop until she got to the gate. Pausing there, she took several deep breaths. She remembered standing in that very spot with Nash before they’d risked their lives to recover the paintings that led them to the Enchiridion of Emmanuel. Even though she and Nash hadn’t trusted each other totally then, they’d at least managed to work as a pair. And they’d been good together. Now it felt like they were little more than acquaintances, not where she’d anticipated their relationship would be. She was not where she’d thought she would be, either!
A deep, burning pang threatened to overwhelm her as she dug into her front pocket for her phone. No missed calls. Nash hadn’t called like he’d said he would. She bit back her hurt and called him anyway…even hoped he would answer, with an apology of course. If he’d reassure her they were meant to be, that would be even better. But instead, she got his voicemail.
She clutched the phone, pressing it tightly to her ear as she waited for his long recorded riff to end. By the time he said leave a message, her throat seemed too tight to speak. After a few seconds of painful silence, she managed tether her emotions enough to push out the words through her gritted teeth. “You didn’t call. We need to talk. I’ll stop by your store after class.” With the ache in her chest heavier than ever, she stashed the phone back in her pocket.
Closing the gate behind her, she unlocked the bike she had chained to the fence and started walking down the hill with it. She couldn’t see Pillar Peace University from there, but as usual, the Center of Operations to the north of campus stuck out like a beacon in the dawning light, taunting her. The lit-up wall mural – redone by the Art Reborn Club – was still a tree, but instead of gnarly vacant branches, it had thousands of leaves and various bright fruits hanging. In its branches were many different colors and kinds of birds and nests. Pillar Transformed, it was now entitled.
Mira trudged her way toward the Prophet House, the rhythmic click of her back-wheel sprocket barely heard over her mind-ramblings. She had evolved over the past year, too, but instead of becoming something vibrant and uniquely beautiful like the tree and the rest of the people of Pillar, she was a lonely misfit without direction. Today, though, she vowed to change that.
The Low Down
Thank you for reading Wormwood’s Water! Just as with Mira and Nash, we are often faced with some tough questions and viewpoints. Some people will claim that because so much is known about how the universe works, God is simply unnecessary. Some will tell us that truth is relative (like an opinion or viewpoint) and that we should try on religions like we would clothes in a store to see which fits us best. Some will even say that it is impossible to know the truth (sometimes we do feel like throwing up our hands because of all the information). But if we take the time to be on the jury (listening with an open heart and mind to the defense, the prosecution, the evidence, and the eye witnesses), we will come to find the truth…and we will find our path, one that is good and right.
Bible verse favorites for this book:
Revelations 8:10-11: “Then the third angel sounded his trumpet, and a great star burning like a torch fell from heaven and landed on a third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters turned bitter like wormwood oil, and many people died from the bitter waters.”
John 4:13-14: “Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give them shall never thirst; but the water that I will give them will become in them a well of water springing up to eternal life.’”
Ephesians 6:12: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
Song favorites for this book:
