Paniolo Pony Express

This is an excerpt from the fifth and final book in "The Faith Series," Providence: Leading of the Spirit:

The entire island of Kauai turned out for the First Annual Paniolo Pony Express. Governor Kiakona, and his wife, Papela, flew in from Honolulu to witness the event that his official farm advisor, Apelehama, had construed to him. He and Mandy saved the governor and his wife a spot along the rough brush leg that Lilia planned to ride. Jim and his horse, Rusty, waited with Lilia, and her horse, King. Lilia sat and waited with alertness in the western saddle that King wore. Jim had been imperturbable in his insistence that she should use a saddle.

Both Deek and Rick, the leaders of Teams Two and Three, intended to ride the rough brush leg for two reasons: First, because they were the team captains and the best riders on the team, and second, because they knew that Lilia planned to ride that leg too.

Lilia spied Wilson’s approach with Teams Two and Three right on his heels. Lilia completely ignored Jim and Rusty, and prepared herself, and King for their leg. She began cantering King, and when Wilson grew closer, picked up the pace to a slow gallop. She knew that she had to make progress against the other horses to further their chance of winning.

“Here we go!” Apelehama yowled to the governor, his wife, and Mandy. They watched with a heightened expectation as Wilson flew up to the galloping King and Lilia, and thrust the pouch with a spin towards her.

Lilia clutched it out of midair and yelled, “Hyah!” King burst into frenzied speed like the accomplished racehorse that he was. They tore across the landscape kicking up gravel, stones, grass, and other foliage in their quest for a super finish. The woman and animal adored the contest and reveled in the chase as adrenalin coursed through their veins.

Deek targeted Lilia. He slapped his horse across the shoulders with the reins to urge more speed out of him. He rode low in the saddle and matched his rhythm to the forward and back propulsion of his scrappy horse. He felt certain that he would gain on Lilia, but then eyed her in nonplussed wonder as Lilia and King jumped every bush and low-lying tree with the ease of the legendary Pegasus.

Jim raced after Lilia to watch over her to no avail. The other horses and riders behind Lilia held together in a tight pack, and entangled him and Rusty. Jim eased Rusty to the outside of the pack and pulled out of the race before he collided with another horse and rider. He prayed silently for Lilia’s safety.

Rick rounded the bush slightly ahead of Lilia and King when her enormous American Saddlebred coiled his muscles and suddenly sailed through space over the bush. The giant horse landed gracefully in front of the bush and kicked up his speed. Weeds hit Rick’s face as he yanked the reins of his horse with agile power before the two animals collided. He almost flew up over the head of his horse as his steed suddenly slowed his pace.

“Wa-ho-o-o-o-o!” howled Apelehama from the sidelines as the governor peered at Lilia in open-mouthed astonishment.

Deek drafted his horse behind Lilia in an effort to catch up with her as they approached the doughnut table, but then she bushwhacked him. She spun her magnificent animal on a dime, and headed around the back of the doughnut table instead. The doughnut distributor held a doughnut up in the air in each hand as the judge regarded the distributor and her hand-off. Lilia and King careened through the air over the head of the judge as Lilia leaned down and grabbed the doughnut out of the stunned distributor’s hand.

The judge bewailed with panicked horror, “A-h-h-h-h!” The judge apprehensively spied the front hooves flying over his head, and then the back hooves. He glimpsed up at Lilia and King as they pounced right in front of the table and cut off the other riders.

Deek and Rick watched with bug-eyed stupefaction at the stunt that she pulled to slow the other riders. This is why she’s a movie star, thought Rick. She’s larger than life.

“Holy Cow!” the governor deplored as he regarded Lilia and King with unabashed amazement. “She’s smokin’!” Papela and Mandy stared at Lilia and King with a dumbfounded disconnect as Lilia waved for a passel of cameras while in wild flight.

Jim held his breath and glued his eyes on her as she picked up even more speed. She rode so low and close to King’s neck that it appeared as if they were one. He eyed her raging pace and could imagine the adrenalin that coursed through her system as she burnt every ounce of energy at her disposal.

Deek thundered furiously after Lilia. He closed a small distance between them, and then the most unexpected thing happened. Lilia and King bounded over a large bush. As her weight lifted off the back of the horse, Lilia yanked on a strap to release her western saddle. It lurched out from under her and flew off King’s back with the force of a slingshot. The saddle hit the bush and somersaulted endlessly until it hit a tree.

