Saucer was a boy Serenity had met in the chat room several weeks ago. When he'd uploaded a picture of his face to her, the color of his skin made Serenity think of a milk chocolate bar, and his eyes-big and round-resembled a saucer. "A chocolate-brown saucer," she'd giggled to Cookie. And so that's what she called him.

She knew her parents would not like her talking to a boy-especially one that she met online. But Saucer was always saying lots of nice stuff to her, and he even wanted to take her shopping and buy her pretty things.

The screen name, iluvhotgurlz13, suddenly popped up on the screen. "Ooh," Serenity squealed, "there he is!"

Cookie looked at the time showing on the bottom of the computer screen. "Hurry up," she said. "You don't have much time!"

Serenity sat down and started typing.

Serenity2cute_13: Hey iluvhotgurlz13: Hey 2 cute :) how r u?

Serenity2cute_13: Fine :) iluvhotgurlz13: I bet u r lol. When r u gonna send me a pic?

Serenity2cute_13: idk soon, lol iluvhotgurlz13: U don't kno when?

Serenity looked at Cookie. "What should I say?"

Before Cookie could answer, a message popped up.

iluvhotgurlz13: u should meet me at the mall "Ooh!" Cookie squealed. Serenity's mouth opened wide.

Serenity2cute_13: lol, my mom's not gonna let me go 2 the mall iluvhotgurlz13: u cant go 2 the brookridge mall?

Serenity2cute_13: nope iluvhotgurlz13: what r u? a baby? lol Serenity2cute_13: I aint no baby iluvhotgurlz13: jus tell ur mom u going to the library or sumthin. We might end up there, lol Cookie stood next to Serenity, looking over her shoulder. "Yeah, that's a good idea," she said as she pulled her gum halfway out of her mouth and began twirling it around her finger. "And tell him he can see what you look like when y'all meet."

"I don't know," Serenity said to Cookie with a worried look on her face.

"What? You scared?" Cookie asked.

"No," Serenity said rolling her eyes.

"Then what?"

Serenity turned her attention back to the computer.

Serenity2cute_13: wen?

There was no activity on the screen.

"What happened?" Cookie asked.

Serenity looked at the bottom of the chat box and saw "iluvhotgirlz13 is typing . . ."

"He's typing," she said.

"Well, he better hurry up. My dad put a timer on this computer, and it's gonna go off at seven thirty."

"Seven thirty?"

"Yep. So we ain't got much time. It's seven twenty-five now."

The girls continued to wait for Saucer to finish typing. Cookie put the finger with the twirled gum on it into her mouth and pulled the gum off with her teeth. She looked at the time on the computer, and then glanced toward her bedroom door. "Come on," she started rotating her hand in a circular motion. Finally, he responded.

iluvhotgurlz13: The mall is gonna be crowded, lol. How bout u meet me across the street?

Serenity2cute_13: where?

iluvhotgurlz13: on the parking lot in front of that pizza restaurant that closed down Cookie looked at the clock on the computer. It read seven twenty-eight. "The computer's gonna shut down," she said.

Serenity quickly typed her response.

Serenity2cute_13: wen?

iluvhotgurlz13: Sunday "You gotta get off," Cookie said.

Serenity2cute_13: g2g Serenity signed out of the chat room. The two girls looked at each other and giggled.

"You gonna meet him for real?" Cookie asked as the timer began shutting down the computer.

"Maybe," Serenity said. She began swirling around in the chair and almost knocked the lamp off the desk.

"Be careful, Serenity, dang!" Cookie said catching the lamp just as it began to fall.

"Sorry," Serenity said as she got up from the computer and went into the bathroom to wash her face. A few minutes later, she returned with a youthful face void of all makeup. She put on her coat, and then walked over to where she'd left the fashion magazine and picked it up. "Can I take this home with me?"

"I don't care," Cookie said. "But bring it back."

"Thanks," Serenity said, tripping on the edge of the rug as she opened the bedroom door to leave.

Cookie rolled her eyes. "Girl, if you gon' be a fashion model you better stop all that trippin'. You gon' kill yourself before you even get started."

"Whatever," she said as they both went downstairs.

