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became moody and withdrawn, always trying to find some excuse to
stay away from the crowd. No matter how hard we tried to be nice
to him, he only seemed to grow worse, and so we gave up. Then the
weekends were horrible. He didn't drive "The Chariot" anymore.
The car sat in the garage, no tires at all on its forlorn-looking rims,
my ribbon looking like a pup's dejected ears after a firm reproach
from his master.

And so the weeks passed-all of us moping around because we
missed Johnny's bright smile and his "ready and willing to help" atti-
tude. We knew he was terribly upset about his arm, but we couldn't
understand why he had changed so much. It just wasn't like him to
give up. Where was his strong trust and faith in God?

Eddie Walker, Johnny's closest friend, tried continually to con-
vince Johnny that if he could raise his arm, he could certainly swim
with it, but Johnny just shrugged and walked away. I remember see-
ing him standing by the swimming pool one day. From all around
came the bumping sound of the diving board and the cries of the gang
echoing over the splashing of the water. Johnny's face contorted al-
most as if he were in pain. He could even smell the chemical in the
water, an odor that before had been a sweet fragrance to him. Now
since his automobile accident, all this made a lump in his throat and
an ache in his chest that he tried vainly to ease with rebellious anger.
My heart went out to him. However, before I could reach him, he had
turned away, but not before I heard him say bitterly, "I really have
let them down, but who ever heard of a champion swimmer with one
good arm and a crooked one for the other?"

It was at a church meeting several weeks later that the first glim-
mer of hope arose in Johnny. The final words of the speech brought
him some strange consolation-"But with God all things are possible."
Johnny found his thoughts busy on this. He had begun to think no
one cared anymore-not even God. How could he have forgotten that
little phrase that he had so often told the other kids, "God cares so
much for all of us that He allies Himself with us if we just ask?" After
the meeting when I looked over at Johnny, I found him sitting there
in a trance, and upon his face was the most peaceful expression I had
ever seen. Suddenly he jumped from the seat, grabbed my arm, and
we headed for the door. "Would you drive me down to the ocean?"
"Of course," I said, and without another word we drove in complete
silence to the beach.

It was sunset when we finally arrived. The beach was closed to,
bathers after five, so we found ourselves in a world untenanted by

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