Deek swerved to avoid the rolling saddle with wild-eyed astonishment. Cameras flashed all around Apelehama and his group from their vantage point as they watched the circus stunt that Lilia performed for their excitement.

“God help her,” Apelehama muttered under his breath with misgiving. Even he thought she might have gone too far.

Jim choked at Lilia’s release of the western saddle. He stared at her and King’s tempestuous display of unruliness, and here he thought that she had listened to him. Jim could see for himself that without the saddle, no one could stop Lilia and King. They pounded with such a blatant unrestrained pace towards the end of the leg that Jim felt certain that she and King traveled at least fifty miles an hour.

Lilia and King charged towards Derek, who eyed her furious pace approaching and hurriedly compensated for her speed by urging his horse faster than he originally practiced. Lilia and King roared towards Derek like a jet-propelled machine. She anticipated King’s speed in his approach and closed in on Derek and his horse. She flew past them, and whacked the pouch down across his saddle much to Derek’s staggered disbelief.

She screamed, “Hyah!” Derek’s horse jumped forward with stunned surprise and galloped rampantly away. “E-e-e-e-e, ha-a-a-a-a-aw!” Lilia howled all fired up with uncontrolled fervor. “Go, Derek!”

Lilia gently pulled back on King’s reins and allowed the over-sized horse to slow down at his own pace. They cantered in a wide circle and kicked up the red earth at the approaching pack. Lilia reined King off to the side and let the pack tear past her while King danced in the hold with the excitement of the other horses.

Deek expertly tossed his pouch up into the air to his team member who snatched it with agility. He cantered his wiry horse back towards Lilia hoping to talk to her, but her giant horse pranced like a Lipizzaner in the Spanish Riding School. The horse’s perfect and noble physique pawed his front legs high in the air and then reared again with exuberance, which held Deek at bay.

My assistant was right, thought Deek. I have never seen anyone more astonishing than Lilia on a horse. He peered at her, as if she were surreal.

When King’s feet landed solidly on the ground, Lilia bounced to her feet and stood up on King’s bare back. She circled the fence line in a rolling canter to the cheers of the spectators and waved to them. Cameras and cell phones clicked in every direction at Lilia “Annie Oakley” Christian as she gave them a spectacle unequaled in a Wild West Show.

Apelehama roared at the governor’s flabbergasted expression, and yowled, “What did you expect my old friend? She’s the granddaughter of a paniolo!”

“I’ve never in my life actually seen anyone ride like Lilia,” declared the governor in dumbfounded amazement.

“Where did she learn how to ride like that?” asked Papela with startled bewilderment.

“She taught herself!” Apelehama replied with a whoop, “She’s always been fearless!”

Apelehama, Mandy, Governor Kiakona, and Papela felt their blood course with excitement at the unadulterated ballsiness of youth, and they felt happy to be a part of it.

Mandy whooped out with uncharacteristic abandonment, “Go Lilia! That’s our girl!”

Deek shook his head with disbelief when he caught up to Lilia. He had a new-found respect for her, and would no longer address her with the moniker, “Toots.” Jim and Derek cantered up to Deek, and jerkily hauled to a stop next to him.

Deek blurted out with bushwhacked wonder. “Lilia needs someone to watch her back.”

Jim glanced at Deek with disdain and nodded his head in agreement, “You’re right Deek, but when she’s on horseback, how are you going to do that?”

Lilia continued to canter King in a circle as the majestic creature wound down and his breathing slowed. She dropped from her feet to King’s back. With complete control, she cantered King to Deek, Jim, and Derek, and pulled up to a halt as King lifted his front feet off the ground with agility. She said nothing, but the ear-to-ear smile of exhilaration on her face told them all that they needed to know.

Jim squalled at her with anger, “That was some stunt that you pulled back there, pipsqueak!” The hair stood up on the back of his neck when he recalled his reaction to the release of the saddle.

Rick galloped up and slid to a stop next to Jim, “Never, never, in all my days, have I seen anything like that! She sailed right over the head of the judge!” Rick yipped to Deek and Jim with incredulity, “Did you see that?”

