Fame (40 page)

FLOW.

On a personal note, our children are growing like weeds! This fall Donald is taking some time off work to homeschool our five boys. The goal is to take the same six hours that they used to be in a classroom and train them to excel in academics, athletics’

and character. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and seizing the chance.

Kelsey remains involved in high school theater, and dance—just like Tyler.

Our home continues to be a place where young people a safe spot where they can learn about God and see love rno%l,d in a dozen ways.

We are humbly grateful that the Lord keel, ing us in this way.

As always, I love hearing from you, Please write to me a, y Web site, www.KarenKingsbury.com, or at my e-mail add,,ss: [email protected]. I appreciate all your prayers, comments and feedback, and I will always lift you up to the Lord as I go back

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to my laptop, looking for what God would have me bring you next.

Until we meet again, in His light and love, 343

Discussion Questions

Use these questions for individual reflection or for discussion with a book club or other small group. They will help you not only understand some of the issues in Fame but also integrate some of the book’s messages into your own life.

1. What issues is Dayne struggling with in Fame?

2. What are some of the difficulties of living a celebrity life? Which of these were new to you after reading this book?

3. How do you think you would handle a celebrity life?

4. Why does our culture hold actors, actresses, etc., in such high esteem?

5. What are the dangers of this way of thinking?

6. Explain the connection between movies, media, and the desire by many people to be famous.

7. What are some of the ways we have been hurt as a soci ety because of our fascination with celebrity and fame?

8. How do the celebrity life and the admiration of the ce lebrity life conflict with living a life for God?

9. What does the Bible say about self-worship or celebrity? Use a concordance and search out three verses.

10. Based on Scripture, what are some cautious we should use while living in a society so taken by celebrity?

11. Explain how God was attempting to get Dayne’s atten tion throughout Fane.

12. Why was Katy drawn to the audition in Hollywood and led to almost take the part in Dayne’s movie?

13. Explain a time when something crept into your life that would’re been harmful to you and your faith.

14. How did God get your attention?

15. How did God get Katy’s attention? What were the turning points that convinced Katy to return to Bloomington?

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16. Have you ever been tempted to be a “stage mom,” the way Alice Stryker was with her daughter?

17. Why do you think parents fall into that mindset?

18. In what ways did Alice Stryker’s behavior damage her daughter?

19. Dayne begins to have a fascination with Kabbalah, a cultlike religion currently popular in Hollywood. Why are people drawn to false religions where they can be their own god?

20. Do you think John Baxter should keep the secret about his firstborn son? Why or why not?

345 Turn the page for an exciting preview of F O R G I V E N

the second book in the FIRSTBORN SERIES by Karen Kingsbury Available fall 2005

ISBN 0-8,23-87.-7 www.tyndalefiction.˘om

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347 From

F O R G I V E N

by Karen Kingsbury

T H E A s w E s w E e inside the brown paper sack. At least that’s what everyone was telling him.

Dayne Matthews carried the bag inside, set it on his kitchen counter, and took a deep breath. Kelly would be gone until t morrow, visiting her agent in New York City. Dayne had ;all night to sort through his questions, all night to catch evepa a glimpse of the peace he was missing.

He opened the bag and pulled out a thick, heavy, book: Kabbalah—Becoming Your Own God.

Dayne ran his fingers over the cover. He’d gone to the Hol wood Kabbalah center a few times, and earlier today he’d stopF, ed by and purchased the book. The Kabbalah bible. He was starti: ng to understand the stuff, and now that he’d gotten past the guilt, past the nagging inner voice accusing him of turning his back on his parents’ faith, he was ready to dive deeper.

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A man in a vhite shirt and white pants had been working behind the counter. He didn’t seem to recognize Dayne, but then dozens of celebrities attended the center. Famous actors probably didn’t impress the guy. Why would they, when enlightenment meant shedding worldly values, exchanging them for a higher level of consciousness?

