When the three boys finally got to church, it was raining 
hard. They found Beth sitting on the front steps soaking wet. When 
she saw the car pull up she stood up. Taylor jumped out of the car 
before it had even stopped. He ran up to Beth and tried to give her a 
hug, but she backed away and looked at him with a scared look. 
	"What's wrong?" asked Taylor, as Beth backed into the light. 
	Then she turned her face to reveal a huge, almost healed 
bruise on the side of her cheek and started crying. 
	"Beth, why did you back away?" Taylor asked gently.
	"Did you see that bruise? They BEAT me!" Beth yelled as she 
grabbed her bags and got into the car. 
	Isaac and Taylor were in the front, Zac and Beth were in the 
back. As soon as Beth had gotten into the car, Zac jumped ovr next to 
Beth and gave her a huge hug. 
	"I almost thought I lost one of my best friends," he said, 
squeezing her tighter. 
	"Ouch, too tight!" Beth exclaimed, laughing. 
	They were half way to the Hanson house when Beth saw Zac 
looking at her face out of the corner of her eye. 
	"You've got a pretty good shiner. What did you do? Run into a 
door?" Zac asked worriedly. 
	"No. I ran into Tom's fist," answered Beth calmly. 
	"Who's Tom?" Isaac asked, looking at Beth in the rear-view
mirror. 
	"He's my foster dad," said Beth. 
	"So, Beth, how did you get here from St. Paul?" Taylor asked. 
	"I took a bus to Kansas City, then hitch-hiked the rest of the 
way," Beth answered. 
	"What! You had enough money to fly around the world, first 
class, plenty of times. What happened to all of your money?" Taylor 
asked. 
	"Tom & Julie took it," said Beth as they pulled into the 
driveway.