“Thankfully no,” Jim shook his head with disgust.

NABE "Pinnacle Achievement Awards" of 2011

We were thrilled to hear the special news. Common Sense: Listening to the Spirit, the fourth book in the acclaimed Lilia Faith Christian series, won the North American Bookdealers Exchange (NABE) "Pinnacle Achievement Award" for 2011 in the category of "Juvenile Fiction."

Common Sense also was named as an "Award-Winning Finalist" for the "International Book Awards" in May of 2011 for the category of "Young Adult Fiction."

The Prankster Prowls

This is an excerpt from the novel "Providence: Leading of the Spirit":

Lilia snuck warily out to the tool-shed, quietly rolled the door open a couple of feet, and entered on her tiptoes. She lifted Jim’s tool belt off the hook on the wall, pulled the pliers out of its pocket, turned on the tiny two-way radio with a twenty-mile range, dropped it into the bottom of the pocket, and replaced the pliers back in the pocket carefully. She looked around for any sign of the men, silently closed the tool-shed door, and scampered to her grandpa’s end of the ranch house. When she heard hammering outside of her window, she glimpsed out to see Jim and Bill as they built the framing for one of the walls of the barn. She watched from behind the curtain in her bedroom as Jim laid down his hammer and handed Bill the next two-inch by four-inch piece of lumber. Jim and Bill held it in place while Jim reached back without looking and felt for his hammer with his free hand.

Lilia said into the little two-way radio, “A little to the left Jim.”

Jim glanced up and around and expected to see Lilia. “What the heck? I could have sworn I just heard Lilia’s voice. Did you hear it too Bill?” Jim asked with befuddlement.

“Nope Chief, I can’t say that I did,” Bill replied as he gazed at Jim curiously and wondered what was wrong with him. They nailed the board in place. “I’m getting hungry Jim, would you like to go to the ‘Blue Plate Special’ for lunch today, and give Millie a hard time?” Bill asked with a mischievous twinkle in his eye.

Lilia yelled into her two-way radio, “She won’t like that! You’ll get yourselves kicked out!”

“What the heck! That time I heard her voice, but how can that be? She’s nowhere in sight,” Bill declared as he and Jim peered around their environment to see if they had missed something. “It sounded like she stood right here!” Bill announced in a perplexed tone of voice as he wiped the sweat off his brow with his shirtsleeve.

Jim chuckled, “You don’t suppose we’ve finally spent enough time around Lilia that we’re now imagining her voice?” He shook his head back and forth at the thought of her ability to climb inside their heads.

“Don’t even suggest it!” Bill cried and shook it off like a wet dog shaking out his hair.

Jim and Bill returned to their work building the framing for the wall. Lilia said sweetly into the little radio, “Hey Jim, if you go to the ‘Blue Plate Special’ for lunch, can I go, too?”

Jim and Bill’s eyes quickly darted upward and peered around at any possible hiding places. Bill said with bewilderment, “Maybe she’s brainwashed or hypnotized us. You know how clever Lilia is. Remember when she made me sneeze time after time by mentally suggesting it?”

Jim shook his head again, “No Bill. She’s got to be hiding around here somewhere,” Jim said with complete confidence. He’d experienced enough of her pranks to predict her behavior. “Let’s look around.”

Bill searched behind the lumber pile while Jim trotted to the tool-shed. He didn’t find any sign of Lilia. He scuttled back to Bill, “Where do you think the little stinker is hiding?”

“Let’s look under the bellies of the horses in the paddock and see if we can spot any feet. Maybe she’s hiding behind one of them,” Bill said as he opened the paddock gate. Jim followed him in and closed the gate. They looked under the bellies of all twenty-three horses, and saw no telltale signs of Lilia. They checked under the bellies of all the cattle in the back paddock too just for good measure. Lilia peeped out from behind the curtain and observed their search with a deceitful giggle.

The little protagonist said sassily into the radio, “Hey Bill, I thought you said you were hungry!” Bill and Jim whipped around in a circle scouting for her, and then slammed right into each other. “You men look like two of the three stooges,” she teased them and sniggled with glee.

Bill whirled around as he tried to catch sight of her. He cried in a flustered voice, “It sounds as if she is standing right here!”