Dayne had set the book on the counter. “This is it, right? The big book?”

The man smiled, an otherworldly smile. “The answers to life are between the covers of that book,”

That’s all Dayne needed to hear. At this point in his life, he was all questions and no answers. None at all. He was living with his current leading lady, Kelly Parker, but he didn’t love her. Didn’t love her and didn’t want to break up with her. Filming for the movie Dream On started in three weeks. Cut it off with Kelly now and they could forget having any chemistry on camera.

Dayne flipped the book over and read the inside back cover. An italicized section at the top of the page said, Are you lacking peace? Does traditional religion leave you empty and searching? Come to the oldest truths in the world, the truths that trtdy set .you

f

ree.

That’s what he was missing. Freedom.

He was trapped in his life, locked in with no way out. Not in the situation with Kelly; not with, his biological family, the Baxters. They knew nothing about him because he needed to keep it that way. Otherwise the paparazzi would take away their freedom the way they’d taken his.

And what about his anger? The way he’d gone from a relaxed sort of guy who didn’t get bothered by much to being mad all the time. Mad at his parents for sending him away to a boarding school so they could traipse around the Indonesian jungle telling people about Jesus. Mad that they died in a plane crash when he was only eighteen. And mad that he’d lived without any faro 349

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ily for the next eighteen years, when the whole time he had biological parents and siblings living in Bloomington, Indiana.

That was another thing. He was mad that his parents hadn’t explained the whole adoption thing to him. It wasn’t enough to tell a little kid that some other mother gave birth to him. What was he supposed to make of that? If he hadn’t run into Luke Baxter at his attorney’s office more than a year ago, he never would’ve known who his biological mother was at all.

But he knew now, and because of the photographers—the parasites that stayed within breathing distance of him at all times—the Baxters might as well not exist. And that made him mad too. But nothing made him angrier than the stalker who had attacked him a couple of months ago, the lunatic fan who thought she was married to him. The woman’s case was going to trial soon, and he’d have to see her again. Sit across from her while he took the witness stand. The jury better throw the book at her.

He pictured her, the way she’d jumped out of the bushes, grabbing Katy Hart and holding a knife to her throat. After that there was no way Katy would take the starring role Dayne had offered her. She couldn’t wait to get back to Bloomington, the place where he’d found her.

The girl had captured his heart and mind and soul. He sighed and stared out the window at the ocean in his backyard. Katy Hart. Even now he couldn’t forget about her.

A week ago something happened that reminded him of how her memory had become part of him. His housekeeper was out sick for three days, and Dayne tried his hand at a load of laundry. Hidden among a washer full of his white Tshirts was a pair of red Ohio State running shorts. By the time Dayne returned to the washing machine, every one of his white shirts was pink.

In a hurry to fix the problem, he grabbed one of the Tshirts and ran it under cold water. He scrubbed it with his hands and then with a washcloth and finally with a wire brush. He could

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get the pink out and make the shirt white again, he figured, if he rubbed hard enough, if he worked at it, if he put an extra dose of effort into the job. But it was impossible. The red had become

part of the white, woven into every fiber.

That’s how it was with Katy Hart.

She was there when he woke up and waiting for him when he lay down at night.

Sure, he had hours when she didn’t come to mind, but then she’d rush back in.

Never mind that she hadn’t returned his phone calls or made any contact with him since she returned to Bloomington. Forget the fact that he’d probably never see her again. She was there; nothing he could do about it.

He looked at the back page of the Kabbalah book again. Truths that would set him free? Yeah. He needed freedom, all right. Plenty of it. Freedom from his anger and guilt and obses sion with Katy.

And maybe fieedom from Kelly Parker too. Living with her was like living a lie, waking up beside her every morning, parrot ing I love you’s every night. When they were done with the film, he’d tell her goodbye. She’d be fine. Her next leading man was only a film away.

