Connie

Connie Kendall bursts into Whit's End with news she has waited a long time to share. School has let out for the holidays, her mother has finally said yes, and the bus ticket she has been holding for a year is about to be used. She is going to California to see her father. There is only one thing standing in the way, and that is her boss, so she asks John Avery Whittaker for the time off. Whit gives it to her without hesitation, then reaches for a Help Wanted sign to hang in the front window. Connie is startled. Whit only smiles and tells her that whether the job is truly hers when she returns will be up to her.

Tom Riley stops in and spots the sign. He remembers that Connie tried this once before, the summer a tornado tore through Odyssey, wrecked the shop, and sent Whit to the hospital with eighteen stitches. Tom had assumed all that would settle her down for good. Whit knows better. Connie has never lost her restlessness, and since Karen died it has come back stronger than ever. Connie is certain that whatever is nagging at her can be fixed by a change of address. Whit is not, and he admits he is afraid of the old friends and old habits waiting for her out west. Tom reminds him that God can just as easily use the trip to strengthen what has already taken root, and the two men pray that Connie's journey will turn into a spiritual one - an odyssey of her own.

The bell over the door announces an unusual visitor. Eugene Meltsner introduces himself as a science student and, in all modesty, a recognized genius from Campbell County Community College. His professor has sent him to study under Whit for class credit. Eugene uses roughly four words where one would do, leaving Tom completely lost, but the timing is perfect and Whit hires him for the holidays. That very night Eugene begins listing improvements: a computer program to run the model trains, better ice cream service, smarter displays upstairs. Whit heads home wondering what his shop will look like in the morning.

At home, Connie finishes packing while her mother, June, wonders aloud why her daughter is so eager to leave. Connie tries to explain. Odyssey has good people in it, but she feels buried there, stifled by all the church talk and the gentle hints that she ought to become a Christian. In California nobody will push, and she can be whoever she wants to be. June asks a quiet question that Connie cannot answer: who is that, exactly? Connie says she guesses she will find out.

Whit keeps his promise and meets her at the bus station at half past six. There are hugs, reminders to call, and an early Christmas present that Connie is told to open on the bus. It is a Bible. As bus 23 pulls away, Whit tells her that he loves her and that God loves her even more.

Two days on the road bring two conversations. First a girl bound for Denver notices the Bible, dismisses it as old fashioned rules, and declares that she is a good person who can fix her own faults. The words sound uncomfortably familiar, and Connie remembers Whit explaining that patching the outside is like treating symptoms while ignoring the disease, and that real change starts when God renews a person from within. Then, in the dark before dawn, Connie wakes beside Audrey Nelson, who has boarded at Barstow after burying her sister. Audrey misses her terribly and does not understand why God took her, yet she trusts him anyway. Connie remembers asking Whit the same kind of question about Karen and hearing him admit that some things are simply beyond understanding. Half joking, Connie suggests Whit arranged for her to sit next to a Christian. Audrey tells her the arranging belongs to someone greater, and promises to pray for her. As the bus rolls into Los Angeles, Audrey welcomes her back to California, and Connie steps off with butterflies in her stomach and a great deal to think about.