Connie

Sunshine, sand, and salt water surround Connie Kendall as she stretches out on a California beach beside her old friend Marcy. She has been in the state a week, and she tells Marcy she could live like this forever. Yet every few minutes her thoughts drift a couple of thousand miles east, to a small town called Odyssey where it is probably snowing. Marcy teases her that she cannot go five minutes without mentioning the place, and then says something that sticks: Connie has changed. Connie turns the word over and over while Marcy walks off to buy a Coke.

Her mind wanders back to a rainy afternoon at Debbie's house, where a friend who once invited her everywhere admitted she had stopped asking. Connie was always at Whit's End, or off with a group of kids from church, and the old crowd had begun to whisper that she was getting religious. Debbie did not invite her to stay.

Marcy returns with the Coke and more news. Pamela, once the wildest girl in their group, has become what Marcy calls a religious freak. Then Marcy dangles an invitation: a big party that night at Richard's house in Beverly Hills, no parents, nobody watching. When Connie hesitates and says she is not sure it is a good idea, Marcy laughs that the sun must be getting to her.

Back in Odyssey, Tom Riley nearly jumps out of his skin when a harsh buzzer greets him at the door of Whit's End. Eugene has replaced the friendly little bell, computerized the train set, and built a machine that scoops ice cream at the push of a button. Whit admits the shop feels strangely empty, and the kids have been grumbling that they never get to run the trains themselves. Tom gently suggests Whit consider what is happening to his shop. Whit also shares a postcard from Connie, which mentions, oddly, a Christian woman she met on a bus. The two friends decide the best thing they can do is pray.

In California, Connie drops in on Pamela and finds her cheerful, honest, and completely changed. Pamela invites her to a bonfire on the beach and presses directions into her hand just in case. Connie protests that it all feels like a conspiracy, with people in Odyssey, on the bus, and now here, all pointing the same direction. Pamela tells her that God is simply crazy about her.

That evening Connie skips the party, tells Marcy she has other plans, and paces her room insisting she has not changed. She remembers snapping at Whit and Tom when they asked her to help judge a Bible drill, and the way Whit hugged her goodbye at the bus, handing her an early Christmas present and telling her that God loves her no matter what.

Connie goes to the bonfire. There she meets the group's sponsor and recognizes her instantly: Audrey Nelson, the woman from the bus. Audrey says it is no coincidence, that God shows His love through the people He sends, like a reflection, and that the real love is found in Jesus Christ. She shares John 3:16 and Romans 5:8, then asks whether it is not time Connie accepted what she has known for a long time. Connie makes a decision. She wants to go home - not to her father's house, but to Odyssey.

At Whit's End, Whit tells Eugene that the shop is about people rather than machines, and asks him to undo his inventions, starting with putting the little bell back over the door. Moments later Connie walks in, two weeks early. She asks Whit to talk privately, tells him she finally has everything figured out, and asks if they can kneel together so she can ask Jesus Christ to forgive her sins and come live in her heart. Whit, overjoyed, says he has prayed a long time to hear those words. Connie tells him she thinks his prayers made it all the way to California.