The thing was, he didn’t want to wait until they were done filming. Especially when they’d be spending the first two weeks on location in the place he’d pushed for, the place he felt would give the best picture of a small town. The one location where he didn’t want a girlfriend hanging on his arm.

Bloomington, Indiana.

Ashley Baxter Blake had to talk to her husband.

Only Landon could fully understand the importance of the information in her hand. Information that would change all of their lives. But on this fall day, Landon and Cole, their son, were

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at Lake Monroe, taking advantage of the sort of Indian summer day Bloomington was famous for.

But this was the sort of news that couldn’t wait until they came home—good day or not. Of course, Cole didn’t need to find outJnot right away. But Landon? He deserved to know as soon as possible. She stared at the information, tried to absorb the reality of what it meant to all of them. But especially what it would mean to Landon.

He’d stood by her as far back as she could remember, through her darkest days when she was alone and pregnant with Cole, in the days following September 11

when everything in their worlds felt upside down, and even when her health was in desperate jeopardy.

Landon had been there through all of it.

She made the decision quickly—the way she made most of her decisions. Without stopping to tidy up the kitchen or check her look in the mirror or make sure every door was locked. She snatched her car keys from the kitchen desk, hooked her purse on her forearm, and hurried out to her car.

The information was still in her hand, the way it would stay until she reached the lake. On the ride there, she fought tears, refusing them because it wouldn’t be right to be crying when she found him. They could cry later, together.

When she finally pulled into the parking lot at the lake, she parked and ran lightly down the path to the water’s edge, where she saw them. The shaded backs of Landon and Cole, sitting on the old red ice chest, the one with the plastic hinges and the crack along the right side.

She slowed her steps, and when she was ten yards from them she stopped and took in the picture. Landon, tall with muscled shoulders, elbows resting on his thighs, the fishing pole in front of him, and Cole, his blond hair sticking out from beneath his baseball cap.

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never got tired of watching the way Cole thrived in Landon’s presence. She closed her eyes, and for a moment she let the breeze off the lake wash over her.

A single deep breath and she stared at the information one more time. It was really there, shouting up at her that everything was about to change, Even the picture of Cole and Landon in front of her. She took another step, and a few early fallen leaves crunched beneath her feet.

Landon turned around. “Ashley.” His smile lit up his face. “You came!”

She hid the information in her hand behind her back. “I, uh ..” Think, Ashley, think of something to say. “It was too nice to stay home.”

Cole turned around, and as he did he dropped his fishing pole. “Mommy!” He scrambled off the ice chest, ran up to her, and flung his arms around her waist.

“I caught a fish! It wasn’t the biggest guy in the lake, but Daddy says we can keep it and eat it for dinner!” He tugged on her arm, leading her closer to the water, and pointed at a string of fish anchored on the shore. “See it! It’s the very first one, the one with the little rainbows on it.”

“Wow, Coley!” She stooped down, careful to keep her hand hidden from both of her guys. “He’s perfect for dinner.”

Cole puffed out his chest. “That’s what Daddy said.”

Ashley turned to Landon. “So.. 2’ She couldn’t last much lon ger. Not only did he deserve to know, but she couldn’t feign con versation when all she could think about was sharing the news. She did a light shrug and gestured up the hill toward the parking lot and the kids’ playground adjacent to it. “Could you two fish ermen take a break so Cole could play on the swings?”

Landon must’ve read her eyes, because his smile faded. He looked at her as if to say, What, Ashley? What is it now? But none of that came from his mouth. Instead he gave a slow nod and looked at Cole. “Let’s leave our gear for a few minutes, buddy. Okay?”

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“Yeah, but the fishes are right here in this area, right, Daddy? You said that, right?”

“Right.” Landon set his pole down on the ground. He winked at Cole. “But here’s the secret—the fish are always right here.”

Cole’s expression fell a little, but he found his smile as they started up the hill. “Maybe we’ll catch a bigger fish ‘cause this way the fishes will all get tricked that we’re leaving.”