They entered the living room where Cookie's parents, Tony and Shari, were sitting next to each other on the love seat.

"Hey," Shari said. "What have you young ladies been up to on your day off?"

"Nothing," Cookie replied. "Just hanging out."

"How was your day, Mrs. Wiles?" Serenity asked.

"It was okay. I had to work a little later than usual but it was fine." Shari rose from the couch. "Did you want to stay for dinner?"

"No, thank you," Serenity said. "I think my mom probably wants me home now."

"Okay. Well, tell her I said hi."

"I will." Serenity turned to look at Cookie. "See ya later."

"See ya," Cookie said as she closed the door.

Serenity knew Cookie was only joking about her clumsiness, still it made her heart sting to be teased about it. She pulled her hood over her head as she carefully walked down the steps and headed to her house across the street.

Homer signed out of the chat room and stood up. He looked out his bedroom window and rubbed the back of his neck as he watched Serenity walk past his house. The skinny jeans she wore clung tightly to her long slender legs, and he estimated her to be around thirteen or fourteen years old-the same age as the girl he'd been chatting online with earlier.

Homer liked meeting young girls in chat rooms, and out of all the chat rooms he visited, teen2teen.com was his favorite. He could be anybody he wanted to be, and they never questioned him. Sometimes, he would send a picture of a handsome seventeen-year-old boy to the girls and tell them it was him. Other times, he pretended to be a young girl who was the same age as they were.

It was all in good fun and the bonus came when some of the young girls agreed to meet him at different locations. They were so gullible. Or were they? Homer believed some of the girls knew just what they were doing and were just playing the game along with him. No one could be that nave, he thought, teenager or not.

Like the young girl he had just finished chatting with-the picture he'd sent her had been of a boy clearly older than the eighteen years Homer had said he was. Still, the girl in all her eagerness had believed him without question. Homer was looking forward to meeting this one. He had special plans for her.

Chapter Ten.

Shari looked at Cookie as she closed the door behind Serenity. "Do you have any homework?"

"Yep."

"Is it done?"

Cookie shrugged.

Shari shook her head. "What does that mean?"

"I'm gonna do it."

"Uh, excuse me. Don't you have school tomorrow?"

"I'm gonna do it right after dinner, Ma," Cookie said as she headed for the kitchen.

"All right," Shari said in a tone that implied harsh consequences if Cookie didn't get it done.

Shari turned her attention to her husband who was scrolling through job postings on a career Web site. She knew his focus was not on the conversation she and Cookie had been having. At that moment, she knew his focus was on finding a full-time job in his field as an alcohol and other drug abuse counselor.

Funding for the Christian-based treatment center where Tony worked had been decreased. As a result, the center had to let some employees go. Many of the counselors were kept, but their hours had been decreased and Tony was one of them. He stayed on because a part-time job was better than no job at all. But their bills were piling up, and he needed to start looking for full-time employment.

Tony's hope was to find a counseling position with another Christian-based treatment center. As a born-again Christian and a member of the First Temple Church, he wanted to continue sharing the Word of G.o.d with those dealing with addiction. And a counseling position at a Christian-based treatment center would allow him to freely do so.

Tony knew that an addict could not fight the demons of addiction alone, and he didn't want his clients to stop at the recovery mark. He wanted them to be permanently delivered-just as he had been. He could testify that G.o.d was the ultimate deliverer because He had delivered him from an addiction to crack cocaine twenty-two years ago. And he had been clean ever since.

As is the case with any addict, it had not been Tony's intention to become one. He didn't have a sad story to tell. There were no horrific episodes of child abuse, no neglect, or extreme poverty. There was nothing he could blame for the poor choices he'd made other than just that-the choices he'd made.

He had grown up in a two-parent household. His mother and father had raised him to know Jesus, and had loved and nurtured him along with his two older sisters. But Tony had been a follower not of Jesus but of the wrong crowd. When he was eighteen years old, he allowed the negative behavior of his friends to rub off on him, and he became a rebel without a cause.

Whatever his cohorts did, he did. He became a thief, a liar, and when he foolishly experimented with crack cocaine, he became an addict. And the unpretentious life he'd once lived was disrupted for five years.