Jim’s head jerked sharply around as he said, “She probably borrowed a megaphone from the school Bill, to throw her voice.” He purposely walked to Jacob’s pickup truck and Francine’s car, and peeked inside of each one of them, but he didn’t find Lilia. “I must be going crazy,” Jim said to Bill with frustrated discomposure. He slapped his forehead with the heel of his hand to knock himself out of his unfocused haze.

Lilia squealed into the little radio right on cue, “You’ve always been crazy Jim! What are you talking about?”

Jim speedily spun in a circle to see if he could catch her somehow. “What’s going on here Lilia?” Jim demanded as he talked to her ghost.

“Why whatever did you mean Jim? Are you hearing voices in your head?” Lilia goaded him as she taunted him further.

Jim slapped his hands together with impatience, and pressed his lips tight with annoyance. Bill could tell that Jim’s ire had shown up. “Check the tops of the vehicles Bill,” Jim ordered with exasperation. Jim climbed up on the running board of Lilia’s Jeep and viewed an empty luggage rack.

Bill hopped up on the running board of Jacob’s pickup truck, but found nothing but some fallen leaves. “This is wigging me out Jim!” Bill yowled with thwarted success.

“Don’t put anything past the imp Bill. She’s got to be around here somewhere!” Jim pounded the side of the Jeep with his fist as his angst built.

“We should check the tops of our trucks too Jim,” Bill said feeling baffled, “if you want to be thorough.” Bill jogged to his pickup truck, bounded up on the running board, and found nothing.

Jim followed the same routine as Lilia yowled into the miniature radio, “Catch me! Catch me, if you can!” Jim eyed his surroundings carefully while his anxiety at her distraction from their work escalated to a level of infuriated rage.

“We’re going to get to the bottom of this dilemma. Let’s go ask Mandy,” Jim said as he stomped to the back door of the ranch house and rapped on the door.

Mandy opened the door and asked, “What can I do for you, men?”

“Is Lilia here?” Jim asked Mandy with a frown.

“Yes Jim, she’s working back in her bedroom.” Mandy noticed his foul mood and replied cautiously.

Bill alertly took over before Jim lost his temper. He said, “Do you mind if we see for ourselves?”

“No, go ahead,” she replied as she stretched out her arm and hand in an invitation to them, and wondered why Jim seemed so peevish. Jim clomped down the hall, and rapped on Lilia’s door with vengeance.

“Come in!” Lilia cried sweetly with a snicker.

Jim and Bill entered her bedroom and witnessed Lilia, who sat at her desk and worked on her computer, “Hi fellas, what’s up?” She looked up at them with eyes as innocent as a lamb’s. Jim gazed at Bill, and Bill gazed back at Jim and they both felt confounded.

“What’s going on here?” Jim demanded hotly. He planted his fists on his hips and stared Lilia down.

She answered as she typed her measurements into the computer. “I’m designing an ice skating rink Jim. I’d like to start another children and young people’s ministry. Do you like to ice skate Jim?” She looked up at Jim, blinked her eyes blamelessly, and maintained her naiveté.

Bill burst forth laughing at the irony of the situation and yipped, “She’s designing an ice skating rink Chief!” He bent over with laughter and held his bouncing belly at Lilia’s deception.

Jim’s state of exasperation reached a new pitch. “Lilia, you’d better come clean right now!” He spat out at her and expected her to tell him immediately.

“I already took a shower Jim. Do I smell or something?” She gazed up at him with an accusing look, which said that she felt insulted. Bill sat down on the bed and flopped back with laughter at her response.

“You stink!” Jim snapped out as he peered down his nose at her and eyed her with suspicion. He slammed his hand down on her desk to get her full attention.

“Well, you’re certainly in a nasty mood today Jim! Why are you taking it out on me?” She asked with umbrage while her mouth pouted downward.

“Yeah, Chief,” Bill roared with laughter and rolled over on his side. “Why are you taking it out on her?”

“Hey, maybe we should go to the ‘Blue Plate Special’ for lunch! That might cheer you up, Jim,” she said as she reached for her purse.

“What a novel idea Jim, why don’t we go to the ‘Blue Plate Special’?” Bill howled through his tears of laughter. He sat up and attempted to compose himself. Jim whirled around in vexation and stomped down the hallway.