Black Clouds

As Connie and Joanne drive toward Virginia, a violent storm overtakes them. Connie urges Joanne to turn back or stop for lunch, but Joanne is confident they can continue until a fallen branch nearly causes an accident. Shaken but unharmed, they take shelter at a lonely roadside diner.

The diner belongs to Ethel, a widow whose late husband spent their savings on a restaurant he expected a new interstate to pass. The road was built elsewhere, leaving Ethel with little business beyond lost travelers. She welcomes the soaked women with exclamations made from presidents' names, though a posted minimum purchase means Connie must order something whether she is hungry or not.

A drenched girl named Lindy enters from the storm and tries to leave almost immediately. She warns the women that she brings bad luck. When lightning strikes the diner and destroys the electrical system, Lindy treats it as proof. The phones fail, Connie's cell phone has no signal, and no one can call for help.

Lindy first says that her father is waiting beside a broken car, but her story changes when the women prepare to rescue him. She admits that she has never met her father and believes she frightened him away by being born. Promising to explain everything, she goes to the pay bathroom and slips out the back with a suitcase.

Connie chases Lindy through the rain. Rather than let the girl wander alone, she promises to stop asking questions if Lindy returns to the diner until the storm ends. Lindy reluctantly agrees, and Ethel offers melting ice cream so that everyone can make sundaes before it spoils.

Another crash outside strengthens Lindy's belief that every disaster is her fault. She says her mother worked two jobs, grew exhausted, and became angry whenever Lindy's accidents caused more trouble. Now her mother is dead, and Lindy believes God has made her unlucky and hates her. Connie, Joanne, and Ethel reject that idea without denying how painful her life has been.

To help Lindy see misfortune differently, Connie creates an imaginary version of the Imagination Station with the diner's chairs. The women act out Noah's obedience as he builds the ark while his neighbors mock him. Even after the rain begins, Noah and his family must endure a year of hard work, tossing waves, crowded animals, and uncertainty before reaching dry land.

Connie explains that Noah could have considered himself terribly unlucky, yet he trusted God's goodness. People see only part of what is happening, while God sees how the whole picture fits together. Connie does not claim that Lindy's suffering is painless; she asks her to consider that hardship and hopelessness are not proof that God has rejected her.

As Lindy plays a game with Ethel, her foster mother arrives after searching with the entire neighborhood. Lindy's mother has died of leukemia, and Lindy has passed through five foster homes before this one. Afraid that her newest family will eventually tire of her accidents, she has run away first to spare them the trouble of sending her elsewhere.

Her foster mother tells her that she has prayed for a girl like Lindy and considers her an answer to prayer. The family has already asked the state to let Lindy remain with them permanently. Broken dishes, damaged appliances, and spilled paint do not change that desire. Lindy finally agrees to return home.

The clouds part, revealing a rainbow, although Joanne's car remains buried in mud until a tow truck can arrive. Ethel turns the melting sundaes into milkshakes and prepares to empty her refrigerator for her unexpected guests. Joanne tells Connie that, for a while, the lonely diner felt like Whit's End. Connie has passed along the compassion and trust she has learned there.