Unfortunately, Tony's life had not been the only life he'd disrupted. His parents and sisters suffered right along with him; their days and nights filled with untold anxiety each time he went on a binge and disappeared for days at a time.

"Can't you see what you're doing to your mother?" his father had asked pointing to her shrinking body. Tony's mother had always been a full-figured woman, but the worrying she did about the safety of her son had caused her to slowly lose weight.

He still remembered the day his father had lost patience with him and had forbidden him to come back to their house.

"We didn't raise you this way," he'd said full of anger. "If you want some help, act like it and we'll help you. If you don't, stop coming around here worrying your mother like you do."

Tony's two sisters understood the ways of a crack addict as well, and although they loved him dearly, they were wise enough not to let him take advantage of their emotions which even he admitted he would have done had he been given the opportunity.

When he'd asked if he could stay with either one of them, they'd both said, "No."

"Clean up your act!" they'd yelled between tears. "Get it together!"

He remembered standing in front of them wondering why they were crying. He should have been the one crying because what they hadn't understood was that he didn't have the power to get it together. He couldn't clean up his act. He'd tried. Many times.

He'd uttered prayers to G.o.d for deliverance. But they had been heartless prayers because his thoughts had been consumed with how and when he could get his next high before the high he was on wore off. Back then, the longest Tony had gone without using had been two days.

While he was in bondage to his addiction Tony had done some things he wasn't proud of-like the time he'd s.n.a.t.c.hed an elderly woman's purse from her shoulder. He'd been following behind her as she'd walked slowly down the sidewalk. When she stopped at the crosswalk, he ran past her, s.n.a.t.c.hing her purse as he pa.s.sed.

He had pulled the purse from her shoulder with so much force that he'd caused her to fall forward, hitting her head on the pavement. But he hadn't looked back as he'd heard her scream, and he'd been gone before anyone had a chance to catch him or identify him.

Later that night, he remembered watching the news and hearing the story about an elderly woman who'd had her purse s.n.a.t.c.hed, and how she'd suffered a concussion and a broken arm in the process.

There had only been fourteen dollars in her purse, and for a long time afterward, Tony would hear the woman's screams even after he had consumed enough drugs to eradicate any sensitivities he may have had left. Sometimes, he would have drug-induced auditory hallucinations, and he couldn't tell if the screams he heard were that of the woman or of himself.

It wasn't until he found himself homeless and rummaging through garbage cans for food that he began to have a true change of heart. It was then that he earnestly called on the name of the Lord for deliverance. And it was then, prodigal son that he was, that G.o.d heard his cries and had mercy on him.

Now, twenty-two years later, his family had long forgiven him, but every now and then he caught himself momentarily wishing he could undo the hurt and pain he'd caused them.

After he'd been delivered and set free from his addiction, Tony discovered there were still consequences he would have to pay for the crimes of petty theft he'd committed and been convicted of.

"Along with rest.i.tution," the judge had said, "I'm ordering you to forty hours of community service. You may not have the money to pay back everyone right now, but you certainly have plenty of time to volunteer." He had slammed the gavel down on the pad, then stood up to leave. "Now get out of my courtroom and go make yourself useful," he'd said as he stepped down from the bench. "Make something out of yourself other than a thief or a hoodlum."

The comment had stuck with Tony. It could have been his own father talking to him, and it had been like a slap in the face.

The forty hours of community service had involved picking up debris and litter that had been scattered around the city. It was during this time that Tony's upbringing returned to him. He knew G.o.d had spared him from a far worse fate, and Tony realized he had not been spared just to complete his forty hours of service, and then mosey on about his business.

He had a story to tell and-if he stayed clean-a testimony. He realized his life could be an inspiration to other people going through the same thing he'd gone through, and after he had fulfilled all of the judge's requirements, he had enrolled in college. He obtained a degree in human services and had been working as a certified substance abuse counselor ever since.

He continued browsing through the list of jobs on the Web site.

"Find anything good yet?" Shari asked.

"Not yet." He pressed his wavy, cropped hair down onto the nape of his neck. "Still looking."

"Are you feeling better?" she asked.